Stay-cation in Dublin

For the first time this month, I stayed in Dublin for the weekend. It was nice to be here for a change so I could catch up on some much needed sleep, study for mid terms, and of course, explore Dublin a little more.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival was going on for the past two weeks, and I got to see a film on Friday and a film on Saturday. One was a Swedish film with English subtitles about a 1970s political scandal, and the other was a series of Irish short films. I preferred the shorts to the Swedish film because the seven short films that comprised the series we saw were the perfect mix of humorous, heart wrenching, and eclectic. My favorite short, "Hannah Cohen's Holy Communion," was about a little Jewish girl who tries to sneak into a First Communion in a makeshift white dress because her Catholic friends told her that she would get cake. The girl who starred in the film was there in the theater, and needless to say I was a little starstruck when I saw her.

A scale model of part of the distilling process 

Since the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival was going on, my friends and I thought that this would also be the perfect weekend to tour the Jameson distillery. The tour was a little disappointing because it wasn't a tour of the actual distillery, but a tour of a model of the distillery. It was still cool to see how whiskey is made though, and we got to learn about different types of whiskey and what the differences are between them. Jameson is made up of a unique proportion of malted and un-malted grains, and this is their "secret" to its smooth, almost sweet flavor. At the end of the tour, everyone was given a free glass of whiskey with ginger and lime, and although I can see why people like it, I'd rather see a Jameson film than drink a glass of Jameson.

Outside the Old Jameson Distillery

View of the outdoor market from inside the Gallery of Photography

On Saturday we walked around the Temple Bar area of Dublin. On the walking tour of Dublin I took a few weeks ago, the tour guide told us that Temple Bar is the cultural center of Dublin, and I can definitely see why. We visited the Gallery of Photography, where there was an exhibit going on called This is Not a House. The photos in this exhibit were originally published in the New York Times Magazine in 2009 as part of a series on the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It was kind of weird to see an exhibit on America in a gallery in Ireland, especially since I had been to the places that were featured in some of the photos. In the courtyard outside of the gallery, there was a huge outdoor food market. It kind of reminded me of markets I've seen in Berkeley because most of the food was organic and homemade. They didn't have many fruits or vegetables which was disappointing, but I guess it makes sense since most of the produce here is imported from Spain or Africa.



While this weekend wasn't as exciting or as jam-packed as most of the other weekends I've spent here, it was fun to be here in Dublin and not really have an agenda; it made me start to feel like this is my home (for a few more months at least!) This is the last weekend for a while that I'll be in Dublin though; during the next month I'll be going to Kilkenny (which is in Southeastern Ireland), Italy, London, and Paris!

A Legen-Derry Weekend

This weekend I headed to Northern Ireland on another trip with the International Students' Society. We visited Derry and Belfast, and although this trip wasn't as much fun as the previous two trips I've taken, I learned so much about Irish history and I'm really glad that I went.

Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe

On our way to Derry, we stopped at Lifford Country Jail, which was a jail during Medieval times. When we arrived there was a woman dressed as a guard who "arrested" all of us for different crimes. She called everyone up in groups of two or three, took our fingerprints, and told us what crime we had committed and what type of sentence we received. Two of my friends and I told her our names were Monica, Phoebe, and Rachel (she didn't catch the Friends reference), and we were fittingly arrested for causing a riot.

The slogan on this wall was modeled after the "You are Now Entering free Berkeley" slogan that protesters at Cal used during the Civil Rights movement. The paint on this wall changes throughout the year to coincide with different political movements and contemporary issues.

Bloody Sunday memorial

After the tour, we arrived in Derry, or as the Protestants who live there call it, Londonderry. Northern Ireland is considered part of the United Kingdom, but there is great division between the people who live there if it should really be so. The Catholics want Northern Ireland to be part of the Republic of Ireland, while the Protestants want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK. So, the Catholics call Derry "Derry," and the Protestants call it "Londonderry." From the moment we crossed the border, we could see evidence of this tension because the prefix "London" had been scribbled out on many street signs. We took a walking tour of Derry and learned about Bloody Sunday, which was a massacre in 1972 when the British army killed 26 civil rights protesters. Our tour guide was Catholic and very involved in peace protests in Northern Ireland. When he was growing up, his family's house was raided and bombed on multiple occasions, and when he was seventeen, he was sent to jail for fourteen years for his involvement in the civil rights movement. I didn't know much about the conflicts in Northern Ireland before this trip, and I was so surprised to see that the divisions between the Catholics and Protestants are so prominent. I had heard about the tensions between the Catholics and Protestants before, but I thought they mostly went away when Ireland gained independence from Great Britain in 1922. As the weekend went on though, I realized that this is far from the truth.

Derry 

Derry Peace Bridge

Friday night we went on a "Legen-Derry pub crawl" to a few different pubs in downtown Derry, and then slept in one of the grossest hostels I have ever seen (there was a cat in our room when we checked in... Need I say more?) So, needless to say I was very ready to check out on Saturday morning and continue to head north.

No Irish weekend trip would be complete without a visit to a castle, so the first thing we did on Saturday morning was go to Dunluce Castle, which is on the North Antrim coast of Northern Ireland. This was one of the least well-preserved castles I've seen so far, but it was in one of my favorite locations. Dunluce Castle is right on the water, and in the 1800s, part of the castle's kitchen fell into the ocean.

After Dunluce Castle, we went to Giant's Causeway, which was my favorite part of the trip. Giant's Causeway is considered the fourth Natural Wonder of the United Kingdom, and it's easy to see why. 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that resulted from a volcanic eruption make up Giant's Causeway, and like Mizen Head, I could have spent hours there exploring and looking at the beautiful scenery. Once again, these pictures don't really capture how awesome the Giant's Causeway is, but here are some of the coolest ones I took:

The Titanic's Dry Dock is the largest dry dock ever constructed 

We got to Belfast Saturday evening, and after some free time downtown, we spent the night in Vagabonds Hostel, which was way nicer than the previous night's hostel. This hostel was clean, the people who worked there were friendly, and, best of all, it was cat-free! We had to get up bright and early again on Sunday morning to experience two of Belfast's most famous attractions: the Titanic's Dock and Pump House and a Black Taxi Tour. Seeing the dock where the Titanic was built was my second favorite part of the trip. I always knew the ship was big, but seeing where it was built made me realize how big it actually was. The coolest part was that nothing had changed about the dock since 1912 - nothing has been rebuilt, and the wooden panels the workers used to support the Titanic while they painted the bottom of it are still there. Even though the Titanic is famous for sinking, our tour guide was quick to remind us that the ship sunk in Cork and that "it was okay when it left Belfast!"



While seeing the dock was one of the highlights of the trip, going on the Black Taxi tour was one of the scariest parts. When we got into the taxi, the driver told us that we would be going into the most dangerous parts of the city and that if we wanted to change our minds and not do the tour, that was okay. First, we drove through the Protestant part of the city and got to see a series of murals painted on the sides of houses. Most of these murals commemorate battles and hunger strikes or pay tribute to the UDA (Ulster Defense Association). One of the murals had a portrait of a soldier holding a gun that looks like it follows you when you walk by. We were told we could take pictures, but I didn't take any because these murals are on the sides of people's houses. There is a preschool right next to some of them, and there were little children playing in the street. It made me so sad that these young kids have to be exposed to such violent pictures everyday, and I didn't want to take a picture because the violence there is so real. I didn't want to turn something that is actually dangerous and concerning into a tourist attraction; I didn't want to make a spectacle of these people's lives. Separating the Protestant part of Belfast from the Catholic part is a giant wall, often referred to as the Berlin Belfast Wall. It was so weird to see the Berlin Wall and the Berlin Belfast Wall just a week apart and to compare the things that they symbolize. Seeing the wall in Belfast was much different though, because it's still standing and serving as a barrier between two groups of people. When the other half of our trip was looking at the wall (we split up and went on tours in shifts), people on one side were throwing rocks onto the other side. I couldn't believe that this happened. I always thought that Ireland was such a safe country, and even though I knew there were some political problems in Northern Ireland, I had no idea how pervasive these problems were into the everyday lives of the people who live there.

Belfast City Hall

When it was finally time to get back on the bus to UCD, I couldn't have been more excited. This weekend was great, don't get me wrong, but I have no desire to ever go back to Derry or Belfast. I am grateful for the opportunity to go there and learn about everything that I did, but I much prefer the safe, friendly, atmosphere of places like Dublin and Cork.

Old Books, Famines, and 1, 2, 3's

Although all of my posts about traveling don't make it seem like it, I actually do go to class here! One of the classes I'm taking is called Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the East, and in it we learn about how Shakespeare and Marlowe exhibited Western perceptions of the Eastern world in their writings and we read some of the sources that influenced them. Yesterday we had class in the Special Collections of the library here at UCD, where they have books from the 15th and 16th Centuries. One of them is a collection of travel journals that Shakespeare would have read. It was so cool to see these books that are so old and to learn about all of the work that goes into preserving them.

I also have a class on Wednesday nights that meets in Dublin and is for all of the BC students who are studying at UCD. BC has a house in the middle of the city, and we meet there once a week to take a class on Irish history. So far, all we've learned about is the potato famine and the roots of the conflicts between the Irish and the English. Yesterday we learned that during the famine, there was actually enough food in Ireland to feed everyone. The problem was that the poor lived solely on potatoes that they grew themselves, so when the potatoes were hit with blight, these people had no source of food and couldn't afford to buy any. With this class, I also have the chance to do some cultural activities and go on a few trips. Tonight we're seeing a play called "Morning and Afternoon." All I know about it is that it's set in Derry, which is where I'm going this weekend on another trip with the International Student Society!

Another one of my favorite classes (well, technically not an academic class) is an Irish step dancing class that I've been taking once a week. They gym here offers it for free, and one of my friends from BC and I have been taking it together. Step dancing is harder than it looks, but is a lot of fun! So far we've learned 1, 2, 3's, which is one of the most basic steps, and a few other steps that I can't remember the names of. The program lasts five weeks, and the teacher said that by the end we'll know a few simple routines.

One of the things I was looking forward to most about coming abroad was the chance to immerse myself in another culture. With all of the great resources UCD has, and with all of BC's connections in Ireland, I feel like I'm definitely getting the chance to do this, and I can't wait to explore the country more and take advantages of all of the great opportunities I have here.

Ich spreche kein Deutsch: Berlin

"Ice spreche kein Deutsch" ("I don't speak German") became my motto for this weekend when some friends and I took a trip to Berlin. Before we left, I was really excited to go, but I had no idea I would like Berlin as much as I did. It was so cool to be in a city that played such an integral and controversial role in world history, and even though we encountered a few obstacles because of the language barrier, I strangely liked being in a city where I couldn't read any of the signs or understand anything people around me were saying. 

Although the trip as a whole was fantastic, we got off to a bit of a rough start. On Thursday night when we went online to print our boarding passes, we realized that we accidentally booked our flight back to Dublin for Sunday, March 10th, instead of Sunday, February 10th... oops. We got it all figured out though, and everything went smoothly until we boarded the plane. The plane started moving and was about to take off when the pilot came on the loud speaker and said we had to turn around because a passenger decided he was too afraid to fly and needed to get off. So, we turned around, let him exit (I can't believe this was actually allowed; I don't think this would happen in America, ever), and then were informed that his girlfriend checked a bag and we couldn't leave until they retrieved her suitcase. Nearly an hour later everything was finally ready though, and we were on our way to Berlin!

Brandenburg Gate

As soon as we landed on Friday afternoon, we took a taxi to the Brandenburg Gate where we took a four-hour walking tour of the city. It was really cool to see all of the major landmarks in Berlin, and going on a walking tour was a great way to get oriented with the city before setting off on our own. The tour started near Brandenburg Gate and the U.S. Embassy and went in a loop around the city, ending at St. Hedwig's Cathedral. 

U.S. Embassy

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

One of my favorite stops on the tour was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which consists of 2,711 giant stone blocks of different sizes and heights. The number doesn't symbolize anything or have a special significance; our tour guide told us that the architect designed it this way so that everyone who came to see it would have a unique experience that was meaningful to him or her. As you walk around the memorial, the blocks get steadily taller, and it feels as though you're walking downstairs or underground. 

Checkpoint Charlie

The thing that struck me the most about the tour was that a good portion of it involved going to places that seemed insignificant because they were simply the locations where something used to be. We walked across the parking lot that is now where Hitler's bunker was and saw empty pieces of land where the Berlin wall once stood. A significant portion of Berlin was destroyed during World War II, so many landmarks are gone or are still in the process of being restored. Our tour guide said that most Germans today are embarrassed about Germany's role in World War II, and that many do not feel a sense of pride when they see the German flag. This was so different from all of the tours I've gone on in Ireland. All of the tour guides here talk about how proud the Irish are of their history, so it was weird to be in a place where this isn't necessarily the case. 

Part of the Berlin Wall

Siegessäule - the Victory over Prussia column

Memorial for Victims of War and Tyranny

St. Hedwig's Cathedral

Humboldt University 

Saturday started with a trip back to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, this time with a visit to the museum that's beneath the memorial underground. The museum is designed to pick up where the memorial leaves off, so the ceiling has indentations in it that correspond to where the blocks on the ground above it are. There are several rooms in the museum, and we took an audio tour that guided us through them all. The room that had the biggest impact on me was one that was completely dark and had a few benches inside on which to sit. All day the names of Holocaust victims are projected onto the walls and that person's name and a short biography are read on a loud speaker in German and then in English. As I sat there listening, I wondered how long it took to make all of the recordings, how long it would take to listen to the names of all of the victims, and how many victims aren't included in the memorial. 

Reunited in Berlin! 

When we left the Holocaust memorial, it was time for something a little more fun and uplifting. One of the main reasons why my friends and I chose to go to Berlin was because we all have friends who are studying abroad there now, so a big group of us and all of our friends met up for lunch and a trip to the Ritter Sport chocolate store. I was lucky enough to get to see one of my best friends from high school! It was so great to see her, catch up, and get some advice on how to navigate the subway system. She also gave us directions to the East Side Gallery, which was one of my favorite things we visited in Berlin. The East Side Gallery is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that's about one kilometer long and is covered in artwork by artists from all over the world. The largest open-air gallery in the world, the East Side Gallery is a memorial for peace and freedom. Here are some pictures of some of my favorite parts: 

On the steps outside of Reichstag

It started to get dark as we were finishing up our walk along the wall, but that didn't stop us from continuing to see Berlin's landmarks. At 8:30 we visited the Reichstag (the parliament building), which is a 1200 pound glass dome. You can walk up a 300 meter spiral ramp all the way to the top, and from there you can see directly into the main chamber. The roof of the dome is open, symbolizing "the openness of German democracy," and snow was falling into the building. The view of the city at night with all of the snow was phenomenal, and it was so cool to look out and see all of the landmarks I had visited earlier in the day when they were all lit up. 

View of the chamber from the bottom...

... and the view from the top

As if Berlin wasn't awesome enough, we happened to go during Berlinale, which is an international film festival. We figured that we couldn't not see a film while we were here, so we went into a tourist office earlier in the day and bought tickets for Le Cordeau, the only movie that wasn't sold out and was playing at a time when we were all free. Going into the film, we had no idea what it would be about or what language it would be in, so we were pleasantly surprised when there were English subtitles and we actually ended up enjoying the movie. Le Cordeau (The Raven) is a French film from 1944 about blackmailing and abortion. It's very political and oddly comical, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting movie to watch that's different from what we normally see today. 

The Potsdamer theater where most of the Berlinale films were playing

I never thought Germany would be the first country outside of Ireland that I would visit, but I'm so glad it was. I learned so much about World War II and German history that I never knew before, saw government buildings, museums, memorials, galleries, went to an international film festival, and spent time with great friends (new and old!) Until my next post, Auf wiedersehen!

My First Weekend Trip: Cork!

This weekend I ventured out of Dublin for the first time and into Cork. I went on a trip with UCD's International Student Society and absolutely loved it! Some friends and I signed up to go together, and while I knew I would have a good time and was excited to see more of Ireland, I had no idea that we would get to see and do so much and that the Irish countryside would be even more beautiful than I expected it would be.

Cork is about 3 hours south of Dublin, and on the way down we stopped at Cahir Castle (pronounced "care"). Cahir Castle was built in 1142 and is one of the largest castles in Ireland. For over 600 years, Cahir Castle was in the hands of the powerful Butler family, and it played an important role in the Irish Confederate Wars.

Cahir Castle

After our visit to Cahir Castle, we got back on the bus and drove into Cork City for a walking tour. Our tour guide was a member of city council, and his self-proclaimed life calling is being a tour guide. He said that his favorite part about Cork is its "higgly-piggly-ness," and although it sounds weird, I can't think of a better way to describe this city. A port city built on a bog, Cork is very different from Dublin. The houses and buildings are all different shapes, sizes, and colors; the streets are windy and hilly; and the people have thick and distinct accents. To me, Cork felt like a mixture between a bustling city and a quaint, small town, and after the walking tour, I felt like I could have spent hours wandering around and looking at all of the "higgly-piggly" buildings.

Higgly-piggly buildings on the River Lee

That night we stayed at the Kinlay Hostel, which was a short walk from the downtown area. My first hostel experience was pretty much what I thought it would be; it was kind of like a cross between a cheap hotel and cabins at summer camp, and I probably slept for about four hours. I got to become good friends with my roommates though, and we're already talking about planning more weekend trips together!

Miniature houses in the Clonakilty Railway Museum

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to go to Clonakilty and see the Model Railway Village, which is an outdoor train museum that's set up as a model of the town. We got a tour of the town too, but instead of a walking tour like everywhere else I've been, this was a tour on a small train. It took about 20 minutes to drive around Clonakilty, and the "conductor" served as our tour guide.

After the visit to Clonakilty, we got back on the bus for another long drive to Mizen Head. The drive down was gorgeous and exactly what the Irish countryside is portrayed to be like. Endless fields of green, rolling hills with small stone cottages and the occasional sheep lined the windy roads down to the southernmost point of Ireland. Just when I thought the trip couldn't get any more beautiful, we arrived at this:

I know this sounds so cliche, but I honestly can't describe how amazing Mizen Head was. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, and the water seemed so much cleaner and purer than the water at all of the other beaches I've seen. The air didn't smell salty at all like most other beaches do, and the waves didn't seem to be as loud either. These pictures don't even begin to do Mizen Head justice, but here are some of my favorites:

I want to move into this house!

On Sunday, we started the day in Kinsale with a stop at Fort Charles, which is the largest star-shaped fort in Europe. We couldn't go inside or get a formal tour, but we did get a tour of the town, which, like everything else I saw this weekend, was absolutely adorable. Apparently George Clooney and Julia Roberts have houses here, and I can see why! Kinsale is very "higgly-piggly" like Cork, but it feels much smaller and even more quaint (if that's possible!) It's also "the gourmet capital" of Ireland, and if the dessert crepes we had are any indication of the rest of the food in this town, I'm sure that's true too.

Boats in Kinsale Harbour

Friends from BC at Blarney Castle

The final stop on our trip was to Blarney Castle. The castle itself is awesome, and the gardens surrounding it seem like one giant labyrinth. One of the gardens is full of poisonous plants, and another is said to be haunted. Legend has it that a witch comes into that garden every night to collect firewood, and if you walk up her staircase with your eyes closed, she will grant you one wish. Another legend of the Blarney Castle is that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you will be granted "the gift of gab," or eloquence in all that you say. As un-sanitary as that seems, I couldn't not kiss the stone while I was there (especially since I had to pay 10 euro to get in!) 

As much as I love the fast-paced city life in Dublin, it was great to get away for the weekend and see more of the southeastern part of Ireland. From the castles to the cliffs to the crepes, I loved every part of Cork, and this trip definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for the coastal Irish culture and the history behind it.