Allie in Spain (and Ireland): June 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011

Hill of Tara and other things

I'm just going to write another quick one, to fill in some of the gaps between my first week of classes and my trip to the West.

I started my internship last Monday and it has been GREAT so far! For those of you who don't know, I'm working at an investment management firm called Kinsale Capital Management. The company is really small (3 partners and 4 interns right now), and we all work in the same room together, so I'm getting a lot of contact with the people in charge and therefore learning a lot. We are partnered with UBS, a huge Swiss bank, so we have a very large client base and good connection in the industry. My supervisor is really set on actually giving the interns meaningful work and helping us learn. I have access to some pretty incredible research about financial markets and so I am absorbing a ton of information. It's been really interesting and I'm excited to be spending my summer here.

I continued with classes this week, learning about Charles Stewart Parnell, the uncrowned King of Ireland who fought for independence in the late 19th century, and on Friday we took a class filed trip (it's like I'm in 3rd grade again!) to the Hill of Tara. The Hill of Tara has incredible significance in Irish history, as it was the seat of the ancient kings of Ireland. Situated in County Meath, it contains a variety of historically significant monuments including the Fort of the Kings which surround Lia Fáil (stone of destiny) where the high Kings were crowned. It is believed by many historians that before the Norman invasion in 1169, it was the spiritual and ritual capital of Ireland. There is some debate as to it's actual significance, with many historians arguing that it was more a ritual site than the true seat of the Kings, but it's place in Celtic spiritual history cannot be denied. For this reason, Daniel O'Connell, also known as the Liberator, held one of his monster meetings (peaceful political protest there) in 1843 while fighting for the repeal of the Act of Union. It was also the site of a battle in which the rebellion of 1798 was defeated. There are various other monument there, including a monument to St. Patrick, Mound of the Hostages (an ancient passage tomb, c 2500 BC), and an early Christian Church. Clearly, this place houses a lot of history.

Although the Hill of Tara was very interesting to see, unfortunately we had awful weather which sort of detracted from the experience. Our guide told us that on a clear day, you can see 1/3 or Ireland from the Hill, but it was foggy and rainy for us. Regardless, it was quite beautiful.

Hill of Tara

Monument to St. Patrick

Typical picture of sheep in Ireland

Lia Fáil

Sadly foggy

We were halfway there when the rain came down: Galway and the West of Ireland

No, it did not actually start raining when we were halfway to Galway. Although, I am in Ireland so we are certainly not wanting for rain. The title is an excerpt from the famous song "Galway Girl," featured in the movie that is responsible for 99% of females who come to Ireland to study abroad: P.S. I love you. Unfortunately, I did not get lost in a National Park and stumble across a Gerard Butler look alike during my trip. I did however, very much enjoy my weekend tour of the west of Ireland.

My history professor organizes guided trips that we can all go in if we so choose. Although I could probably do these trips for a bit cheaper on my own (my budget trip planning skills have become pretty impeccable), the convenience of having a guide who really knows what she's doing, a private bus so that we can visit multiple sites (including little towns that most people miss) and the great itineraries she makes for us is too much to pass up. This weekend was the first of 3 trips on which we will go to the West, South, and North of Ireland.

Let's take it from the top. We left Dublin after class around 2pm and began driving to Galway, where we would spend Friday night. The drive was only about 3 hours, but we made an obnoxious amount of stops because Caroline (the professor) was trying to cater to everyone's needs - coffee, bathrooms, snacks etc. She was catering a bit too much, if you ask me, but the whole point of these tours is that they're supposed to be "our" tours. After arriving in Galway, we settled into our hostel, had some pizza for dinner and headed out on a pub crawl, organized by Caroline's cousin who owns her tour group with her. The pub crawl was a lot of fun, and the nightlife is much different in Galway than Dublin. Galway's a lot smaller and cheaper. I think it would've been a lot better if we weren't moving around in a group of 50 americans - that's not exactly low profile. But that's the price you pay when traveling in groups. The great thing about the tour is that the kind of stuff that college students want to do was built into the tour, because she understands that we want to have fun and see the nightlife. She's not exactly a traditional professor, but she's great fun.

The next morning, we headed out of the hostel around 9:30. It was so funny staying in a hostel with a bunch of people who never had before. I'd completely forgotten that hostels weird people out. Even after the experience, many of the girls I had stayed with were saying that they wouldn't want to do it again and that they would never do it if they weren't traveling in a group because staying in a room with someone who they didn't know would freak them out. It actually kind of bothered me how much it bothered them. I just don't understand why you would pay more for a hotel when you're on a budget and hostels are so cheap. All the hostels I've stayed in have been perfect fine, completely safe, and they're usually really fun because you meet people and the hostel staff helps you figure out how to budget your time and where you want to go. I guess I'm just so used to it by now that it's not a big deal.

Anyway, we left around 9:30 and began the drive to the Cliffs of Moher, which are the most visited natural attraction in Ireland. They're about 8km (5 mi) long, 214 m (702 feet) high at their highest point feet high, and absolutely breathtaking. They're also kind of terrifying, since there's really no barrier to you plunging into the Atlantic Ocean after a giant gust of wind knocks you off the cliffs. A few people typically die there every year, whether by choice or by accident - you really do have to be careful though. Of course, we went beyond the barrier that they tell you to stay behind (as suggested by our professor) to get better views, so it was a little less safe over there, but everybody does it. The cliffs are really beautiful though. The view is completely unobstructed because when Cornelius O'Brien handed the land over to the government, he made them promise that they would never build anything that would take away from the view so the visitor center is actually build into the cliffs - it's pretty cool. Fortunately, we didn't get any rain (shocker!), so we spent about an hour and a half there and hiked around a bit.

After this, we drove back through the countryside, which is amazingly gorgeous, through a village called Kinvara, which is where Caroline is from. It a little fishing town on the Galway bay and is supposedly one of the most beautiful in Ireland because of the views and the way the town is kept for the tidy-towns competition. All the buildings are painted pastel colors and just adorable. This whole area is in County Clare, in an area known as the Burren, which means "Great Rock" in gaelic. It is a karst landscape, and therefore unique to Ireland., being composed mostly of limestone. It's still just a beautiful and green as the rest of the country, it's just a little bit different and drier because everything drains underground. We just drove through the town, and then we headed a little bit outside of the village to Caroline's family farm. This farm has been in her family for nearly 300 years. They own 2 mountains. Literally. In Ireland, the system still works that the oldest son inherits all the land (this became the norm after the potato famine, because before that it was the graveling system, in which each son received a piece of the land and the farms became too small to sustain the population), so only Irish people can own land and the government won't let newcomers settle it. Part of this is to preserve the scenery which attracts tourists, and part of it is because Ireland receives agricultural subsidies from the European Union because they want it to keep producing livestock and produce.

When we got to the farm, Caroline's cousin took us on a little hike up through the mountains and talked about the farm and the landscape. Both of them are wonderful tour guides and their family is really interesting. Both of her parents are from near the area, so she has tons of cousins close by and 3 of them run the tour company together, while she teaches part time. Her and her 3 siblings all left the farm to go to college, and her two brothers even went to Australia to find work. The oldest is back now, so he will probably take over the farm. The villages and the countryside are so incredibly different than Dublin though - I can't imagine how she went from one to the other.

After walking around the farm and seeing some adorable 1-week old puppies, they cooked us lunch all made of fresh-grown organic food on the farm. They are completely self-sustaining and she says that they'll never turn into a commercial farm. The food was delicious. We also chased some sheep around for a while, which I'm sure they really enjoyed.

After getting in touch with my inner farm-girl, we got back on the bus and took the coastal route to our hostel for the night, which was in the small town of Lisdoonvarna. The drive was spectacular, and we stopped off to get some photos of the ocean and the unique limestone rock formations. Our hostel in Lisdoonvarna was pretty standard, but this little village was completely different from Galway. It's actually famous for having Europe's largest matchmaking festival in September (too bad I missed it), but other than that, it's pretty dead. We had dinner at a local restaurant where most of us sampled the traditional Irish stew - lamb, potatoes and carrots.. I wasn't too impressed, but this is Irish food we're talking about. After this, we went out to a couple different pubs (all the town really had) and headed back pretty early to get some sleep.

The next morning, we got the rare opportunity to sleep in (which I'm quickly realizing will not be happening at all this summer), and we left the hostel at 11. We drove back through the Burren to Kinvara so that we could get out and explore a little, since we had only driven through it the day before. There wasn't much to explore, but it did have some nice views and delicious coffee and scones. We also stopped off at the Dunguaire Castle, which was built in 1520.

After this, we drove back to Galway, so that we could see the city in the daylight. It's a pretty small city, but it's very cute and it has excellent seafood. Many people went searching for the famous Celtic Claddagh rings, since the village of Claddagh is just outside of Galway. I wasn't totally sold on buying one, and I know you can get them in Dublin, so we'll see how my bank account and I are feeling as the trip comes to an end. They are very beautiful though, and an important part of Irish heritage so I think it would be a nice souvenir. We didn't have much time in Galway, so we just walked around a little and ate a quick lunch. I had cod and salmon goujons (basically fried fish) and they were delicious. Then we got on the bus for the 3 hour ride back to Dublin.

It was definitely a successful trip, and I'm glad I got to see the cliffs and the Burren. I wish that we had had a bit more time in Galway and not been so rushed, but I definitely saw a lot. This week, it's back to the grind, and the next weekend, we head to the south!

Cliffs of Moher

O'Brien's Tower - to impress the ladies (I'm not making that up)

I'm obviously a dare-devil

Trying to act like I'm not terrified/in pain because of all the rocks blowing into my eyes.

Pictures don't do it justice

I wish that a photograph could capture the blue of this ocean.

Clearly happy to see us

The Connely family farm in the Burren

Greeeeen!

Baaaah!

Posing for the camera

The Burren coast

I'm on top of the world!

Ok view, I guess

Kinvara and Dungauire Castle

Such a cute little town

Dunguaire Castle

The River Carib in Galway

Claddagh Ring Shop

Saturday, June 11, 2011

DUBLIN!

Alright, this is long overdue, but I'm finally going to do my first update for Ireland. Since I'm only here for 8 weeks, I will probably only update a few times, but I figure that that's better than nothing.

I arrived in Dublin from Madrid last Thursday and (fortunately) I missed the first orientation session since the group flight from the states got in earlier. Bummer. The next few days were basically just hours of being fed useless information - ie. stuff that is either common sense or stuff that I already knew from being abroad. I swear, sometimes they treat us like we are in middle school, not college. Although, there are some people who probably benefit from that. Hmph.

I spent the first weekend exploring Dublin. We bought 2-day tourist bus passes and were able to get around and see lots of the sights - St Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, The Guinness Storehouse (big jump there), the Museum of Natural History and Dublin Castle. There's plenty more to do, but we wanted to spend enough time in each one. I got a little fed up with the cathedrals, which is no surprise considering how many cathedrals I've seen in the past 5 months, but since it's early we're still all sticking together as a group and seeing how things are going to unfold. I particularly enjoyed Dublin Castle, which was where the Viceroys, or representatives of the English monarchy used to live and it was originally the viking headquarters of the town in Medieval times. We also had a group scavenger hunt (lol, like I said, middle school) to get us aquainted with the city center, and one of the professors organized a walking tour for us. We saw all the major sites on O'Connell street, the River Liffey, St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College and much, much more. Dublin is actually a pretty small city, if you're talking strictly about the historic part of it. Unfortunately, DCU campus, where I am living, is about a half hour bus ride away, so there's not a whole lot going on out here. Dublin is beautiful though. It actually reminds me a lot of Boston, but more historical and with cuter accents.

It is certainly a completely different world than Madrid. I would definitely say that it's much more similar to America than Spain was, which I suppose is to be expected. It's more a pub/bar culture than clubs which I much prefer. People aren't as laid back as the Spaniards, but they're more relaxed than Americans (I'm generalizing, obviously). The language helps of course too. Things here are definitely different though. It's been interesting for me, hearing students complain about how different it is and then comparing it with my experience in Madrid. There's definitely a lot less culture shock happening now - I feel like it's kind of a happy medium. More on this topic will come later as I continue with classes and start my internship.

We had a long weekend due to a bank holiday and classes started on Tuesday. I am taking a class on Irish History and I am LOVING it so far. The professor is amazing - she keeps things very interesting and I haven't been bored at all. I had forgotten how much I love history, since I haven't actually taken a history class since high school. We started around 1800 and have worked our way through the potato famine in the 3 days that we had class. I also had my interview for my internship on Wednesday and it went really well. It was very informal and I got to meet everyone in the office - I'm so excited to start! It's a very small firm - 3 partners and then they already have 3 interns. I think that I'll be getting lot of contact with the partners and we'll all be working closely so hopefully I will learn a lot. The office is also in a really nice part of town, near St. Stephen's Green and is on the top floor of the building with amazing views! I start on Monday.

Friday, we went on a trip with the program to Glendalough, which is about an hour south of Dublin. It's nested in the Wicklow mountains and is known for it's early medieval monastery, founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. After a short guided tour of the monastery area, we took a hike up into the mountains for some of the most gorgeous views I have ever seen. Glendalough translates from Irish to mean Valley (glen) of 2 (da) Lakes (lough), so not surprisingly there are 2 lakes there. The views from the top of the mountain were spectacular and it was great to get out in to nature and have some fresh air. The weather was even nice for us.

Saturday, we decided to do some more site seeing in Dublin, so we went first to the National Leperchaun Museum (yes, it is as silly as it sounds) and then to the Jameson Distillery. The Leperchaun Museum was a total tourist trap, not surprisingly, but you go just for the cool pictures you can take in the giant room, in which everything is enlarged so that you look small. The Jameson Distillery was really nice - you have a tour guide who explains everything about making whiskey to you and then you get a drink at the end. Win-win. We went to dinner at this pretty well known restaurant called The Church, which used to be a church in the 18th century (Arthur Guinness war married there) and was converted in to a restaurant in 2005 after being out of use since 1964. I had some really amazing Seafood Chowder and brown bread. We decided to turn it in after dinner on Saturday, since the last couple night had been pretty exhausting. I've really been enjoying the pub scene, with some favorite places including the Old Storehouse, Kearney's and Porterhouse. We've tried a bunch of other places and they all have their own unique feel. Most of them also have live-music which is awesome. The night-life here is great.

Today was a bit of a fail. We decided to try and take a day trip to Dún Laogharie, (pronounced Dun-Leary), but the weather was absolutely abysmal. It was rainy and windy and disgusting all day, so we ended up not being able to see much in the town. It's a port town, about 5 miles south of Dublin and it was very cute.

So, just some other general things...the weather sucks. That shouldn't be surprising. The first couple days it was warm, sunny and beautiful, but since then it's been pretty cold with lots of rain. We were told today that the current weather is unseasonably cold, so hopefully it will warm up a little bit.

Dublin is very, very expensive. I pay more than twice for public transportation here what I paid for my metro pass in Madrid, and the Madrid metro is way superior to the Dublin City bus system. Eating out is also way more expensive. At least we have kitchens so we'll be cooking for ourselves and I can grocery shop pretty efficiently.

The living situation is pretty good. I'm in a double room with a shared bathroom and 7 other girls are in our suite -we have a shared common room and kitchen. Although living with 8 girls isn't really my cup of tea, it's only for 8 weeks and I much prefer it to the home-stay situation, which was very socially isolating at times. As per usual, there are people in the group who won't be getting along, and it's always a little tricky at first figuring out who you're going to be friends with. People can be so cliquey sometimes. I think that when we all get into our routines with work and classes, some of that awkwardness will subside.

For now, I am really liking it here. It's a completely different experience and I'm glad that I'm going to have the chance to travel around Ireland and get to know Dublin really well. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to:

The Spire...also knows as the spike, the needle, the stiffy by the liffey, the rod to god, the skewer the the sewer, the stilleto in the ghetto...take your pick really