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