Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry!

Some of the many trees that have been brought into Coole Park.

So as I am getting ready for a weekend trip to Northern Ireland with our the UP-WU group, I figured it was about time to  update the blog from our last trip, which was two weeks ago.

On our way down to the Dingle Peninsula, we stopped at Coole Park and Bunratty Castle. Coole Park is an estate that was once owned by this woman named Lady Gregory who married into the estate. Once her husband passed she used the place to house poets and playwrights and other artists. While she was of British she was very invested in the Irish language and trying to preserve the culture and history. She invested a lot of time in the arts. Her estate is now owned by Ireland and it is set up as a cultural center where you can walk the grounds, which are very beautiful.

One of the most famous things about Coole Park is the Autograph Tree. In the tree there are the carvings of the names of everyone who visited Lady Gregory including W.B. Yeats. 

The initials of W.B. Yeats and Sean O'Casey

Name Carving Guide

We had a really nice walk around the grounds before we headed out to Bunratty Castle. Here is a picture of my roommate Kathleen! She is great, but she was a little grumpy about the rain. When I took this picture and looked at it afterward I laughed out loud during our tour, oops.

 One last picture of Coole before we head over to the castle.

So our next stop was Bunratty Castle. It is very unique in that it has been fixed up so that people can tour the castle and the grounds around it, but all of the furniture is the original Medieval furniture. We got to explore the castle after and introduction from a great tour guide.

I sat in the throne, I could not help myself.

















And wedged myself up into a hole in the wall.















We climbed to the top of the castle and out of the towers to see this view.

 And this view as well, the picture gives me a bit of vertigo though.

Stuck!

And we all took the obligatory dungeon picture. But it was a lot of fun!
















Also while we were at the Castle, Ian and I discovered that we were dressed suspiciously similar to one another. So of course we took a picture to prove it.

We were both wearing the same style of shoes, brown pants, and an Aran Islands Sweater. So of course this came into our heads. 

And a beautiful idea was born. We are now cross-armed opposites.

This guy!

SO, then we arrived in Dingle finally and got to spend the weekend hanging out in the town and looking at local historical sites and beaches. We got lucky and had some very pretty sun, even if it was a little windy. 

Great Blasket Island

 We went to visit the Blasket Island historical center. This island was once the home to a small fishing village. However, too many people moved off of the island, leaving only the elderly and it was evacuated by the government because the community could not be sustained any longer. The center we visited has the history of the island and the people who lived on it.

 On our way to the beach! We stopped to take a look at the view.

 We visited this beach as one of our stops. It was the nicest beach we have been to so far.

As we were there the tide was beginning to come in and the waves got pretty big. There were surfers out in the water even though it was freezing cold. It was so nice to be able to walk around in the water though. Here are some more pictures of the beach.

The next day on our way back to Galway we made a few more stops to visit historic sites and see more of Dingle.

By the time we got to the last church we visited, we were all pretty tired and it was beginning to get cold. While going through my camera I realized I forgot to take a picture of the entire church, so here is my shadow on the church, :) I hope that is enough. 

Well my next post is coming shortly. It is going to be one about Galway and the places I go and the things I do in the city that I will be living in for the next three months. I can't believe 2 months have already gone by, it seems to be going by way too quickly. Well until next time, here is a parting picture that I hope will make you laugh!

not again!

Upcoming posts:
Galway!
Northern Ireland
A Cappella Soc!

Cork City!

 This past weekend our group went to Cork, which is in the south of Ireland. We got in on Friday afternoon and relaxed that night before we went to Cobh (pronounced "Cove"). It is a port city where ships that were heading out to the Atlantic to get to America and Canada made their last stop before sailing. As a result millions of people have left Ireland through the port, which used to be called Queenstown. The statue below is  a picture of Annie Moore, leaving the country with her brothers. She was the first emigrant to arrive on Ellis Island. There is a statue for her at Ellis Island but she is depicted there without her brothers because they died on the voyage over. In the statue she is looking back toward the past and her brothers are looking and pointing forward to the future.

 Along with being a main emigration port, many ships stopped in Cobh to stock up before they went to sea. One of the more famous ships that stopped there was the Titanic. Cobh was the last port of call before it sailed out into the ocean and sank two days later. We went to the Queenstown Heritage Center that has the statue of Annie along with the history of Irish emigration as it has happened through Queenstown.

 Me with my new "boyfriend" at the museum.

More history! The Lusitania, a ship that belonged to a fleet that competed with the White Star Line (Titanic's company) is one that is very important but gets a lot less attention than the Titanic does. The Lusitania was shot by a German U-Boat just off the coast of Ireland. It was in sight of land when it was hit and it sank and killed 1,195, some of the Americans which is what ultimately brought the U.S. into WWI. The people in Cobh sailed out on their boats to help save some passengers only to be sunk by panicking survivors. To the right is a statue commemorating the passengers and the townspeople.

 After our tour we walked through the very hilly town that reminded me a lot of San Francisco and walked toward the very large Cathedral overlooking the city.







The architecture outside and inside the church is beautiful (below). 

 After Cobh we went for a walking tour around Cork City, which has a lot of shipping history. It used to be filled with canals and have ships move through the city itself .  The canals were silted up and have since become streets but you can still see remnants of the waterways today. Some buildings are set up as if they were still merchant houses. The houses have lower levels that have a door that opens up into the street, so if a ship were to dock there it could unload directly into the basement and the main door to the house is one floor up from the sidewalk.

We also got see the English Market, a Protestant Church (picture on the left), the old fort that used to defend the city and then the University College of Cork (below)

 The campus is very pretty. This was my favorite part of it.

Speaking of UCC, my friend from High School Sara Hogan is studying there for a year. We had not seen each other for three years so we got to meet up in Cork and it was wonderful. She invited me and my friends to dinner and made us AMAZING pasta and garlic bread and then we went out to a pub with her and her friends and had a great time. Of all the places to meet up with an old friend we were able to do it in Ireland. 

On to Sunday! Get ready for a lot of pictures. We left for Blarney Castle in the morning (right) and I think it may be one of my favorite places so far. While I admit it is a very tourist-y spot it was a lot more than I expected. Not only do they have a castle but there are multiple gardens and hidden areas to explore that make it great.

So you walk up to the castle...

 ...then began to walk up the way towards the stairs...

...and you climb up through the castle on very tiny spiral steps that lead you out into places where you can see people below and above you. Down there are Ian, Isaac and Joanns exploring the castle's kitchen.

Then you might take a picture from one of the castle windows.

 ...and probably another. Lets be honest you will probably take an obnoxious amount of pictures.

 AND THEN YOU REACH THE TOP!

 And cue necessary picture of you kissing the Blarney stone that presumably gives you the gift of gab.

 After that I visited the poison garden that contains many deadly plants as well as one that you can get in trouble for, and obviously they did.

 While exploring the Witch's kitchen and stone and the fairy glen and AFTER walking down the Wishing steps backward and forward with my eyes closed, I held up a rock.

And found a beautiful tree

 And I eventually decided that I was going to live on the Castle Grounds because it was too pretty and all I wanted to do was sit and read by the trees.

 Kaitlin, who is along with us explored the trees and climbed them. Soon after that we left for the 600 ft tall Cliffs of Moher.

 But when we arrived there was fog everywhere and we could not see anything so we were going to eat lunch and then turn around.

 BUT after we ate we went outside and the fog was beginning to clear. It was literally falling over the cliffs and into the ocean like "foam is spilling over a coffee cup "- Ian Clark

 So we got to see the cliffs, and they were amazing.

 Holy crap.

Lets be real I was really excited.

 Now I am super proud of this picture. I was not expecting it to turn out like this. Thanks to Colin O'Leary for selling me this great camera.

 The most amazing thing was that as we were walking away, the fog just rolled right on back in and covered everything up again.

But not before I got a Titanic picture with Monique.

After we left we watched a rugby game and promptly got back to our apartments and passed out. It was a wonderful weekend and I hope to have more like it. I have been here for a month officially and I am just started to wrap my head around that I am in Ireland, living and studying. That is all for now! Have a wonderful week until next Monday when I will update again. 

Upcoming posts:

Get a Thesaurus Kelsey: We know it is "beautiful", got anything else?

Beer: I actually like it now

Galway: Maybe for once I will talk about the city I am living in

Flatmates: The great people I live with