Castles and Capitals 2: Dublin and County Clare

The next few posts concern my mid-semester break during the week of October 22^nd through the 30^th, during which we took a grand tour of the British Isles via capitals Dublin, Cardiff, and London!

Our first day was Saturday the 22^nd, when we hopped on a plane out of the country to Dublin. After a little hour long jaunt over the ocean we finally saw our first glimpse of the brilliantly green Irish countryside as we landed, and in the airport we exchanged our pounds for colorful Irish euro notes and bought expensive airport bagels to break them into change (the Irish euro coins have a very graceful little harp on the back). There was our first taste of rain while we waited for the bus (little did we know what was to come) and after a trip into town we somehow managed to get off at the correct stop and found ourselves right outside the hostel. That night was mercifully dry and so we explored the Temple Bar area just near our place, a popular and fun night atmosphere where I enjoyed a dinner of Irish stew in an upstairs pub with friends and later got gelato down the street. We stopped in for some good live music before continuing our exploration along the River Liffey, taking pictures of gorgeous, columned buildings lit up from the ground, and the harp-like Beckett Bridge. When I think of Dublin now I remember how lively, urban, and relaxed the city seemed that first night. 

Temple Bar at night

Bank of Ireland

Samuel Beckett Bridge

The River Liffey

The next day, Sunday, we enjoyed a nice hostel breakfast and took a walk out of the main city centre towards what my Dublin map dictates as the “cathedral district.” I walked in the shadow of the impressive St. Patrick’s cathedral and saw the exterior of Christ Church before a few of us moved on to Dublin Castle. After picking up some souvenirs we took the tour of the beautiful state rooms and the impressive hall where Ireland’s presidential inaugurations take place! 

The bells of St. Patrick's were ringing when we arrived! Interestingly, it is an Anglican church now.

Me in the area outside Dublin Castle

A room inside the castle

Irish license plates are very long! See the Gaelic above the numbers?

Above the door to the chapel area

After lunch at an American 50’s themed café, we took a guided walk through Trinity College, an old and beautiful campus right in the middle of the capital. The system of governance (formed in some part in the 1600s) and some of the college traditions (see my extra note on Commons* at the end of this post) struck me as something I would read about in a piece of 19^th century literature about boy’s boarding schools (the official name of the school alone is very telling: The Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin would not fit tidily on a hoodie). Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing another UK university campus, and especially enjoyed the old library, which contained an exhibit about the Book of Kells and the beautiful book itself! The old library also housed the “Long Room,” a gorgeous and staggeringly tall collection of old books under a dark, rounded ceiling. 

A view of the city

The bell tower on the campus at Trinity College Dublin is supposed to be bad luck for students to walk under; our student guide certainly believed it and walked around to meet us on the other side!

Lovely buildings in the city

It is important to note that we were absolutely soaked through the entire day, and that strong winds rendered our umbrellas useless for the most part, but the worst was yet to come…

The next day, a few of us in the group decided to take a day-long trip with a tour company across the country to see the Cliffs of Moher, one of Ireland’s most popular attractions and an amazingly beautiful landscape. Our day began with a nice view of the Irish countryside (traveling from coast to coast took about 2 and a half hours) and eventually we made our way through The Burren, a rocky landscape in County Clare. From a distance I thought the hills all around were covered with a sort of bluish heather or other flora, but it turned out to be a mosaic of stone! Our bus driver explained the impossibility of growing crops on the land and the efforts farmers took to remove the rock, which ended up being reused for the stone walls snaking up and down the hills around us. We had our own experience on an Irish farm, as the tour included a nice walk through the speckly Burren Mountains behind the Connolly family home, where we ended up at the end for some pie and tea. From the higher parts of the walk I could see the coast past a wide, misty plain, complete with an old church ruin and wintry little trees. 

Panorama of the view from the walk

The family that owned the farm had a cute dog!

This hill is not covered in some kind of tree or grass- look close and you can see all the small rocks!

Our tour continued on from the farm past a captivating countryside and coastline, with mist, castle towers, abandoned stone barns overrun with rich greenery, and strange rock formations protruding through the grass. We stopped at an ancient structure called a “portal tomb” dating from around 4200 BC (older than Stonehenge!) that stood in solitude amongst a whole field of jigsaw-like rocks underfoot. 

A cute donkey in Doolin

We stopped to eat in a small town called Doolin before arriving at the much anticipated Cliffs of Moher! I could instantly see why they cause such a fuss, and we explored the trail as far along the cliff as we could in the time allowed to see as much as possible of the towering, emerald green layers of cliffs and the pretty blue ocean. The little O’Brien’s Tower added a castle-like flair to the view.

O'Brien's Tower is the small dot on the left-hand side of the cliff. We walked over there as well

Friends!

Our bus driver serenaded us with traditional Irish songs to and from an unscheduled stop that I lamentably cannot find a name for, but what I believe I overheard referred to as “mini cliffs” still part of the larger Cliffs of Moher. The rock formations near the coast were flat as pavement, but with massive cracks, and I felt like I was hopping around on the top of a flaky brownie. It was a lot of fun and we explored the coast gleefully until we were called to leave.

We stopped for a quick bite in Galway before catching a transfer bus home as the sun set. For a while all was peaceful until our driver informed us that due to severe rain, we might not be able to drive back into the city! Courtesy of free wi-fi provided on board the bus, I was able to look up the situation in Dublin: the capital had received a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours! Streets, houses, even buses were flooding, and I overheard locals on board calling friends for information about the state of their lodgings (one gentleman’s flat was flooded, and he decided with a laugh just to ride the bus back to Galway- the Irish were very easygoing). On our way to a stop at the airport I caught a glimpse of cars abandoned in the water-logged streets, and the River Liffey looked decidedly swollen when we were walking back to our hostel, but luckily there was no trouble making it back for the night before an early start in the morning to Cardiff, Wales.

A very nice little castle on the drive home

My time in Ireland was very brief, but I really enjoyed both the vibe of Dublin and the calm of the countryside and hope sometime to make it to other parts of the country as well! Perhaps next time the rain will lay low – I don’t think my shoes will ever be the same again.

The next part of my trip began on October the 25^th, a bright and sunny day in Wales!

*From the Trinity College Dublin website for “Scholars,” or university students who have passed a series of examinations that entitle them to free room and board: “Commons is a three-course meal served each weekday in the Dining Hall on campus. It has been around for centuries, and was originally attended by almost all of the College population where they might meet and discuss ideas. Before and after Commons, one of the Scholars gets up and recites a traditional Grace, in Latin, from memory.” We definitely don’t have anything like this at Washington State, let alone Stirling!

Cougs Abroad Prompt 4: Investing In Your Experience

Cougs Abroad Blog Squad asks me to reflect on the goals I set for myself before I began my study abroad experience. While some of the goals have been met, I feel that I have changed the way I want to experience things and am excited to involve myself in “investing in my experience” by setting new, more manageable goals every day.

One of the expectations that I am happily meeting during my time abroad is traveling. Every week my friends and I seem to find somewhere new to travel to, and I am very grateful to have companions that are just as interested in experiencing the UK as I am (I am also grateful to be able to hang out with wonderful people on campus- I have definitely made good friends!). I have seen both nearby and more distant sights, from castles and coffee shops in my own town, to the country-hopping week break from class in which I toured Ireland, Wales and England, and am happily planning even more adventures (within reason of budget) for the coming weeks.

However, time flies when you have fun, and I realized with some panic the other day that my time abroad was more than halfway done, and in just 35 short days I would be back at home – hardly more than a month! In order to properly enjoy the rest of my time here I need to set a goal every day to see something new: whether it’s eating at a new place downtown, taking a walk on a trail on campus I haven’t seen before, or inviting friends to see a sight a little ways out of town. While I might not have much time or money left in my travels, seeing the small things nearby can enrich my experience just as much as my longer trips around the UK.

For the rest of my stay here, my traveling goals are to see a few specific places in Scotland: St. Andrews, Glasgow, the Isle of Skye, and a return to Edinburgh; as well as another short stay in London and a possible visit to Mousehole, Cornwall to pay homage to “Mousehole Cat Day” or “Tom Bawcock’s Eve,” a permanent part of my family’s Christmas celebrations courtesy of the television show based on a children’s book. More locally I want to climb back up to the top of the Wallace Monument and pay to take the stairs to see the view, cross the Stirling Bridge on foot, and find more good places to eat in town before I go.

I have been blessed with an amazing experience so far, and if it were to be ended suddenly I would be content and happy knowing I have visited so many places and gotten to know all the people I have. That being said, I hope time slows down in the next month so that I might be able to balance my schoolwork and campus life and scratch the itch of traveling. I would love to see a little Scottish snow before I go and take part in a few early Christmas activities as well. There is so much left to do and I am so grateful I am able to take it one day at a time.

My goal for tomorrow? To fully enjoy my University “chores” of grocery shopping (online with free delivery to my door, perhaps), laundry, class, dinner preparation and other odds and ends to their fullest, because you never know what you’ll miss when everything changes.

Castles and Capitals 1: My adventures before the break

With the rush of mid-semester schoolwork it has been difficult for me to find time to write about my most recent adventures and experiences abroad, and for that I apologize! I hope all I am about to write, and all the pictures I will post, will make up for it.

The first thing I wanted to revisit was my excellent day trip with my friend Annamarie through Timberbush Tours out of Edinburgh. We visited a few castles and saw the beautiful northeast coast of England in what was once called Northumbria, when the region was its own medieval kingdom. This was my first time properly into England, and I thought it was interesting that the only mark of passing the border was a small turn out along the road with two flags, one for St. George’s Cross and the other for St. Andew’s, adopted by England and Scotland respectively. Our first stop was a little island off the coast called Lindisfarne, or the “Holy Island” for its monastery and production of the Lindisfarne Gospels, which had a beautiful ruined abbey and castle. The area had been hit by a wind storm the evening before and so the power was out in all the cafés and shops, and the wind kept coming – I have only ever felt this powerful a gale since the Pali lookout on Oahu! Driving in and out of the little coastal community involved a knowledge of the tides, which would cover the road at various times of the day. 

Driving in, the tide crept onto the road a bit

The ruined abbey with Lindisfarne Castle in the back

The castle a little closer

The coast from the castle

We continued along to another castle called Bamburgh and stopped to take a quick picture before reaching the highlight, Alnwick Castle (pronounced like “Anick” but with the a like “apple”). This place appeared in the first Harry Potter movie as the location of Harry’s first flying lesson with his class and Madam Hooch! When re-watching the scene from the movie, it was really fun to be able to recognize the castle exterior. 

Myself at Alnwick Castle

A picture from the movie...

...and the place where it was shot!

 After exploring the grounds and the inside, we continued on the tour to a field known as Flodden where James IV of Scotland was defeated by the English in the early 1500s. Annamarie and I grabbed a nice pot of tea and some cake at a shop in a little town called Coldstream. After that we enjoyed a relaxing ride back up to Edinburgh!

Lens Shifting & Comparative Thinking: In the Moment

The Cougs Abroad Blog Squad asks me to consider a nuance of life in my country that is distinctly different for me than home. While I am in Scotland I often compare my experiences to those at my university in the US, and one of the notable differences here is Scottish students’ ability to live in the moment, as it were, through an easygoing attitude and the surreal lack of interest in constantly texting or using mobile phones. I am as guilty of this as anyone at university at home. In between classes, when walking with other friends, at lunch, or even in class, there is a compulsive drive to check who has texted (and for those with internet, the almost reflexive action to flip through the latest posts on the news feed). I never realized how truly routine this phone-checking was until I arrived at my university here and found myself the sole individual texting rapidly between classes.

This is just one of many examples of the “in the moment” attitude I am witnessing all around me. Every time I return from class, I spot multiple families taking walks around the campus loch, pushing strollers or holding their children’s hands. In town, older couples take slow walks past storefronts. Everywhere in Stirling and other parts of the country are dedicated dog-walkers, simply out for a stroll with their pets without iPods or a phone pressed to their ears. This is not to suggest that these things do not happen in my part of the US, nor am I writing this in any sort of irritation of personal mp3 players and phones. I am still guilty of being the one to rush between activities at school, and after every class I seem to be checking my phone. I can count on only one hand the times I have taken a walk for the sake of taking a walk, and I become easily irritated with slow moving queues, delays in receiving something in the post, or other “inconveniences” different from the hurried pace of life in the US.

There is a strong emphasis on the value of patience here that I hope I can absorb the longer I stay. Before I arrived I had read that in general the folk of Scotland are praised for being understanding, laid-back and friendly, rumors I can definitely confirm from my encounters. Of course it is ridiculous to apply personality traits to an entire nation, but I find that if anything people here are consistently patient, a virtue I lack, especially when standing in line for an hour to sign up for something I felt could have been carried out more efficiently another way. But that is just the point – in order to live in the moment, I have to take everything as it comes, and I certainly hope that during the rest of my time here I will learn to be more restful and relaxed.

Pre-Break Post

Unfortunately with the rush of finishing schoolwork before my week of travel over break, I haven't had time to sit down and write a bit more about my experiences! When I return I will post about the Castles and Coasts tour I took with a friend into Northumberland, England.

I have found that lately living in Scotland has become more normal and I have developed a routine at the university. That's not to say there aren't new and different things everyday to interest me! I have learned a lot of local words and customs in the past few weeks that I will have to take note of.

For now I need to prepare myself for my week long trip. Beginning tomorrow my group will fly to Dublin for a few days, explore the city and outlying country, then stop into Wales to visit Cardiff, then on to London for a few days to see the city! I will be sure to post a few quick updates sans pictures along the way, and hopefully longer posts will be to come!

Edinburgh

This Saturday I took a trip with some friends to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland (the eighth most populous city in the UK with only a little under 500,000 people)! I was surprised at the convenience of taking the hour-long train into the city and impressed with the price- £8.50 on the weekends for return fare seems like a great bargain. Once off the train I was mesmerized with the architecture of this historical 12^th century city, especially the dark rock and spires of Old Town, fading in and out of a nice morning Scottish mist. We walked up part of the Royal Mile, an artery clogged with tourist shops that runs from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse (the queen’s official Scottish residence during her weeklong stay- luckily the Royal Family was out, so I was able to take the tour). 

I love these buildings!

I believe this is along the Royal Mile

“Entering” a castle is a bit of a misnomer, as there are often so many different buildings behind the fortifications that it is hard to determine what part is actually a “castle,” but suffice it to say I visited several places inside Edinburgh’s walls and will have to come back again to catch the rest! 

Edinburgh Castle

Among a few things we had time for, I took a brief walking tour, saw the chapel built for St. Margaret in about 1130 (I cannot believe I am able to see things roughly 300 years older than the written history of my country), looked out over a misty New Town, and briefly passed by the Crown Jewels of Scotland reposing in a dimly lit glass case. 

Part of the Scottish National War Memorial inside the Castle

Me in front of the War Memorial (built in 1927)

A ceiling in the Royal Palace

A view of the city from the Castle

A piper on the street

The magnificent St. Giles' Cathedral

Yes, Scotland has these too!

Lovely!

We walked to the end of the Royal Mile to take a tour of Holyrood Palace. While there were not many buildings towards the end of the mile, the palace sits at the feet of a beautiful group of hills, the tallest of which is called “Arthur’s Seat” and looks out over the city (I will have to walk this next time I visit). Unfortunately for beautiful Edinburgh, some architect erected a really weird art museum next the pal- wait, that’s the new Scottish Parliament building?! I couldn’t believe it. Stuck between wonderfully quaint brick-and-chimney houses and the Hogwarts-like Holyrood is the home of the Scottish Parliament, an expensive and homely creation circa 2004 (think M.C. Escher meets Pick-up Sticks).

Myself in front of the lovely Palace of Holyroodhouse

The courtyard inside

While inside the Palace I was not able to take pictures, but please take a look at the official website or Google to see some of the gorgeous rooms I was able to visit! The audio walking tour was informative and pleasant, and I felt humbled to see all the rooms as they have existed for royalty for many years. There was a small room devoted entirely to the collections of past monarchs, with small trinkets, hand-written notes and portraits that have been somehow preserved for hundreds of years. If the interior weren’t beautiful enough, at the very end we were able to visit the Palace Gardens and the incredible ruined nave of Holyrood Abbey, which may be my favorite thing thus far! There is something very powerful for me in old churches, and this abbey also had the glamour of being mostly destroyed, with a missing roof, mossy pillars and weathered rocks. I have a free pass to visit the Palace again so I may definitely come back to enjoy its presence! 

In Edinburgh I also did a little shopping and bought a beautiful Celtic knot necklace (Celtic jewelry was very popular with vendors here) for just 10 pounds. I tried a bit of haggis that my friend ordered at a restaurant, and while it looked infinitely more appetizing than I expected, it tasted like a creamy ground beef. I am aware that haggis is lamb, but to a person who rarely eats any meat but turkey and chicken, everything else tastes the same; so to my unsophisticated carnivore’s palate, haggis tasted like a hamburger!

That day we also stopped in at The Elephant House Café, proud to claim JK Rowling as an occupant in the days of first Harry Potter manuscripts. A friend I met recently who lives in Edinburgh actually has the author for a near neighbor and saw her at Starbucks writing something that could have been the last book! There were no famous authors milling about on Saturday but I had wonderful chocolate cake and a small pot of nettle tea. We walked through Greyfriars Kirkyard as the sun went down and the rain started, and saw the famous grave of the man whose loyal dog would not leave his master even in death. We ended at Grassmarket street and then turned for home. Even with a good 9 or so hours in the city there was so much left to see, and I am thankful we are close enough to visit again anytime!

In Greyfriars Kirkyard

Sunday I visited St. Mary’s Catholic Church for the first time and forgot to take pictures of the beautiful, towering rose-colored exterior and lovely windows, but I will remember next time! After church I attended a lunch with other members of the church in the priest’s house next door and was spoiled with an assortment of wonderful foods- soup, fresh bread, Scottish mince meat pies, “millionaire’s shortbread,” rhubarb-raspberry pie and thick squares of something called “flapjack” in Scotland that does not refer to a pancake but rather a soft and chewy sweet like a granola bar. I also had my first student radio show with my friend that day. This weekend was a lot of fun!