Cliff of Moher and the Burren

So the last entry was about the Villanova trip to County Mayo. Essentially a week went by and not too much happened. We went out to pub’s and saw some good bands but nothing out of the ordinary. We’re trying to do something new every weekend so last weekend we went on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. It was another early morning and we (the Villanova group) got picked up at Gort by a bus again because we had so many people. This bus took us to another bus where we joined a bigger group of people. The tour lasted all day. The tour guide was pretty funny. He sang a few songs and told a few jokes. The first stop on the tour was Dunguaire Castle. It was only a quick stop cause the day was so packed but it was definitely worthwhile. It was an awesome 16th century structure that still holds medieval banquets nowadays. Then we passed through a quaint little fishing village called Kinvara. There wasn’t much but it definitely looked like it would’ve been a cool place to stop. Our second stop was at the Aillwee Caves. The guide was building them up so much that they kind of disappointed. In all honesty I’ve seen better caves and I was expecting so much more. Apparently, the entrance was on some man’s property and he didn’t notice it until one day his dog went down into a hole and never came out. He followed the dog (eventually saving it) and discovered the caves. He kept it a secret for a long time until showing it to his friends who made him tell everybody. After the caves, we drove through the Burren. It was an incredible sight. It’s just this bare limestone area with strange rock formations. We drove passed the Poulnabrone dolmen but didn’t get out. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. It’s really cool. It’s a 5000 year old tomb used by the first stone age dwellers. I’d like to go back there to catch a picture. Next we passed the Leamanagh Castle. There was a story I don’t fully remember but it involves a woman getting married to a king she didn’t want to marry. She pushed him off the top floor and killed him. She was convicted of murder but didn’t ever get punished and got to keep the castle. It currently sits on somebody’s property so you can’t go near it. As long as he never tries to restore it, it will stay his too. It’d be pretty cool to be able to say you have a castle. Next we went on through Lisdoonvarna. There wasn’t a stop here either but it’s where there is a huge annual matchmaking festival. We stopped for lunch in Doolin at a place called Fitzgerald’s. I quickly had a big bowl of potato and leek soup and got back on the bus. Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moher. It was absolutely breathtaking. They are over 200 meters high and you can see forever (granted we went on a nice day). There is a pathway which leads to O’Brien’s Tower that we took. We then took an illegal path that really lets you see over the edge. It was so nice but incredibly frightening. There is a sign that is dedicated to all those who lose their lives by falling over the cliff. We got our fix of the cliffs and met back up with the tour. We passed by a limestone beach on the way back home and arrived safely back in Galway at about 5:30. It was another great day of discovering new things. Another great day of memories I’ll always have.

Hey everybody….and sorry

Hey everybody,

It’s been a while I know. I’m going to break everything down in separate entries. So the weekend of 9/12-9/13 the group of Villanova students went on a trip with our Irish Studies teacher to County Mayo. It was a lot of fun and definitely something I’ll always remember. There was great weather and best of all it was free (on Villanova’s tab). It was an early start (9am on a Saturday…the regular crowd shuffled in, theres an old man sittin next to me….sorry). We all met up at the main office of Gort Na Coiribe and took a small bus to meet Mary (our teacher). We first went to Ballintubber Abbey. It was gorgeous. Saint Patrick baptized people in it long ago. Apparently there was a king who wanted to build a gorgeous church as repayment but he built it originally in the wrong place so he had to go back and build another one. They call it the “Abbey that never gave in.”  Through invasion and other threats, the priests of this church have never stopped telling mass.

The second stop we had was at Turlough Park. This was part of the National Museum of Ireland and the only part that’s not in Dublin. We saw how landlords lived in the 19th century. The house we saw belonged to the Fitzgerald family.   They were forcefullyremoved by the English from their original home of 70,000 acres to this home of 7,000 acres. Everything around the house was gorgeous land. There is a turlough (for which I assume the park is called) on grounds, which is a lake that fills up and dries very quickly. Also on the ground was a small museum that showed how the tenants of the Fitzgerald property lived.

After Turlough Park, we went to Croagh Patrick. This is where St. Patrick climbed and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Thousands of people climb the mountain every year. On one day in July there is a pilgrimage of sorts where thousands of people walk from Ballintubber Abbey to the summit of Croagh Patrick (you’re supposed to even do it barefoot!). Unfortunately we didn’t get to climb all the way up but we did get to walk about 20 minutes up and got some great pictures of the surrounding area. I blessed myself in a creek we walked next to on the way up and again on the way down at the statue of Croagh Patrick. I also collected a rock as a special little memory of the trip. At the base of the mountain is the Irish Famine Memorial. As the name suggests it is a statue in remembrance of those who died during the famine.  It is a large metal ship (historically called a “coffin ship” cause of all the people who died on them leaving Ireland), but its covered with skeletons.

We piled back into the bus and headed to a town called Westport. We walked up and down the main street looking for a place to eat and finally decided on one. What happened after was incredible. Our group must’ve ordered 600 euro worth of food, wine, and beer. And nobody cared because it was on Villanova. Personally I had prawn fajitas and split an appetizer of crab claws with Julian. It was awesome. Mary even convinced the owner to give us all free shots because he had just become a grandfather and needed people to celebrate with. After dinner we went outside and just hung around by the water. There are some great pictures I’ll have to upload soon. The night could’ve ended here and it would’ve been great. But it kept going.

We piled back into the bus again and headed to a town called Newport for an Irish set dancing lesson and our hotel. However, we stopped on the way to pick up an accordian player. It was pretty sketchy but funny at the same time. After picking up the man, we made our way there. Before we went in to the dance lesson, our bus driver Michael took us in to another pub where he bought us all drinks cause he liked us so much. Then we went dancing. It was a lot of fun but really complicated. Lots of steps to remember. It was a great time but unfortunately I don’t think there are many pictures (probably a good thing actually). After dancing, we went upstairs and called it a night. I roomed with Tim for the night. We had a good room although Tim stole the queen size bed and I got the twin. The three sophomores shared a room with only 2 twin beds. We all joked about that later.

The next morning was good. We had breakfast at the hotel (on Villanova again). After breakfast, Tim, Catherine, Lauren, and I walked around and took some pictures while everyone else got ready. Finally we got back on the bus and headed out. Michael took us to Grace Kelly’s grandfather’s house. It’s now in ruins, but it was pretty small. After that we went to Hennigan’s Heritage Museum. Essentially it was just this man’s house. He had lived in a small cottage for his entire life and decided to collect historical artifacts and accounts and turn it into a museum. It was very interesting. He knew so much about Ireland and the country life. He told us where phrases and rhymes like “Pop Goes the Weasel” came from. It was definitely something I’ll always remember. We enjoyed some tea from the Hennigan’s and set out back to Galway. On the way back we passed Knock, which is where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. We didn’t get to get out but it was cool to see anyway. All in all it was a great weekend. I had lots of fun and have so many memories of everything there.

My Address

I keep getting told to put this up in case somebody wants to ship me something so here it is.
Apartment 142

Gort Na Coiribe

Headford Road

Galway, Ireland

Update more on Monday. For now off to Mayo.

Mike

Golfing and Class

Galway Golf Club

View from the Tee on One

Clubhouse

Walking along the Water to the Second Tee

View from the Second Tee

Walking over to the Fourth Green

Walking to the Seventeenth Green

Class has started and it’s much much different than in the States. In general, it’s just much more laid back. Of course, engineering is still stressful. The other mechanical engineer from Villanova, Julian, and I have a course called Vibrations and Control Systems. The professor wouldn’t let us leave until the class asked 2 questions about his lecture. He ended up keeping us ten minutes passed the time it was supposed to end. So far thats the only bad class though. I’ll be taking International Relations, Ancient Philosophy, Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering, and Irish Studies while I’m here. The Irish Studies class is with only the other Villanova University students. They don’t really get homework here from what I’m told so I feel like I’ll have lots of free time once things settle down and I get in a groove. I also have off Thursdays which would explain the gorgeous pictures above, but I’ll go into that more later.

We’ve gone out a few times this week because this is the first week of school. All the Irish students are going nuts. They don’t really go to class this week apparently. Actually, most Irish students go home on the weekend to work a weekend job and wash clothes and such. It’ll be even more empty this weekend as our group is going to take a trip to County Mayo to see a few things for our Irish Studies class. We’re going to be taking an Irish Step Dancing class while there too. More on how it goes later. One of my roommates had her 21st birthday on Wednesday. It’s a really big deal (even here when it doesn’t actually mean anything) so she had a little party and then went out to a club called Central Park (CPs). A few of us stayed here and wandered around the apartments meeting more people and then got a group to meet our roommates at CPs. It was a really fun but pretty late night and luckily I had off on Thursday.

I slept in a little bit and soon after waking up Julian called me up. We have a similar schedule so he has off on Thursdays too and he asked if I wanted to go golfing. This was one of the things I definitely wanted to do so of course I said yes. We went to the Galway Golf Club which overlooked the Galway Bay. You could see County Clare from some parts too. It was a gorgeous day. The course was really hard, and I shot a 123, but Julian’s played golf much more than I have and he shot a 120 so I wasn’t too disappointed. I rented a set of clubs and in all the round and clubs cost 60 euro. We grabbed a coke at the clubhouse bar in the middle of the round. It was a fun day and something I’ll never forget.

When we got back I made myself some ravioli which was awesome. I went over Bill and Tim’s apartment where I hung out with them and their roommates for a while.

Thats it for now. I’ll update about our weekend trip to Mayo on Monday.

Until then cheers.

Mike

Pictures from the Aran Islands

Bike Riding on the Inis Mor

All the guys (Tim, Me, Tom, Tom, Bill, Scott, Julian)

Me and my first Irish Guinness

Hanging over the cliffs at Dun Aengus on Inis Mor (Me, Tim, Bill)

Shop Street where all the pubs are

Our first bar as a group

Bike Riding Inis Mor

The lighthouse on Inis Mor

Cliff at Dun Aengus

Looking off the Cliff again

Me and Bill at Dun Aengus

Getting Ready to Ride Inis Mor

Pictures Around the City

Statue at NUI Galway

The Quadrangle at NUIG

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas...(or just the Galway Cathedral)

On the Walk to School

The Hole in the Wall Pub

Eyre Square

More Eyre Square

JFK

Eyre Square again

Apartment Pictures

View from my Window…for Katie

Another View

Front Door to my Apartment

My Apartment (My room is the 3rd floor)

First Day of Classes?

I know I haven’t updated lately so I’ll try to just give a basic outline of what I’ve been doing. It’s been hard to get a free moment when everything is so busy. Trying to figure out my class schedule and when I actually register has been tough. It’s so different from the ultra in depth Villanova. Here they don’t really care. First things first…all the other Villanova students arrived on Wednesday and my roommate is from Villanova. They told us they were gonna try to separate Villanovans but pretty much everybody was paired up with another Villanovan. His name is Tom and he’s from New York. He’s a sophomore business major. There are 3 sophomores in total and the rest are juniors. Everybody is really nice and we have a good group for going out together. We went out Wednesday night after 4 of us made a pasta dinner and had a great time just going to different pubs. The nights kind of blur together a little bit because we pretty much did the same thing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night. On one night we ended up getting serenaded by a relatively famous Irish singer (although we never got his name and none of us recognized him). Don’t ask me how that developed…I couldn’t even tell you. We’ve been to a lot of different places but just to name a few there are Taaffe’s, The Quays, Hole in the Wall, and Skeff Bar. They are all lots of fun although I’d have to say The Quays is my favorite.

We had orientation on Thursday morning. It was 4 hours long and they still didn’t really tell us anything about what we’re supposed to do for class. They emphasized how to prevent swine flu for like an hour of it and yet all we wanted to know was when classes meet and that general stuff. During Thursday afternoon, they provided a campus tour which most of the Villanova students went on. The girl who gave the tour brought us to like 3 buildings and then stopped in the library in which we got a comprehensive tour on how to check out books. I was pretty confused by how little of the campus they showed considering it’s pretty big and difficult to navigate.

Yesterday our Villanova group decided to tour the Aran Islands. Unfortunately it was raining steadily the whole time and I forgot my camera. We had to catch a bus from Galway at 9 to get to the ferry by 10:30. We arrived at Inis Mor (which is the biggest one) at around 11:15. We went to a place to eat right away called the Pierhouse. I had broccoli and cheese soup which was really good. Then we all rented bikes for 6 euro and took a biked the island in the freezing rain. I’m surprised I’m not sick today (knock on wood). We saw lots of incredible stuff like the lighthouse and Dun Aengus. There are some incredible pictures of us laying down with our heads peaking over the cliffs at Dun Aengus. Stuff you’d never be able to do in America cause there would be a fence like 15 feet from the edge. It was amazing. By the time we biked back to the pier we were all cold and soaked and ready to go home, but we still had some time to kill before the ferry left so some of us went to Supermac’s which is like their McDonald’s (even though they have McDonald’s too). On the television there was the championship hurling match and Kilkenney won. Apparently that makes 4 years in a row for them. It’s a really cool sport that they pretty much just play in Ireland. Next weekend is the gaelic football championship which is pretty big too. County Cork is in the final so that’s where my allegiances have to be.

I know all of this because when we came back from Aran our Irish roommates had moved in. There are 4 girls and they all know each other. Tom and I hung out with them until they went out. They’re very nice and friendly.

Today is technically the first day of class. And I’m pretty sure I have class now although I have no idea (they are pretty unorganized and inefficient here). But I’m going to go anyway.

Cheers

Mike/Neugs