Tying Up Loose Ends

     I recently got an email from my mom asking about my next blog post, since she hasn't seen one in a while. I looked at my calendar and was amazed. Not that she was right, but that it'd been ten days since I posted last! At this point the days are all staring to run together a bit.
     After my last post, I focused on my studies for my last finals at NUIG. I had a two hour written exam on the 24th from 9:30am-11:30am, where I would have to address three questions, as well as two essays due by 5pm on that same day. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed while studying those last few days. I went to my exam with my sister, and we killed it. Coming out of the exam rooms, we both felt confident that we passed, no problem. Haha, I'm still grinning just thinking about it!
     That night we went to the pubs. Not to drink or anything. I just wanted to get out and go listen to some music. Music is food for the soul, or however that phrase goes, so I rounded up my friends and we went to several of our favorite pubs before settling on King's Head. They had a Traditional band playing and after a drink or two one of the girls in my group went up to the little cleared space and did an Irish jig. She'd been dancing for 12 years or so, and her high kicks were quite impressive! I remember telling her over the crowd and music: "you are my hero!"

     The pub and band LOVED it! 

     We stayed until the band was done playing, and actually met up and talked to them on our way out the door. Lovely people. My friend asked if it was fine that she danced and the lead singer said yes, of course! Her band plays there frequently and she spoke about how the audience and crowd really makes a difference and that and average night is made memorable if the audience joins in participating. They play at the Quays next Wednesday, so we'll likely show up there again because its A.) my favorite pub (for many, many reasons) and B.) we're more or less officially friends with the band. It was a neat night - so glad we went out!

     Thursday night we stayed in and had movie night, part 1. Not super Irish, BUT yet another friend of mine won a competition. The club Bentley's had a promotional thing going on and asked the populace why they should throw "you and your friends a party". Lo and behold, my friend won! So on Saturday we all got dressed up nice and pretty and went to the club. It's one most of us have been to before, in the "touristy" part of town, so we knew it was safe. We all pitched in for cocktails, and got free finger food and champagne, as well as free admission to the club, where we danced and avoided "lollipop kid" who has a crush on one of my friends. Apparently, sucking on a Dum-Dum pop and offering it to a girl is the new pick-up line . . . ? Don't ask me. I imagine he went home alone that night. Poor kid.

     As for this week, we had our Farewell Dinner with our program last night. My sister still has two finals and is finished on May 7th. A few people already went back to the states for summer jobs, and some are leaving the end of this week. Others don't go home until the 18th or 19th. Luckily for us, we are headed home on the 13th of May. I'm SO ready to be home. I miss my parents, my boyfriend, my puppy who turns 1 year old on May 4th, my brother and friends. I'll miss the friends I made here, of course, but they'll be back in the US of A, too. I'm sure we will keep in contact. No doubt in my mind about that.

     On the agenda for this week is one very important event. My twin and I are turning 21 on May 2nd! YAY!!! I know I say "my sister" but we're twins. I guess I think of her as my sister and friend first, before as my twin. That's how my parents brought us up. We were (and still are) "the girls" vs "the twins" and I have to thank them for making that distinction - we are separate people and were able to more easily create distinct identities as sisters rather than as twins. Might seem like a weird distinction. I don't know. I've been a twin all my life so don't know any different. She's always been my best friend, even when she got in trouble for almost cutting my hair, and after I accidentally made her step on a cactus, etc. We fight like no one's business, but we also will defend each other against the world. We haven't celebrated our birthday together since we graduated high school, so being able to celebrate our 21st here in Ireland will be incredible. I'm extremely lucky to have her in my life, even if she talks for 50 min of our weekly hour-long talk when we're at separate universities.

     I'm also lucky she humored me when I said "we should totally try to study abroad together!!!" even though she thought I was crazy . . . and still frequently does.

     Next week will be dedicated to packing and whatever else we need to tie up. So exciting, I'm sure. Speaking of exciting, here's the last installment of Spring break in Scotland. Should probably finish it before its officially not April anymore . . .

 

SCOTLAND

 

     After Loch Ness, we had 2 more full days in Scotland, one of which we spent in Edinburgh. We woke up early, but not as early as the first few days, and had breakfast. Eventually, we ambled up to the castle and proceeded to take way too many pictures. The first is of the Castle, taken from where our hostel was located:

If you go to Edinburgh, I 100% recommend going to the Castle. SO NEAT! The next picture is one taken from the walls facing out into the city. The skyline on top of the hill was where we hiked to the first day we were in Edinburgh. Is it any wonder all we wanted to do was go to bed at 7pm?? Incredible views, but lots of walking. If anything, my legs were looking good by the end of the trip!

     They had walking tours of the grounds, and demonstrations with music, and the cannon. They fire the cannon during midday at 1pm. Why 1pm? It was cheaper to fire one cannon ball than 12 cannon balls. Got to save where you can, right? The other demonstration was on Renaissance music. It was a little cheesy, because of how the guy was dressed, but he told good stories and played a large range of old instruments, including the bowed psaltery, as seen below:

     Originally an instrument designed to be plucked, like a harp, it has a different string for each note, so adapted well to being played by the bow. I describe it as a cross between a violin and a harp, both of which I played in elementary and high school, respectively. I enjoyed both but became disillusioned because of my teachers, HOWEVER, I did inherit a psaltery from my Grandmother, and it was passed on to me last year for my 20th birthday. I've found it has all the aspects I liked from the harp and the violin combined into one instrument. It's a little known fact about me. I play an obscure Renaissance instrument called the psaltery, and I'm better at it than the guy who played it in the castle. To be fair, though, he had all sorts of obscure instruments to master. I just wanted to brag a bit.

     After that, we got some coffee, and I had yet another muffin. I think I had at least a muffin a day while in Scotland. Another fun fact about me . . .

     We finished with the castle and coffee, did some shopping (again, thanks to my parents! Who work so hard so we can go abroad and spend your money, it's appreciated more than you can know). After shopping , which I cut short, we went to the National Gallery. It's entirely free, and was almost surreal because until then, I'd never seen works by these artists whom I've studied and have written about. Super cool. I wish we had more time there, but they closed at 5pm (rather than 6 like I thought) so we only had 45 min to see it all.

The picture above is called "The Sisters" or something. I don't remember exactly who it was by, so don't want to miss quote it. Beautiful piece, and apt to bring up this week, I think. We were politely herded to the door, and we went without much of a fuss to experience the park at the base of Edinburgh Castle:

     We walked around and took pictures until it began to grow dark. I saw a squirrel, so of course chased after it and took as may pictures as possible. My sister laughed at me. That evening we went on an underground ghost tour. I posted the link here: City of the Dead Tours. Our guide was an INCREDIBLE storyteller. Truly fantastic. I love ghost stories and the Mackenzie Poltergeist is a good one, and apparently well documented. for more info click here. Sometimes, It's just more fun to believe. We didn't have any encounters, unfortunately, but it was still so much fun. We walked back with some girls who were also staying in our hostel (in our same room, in fact) and went to bed in preparation for our last day in Scotland.

     Our last tour had 2 main points of interest: Rosslyn Chapel and Gelnkinchie Distillery. Rosslyn Chapel is among the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Made of sandstone, it's colorful on the outside, but grey on the inside as a result of a preservation process gone awry. Thankfully, the popularity of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code has brought more awareness to this building, and it was able to get the funding needed to preserve the building. Didn't find the Holy Grail or see any celebrities, but still, it was well worth a visit:

     Couldn't take any photos of the inside, and you can only kind of see the colored stone outside because it was slightly cloudy. . . now you have to go see it in person though, right?

     The distillery was cool because we got samples of whisky. Enough said. But I'm gonna say a bit more. The process was interesting, and I asked enough questions that our tour guide (I don't remember her name) didn't begrudge me and my sister a few samples. Good stuff, but not my favorite. Can't drink whisky straight. Nope, not for me.

Instead, it needs to be added to coffee and creamer.

The rest of our trip, as they say, is history. We got dinner, showered, and went to bed. woke up again at 3:30am to catch our 7am flight. Landed in Dublin, where my sister told them my apartment address, instead of her own, and had a 10 minute conversation. I went after her, and all the customs officer asked was "Was that your sister?"

     "Yes."

     He punched in a few things on the computer. "OK, you're good to go"

It literally took 90 seconds. Thanks sis!

 

     I'll probably have one more post, or perhaps two while I'm here. Otherwise, my final post will likely be once I get home. Just tying up loose ends these next two weeks, and preparing to finally go home



♥C

The Loch Ness Monster

     Still blogging about Scotland (because that is where Loch Ness is located), but for those of you who'd care to know how Ireland is, I'll begin with that.
     Galway has its rainy days, and its gorgeous days. My first written final happened to be on a cold rainy afternoon, over Celtic Mythology, Religion and Folklore. Students were directed into the gym at Kingfisher Sports Center on campus, and assigned a seat. The gym hosted two exams when we had our final, and out of the 850 seats and desks in the room, just over 760 were filled. It was a little crazy finding our spot, especially since they forgot to post seating arrangements for the visiting students . . . I think I conducted myself well on that exam. I know I passed it, which is all that really matters, if I'm being honest. Like I said at the beginning of my adventure: the experience is more important to me than the academics!
     Yesterday we took a break and went on a mini-adventure to find Galway's Holy Well. It was about a 40 minute walk from our apartments, a little further out than we usually walk. Credit for this photo goes to one of my close friends up here, not my sister (for once).

     The well is a freshwater spring dedicated to the order of St. Augustine, and is known for its healing power for eyes and ears during mid-summer. We also bought over-priced cupcakes that day in a cute little shop. We'll chalk that up to experience, I think.
     This week so far I've finished paper 1 of 2 for my Modern Irish Lit class (one for the James Joyce section, the other for Irish Drama) which are due this Wednesday at 5pm. My last final is Wednesday at 9:30am for my Archaeology class. Then I have 2 and a half weeks or so to enjoy Galway and tap into my inner artist. Do some writing, maybe draw some more, and drink lots of coffee. Looking forward to finishing finals and enjoying the rest of my stay here without school looming in the background.

SCOTLAND

     Moving on now (or back, as the case may be). Our third day in Scotland we took a tour up to Loch Ness. I keep meaning to make a bucket list, so when I do cool stuff like this I can check it off, but so it goes. Our driver commented (between his lectures on the historically incorrect Mel Gibson and Braveheart) that even 15 years ago a day-tour out of Edinburgh up to Inverness would have been impossible because of the roads. He proudly told us that all roads and bridges in Scotland are completely free: there are no toll booths. Even so, the day was long. We boarded the bus just after 8am, and didn't return until 8pm that night. I personally was grateful for some of the stops, because we got to hear and experience this:

     Yeah, that's a Scotsman in a kilt, playing the bagpipes in a Highlands pass near Glencoe, site of the 1692 massacre of the Clan MacDonald. Beautiful and haunting tableau. I personally love bagpipes. It was such a liberating feeling standing at the top of this pass, with the (cliché time) crisp and cool air and snow capped mountains. Seriously sweet.
          EVENTUALLY we make it to Loch Ness. Some background info on me really quick: when I was a child, I wanted to be a paleontologist. That was my goal: to dig up dinosaurs and live Jurassic Park. That was going to be my life. If you know my mom, I encourage you to ask her that story sometime. Think I was 3 or 4 or something like that when I was asking her for a dinosaur encyclopedia from the Denver museum instead of a picture book. Yeah. I was a nerd, even then. My point is this: I believe Nessie is, or a descendant of,  a plesiosaur, which is simply an aquatic dinosaur. OK?
     So, based on this info and knowing that I went with a touring company, I will admit that no, I did not see Nessie, for which I am thankful. I'm thankful because Nessie is smarter than to be spotted by a large group in the middle of the day. However, my brother thinks that he spotted her in one of the pictures my sister took. I posted the photo at the bottom. You'll have to decide for yourself if he saw her - or not!
     The ferry we took passed over the deepest part of the loch, which is where Urquhart Castle is located. My mother jokingly asked if this was were Nessie hung out and we told her no, after so many years of pursuit, Nessie is smarter than that.

     I love dinosaurs and I love the thought of Nessie and all the folklore and legends surrounding her. Not sure WHY she's called a monster. She (or he, I suppose) doesn't really harm anyone. At least not as much as we harm ourselves. For example, on our way to the loch, our driver told us about the man who almost broke the fastest water-speed record, had it not been for an unfortunate accident causing his boat to explode. Other stories, mysterious, funny, and peculiar surround the loch, and who am I to dismiss something that has not been thoroughly dis-proven? Silly or not, I'm a believer.
     We made our way back to Edinburgh after that. I fell asleep on the bus. The music and scenery was soothing, and I was tired. No regrets:

Again, an incredible day. Can't stress it enough. I know I sound like a broken record, but I think people forget to slow down sometimes and enjoy the truly incredible moments we have each day: small or large.

NOW, scroll just a bit further to see if you can spot Nessie or not. Like I said, my brother swears he can see her (or him) in this picture. I hope you're lucky enough to spot her!

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*Compliments to my brother who created this photo especially for me. Love you bro!*

  ♥C

Scottish Highlands

     Guess what? More about my trip to Scotland! As noted, I am back in Galway, but since I'm spending most of my days studying or working on papers (and getting distracted quite a bit by facebook and other media), I figured I should tell you more about my break. It's much more interesting, after all.
     Our second day in Scotland, we went on a tour of the West Highlands and my sister took so many pictures, it took me a solid 5 minutes of scrolling through them all to find the pictures I wanted:

Monty Python Castle

     Its not really Monty Python's castle. Obviously. It belonged to some duke or lord whose name I don't remember, and that you (my devoted followers) probably don't care about. BECAUSE, this was the castle where scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed. We spent the entire time there running around speculating which rooms and which angles were used in the movie and for what purpose. You'll see in the picture above a well and two stair cases. We think (though we do not have a lot of proof) that this is the court yard that was used for Lancelot's rescue mission during the wedding. We can't be sure though: clearly, we need to watch the movie again . . .
     In retrospect, had we gone with a group of our friends from NUIG, we may have acted out a scene from the film, and I may have attempted to post a video here, instead . . . oh well. More reason for a return visit, right?

Hamish, Hamish Dubh, Honey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Three of the simultaneously cutest and ugliest cows ever. Hamish, Hamish Dubh (Black Hamish) and Honey are highland cows, with shaggy long-haired hides, horns, and sweet dispositions. Hamish is the oldest, then Honey, then Hamish Dubh, as you can probably see from the size of the horns, which both male and female highland cows have. From a distance they're really cute, shaggy (like I said), and kind of funny looking. The only reason I call them ugly is because they're cows, so don't get groomed the way a cat, dog, or horse would. Meaning: they have dirt and grass clumps in their hair, and they drool like no one's business. Still, It was exciting to see them. Kind of like seeing a buffalo up close for the first time!

Duke of Argyll's Castle

 

     One of the Castles in Scotland that is A.) not a ruin and B.) inhabited. I always remember watching Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley and thinking it was SO strange that they would tour Mr. Darcy's house while they were in the area. I mean, who does that? The whole concept of going into a personal living space and touring their house like a museum is beyond strange to me. And awkward. Because the Duke of Argyll and his family actually live there for part of the year. I gave my sister some grief because I didn't want to go in at first. Still think its strange, but we went inside and did the touristy looking-at-art-in-someone's-castle thing like it was no big deal. I guess it wasn't too bad: only a percentage of the rooms were open, and it seemed more like a museum than an actual home with all the displays.
     I take pride in my home, even in my little apartment in Galway, but I think there's a point when you have to separate "home" and "tourist attraction," which is still a bit tricky for me. Beautiful castle. I know my sister was smug in our timing because they don't open it to the public until after Easter, so we were there literally the first day after its re-opening. My favorite room would either be the one that was decorated entirely with weaponry - floor to ceiling, it was everywhere - or the portrait room, which has some oil paintings that were easily 10 feet tall. Definitely something I've never  experienced in the states - at least not to that scale.

Scenic Lookout

     We had a number of other opportunities to stop and get out of the bus, mostly to take pictures of the highlands and stretch our legs. Our driver always had a story to go with the places we stopped, but the scenery in itself was beautiful (as seen above). After this picture was taken, we stopped at a small town for a coffee break, then returned to Edinburgh.
     By the end of the day, we were starving, so went to a little pizzeria. It was fantastic. Our waitress was really nice. She had a thicker Scottish accent than I was used to listening to, and was understanding when I looked confused a time or two, so repeated herself again slowly. The way you talk to a small child . . . or an exhausted college student . . .
     In all, another great day. Had some new experiences I couldn't have anticipated, and saw more of a beautiful country I would love to visit again.

♥C

 



Easter in Edinburgh

     It's been a while since my last post. I like to think that I was having so much fun in Scotland that I didn't have any time to blog. Which is true. What's also true is I left my computer in Ireland, and my e-reader is not the best for typing long blog posts and uploading photos. And every night I would go to bed exhausted. So, I hope the wait is worth it.
     My sister and I left Galway just after midnight because in our infinite wisdom, we booked our flight out of Dublin at 7-something am. which meant getting to the airport by 5am, which meant being on a bus from Galway at 2am. So why did we leave for the bus station at 12:15am? Daylight savings, which is different in Ireland and the UK than it is in America. So, for a while, I was only 6 hours ahead of my family in Colorado. Despite the confusing time change and early hour, we made it to the airport on time, with all the required documents and luggage.
     Those who know me know I don't like airplanes, so while it might seem silly that I'm smug about the airport going relatively smooth, its a major accomplishment for me. Anyhoo, it's just after 5am in Dublin, and I've been awake since 3pm the previous afternoon, we touch down in Edinburgh just after 8am, and check into our hostel around 9am. Unfortunately, we were told our beds wouldn't be ready until 2pm. Which was fine.
     It was Easter in Edinburgh, and we had a whole city to explore. The hostel (Castle Rock Hostel)was just below Edinburgh Castle, so we went to get breakfast (coffee and a muffin) and walked up the stairs to the stronghold.

 

     I know the picture looks a little chilly. It was. The mountains off in the distance had snow (you'll see pictures of this in my later posts) but luckily, all the bad weather happened the week before we arrived, so we didn't get any rain or snow during our stay. We decided to leave the Castle for our day in town on Wednesday, and meandered down to the National Museum of Scotland, because it was free.

     Please keep in mind, we're college students from the US, so the UK pound is stronger than the American dollar, which we don't have much of in the first place. So, free = good. A museum? Even better! I'm a nerd and proud of it! They had a massive exhibit on Scotland: from pre-history, to Mary Queen of Scots, to the contemporary cashmere industry. Very cool. I think it was close to noon when we made our way over to the "natural history" side of the museum. I'm not sure what the legal/moral implications would be if I uploaded a picture from this exhibit, so know that it is a picture from the museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh, taken by my sister. I'll post the picture below first, then explain what was going on. Probably one of my favorite museums ever because of this view and set up:

 

     My sister labeled it: the exhibit of animals and dinosaurs. I must add, it also had extinct animals that were not dinosaurs, such as the dodo bird and thylacine (a personal favorite of mine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine).  

     The dinosaur and wildlife exhibits at the Denver museum of Nature and Science were my all-time favorite as a kid (and still are) so the menagerie all crammed into this one little section of the Scottish museum was such an unexpected delight for me. The fact that it was also Easter, and there were kids and families and individuals and all sorts of people running around made it so special and exciting. Not something people usually stop by and see as tourists, but it was incredibly interesting for me to see how they set up their natural treasures. Also, we got to play some of the interactive children's games.

     One of them was a "create your fish and see if it survives the shark" type of game. So, while I'm looking at a stegosaurus skeleton, my sister makes a fish and throws it into the virtual ocean. Unfortunately, she did not read the directions. Hers was the ONLY fish NOT camouflaged, so it got eaten by the shark. Natural Selection for you. Sorry, sis, better luck in your next life.

     I quite enjoyed our outing. Until it hit 1:30pm or so and we needed to eat lunch. We arrived back at the hostel before finding something to eat and checked in at 2pm. We were put in the "currency" room: I was the "pound" bed, and below me, was the "dollar" bed, where my sister was assigned. Then we got lunch.

 

Next logical move would be to take a nap, right? 

I mean, we've only been awake 23 hours by this point.

 

 

     Nah. We decided to not waste the daylight and hike across the city, to the top of a hill instead of sleep. Incredible view that Easter afternoon. Behind one of the monuments, we heard screaming and giggling: kids playing games. Lots of people were up there that day, but by the time we summited, many were heading back home, so it was slightly quieter than It would have been.

 

     Centered WAY out in the distance is Edinburgh Castle, on top of a mountain. This picture was taken almost at the same height. We walked a long way. I'm glad we did, though, because we didn't have time to go back on Wednesday. Stunning city. If you ever get the opportunity to visit it, you should. Gorgeous, even in early April.

     Finally made it back to the hostel for the night around 5pm, I think. Alerted people at home we were still alive. Tired, but alive. Opted to take a shower and was asleep around 7pm. Given that I had been awake for 27 hours easily - almost 28 - I felt completely justified going to bed right before the sun did.

     End Day 1 in Scotland.

 

 

♥C