Belfast, Northern Ireland

Meghan, Ross, and I left bright and early Friday morning.  We took a bus to Dublin where our friend Davin picked us all up.  We had another beautiful two hour drive up to Belfast.  We weren't stopped at the borner, nor was there even a sign!  Quite surprising.  We knew we were back in the UK when the road signs turned from kilometers to miles.

We stayed at a hostel called the Linen House.  Although it looks just the opposite, it was a great location.  It was in a shady looking alleyway just off a major street of the city center.  It wasn't as comfortable as the other hostels that we've been to but hey, that's what you get for 8 Euros a night...

One of the first things that we did was a black taxi tour. The taxi driver picked us up at our hostel and drove us around the segregated neighborhoods.  The driver had a lot to say given that The Troubles is a recent event and he grew up during that time.  We got out at a few different places and he explained different murals and memorials.  It was very interesting!  The people of Belfast have really strong Irish accents, much stronger than we have adjusted to.  At some points we all (minus Davin) just nodded our heads pretending to understand him.

This is the Peace Wall that ironically segregated the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.  This house below has a grate over their back patio in case things were thrown over the wall.

A memorial of some lives lost:

Belfast Castle:

The Belfast Castle was on the edge of a huge park.  After we went inside we hiked up to the top of a huge hill and got a look of the city!  In the distance you can see the ship yards where the Titanic was built!  There is a huge visitor center and museum that is opening up for the Titanic in a couple weeks that we just missed.  This year is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.

Here are some pictures that I took while walking around the city.  It was a beautiful city, however it was a little run down when you left the main roads.

This is city hall.  It was just as impressive inside! 

Here's a picture of a huge open air mall.  We never went but they had TGI Friday's there!  Instead we took advantage of a delicious Mexican restaurant, a rare find in Cork.

On Saturday we drove up to Giant's Causeway, I'll save those pictures for tomorrow.  Tonight was our last Intro to Traditional Irish Music Class.  Here's a video of a popular traditional Irish band doing a cover of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.  It's pretty entertaining! Click here to listen.

Gypsy Kristi

I'm packing my bags again for a weekend in Belfast!  Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, strangely a different country than Ireland.  Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and ruled by British Parliament.  Their currency is pounds sterling, the same as when I traveled to London.  When Ireland got independence from England, the British were greedy and decided to keep six counties for themselves.

Belfast is a city that's rich in history.  It went through a pretty recent civil conflict called The Troubles from 1969 to the late 1990's.  The conflict was between the Roman Catholics or the "Republicans" and Protestants or the "Loyalists".  Car bombings, assassinations, and street violence were prevalent during this time. To this day neighborhoods are still strictly segregated and there is still tension.  I'm sure I'll have more to share when I get back.

Meghan, Ross (a friend on our trip from ISU), and I are hopping on a bus tomorrow at 7am to go to Dublin.  Our new friend Davin will be picking us up there and we'll be driving another two hours in a car to Belfast.  We met Davin in Galway when we went for Meghan's 21st birthday.  He is a local from Galway.  Davin came to Cork to hang out with us the weekend that my friend Hannah was here.  We were planning this trip while he was visiting and he asked if he could be a tacky tourist with us since he's never been to Belfast.

It should be a fun weekend!

School Update

As some of you may have been wondering, yes, I'm still attending school at UCC. Here's an update:

The education system is very different than the United States.  Since starting school on January 3rd I have only had two assignments!  Three weeks ago I had to give a ten minute PowerPoint presentation in front of class and I had an essay due this afternoon.  

I attend all of my classes but unlike Iowa State, I just sit there and listen.  There is no need to take notes in class because the final grade assessments don't relate to the topics discussed in lecture. 

My classes finish in only two and a half weeks!  The last week of class is when I have most of my final assessments (only one in May).  I have a couple essays to write, three exams to take, and a presentation to give before class is done.  While this is significantly less work than I do at home, the things that I turn in here are worth a larger percentage of my grade.  My final exams are up to 70% of my grade, yikes!

While I was at Laura's house last weekend, her mom told us how college admission works here in Ireland and it was pretty interesting...

In the last year of secondary school (high school), students take what they call a leaving certification.  This is a test that is only offered once a year.  Students may not re-take or re-schedule the exam.  They pre-select six subjects to get tested on and after taking those tests they receive one score from 0-600.  Occupations in Ireland are ranked with a number.  Majors like medicine and law have numbers in the upper 500's where as jam making (no joke...) is 25.  After filling out one application, students are admitted to any university in the country as long as they choose a major that's at or below their score.  If students don't like their score or overslept that day they need to re-do all of senior year and take the test again the following year!  Maybe the ACT wasn't so bad after all...

The Beach & Griffin Cathedral

On Saturday morning before we left town Laura's dad wanted to take us to see the beach and Griffin's Cathedral in Ardfert.  Meghan and I jumped in his "jeep" and rode around town with him.  As we were driving he was telling us stories of what the town used to be like and growing up in Ardfert.  Here are some pictures!

This is Griffin's Cathedral in Ardfert.  Griffin is actually Laura's surname (last name) and her dad's family has been living there for generations! 

Dingle

On Friday morning we woke up early to go to Dingle, a small town on the coast of the Dingle Peninsula.  After we got ready we made our way down to the kitchen for breakfast.  Laura's mom made us toast, sausage, and black pudding.  For those of you who may be eating right now, I would suggest reading this post another time.  When I first heard of black pudding on the list of items in a full Irish breakfast, I assumed that it was what the American's consider to be chocolate pudding.  I couldn't be more wrong...

Black pudding is an Irish breakfast delicacy but it's also eaten all over Europe and Asia.  Black pudding is congealed pigs blood.  It's made by cooking blood with a filler (meat, oatmeal, potato, etc.) until it's thick enough to be congealed when cooled.  Black pudding is then sliced and either grilled or fried.  Although I wish I wouldn't have known what it was before it was offered to me, I gave it a try!  I  can usually ignore the thought of how somethings are made while I eat things, but this was just too much for me.  Let's just say, I gave it the one bite rule!

After breakfast Meghan, Laura, Johnny, and I made our way to the bus stop to go to Dingle.  The bus ride took a little over an hour.  The bus ride was almost as beautiful as the destination itself but I wasn't able to capture pictures that weren't blurry.  In Dingle we just walked around.  There weren't very many tourist traps besides little shops.  This town was absolutely beautiful!  It was a stereotypical Irish fisherman's town.  It had a huge marina filled with fishing boats and sailboats.  All of the shops, restaurants, and pubs were brightly colored and there was a surprising amount of palm trees! I might say that it's been my favorite town in Ireland.

Just before hopping the bus to go back to Tralee I went to the infamous Murphy's Ice Cream shop.  It is a 100% natural ice cream shop that has won a bunch of awards.  I got a two scoop dish with Bailey's Irish Cream and sea salt (actually delicious!!).

Home to Ardfert!

Meghan and I had a lot of fun the past couple days in Tralee with my roommate Laura.  We left Cork on Thursday afternoon and took the bus to Tralee.  This was a 2 hour bus ride.

After getting to Tralee we walked around the town.  Tralee is a town of about 20,000 people.  Although this town is the largest in County Kerry you could tell that it wasn't as touristy as the other ones that we have been to.  We loved this!

The city square:

Laura, Meghan, and Laura's boyfriend, Johnny:

After we wandered around the town for a while Laura's dad came to pick us up to bring us to their home in Ardfert.  Laura and her dad laughed pretty hard when we called his truck a pickup truck.  In Ireland they call every kind of truck a "Jeep" no matter what make it is.  Here are some pictures of Laura's home!  It was so cute and just what we had imagined.  They have a view of the Irish countryside and the ocean out of their windows!

After setting down our stuff we made our way out to the farm.

Thursday night Laura's mom made Meghan and I one of Laura's favorite meals, bacon and cabbage.  Bacon in Ireland is cut really thick and is essentially ham.  These bacon slices were served with mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage mixed in.  It was delicious!  Laura likes to put brown sauce on her bacon.  Brown sauce is a popular sauce here in Ireland, like ketchup and mayonaise.  After giving it a try on our bacon Meghan and I decided it's very similar to steak sauce, Heinz 57 or A1.  For dessert, Larua's mom made homemade apple crumble.  It was amazing!  Her mom asked us if we wanted custard on top of it.  We didn't quite know what she meant by custard but after trying some on our finger we discovered that it's vanilla pudding!  Although it's not a common topper to apple crumble in America, I decided that it would be delicious!  She topped it off again with some fresh whipped cream. YUM!

After dinner Meghan, Laura, and I went to Johnny's house to drink with her friends.  One thing that I keep forgetting to talk about is alcohol delivery.  In Ireland certain off-license liquor stores deliver alcohol to your house!  You can order whatever you want, in addition to chasers, and they will bring it to your door for just a couple Euro's delivery fee.  This country has got it right!

After this we went to a club in Tralee.

That's all for tonight, I'm off to bed. More tomorrow!

Happy Leap Day!

According to an old Irish legend, St. Bridget begged St. Patrick to allow women to propose to men every four years.  She did this because she believed it was unfair that women had to wait so long for a man to propose.  This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how Leap Day balances the calendar.  Back in the day it is said that men were sentenced to death if they said no!  I haven't quite tracked down my Irish Romeo yet so no engagements were made today.

Tomorrow Meghan and I are packing our bags and going home with my roommate Laura.  She is from a small town called Ardfert, about 5 minutes north of a town called Tralee. This weekend we are staying with Laura's family.  Laura tells us that her mom is so excited to cook us a traditional Irish meal.  We are also excited for her dad to show us their farm animals!  Laura will be showing us around Tralee, taking us to the Dingle Peninsula, and introducing us to some of her friends.

By the looks of my Facebook newsfeed it appears that most of you will be shoveling snow this weekend.  Enjoy and stay warm!