Irreplaceable Ireland

Hello!

Ireland. The luck of the Irish. Well, I know that I am definitely lucky to be here. 

Wednesday night, we arrived at our hostel and immediately went out into Dublin to experience the Irish culture (and roughly 1/4 of my heritage). We made our way into Celts Pub, enticed by the live music and vibrant individuals- they danced, they sang, and they loved Americans. With both an Irish flag and American flag hanging in the window, we were given an incredibly warm welcome. The live band played Johnny Cash among the traditional Irish music, someone standing at the bar rambled on about the Minnesota Vikings( The Packers are so much more wonderful) after I mentioned being from the Minnesota/ Wisconsin area, and many more Irish people found great interest in talking with us.

Thursday morning, a few of us ventured out , and got quite lost along the way, to Kilmainham Gaol which is an old prison that has been transformed into a museum. Irish revolutionaries were held at Kilmainham Gaol, and many were executed either by being hung or a firing squad, from the Easter Rising and The Civil War among other rebellions. There were also two escapes. It was highly interesting to visit, and creepy to see the inside of various cells. After that Emily Markrof went on a Jameson Distillery tour with me which was absolutely fantastic. We were given 3 1/2 shots to compare Scottish whiskey, American whiskey (Jack Daniels), and Jameson Irish whiskey and Jameson was by far the best. After learning about how it is made we went to lunch and enjoyed a glass of Jameson, Ginger ale, and lime. After leaving there, and getting lost again, we went on a tour at the Guinness Storehouse which was fantastic as well, although I preferred Jameson. At the top of the Guinness Storehouse, there is a 360 degree view of Dublin and it is absolutely beautiful. We ended our day with wandering the streets back towards our hostel and venturing into random stores along the way, as well as getting slightly lost once again. We discovered that however stressful getting lost can be, it allows for an adventure and for us to see so much more. The best way to travel may in fact be to get lost ( as long as you have a map, phone, or taxi money of course)! 

Friday was our day tour of Northern Ireland and Giants Causeway! We had to be awake at 6 AM to get to the tour bus by 7 AM, which was slightly horrible to have to do but definitely worth it. Northern Ireland is absolutely gorgeous. We visited Carrick-a-Rede, Giants Causeway, Belfast, and a couple filming locations from Game of Thrones. Carrick-a-Rede was incredibly terrifying ( At least for me) but absolutely worth the risk! Giants Causeway was a spectacular site and there is a great story to go with it! I suggest you look that up. The sites from Game of Thrones were of course a fantastic stop. We only spent an hour in Belfast where the group I was with wandered into a couple stores and got some excellent gifts and souvenirs! We pushed through our exhaustion and went back out to the pubs that night as well, only for a couple as we had to be up early again on Saturday! Unfortunately, while out we were dancing with another group of people at one point and I was elbowed in the eye which resulted in a chunk of my eyelashes falling out...so if anyone knows how long it takes for eyelashes to grow back, that would be great to know!

Saturday (Valentines day!) we took another bus tour out to the Cliffs of Moher which were absolutely incredible! Along the way there and back, we stopped at the "baby" cliffs, a couple castles, passed by Galway where parts of P.S. I Love You was filmed, and another cute little Irish town. That night, we went out again because it was our last night in Ireland and it was Valentines Day so there was lots going on and it was quite a long day. Who knows when or if any of us will be back to Ireland and we had classes to get back to Monday, so why wouldn't we take advantage of all the time we had there and take in as much of the culture and beautiful landscapes as we could. Having the opportunity to spend time with such a variety of different individuals and cultures just by going out and immersing yourself into a place, is absolutely spectacular.

For more pictures you can browse through my Facebook album!

Love to all!

No Way, Norway!

Norway, an absolutely amazing place (That Frozen was inspired by, hosted the 1952 Olympics, and is full of beauty). My weekend in Oslo started off quite chaotic. I apologize for having such a long post, again. This may become a regular thing.

Thursday night two of the four of us, Hannah and I, rushed out of our 4:10-5:00 class to grab our stuff and catch the last free shuttle from the manor to Grantham train station. We barely made the shuttle and there were no seats left but the shuttle driver told us to just sit on the floor. This highly reminded me of squishing in the front passenger seat with my mom as a child when avoiding taking an extra vehicle. We managed to get to the Grantham train station and our train rather easily. From Kings Cross station we explored London for a couple hours, had my computer rejected at the Apple Store (It currently will not turn on. A day trip will have to be made next week as all Apple stouts are an hour+ away from Grantham), and then caught another short train ride to the airport where we met up with Rachel and Michael. 

The decision to stay the night in the airport instead of waking up at 5:00am may have been the worst decision I will have made my entire time abroad, but getting up at 5:00am may have ended up being equally terrible. Although, I may have at least gotten some sleep then as it is very difficult to fall asleep on the floor of an airport. Many people at the airport were able to do it and seemed quite comfortable, they were definitely experts. Among those was a very nice Irish fellow, Andrew (I believe), who told us about some of the areas of Dublin. He also informed us of his unfortunate adventure of missing his check in time by 10 minutes and not being allowed on the flight. He was out of money and had traded his phone for a taxi to get to the airport from London and had no communication with home. He informed us that he had spontaneously decided to spend a few days in England and had brought a limited amount of budgeted funds. Overall, always bring a credit card or extra cash. After being let through security, sleep was much easier and we managed to get a couple hours in and a cappuccino in to keep us energized for the flight, the train ride, and finding our hostel.

Norway is an absolutely beautiful country. Most people know basic English here but will not speak it so there is an absolute language barrier. Also the majority of the signs are in Norge therefor if you visit bring a translator of some sort or previously found directions. It is so amazing to just sit on the trains and watch out the window, as well. There are so many beautiful things to see. We went to the incredible Vigeland Park full of highly detailed sculptures. Created by Gustav Vigeland, there are more than 200 sculptures. They were stunning. It was definitely worth the time to go visit this park and see the beautiful artwork. 

I also had the lovely experience of tobogganing. We went to a toboggan run that was incredibly terrifying but also completely wonderful. It was quite the experience. I flipped over once and got caught in a five-seven person crash as well, but it was completely worth the scratches or bruises that have been discovered. Korketrekkeren is the former bobsled/ski jump tea from the 1952 Olympics. In some spots of the toboggan run, you definitely could tell that this was a former professional bobsled area with some of the holes, turns, and flatter places mixed in. Korktrekkeren is 2000 metres long, and the elevation drop is 255 meters. One ride supposedly takes 8-10 minutes however it definitely felt faster. I highly enjoyed the fellow Harlaxton students I was with and their reactions to the amount of snow and experience of sledding as they are from the southern states. After tobogganing we had quite the experience. We were taking the tram back down the mountain and everyone had to get off at one stop. We assumed it was some sort of security check or something but decided to follow about half the crowd toward the buses, which was quite the walk, that took us back up the mountain. After returning our sleds, people were standing at the tram stop and assuming it was all good to go we stood at the stop for a significant amount of time. An announcement was made twice but in Norge and no one around us could tell us what it said. Some people were still waiting. Finally I overheard someone say "full stop temporarily on hold" and we didn't know how long for so we made the decision to hop on the bus again which could drop us off 250 meters from the next tram/light rail.  We got quite a significant amount of exercise from our toboggan adventure. 

On Sunday morning before catching our train at noon, we walked around Oslo and saw the beautiful cathedral, the palace (from a distance), and the amazing Opera House. The Opera House in Oslo is shaped like a ship and from the roof there is a beautiful view of the fjords and the city. We also were able to see the fjord that we went tobogganing on, which was beautiful up close and at a distance. Norway is an incredible country full of so much beauty. The snow, seagulls, and sudden changes in city and country areas reminded me greatly of home. This is definitely a country that I would visit again. Norway was an adventure where we learned how to truly adventure and explore the city in getting lost to find where we want to be.

Note: Check Facebook for pictures! Unfortunately the phone application of Blogger is not letting photos load and my laptop is currently broken. Which also means the photos on Facebook currently are strictly from my phone so more will come as soon as possible!

Love, Erin

Keep Your Love On

I've been here for about a month but it still only feels like it's been a couple weeks. Time is going by so fast. A lot happened this week, making this post quite long. 

On Tuesday, I went to my family's house for dinner and they made us Shepard's pie and gave us fresh fruit with yogurt for dessert. I've missed good fruit. The fruit at the school is either non existent or very disappointing. They also gave us chocolate. Eric says that "a balanced meal is chocolate in both hands" and I completely agree. Pat talked about how individuals should not judge and you should simply "keep your love on" because it is not our place. Love is a powerful thing that we discussed for quite a while. I found that to be quite an important message.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took a day trip to Newark-on-Trent which is a beautiful place. I saw Mary Magdalene's Church which is one of the largest churches in England, castle ruins from around the 12th century, an adorable cafe, swans, and a beautiful river. It was an absolutely stunning place even with the weather having been terrible. It was so incredibly windy throughout the day and kept changing between sun and rain and snow. That night there was a small earthquake. At least on the fifth floor of the manor it felt small. Other than almost falling out of my bed not much occurred as a result from the earthquake.

 

On Friday, we had a field trip to Lincoln which was incredible. Lincoln is a cathedral city that began as a roman town. It has a Norman castle from the 11th century which is supposed to be absolutely amazing however, it was being repaired and we were not allowed to go see it. We did get to see the cathedral which was originally built  and some roman ruins which were very interesting and quite gorgeous. It has been renovated over a number of centuries.

Finally, Today (Sunday) I had the opportunity to spend the day in Nottingham which is absolutely spectacular. This may have been my favorite day trip so far. Sydney, Nikki, and I went to the castle museum and gallery which is in the location of where the old Nottingham castle was before it burnt down from riots. We were told the fire was so hot it melted the iron roof which poured down the sides like hot lava. We also got to go on the underground Mortimer's cave tour which turned out to be a very short tunnel. We got to see the top of Mortimer's hole in castle rock but other than that It was slightly disappointing that the tour was so short and didn't go into a full cave area but nonetheless interesting to learn about. We also walked to Nottingham's Arboretum which was beautiful. I got a delicious strawberry and cream crepe from the market which was fun to walk around as well. There was also lots of pictures taken of Robin Hood and his Merry Men statues.

Next weekend I will be going to Norway!

Love to all!

Erin