As You Wish

Today we went to my favorite place so far in Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher. A natural beauty by any standards, today was literally the PERFECT day. It was warm, sunny and only had a slight breeze. But before I rave on about how much I loved my trip today, I have to ask that if you pray to keep an Irish family in your prayers. On Thursday a 30 year old man leapt to his death off the cliffs, and today the cliffs were still swarmed with the Coast Guard and his grieving family searching for his body. It felt wrong to be enjoying these magnificent cliffs when others were despairing over them, yet hundreds of people were still there, and guiltily I was one.

Although there are many walls and fences as precautions to keep people away from the edges of the cliffs, they are regulated just like everything else in Ireland...with a feeling of perfect relaxation. Mom, Dad- meet your daughter the rule breaker. We literally jumped walls to get to the edges, and don't worry, everyone else was doing it too :) See I'm just a follower, like you raised me to be. Haha, no this picture is staged, but we did go past the sign that said "NO GOING BEYOND THIS POINT".

There are two sides to the tourist attraction of the Cliffs of Moher. One side is 5k and the other is 3k. First we went to the 3k side because our tour guide recommended it, and while it was beautiful, that was the side that no one was going over the fences, and I have a feeling he just wanted us to play it really safe. But come on, I'm in Ireland and one of the things I HAD to do is sit on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher. So I did.

In multiple places, all beautiful picture ops...on the 5k side. That side was the side where you could go lie on your stomach and look over the edge, and where all the prettiest pictures came from. I promise I was safe Mom, and only slipped once- but it was cause I accidentally wore my Dansco's and my ankle did its fun collapsing thing. But hey, I'm writing this so I didn't fall. Did you know, the Cliffs of Moher are actually the 3rd highest cliffs in Ireland? I didn't. But now I do.

Our tour was a day tour that took us to a bunch of cool places all in one day. While the cliffs were the main attraction of the day, we stopped at a few other places- mostly for pictures.  But one of the places we stayed at for a while was the Caves of Ailwee. They're a system of caves that run underground in County Clare and were discovered by a man whose dog had accidentally followed a rabbit in. He didn't think they were a big deal, and kept his discovery a secret for 34 years! Finally, some cool cave people (idk what the technical term is, but people who study caves) came to Clare and he mentioned his find one night at a pub, and now they've turned into this huge tourist attraction.
Basically the story behind them is that they were carved out when the glaciers melted and were an underground river until that dried up too, and then were the hibernation caves for the Atlantic Brown Bear (ancestor to the Polar bear apparently) until the Brown Bears were hunted to extinction. But since then they've stayed preserved in their original state and now tours are led through. My pictures failed dramatically, but Sarah had a few gems so I'm gonna share those with you.

There were stalagmites and stalactites everywhere and a bunch of sweet waterfalls, but the cave never floods because there's another cavern underneath that channels the water out to the Galway Bay.

It was a nice tour, and I thought the caves were really really cool to be in since they were all natural. They reminded me of the only other time I've gone on a cave tour...it was on some family trip and we stopped somewhere...aka I have no idea where it was or what they were, but I enjoyed that one too. All I remember about that trip was getting into a fight with Meghan as we were driving away...a common occurrence on family trips.
But back to the Cliffs, cause I have more pictures to show and I just loved it so much. I always had known that they were the Cliffs of Insanity in the Princess Bride, but it really looked like I could have been on the set today. It was super neat how many movies have been filmed at the cliffs, and our tour guide told us that the famous french comic Astrix was getting turned into a live action movie and the filming had stopped just earlier this week. No clue what Astrix is but I thought Dad might...?

Anyways, pretty Katie and group pictures at one of the most gorgeous places in Ireland:

       

From the Cliffs we then started to head home, but along the way we stopped at a few places that our tour guide thought we would enjoy, and honestly they only made my day even better. Everything was beautiful today, and I don't know if I'm saying that because I was severely deprived of Vitamin D, or because Ireland is the most gorgeous country in the sun.






One of the places we stopped at was an old church, that was special because it had a famous representation of the 12 apostles in it's courtyard. Personally, I think that they should start to use this symbol on flags, because it looks more to me like it should be representing peace.

I really enjoyed it and for some reason still unknown to me it kinda reminds me of my dad, maybe another reason why I loved it so much.

Our final stop of the day was at another cliffside heaven. This one was straight limestone and ocean, and if the waves hit hard enough you could feel the spray. Yet another perfect spot for pictures. Maybe today was just my day, but I have a lot of pictures from today that I think turned out really nicely and want to share. Here are some final shots from my trip.

I hope your Saturdays were as rewarding as mine.

Peace,

k

My mother taught be to be a good sharer

This is a duel edged post tonight. I wanted to share about yesterdays holiday (Arthur's Day) and give you a glimpse into my everyday activities.

My days in Galway are actually filled with very little, which leaves me time to enjoy videos like the following:

(skip to about 40 seconds)

my personal fav.

Honestly, those videos make me cry from laughing so much. But just so you know I'm not a total loser sitting alone in my room watching youtube videos, I first enjoyed all of these with some of my friends one night when we were bored. Mostly my days are spent on Stumble Upon and Project Free TV. It's a sad life. But around Wednesday the week really seems to speed up and I'm always surprised when it's Monday again. So I suppose you could say life isn't horrible here :)

So yesterday was Arthur's Day. For those of you who haven't been to Ireland in the past three years during the fall, Arthur's Day is a holiday (but the banks don't close) in honor of the creator of the drink, Arthur Guinness. It's a day filled with music and cheap guinness at pubs all over Ireland. Obviously a huge attraction for anyone within the country over the age of 18. So we all went out last night to see what the huge celebration was for and had a lovely surprise of 3 euro pints. Everyone cheers at 5:59 (no clue why) but it was a great bonding activity and fantastic night filled with live music...and beer. 

don't get your hopes up, this is someone else's pint...

ALTHOUGH... I did enjoy a glass of Guinness, one of my two I will have while in Ireland (one yesterday and one at the Guinness factory in a week)

Tomorrow we're going to see the famous Cliffs of Moher...Princess Bride anyone? Or more recently, and just as epic, the final Harry Potter. Anyways, these are probably one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland and I'm really excited for our trip.

Cheers,

k

Connemara

So another week has passed and I'm feeling pretty settled here in Galway. I can get to class and back, find my way around Shop Street and even understand that 4:30 is known as half four. There was the typical "sign up for clubs and societies" fair this week and I decided I am going to play Badminton while I'm here, as well as join the botany club, the food and drink society, the green society and technically I joined the movie society but that was just for free popcorn.
All in all the week was week-like, but this weekend we took a group API sponsored trip to Connemara- home of the legendary ponies. They weren't all that spectacular but I hope to ride one while I'm here so maybe more later. We took a guided bus tour with our advisor Finn, and she is the best at giving tours. She told us all about the flora and fauna and sheep stealing stories that she knew. We heard how she met her husband Kevin and how they fell in love- it was a fitting story for them and a funny one for us to hear.




Our big tourist event of the day was visiting Kylemore Abbey, a large estate that has been transformed into a boarding school run by Benedictine nuns. I'm not one for tours of old houses, but this was in an absolutely gorgeous location that made me feel like I was exploring at home in the beautiful Vermont woods. We were let loose to explore for an hour and while I definitely enjoyed the chance to look around I wish we had been given more time.

We walked around inside the manor, and while it was quite plush it didn't do much for me. What I found that amazed me was the church that the original owner built in honor of his wife. It was beautiful.

 The inside was pristine and peaceful- the way I feel churches should be. There was a lovely mausoleum a short walk away and although those three were lovely to see, that's all we saw before we had to rush to lunch. Which was delish. I had a Thanksgiving themed sandwich, tomato soup with brown bread, tea AND a big piece of delicious blueberry cake. It filled me up so full and I was a happy camper for the rest of the day.
Which was filled with more bus travel, some hiking, and even more bus travel.



All in all an enjoyable day exploring the beauty of Ireland....but I gotta tell you- it's just like vermont. I didn't really expand many horizons in coming here. It's green, and lush and sometimes hilly and filled with cows and sheep.


My mom always says that at home we live in a picture, because Vermont is always so beautiful. Well I feel like I just switched frames because on days like Saturday, Ireland is it's own gorgeous painting.

But really, that looks just like home doesn't it!?!?

And now for some not so pretty/artsy pictures from our walk around Kylemore...


You know I'm thinking about how to get onto that chair even though its in the water.

 Brendan helped me complete my picture....and then left me there to figure out how to get off

But I did it!

No clue why there was a bear at Kylemore...
but Colleen and I HAD to take advantage 

We ended our day at the lovely village of Clifden, where we were supposed to enjoy their local arts festival. Unfortunately, the two exhibits we were planned to go see were crowded and closed so we just walked around for the hour, exploring the quaint town. And even though it could have been anywhere in the states, we knew it wasn't the minute we saw this.

And that's all I got this week,
K

Grey Sky Eyes

What a weekend. I honestly don't know where to begin in this story, so I guess I'll start at the beginning and move towards the end? Sure, lets do that.
On Friday, right around when I wrote my last post a group of five of us booked an overnight trip to the Aran Islands. Look below to see where they are :)

It's a 45 minute bus ride and then a 45 minute ferry ride to get to the biggest island, Inis Mor, which is the one we chose to travel to. Our booking process was really easy, and for 35 euros we had the bus travel, the ferry rides, and a night at a hostel. Great deal. But then I went to let everyone else in my API family know what we were doing and suggested they come along. Well, somehow not everyone booked their tickets the night before and so when we met bright and early on Saturday, they had to rush over to the ferry office to do so. To make a long story short, and attempt not to make it seem like poor planning, the ferry office was chaotic and the company was horribly organized. It ended up that only half of us made it on the 10 o'clock ferry to the island and the other half had to take the one at noon.
When we arrived we decided that the best way to see the island (which is 9 miles long and 2 miles wide) was by renting bikes, so a few of us got bikes and went exploring. Here are the pictures from the morning

 

molly and i

 Sorry for the hectic organization, I still have no clue how to organize them on the page.
After the second half of our group got to the island it started misting, but we pushed on and biked about 3/4 of the island along the coast. It was a nice bike, and pretty easy cause we stopped a lot to take pictures. We saw a lot of horses and cows, and stopped to say hi at every one :)

 I met a lot of friends, and it was really cool how friendly all the animals were. The cat that is on the wall ^ became my fast friend and followed me all the way up our hike to see that church. It was sad when we had to leave her.

If you couldn't tell we had some problems with them wanting our rain jackets :) but overall I think everyone enjoyed the bike ride. It's a really gorgeous island.

 

Around  half three we found the rest of our group and Molly and I gave two girls our bikes so they could ride home while we explored on foot. It was around then that it started pouring and the wind picked up. But we were on the other side of the island from our hostel so we kept trekking...cause we're troopers :)

Sarah, Danielle, Molly, Colleen, Brendan and I were walking back towards our hostel and found a really cool lighthouse which was on top of a mountain. 

The wind was pushing against us, so it was nice when we got there. From the top of the tower you could see the entire island, the only problem was the entire island had turned grey and rain covered.

 


After a long walk home in the rain and wind, we found out that Hurricane Katia had crossed the ocean and the Aran Islands were going to get a direct hit with her spin off rain and wind. They were shutting down the ferries and if we didn't catch the 8 o'clock ferry on Sunday morning we would be stuck on the island until Tuesday. That's when we all started feeling a little antsy to get off the island.
I finished my day on Inis Mor with a hot dinner and a little time at one of the three pubs on the island. After crashing around 9, we woke up this morning at 6:30 to make sure we caught the ferry. See the problem was, we had tickets for the 5 o'clock ferry tonight and not for the 8 o'clock one and no one was sure that there would be room for the 15 of us. Luckily there was, and we were home in Gort na Coiribe by 11. I was asleep just moments after that.

I realized this weekend that it's times when my plans are stressful or when life gets hard that it's the hardest to be oceans away from home and I must admit I would love nothing more than to be curled up in my bed at home home right now with a cup of honey lemon tea.

missing the world,
k

Just in case I got stranded I found a nice sturdy shelter

So Many Costellos

I hope you have time to read  cause this is a long one :)

So I know I haven't actually posted anything of substance on here this week, and I totally didn't even talk about the Ironman, but that's because it completely exhausted me. Even now I don't know if I could explain it all, so I'm going to borrow Colleen's words and let her explain it....

"There were over 1,000 athletes that were competing in the triathlon, so once it started things were quite chaotic.  I was stationed in the Blue Bag Tent, and it was the transition between the swimming and the biking portion.  My task was to help athletes take off wet suits and retrieve their bag from them when they were done, as well as do any other weird things they needed, put socks on, hold something, you name it.  It was weird at times, but overall it was a great experience!!  Later on in the night when everything was done, we were invited to the Ironman after-party.  Finn and Kevin (my resident directors here in Ireland) knew someone and had some major in at the party and because of them we were able to snag Awards Ceremony wristbands and go down to the party where all of the athletes-and the food- were at!! " -Colleen Smith

I know that's kinda cheating but I like how she put it and I'm lazy. Here's my favorite picture from the morning--

Katie, Sarah, Colleen, Molly right before dawn

Finn and Kevin, who are our API program advisors, took us to see a fantastic show last night. It was called Trad on the Prom and it was a show filled with traditional Irish music, song, and lots of Irish step dance. The world champion step dancers were there to perform and it was an amazing show. I think it was the first time I've felt like I am in a different culture and country and I loved it. I decided that I'm going to download some Irish music and listen to it. Maybe that way I'll feel more like I'm in Ireland.

This isn't a picture that I took, but I wanted to show you just how close we were to them, and maybe you can see how pretty all the dancers are. It was a really nice night, and I've felt like I haven't seen my other API friends all week so it was great to spend time with them too. It made me really think I'll enjoy our big trips together. 

This week has been an interesting one, that's for sure. Today was without a doubt the most stressful morning of my life. We had to register for our Seminar classes this morning, and the seminar that I am taking is the class that counts as one of my theatre major requirements...the class that if I don't take it here will mean not graduating on time back at home. Aka I NEEDED to get into that class. Registration started at 11 this morning and I got there at ten. I met up with Colleen and Kate to go stand in line, and there wasn't one...The single man who was there told us that people had been queuing up for hours and we had to take a number and then come back at 11:15. The numbers had started at 570, and I got 706. Feeling a little dejected we went and had breakfast at the college cafe and then went and stood on line around 11. Near noon we reached a big room, in which all the course sign up sheets were spread out. It was tantalizing to be in the same room as my class but not able to sign up, because our numbers hadn't been called. Meanwhile, seminars were filling up and being deemed unavailable to those standing in line. Which stressed me out, because there were a lot of classes going up on the unavailable board. Around 12:30 we made it to the front of the line, and I snagged the next to last space in my seminar. THANK THE LORD. I was worrying so much about it and even though it was still early in the day I was emotionally exhausted.

I was having a really hard time processing any words and so I went into my emergency reserve and had a Lion bar...which if you don't know, are the BEST candies in the world. It's like rice crispies and caramel and chocolate and creme. Which is the recipe for Katie's happiness. It helped perk me back up, but if you can't tell I look a little shell shocked right there.

For the rest of the day I went to shop street and did what the name suggested and shopped. It was nice, and Molly, Sarah and I went out to lunch at the coolest place ever...Couch Potatas.

Obviously I got a baked potato, but it was DELICIOUS. It was loaded with corn and mushrooms and carrots and broccoli and covered in cheddar. yummmmm

This weekend we're off to the Aran Islands to bike around and learn about the famous Irish sweaters....hmm maybe a place to buy one? It's going to be my first night in a hostel and I'm a little nervous, but I know it'll be uneventful.

Thanks for pushing through to the end,

k