Glendalough and NCAD

On Sunday we met in the lobby of the hostel at 11 and all the Industrial and Graphic Design students load up on a bus headed towards Glendalough (pronounced like Glendalock). We took the scenic route there and went by the coast and saw the beach outside of Dublin. The beach was so much longer that the beaches that I'm used to seeing in Florida and Alabama and the tour guide said that when the tide comes in it can be very dangerous because of the sandbars.

It took about an hour to get to the Wicklow Mountains where Glendalough is situated. It was absolutely beautiful there, a nice break from the city of Dublin. For those who are unfamiliar with Glendalough, it is a monastic village situates within two lakes (the name Glendalough means twin lakes in Gaelic) that was founded by Saint Kevin after the time of Saint Patrick when all of the monks retreated to the mountains to become hermits. The is supposed to be a cave there where Saint Kevin did his battles with the devil. It also used to be a place of pilgrimage in the time of indulgences however I forget what one got when they went there.

There are several hiking/walking trails around that range in difficulty. The group I was with started out on a trail around the mountain, but we were easily distracted and ended up having to change to a shorted trail because of time restrictions. It ended up being okay though because we spent more time in the monastic city that has the tower and the ruins of churches. After taking many pictures and walking around the cemetery we stopped for ice cream at Kevin's Cones, most people got vanilla dipped in chocolate, but I got the vanilla that had hot chocolate swirled into it and I think mine ended up being the best choice. After that we got back on the bus and came back to the hostel.

Monday we started a project with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin. We arrived at school at noon and had a lecture that showed past projects done at NCAD for the Auburn students and some pictures of Auburn for the NCAD students. After that we were paired up with an Irish student to work on a rubber band powered car, and my partner's name is Stephen. We worked a little bit Monday afternoon and got some ideas sketched out and then all the students went home around 4. I tried to do some additional research and realized that there was probably something very simple that I could do to get the car to go the maximum distance but I just couldn't figure out what it was.

Today we went to school at 10 and some of us had to wait awhile for our partners to arrive. The work ethic is different over here because the students do not have to pay as much as us for school, if they pay at all. I think someone said they pay 1,600 Euro for four years at NCAD which is not a bad school at all. But this is just something I will have to get used to for collaborative projects over here. My partner arrived around noon, which is lunchtime for me and I was starving when he got there. I took a lunch break and went down the street to the Spar and got a sandwich and came back and got to work. We got a good bit of work done today. It took us one trip to the 2 Euro store and a trip to the Charity (Thrift) store for records (our wheels). We left around four and I came back to the hostel and caught up on emails, uploading pictures, etc.

Cathedrals

Our group was not meeting up until 11 this morning so that everyone could catch up on some sleep. Since I went to bed early last night I took this opportunity to go for a run. I ran along the River Liffey for about 10 minutes and then turned around and ran back to the hostel. This was the first time that I just stayed next to the river so I saw some things that I hadn't before and made a mental note of things that I wanted to photograph before I leave Dublin.

We met up in the lobby of the hostel at 11 and went across the street to Christchurch Cathedral. I have seen this church everyday I've been in Dublin but today was the first day I was able to go inside. There was beautiful stained glass and very ornate decorations and arches. After that we walked down the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral which had a lot of the same architectural details and was just as pretty. There was also a small park next to St. Patrick's which is where he is supposed to have baptized a lot of people. I think I like St. Patrick's better just because of the park next to it.

After the cathedral tours we stopped at a fish and chips place for lunch and then went back to the hostel. The internet was going on and off while I was trying to email my mom just to give her an update and look up things to do tomorrow since we have a free day. I ended up getting frustrated and then wondering why I was sitting inside on a nice day in a foreign country, so I decided to go to the National Gallery which was a longer walk away but it also had free admission.

Since the majority of the group was napping or just sitting around I set out by myself with my map and headed across town to the museum. I somehow entered through the side entrance and got a little turned around inside but then located the main entrance and was set. I walked through the galleries and did not recognize most of the names since it was mainly Irish art, however I did find some new artists that I like and plan on looking them up.

After the museum I walked back to the hostel and stopped at Butler's Chocolate Cafe for a mocha and a cookie and then headed down Grafton Street. This time there was a ventriloquist making a dummy play a mini piano, an Irish band, and a guy making a sleeping dog out of sand. There are usually entertainers on Grafton Street but today there more than usual. I had seen the ventriloquist before and he was making the dummy dance and walk up stairs and had some crazy music playing which was very entertaining.

Now I am sitting in my room at the hostel wondering what tonight will bring.

St. Patrick's Day and more...

We had Monday morning off so I decided to spend a little time alone since the Graphic Design group was coming that day so the group would be doubling. I woke early and ate my toast and orange juice breakfast and set out. My main mission was to purchase headphones since mine died and headphones are a necessity for group travel. I walked to Trinity and took a right, which brought me to Grafton Street and eventually St. Stephen’s shopping center. I walked around inside for a bit and then found an electronics store and bought the cheapest headphones they sold and then I walked back outside. It was such a beautiful day that I decided to get a bagel and coffee from a nearby shop and then sit in St. Stephen’s Green. I sat on a bench facing the pond and watched all the life going on around me. It was so nice to be able to take a break from everyone. The group is made up of a lot of incredible people but I still need time alone sometimes since I am a melancholic phlegmatic. I did a little shopping in the stores close by and settled on a pale green tank top from a store called Topshop. After that I walked back to the Hostel feeling energized and at peace. I ran into the Graphic Design students on the way there, and they looked like they were about to fall asleep from jet lag and traveling. When were got back to the hostel we had a short meeting with our professor and ended up having the rest of the day off. I walked with some of the students to the other side of the River Liffey and did a bit more shopping and ended up purchasing a shirt that I almost got earlier in the day.

Tuesday we met up at 9:30 and walked over to the bus stop and headed to Newgrange. I really did not know that much about Newgrange getting onto the bus, just that the light did something cool on the Winter Solstice. For those of you who do not know what New grange is, it is a tomb that is oriented in a way that at sunrise on the winter solstice the sun shines through a whole and illuminates a path in the floor for roughly fifteen minutes or so. It predates the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge by at least 500 years. What was also interesting is that the sight was not protected for a long time so there are all sorts of graffiti and engravings on the stone, which originally only had swirled designs.

Wednesday was St. Patrick’s day, which was ridiculous to say the least. I began my day by going for a run. The streets were empty and the gates were up for the parade. After that we were treated to a full Irish breakfast at the café next door to the hostel. I chose not to have the pudding, but the rest of the breakfast was delicious. After that we started getting prepared for the rest of the day’s festivities. I bought a headband with a mini green hat on top and other people bought massive green hats, some with beards attached. The parade started at 12:00 and reached the hostel around 1. The pubs opened at noon and were serving Guinness in to go cups nonstop. The floats in the parade were not like any I had seen before, they were crazier than any parade I had been to, and many of them kind of reminded me of Across the Universe. The parade had an abrupt ending around 2. I walked back up to my room and the people that were in there to watch the parade were dancing in the window for the people on the street. A lot of people stopped to take pictures and videos. We waited until 3:00 and then went to buy beer because that is when the stores were allowed to sell it again and then came back to the hostel. Our professor Jerrod had been walking around and spotted a pub that we needed to go, there was a guy playing a guitar who had the whole pub singing along. We went for a pint and enjoyed the music. There was a dancing competition and we got one of the guys, Nick, to go up and dance and afterwards he was given a sparkly boa. After the pub we came back to the hostel and hung out in the common room until it was time to go out. We ended up at a club called “The Purty Kitchen” which had four stories, loud music and dancing. I was exhausted from the day and did not really enjoy the club. I decided then that I would probably not be going to these Euro Clubs many more times, they are just not really my scene.

Thursday we walked all over the city of Dublin it seemed. We started off at Trinity and looked at the Book of Kells exhibit. It is so crazy to think about someone doing all of the work by hand and it was very impressive. After that we had lunch at Trinity in a room that resembled the Great Hall in Harry Potter and then went to the other side of the city to the Collins Barracks museum. There was an exhibit on Eileen Gray who is an Irish designed that worked with Le Corbusier and had some very interesting furniture. Most of her things had very elegant and simple lines and she also used a lot of lacquer. After that we were free to walk around the museum. I think my favorite gallery was the period furniture gallery, but there was a Chinese art gallery that had some woodblock paintings by Hiroshige, who I learned about in Art History. Other exhibits were Irish Silver, What We Wore, and From Storage; all of them had very interesting things. After that we walked to NCAD to meet up with the Graphic Design students and go to the Guinness storehouse. There was a very cool exhibit on what goes in Guinness and its process. After going through that we went to the very top of the building (the 7^th story) to the Gravity Bar and had the pint the was included in our ticket. The bar was amazing because it was all glass walls and you could see all over Dublin and to the Wicklow Mountains, which is where Guinness get its water. Then we went through the store and then back to the hostel, where I got some much needed rest.

The Burren

This week I have been in Ballyvaughan at the Burren College of art. The school is a tiny fine art school that is basically a place for people from wherever, mostly the United States, to come to Ireland to study abroad. They also have graduate programs, but again the majority of the people are from the United States. All week my group worked on redesigning a drawing donkey. Our main things that we worked on were making it stackable and infinitely adjustable. We solved both of those problems by the end of the day Friday and had three built and the parts for a fourth.

This week was fun outside of school as well. Wednesday night we went to a pub called Logues and ran into some of the students from the college. There was some Irish set dancing going on in the pub that night and when we got there they were clearing out tables to make room. We knew that we were going to take part in something like this the next night so I was a little nervous.

Thursday night we went to a pub called Vaughan's for dinner in Kilfenora. After eating one of the best burgers I have ever had we had a set dancing lesson. I just had to laugh at myself and everyone else because we had no idea what we were doing. After the lesson we went down to the barn where the main dancing event took place. There were all these older locals there who actually knew what they were doing and then there were all the art students and us. We just hopped around and if you were lucky enough you got in a set with some of the locals who would just move you into place.

Friday night, after going through a few pubs, I eventually ended up where I wanted to be at the beginning of the night, which was a pub called Monks listening to an Irish band. I only heard a few song but I loved every second of them. There were about five old men sitting around a table playing music and they looked like they were having so much fun.

On Saturday a group of about ten or so hiked up one of the mountains. We left around eleven and stopped at the store to get some sandwiches and then hit the trail. The path took us through some enchanted looking forest areas and we eventually ended up behind the school. After that we headed up. It was a little difficult at times because it was hard to see where the rocks were underneath the grass. There was a little bit of climbing involved and eventually we ended up at the top where we took a break for lunch. We had a nice panoramic view of the small cities surrounding us. After lunch we split into smaller groups and headed back down. My group went down basically the same way we went up. The plan was to go to Logues afterward and it was kind of a competition to see who got there first. We stopped briefly to look at the baby sheep on the way and I have decided that I want sheep now. My group ended up at Logues first and I rewarded myself with coffee and tiramisu. After that I just walked around a little bit and then ate dinner. I later went back to Logues (it is basically the main pub there) with some of the guys. A lot of the art students were there hanging out and it was fun to talk with them since most of them have been here since January and kind of knew their way around.

Today we woke up and cleaned up the cottages and took a bus back to Galway. We did take a short stop to look at a castle and to grab a sandwich for lunch. After that we got on a train headed to Dublin. I read for a little bit but eventually feel asleep. By the time I woke back up we were about thirty minutes from Dublin. We got off the train and on a bus and eventually to the Kinlay House Hostel. Our room is much better this time, we have a very large window which will be nice for the St. Patrick's day parade on Wednesday.

Update

Last Wednesday we arrived to Carlow. The student who went last year told us that Carlow was not that much fun until their last night when they discovered that there was a downtown area. We had a short meet and greet with the students at the Institute of Technology-Carlow and they introduced our project to us. Our mission was sustainable design and each group had a different category to work in-ours was growing food.

On Thursday we arrived at school at 9:30 and got to work on our project. My group was made up of three Irish students (I could only understand one of them) and one of the Auburn students. We worked almost all day until 7 that night on a rooftop gardening system aimed towards people in larger cities who do not have that much access to green space.

Thursday night we went out with some of the Irish students to see what it was really like there. We started off at Shane’s house conveniently located next to our B&B and then around midnight we headed downtown to the Foundry, which was basically a Euro dance club with loud music and crazy lights. It was fun, not my normal cup of tea, but a different experience that I will take with me.

Friday morning we went to school to present our concepts to the professors. We finished around lunchtime and then left and walked downtown. I went out to lunch with Chelsea, Taylor, Ryan, and Jerrod at a place called Dinn Ri. After that we walked to Carlow Castle, which is one remaining wall from a castle that used to be there. After that we went to the Cathedral of the Assumption, which was absolutely beautiful. Then we went to the contemporary art gallery. After that I decided it was nap time.

By the time I woke up it was time to eat dinner, so I got ready and then we walked to a pizza place. After that we went to a pub called Scragg’s Alley. There was a bachelorette party going on this same night and these women were going crazy. It was very entertaining to watch. Eventually everyone in the group got there and we all had a great time. People left at separate times and by the time I got back to the B&B everyone that was still awake was in the girls room. They left after a little bit and I was able to get some sleep.

Saturday we took a train from Carlow to Gaulway where we then got on a bus to head to Ballyvaughan. We stopped at a mall for lunch and to get some groceries. After that we got back on the bus and I put on some Ray LaMontagne and went to my own place and took some pictures. We pulled up to some little Irish cottages and were divided up into our new living groups. Being that there are only three girls in the group, it is not very hard for us to figure out whom we are living with. The cottage has three bedrooms, two with two twin beds and one with a full. I lucked up this time and got the full, which also has a heated blanket (almost a necessity here).

Sunday we took a bus trip to the Cliffs of Mohor with several stops along the way. I found out that the O’Briens are from the Burren, which was neat because my great-grandmother was an O’Brien. The original Gaelic name for the Burren means Rocky Place because it is covered in exposed limestone. The Cliffs were amazing, very windy and cold, but absolutely gorgeous. A not so nice O’Brien built a tower there and if you go to the top you get a much better view of the cliffs. On our way back we stopped at another cliff where there were campers and repellers. Then we headed back to the cottages. Kata and Chelsea made an excellent taco dinner for everyone.

Today we went to school at the Burren College of Art, which is a very small rural art school. It was so beautiful though. We had a tour around the campus, which includes a castle tower and then went to the studio space they gave us and we told what our projects would be. We are only working with our Auburn group this time. My group is working on a redesign of a donkey used for life drawing. Another group is working on an entertainment cabinet, and the last group is making a cathouse for the campus cat.

Tonight was low key, I went for a short run after we got back from class and then made a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I went to one of the other cottages and sat for a bit. Then we went to the other cottage and put the movie “Snatch” on. I could not stay to finish it because I did not really know what was going on and I was tired from the day.

back to school

Today, we took a train ride from Dublin to Carlow, which in my opinion is a great way to travel. When traveling by train you just get on and sit for the duration of your ride. The seats have much more room than a car, and today we sat at a table so you could play cards or something. Today I just read and looked out the window at the country and saw some sheep for the first time of the trip. The train ride also reminded me of Harry Potter, especially when the snack cart came by.

After the ride we had about a fifteen minute hike to the Carlow Guest House Bed and Breakfast. We dropped off our things and then walked a little ways to Abrakebabrah where we had lunch and realized the the Irish like to put mayonnaise on a lot of things. After lunch we walked about twenty minutes to the Carlow Institute of Technology where we will be working for three days. We met the Irish students and visited for a little bit and found out that they do not have to pay for their first degree. Then we were divided into twelve groups for a charette. For our project will focus on sustainability, my group in particular on growing food. Other group's topics are things like water, light, and temperature control. I think that this project will be very interesting, as I have learned a bit a about sustainability but have not incorporated it into a project yet.

I finally made it

It is hard to believe that I have been in Dublin for a day. Sunday, I went out to lunch with some of my family and I could not believe that I was going to the airport after that. Sunday and Monday seemed like four days because I did so much. After three hours of hurry up and wait at the airport, we had a seven hour flight. After we landed we went on a 30 minute bus ride to our hostel, which is right across from Christ's Church Cathedral. We walked around on our on for a little bit, then went on a three hour walking tour where we learned about the history of Dublin. After that it was nap time. When we woke up we went to dinner at Peter's Pub for a sandwich and a pint.

Today we had our student travel cards made at Trinity College which made me feel like I was in Hogwarts. After that we had lunch. It is now easier for me to see why the Irish are a bit rounder, their food and beer are so heavy. After lunch we explored the city some more. We walked by St. Stephen's Green and down Grafton Street where there are many street entertainers. A few of us took a break in a pub, and I can now say that the Guinness is much better here than in the states.

Soon it will be dinner time and the next time you hear from me I will most likely be in Carlow.