A LegenDERRY Weekend--Part I

Last weekend I took a trip with the International Students' Society (ISS) up to Northern Ireland, specifically to the city of Londonderry, or as it is better known, Derry. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, so it's technically not part of Ireland at all. There's a good mix of Nationalists (pro-Ireland) and Unionists (pro-England), some more radical than others. But either way, the accent is odd and hard to understand, the roads go over rolling hills, it's freezing cold and very windy, and it is an absolutely gorgeous place to visit.

My trip was over the course of three days, and in those three days we did SO MUCH, if I put it all in one blog post, it would take four hours to read. So I will split it all into a series of LegenDERRY posts (hehe wordplay) and I hope you'll keep coming back to read more!

The first day, we got up bright and early to get to the bus for 8:30am. And we drove. We were partnering with Paddywagon tours, so we had a nice comfy bus and a super cool bus driver who shot interesting facts and stories at us now and then. (I highly recommend Paddywagon Tours if you come to Ireland.) We stopped in a city called Monaghan just below the "border" (there's not much of a formal border) to visit a cute little museum and eat lunch. I had met some girls on the way up, and we decided to get some lunch at a lovely little pub across the street from the museum.

The pub was called O'Hara's, and we were the only ones in there when we went. The manager and the waitress were so kind to us. They gave us two plates of seasoned chips with tartar sauce (first time ever trying tartar sauce--LOVED IT) for free (you know how I love free things) and brought everything to us promptly, making small talk with us and all that. It was a really good time, and I'd totally recommend it if you are ever in Monaghan.

We re-boarded the bus and kept on driving until we finally arrived in Derry around 4:00. We had a couple of hours to walk around the city on our own before we had to be back at the hostel for pizza at 6. 

I, of course, took more pictures, but these are some of my favorites. Derry is kind of in a valley, or at least the part we were in, and so there are lots of hills, and the buildings are modified to be on hills. The architecture of the city is very interesting. Especially considering this bottom picture is the city hall, and has always been the city hall, and has never been a church or cathedral, contrary to my initial belief.

We walked around the city centre and poked into some shoppes and boutiques, only to end up in, of course, a Halloween store. Lucky we did though, since there was a Halloween fashion show that night, and I still needed a wig.

The fashion show was an absolute blast. I helped my friends come up with costumes (we helped each other) and they convinced me to buy this AMAZING cave girl wig, which ended up being perfect for my costume. We saw some beautiful outfits by local designers, some of us got to walk the catwalk (myself included--so much fun), and afterwards we went to a pub and had a craic time! I even ran into some people from my home university, how weird is that!!

And that was just Friday. Stay tuned for more to come!

Two Weeks

Yesterday, Wednesday, marked two weeks of being in Ireland.
I've only been here for two weeks.
It feels like I've been here for two months.
I'm finally starting to get used to UCD. I've figured out how to keep myself interested during lectures, where all the buildings and classrooms are, the places that have good food versus mediocre mystery meat... (But literally, yesterday I had some gray translucent meatballs, what is that...) 
I also joined some societies, or student organizations this week. I joined the ISS (International Students Society) and got a wristband for free entry to 10 parties throughout the semester. One of them was last night at a club near Grafton Street called Break for the Border. We didn't know where the party was for a while, so we ended up just sitting in a very empty bar for about an hour. But just as I was about to leave, I found some of our other friends, and they led us to the party! We stayed and danced until about 1:30am, and then I got a ride from a very nice, very chatty cab driver back home. It ended up being a really fun time, once we actually figured out where we were supposed to be :)
I also joined the Musical Society, who is having auditions for a musical called "Into the Woods" next week. I decided it would be really freaking cool to do a show in Ireland, and I mean, how great would that look on my résumé. I decided I'm going to sing a song from [title of show], but here's the problem... I haven't sung in a while, and I don't know if there will be somewhere for me to practice... I'm hoping I can find the peace of a practice room somewhere so I don't disturb everyone on my floor (or in my building) trying to practice my song. I am confident my audition will go well though.
The last society I joined is called dramsoc. It's the schools drama society, and apparently they do a LOT of plays and events every year. I thought it would be interesting to get into, and I'm pretty sure auditions for some freshers' thing is coming up soon. I'll definitely have to double check that...
Slowly and surely, I'm getting acclimated to life at a huge university, and I'm getting much better at budgeting my money and using my time productively. I suppose that's all I have to say for now, until next time!

One Step Closer to the Beer...

WHAT A WEEKEND. 

Allow me to start at the beginning. Last night, a group on campus called ESN (Erasmus Student Network) planned an event called the Pub Crawl. Basically, everyone went downtown and we went to four different pubs, with the final stop being a night club. I had the evening free, so I figured, why not! I'll totally go!

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from this event. So I guess I'll just have to tell you ALL ABOUT IT (as if I wasn't already going to anyway). We began at a pub called BadBob's, which was a pretty decently sized pub right in the middle of TempleBar district, a brick pedestrian street lined up and down with bars, restaurants, cafes, and night clubs. We spent a while at BadBob's, but I was okay with it since the guy doing the LIVE music was really good. He took several American pop songs and acoustic-ized them to work a chill bar atmosphere. This pub was where I had my first ever sip of the one and only Guinness beer. It was not good. But I'm not a beer drinker anyway.

Next stop was a place called Mezz. This was a dinky, hole-in-the-wall kind of bar, but we did end up finding a seat, and many of my friends got a good deal on tequila shots. I didn't have any money for the weekend, so unfortunately I could not buy my own drinks. But we all still agreed we probably would not go back to Mezz.

Our third pub was my favorite, called Turk's Head. The inside of the bar was gorgeous; there was a lot of mosaic tile work and modern metal structures, countered by the Frank Sinatra music that was playing as we walked in. Here, my dear friends all donated a Euro to my cause and bought me a 4 Euro pint of Bulmers, a hard cider. My first "pint" in a legitimate "pub!" And boy, was it delicious.

Our final stop before the night club was a bar called Porterhouse. It had a rustic kind of feel to it, as most of the detailing was wood. It reminded me of a cabin out in the Rocky Mountains somewhere. By this point in the evening, we were all pretty tired, so we did not spend much time at Porterhouse. We left after about ten minutes to go home, but I would go back there; it seemed rather cozy.

My friends and I agreed that the Pub Crawl was a total success, and we are so happy to have off-campus places to go hang out and grab a pint.

After a rather long night, I woke up this morning for another ESN-organized trip. Today, we were headed to Howth. I had just found out about the trip during the Pub Crawl, so I hadn't signed up prior. But luckily for me, there was room on the bus for me. Yay! 

This place... I can't even describe it in words. It was simply breathtaking. I was nearly moved to tears more than once just by the sheer beauty of nature in a way that I've never seen it before. I really cannot say anything more, so I will leave it to my pictures to do the talking.

I did so much hard walking on those hills today. I'm estimating a good 6 or 7 miles, including the 40-minute walk to the bus stop from Blackrock and back home. My feet kill, but that's actually where the title for this entry came from. 

I was complaining, of course, about how much uphill walking we were doing, and how tired I was. And one of the ESN guys said to me, "I know how you feel. But look at it this way: every step you take is one step closer to the beer. It's a good motto to live by!" 

And I agree. Your motivation can be anything, whether it's a good pint of beer, a smaller pant size, a splurge on a night out, or some ravioli and a nap. And every step you take, no matter how hard taking that next step might be, takes you closer to the beer.