Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you.

Hello all!

Sorry for the big gaps in between posts but nothing too exciting has happened since the Aran Islands trip. Have no fear though, April is going to be non-stop adventures so stay tuned for tons of posts.

I'll give you a preview of the upcoming days and weeks in April:

As most of you probably know, the Goldens arrive in Galway this Wednesday. I can't wait to see them after over 3 months away from home. We're probably going to take day trips to the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands and of course I'll be the tour guide around the lovely Galway City. From Galway they're going to Dublin and I might join them for a day or two before I need to get home and get ready for my own European adventures. There are two trips currently booked and planned:

From April 9th to April 22nd:

Paris > Barcelona > Madrid > Porto (Portugal)

From April 26th to May 3rd:

Munich > Prague > Stockholm

An Italy trip is also in the works and will probably happen mid to late May. I can't believe this is all happening and I will be going to all these amazing cities and countries. Can't wait to get started and experience it all.

Not much else going on here. My classes end on Wednesday and then I'll be hanging with the family for the next week after that.

Hope all is well back home with everyone!

Conor

Hanging Over Some Cliffs - Day Trip to the Aran Islands

Yesterday I made yet another little trip to another one of Ireland's most beautiful places: the Aran Islands. For some more info on the islands, visit my good friend, Mr. Wikipedia right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_Islands. For our day trip, we visited the largest of the islands called Inishmore.

We were up early and got a bus from our housing complex at 9 AM. After about an hour bus ride we hopped on an Aran Island ferry and made another 40 minute trip across Galway Bay to Inishmore. It was yet another beautiful day of sunny skies. This past week the weather literally never changed from blue skies and sun; it was awesome. When we got to the island and off the ferry, we all rented bikes and began our journey along the coast of the 9 mile island. On our trip up the coast, we stopped to make friends with some horses, chickens, and cows, took plenty of pictures of the winding stone walls and farms scattered around the landscape, and eventually came upon a small beach. As a group of us laid down in the tall grass along some cliffs near the beach, we looked down and to our amazement, watched as two random men stripped down and ran into the water. Confused and a little disturbed, we decided it was as good a time as any to continue our bike ride.

Our final stop on our bike ride before turning around and heading back to the ferry was possibly my favorite thing I've seen so far in Ireland. I know that I've said that for about a dozen different things but if you see the pictures, you'll see why I am positive this time that it's my favorite. Dun Aengus (or Dún Aonghasa in Irish) is an ancient Iron Age fort that sits atop cliffs that are over 300 feet tall. After making a long hike up some steep hills, we got to the fort and once again were awe-struck by its size and beauty. We walked to the edge of the cliffs and realized that it was totally open, giving us the chance to just sit with our feet hanging over, looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean. We all sat together and didn't really say much as we were all a little shocked at what we were seeing. Below us was only ocean and some rocks jutting out from the water. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too much time there, but that half hour or so may have been my favorite half hour of all my sightseeing times here in Ireland.

Once again it was a great day. We had a great bike ride, saw some incredible scenery, and got to spend some amazing time at Dun Aengus. I don't know how I'm going to be able to contain all these memories in my mind once I get home in May. I think I'll find a way though.

Thanks for reading!

Conor

Traveling the UK: Part 2 (Scotland)!

So here is the second and final part of my two part series: Traveling the UK. This past weekend may have been my favorite weekend so far in Ireland. From Thursday to Sunday, my friends and I meandered through the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. We stayed in the "Redrum" at one hostel, saw where Sean Connery was knighted, ate haggis and fried Mars bars, and may have seen a few ghosts in the Edinburgh graveyards. Let's get into a little more detail though, shall we?

First up on the agenda was Glasgow. Upon arrival, we made the long trek from the bus station to the Blue Sky Hostel. It was a really cool and funky place with spray paint on the walls and wacky themes for each room. Yes, we were in the room themed after "The Shining," complete with a huge picture of a crazed Jack Nicholson on the door and the words "REDRUM" painted across the bottom. When we walked inside, there was no surprise, the whole room was painted red. Don't worry though, we were all okay. Thankfully, our work to fun ratio tipped entirely to the "fun" side so we didn't go insane. (Lame joke, I know). So for one day and night, we explored Glasgow. It's your basic city. We headed into the center where all the shops are along with the City Hall which was really nice. We saw some typical red stone Scottish architecture and spent the night at Ashton Lane, a very cool little cobblestone street with plenty of cool pubs and restaurants. It was a brief stay but a good one nonetheless.

Friday morning we got on yet another bus and made our way to Edinburgh. I have to say it here and I'll probably say it again: Edinburgh is an awesome city. I mean really awesome. When we first arrived I could see all of the medieval architecture and knew that this would be a great weekend. Just thinking about the history of it made me giddy being the nerdy history major that I am. Edinburgh is kind of divided into the old town and new town. Thankfully, we stayed in the old town. But we didn't stay in some run of the mill youth hostel. We stayed in the Castle Rock Hostel, named for the fact that it sits at the bottom of Castle Rock. Outside our window, the magnificent Edinburgh Castle hovered over us. Off in the distance outside our hostel, we could see the snow-capped mountain ranges of Scotland. For the next two days and nights, we explored almost every inch of Edinburgh. Friday we were on our own as we walked down the Royal Mile, the main road in the old town, past all sorts of old pubs and tons of Scotland souvenir shops.

Saturday was the big though. We first had a big Scottish breakfast, complete with haggis (all kinds of pig innards cooked in a pig's stomach and seasoned with some spices). Honestly, it was pretty good. It tasted like sausage which is never a bad thing. From there we made our way to the starting point of a free guided walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was a totally cool young guy named Ronnie. He had a great Scottish accent and gave us a great tour. We walked up and down the Royal Mile, down the Grassmarket area where most executions took place many years ago, and saw some very cool Harry Potter historic spots. We stood outside the window where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. Just around the corner from there is the castle off of which she based Hogwarts, and finally, we saw the grave of a man named "Tom Riddell." Now, although the name is spelt differently in real life, this was the inspiration for "He Who Must Not Be Named." (Again, lame). At the end of the tour we were told the story of the Scottish "Stone of Destiny." It is a totally wacky story and too long for me to write in here. I suggest everyone google it though! Saturday night brought yet another tour: the Edinburgh Ghost Tour. With our Jesus look-alike tour guide Alan, we walked through the Edinburgh night to various graveyards and monuments that are said to be haunted. We saw the grave of philosopher David Hume and stood atop a hill overlooking the city at night while Alan told us all kinds of ghost stories.

After a fun-filled day of touring Edinburgh, we were all exhausted and hit the hay pretty quickly. We slept in a very happily themed room this time: The Happy Days Room." Each bed had its own Happy Days character. My bed was Big Al. Wish I watched Happy Days more b/c I don't know who that is. Oh well.

Here it comes again: Edinburgh is an awesome city. Best city I've visited so far by a "royal mile." The lame jokes just keep on coming today.

Hope you're not bored out of your mind yet. If you got through all of this, I appreciate it. I really enjoy writing these and I hope you enjoy reading them.

I'll be heading to the Aran Islands on Saturday so another post should be coming soon.

Conor

Traveling the UK: Part 1 (Northern Ireland)

Well it has been a very long time since I've posted so first of all, sorry! I still haven't stopped moving and it's been almost two and half months! For the past two weekends I have crossed borders and the Irish Sea to see a few great cities and one incredible natural wonder of the world, Giants Causeway. Two weekends ago was Belfast and Northern Ireland, and I just returned from Scotland on Sunday afternoon. There was a lot of activity and sightseeing so get your seat belts on, this could be a long one! First up: Northern Ireland.

Our trip to Belfast and Giants Causeway was a trip sponsored by our program from Arcadia University. We paid 40 euro for the whole weekend which included almost all meals, transportation, and a hostel for the weekend; it was a great deal. Upon our arrival at the Belfast Youth Hostel, we were given one piece of rather frightening advice. Eileen, one of the chaperones from Arcadia stated, "One piece of advice that must be followed: Do not go into The Royal Pub. It is potentially unsafe and dangerous." So after those comforting first words in Belfast, we exited the bus and of course, our hostel was across the street from The Royal. Good thing they let us know before some of us naive Americans wandered in there unknowingly. So once we were settled in our hostel rooms we explored the city a little bit. Queens University Belfast was really nice and the area surrounding the university was very cool. When we got down to the city center, it was pretty underwhelming. In all honesty, Belfast was kind of a boring city. It was nice, and City Hall is a really cool building, but other than that, there's not much to see. We did stumble on a cupcake cafe that made amazing cupcakes though, so that was a good find.

Saturday morning, we boarded the buses early and headed even further north to Giants Causeway. In fact, it's as north as you can get in Ireland. As we climbed up some hills and winding roads, I caught my first glimpse of the coastline with the sun shining down and not a cloud in sight. It was the perfect day for this trip. We got a tour guide and headed down along the coast. She told us all the stories of Finn McCool and his family and adventures as a giant. She pointed out his house, his giants pet camel, and even his massive boot which he must've left behind. Finally, she showed us his most prized creation: Giants Causeway. We ventured up onto the hexagonal stones, perfectly shaped and stuck to one another. It was really a fascinating sight. After several pictures and some time staring out at the Atlantic pondering life's big questions, we continued the tour underneath the cliffs. Then came the fun part, climbing the winding staircase up those cliffs back to the buses. Once we reached the top, the panorama was breathtaking.

After a night out on Saturday at a few pubs, we went to bed and woke up Sunday for the last part of our weekend. First, we went to a presentation on the political murals around Belfast, given by a sociology professor at Queens University Belfast. The talk was really interesting and opened my eyes to further details of the longtime struggles in N. Ireland. After the talk we hopped on our buses once again and took a tour of the city. We traveled into "loyalist" territory and took pictures of some murals, and also spent some time in "nationalist" territory for some more photo-ops. One very special stop on the tour was the Belfast shipyards where we saw the Titanic's final resting place before she departed for her fateful journey. The dock in which she was built and designed is absolutely massive. It was incredible to think that 100 years ago, Titanic was sitting only feet from where I stood.

Overall it was another great experience. It seems I've been having only good experiences since I've been here so I can't complain at all. While Belfast wasn't my favorite city, the sights we saw were pretty fascinating and I don't think I will ever forget overlooking the ocean atop the cliffs at Giants Causeway. Just another memorable time in my semester here. I can't believe how lucky I am to be on this incredible journey.

Thanks to everyone for reading. Hope all is well across the pond!

Conor