London Calling!

Last weekend, I went to London to stay with my friend from high school, Megan! This was a first flight experience since being in Ireland which was exciting but the plane ride was only 55 minutes long. I ended up taking a bus to a stop where Meg met me and we walked to her house. She lived in this gorgeous area (she lives down the street from Stella McCartney) and lives with everyone in her program which is 30 people.

The first day, which was the day after St. Paddy’s Day, I was clearly very tired so we just hung out in her house and watched Gossip Girl in the lounge. We went out to dinner that night and used the Tube; the main transportation system throughout London and is surprisingly easy to use even for me who has no sense of direction. We had a nice cultural meal at T.G.I. Friday’s and headed over to a bar near her house to get a drink.

The next day was a big one. We got up semi-early and headed on the town to do touristy things. It was a gorgeous day so Megan decided going to St. Paul’s Cathedral would be a great bet. Megan is a history major and is taking History of London classes. I heard everything you needed to know about this place. The only thing I remember is that it was the only thing to be left standing in the Great London Fire..Is that right Meg? Anyway, we went to the top of it and were able to see the top of London. It was gorgeous. We took our own tour of the rest of the Cathedral using these touch iPod tour things. Technological advancements have even made it overseas! Oh and this was where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married =)

View from the top of St. Paul's

Meg and I at the top!

We headed over to the Millennium Bridge which was really cool looking and was in one of the Harry Potter movies which made it 20x’s more interesting to me. Then we went to the most crowded place in London (at least I thought it was), to Big Ben. You get a view of many things from this area so many tourists take a zillion pictures here, including myself. Meg also taught me something interesting she has learned after living in the big bad city for months. When asking someone else on the street to take a picture for you, you must ask someone who would not run away after giving them your camera. Search for people with children, or old people, or someone with a cigarette. Very valuable lesson.

Me and Ben.

We also took pictures in front of Westminster Abbey and went into the gift shop which consisted of any type of William and Kate paraphernalia you can think of. I snuck a picture of their dish towels and mugs…

William and Kate

Then we went to Buckingham Palace which unfortunately didn’t have the guards in front at that time. But it was really awesome knowing that the Queen was so close!

We walked over to a park and did a little photo shoot in a bunch of daffodils. Then Meg showed me the National Gallery and showed me one of the paintings that is in the Desperate Housewives credits in the beginning. Then we got fish and chips and headed home.

It was a long day, but no time to rest! We were going out with her friends for Mexican! After a delicious Mexican meal of quesadillas and margaritas we went out on the town. After a few busts, we went to this very fun club, where we cut the line btw, and had so much fun there. There was a live band who played cool covers and when they left, they played Irish music so I clearly had to dance for everyone in the place. We left at closing and went on the next bus home. His bus refused to move because it was too full and people would not get off. So we waited 30 minutes for the next one where everyone and their mother was. There we were mocked for being American so getting off was a huge relief. I did notice the difference in Irish and British attitudes for being American. Simply put, the Irish love us and the British hate us. The end.

The next day, Meg brought me to Hyde Park which was a gorgeous park down the street from her. She also took me to see Tower Bridge which was pretty cool.

Meg and I at Tower Bridge

We decided to call it a day and we left to go back to her house. I had a to leave her house at 2am to catch the bus that was going to take me to the airport so I stayed up watching the O.C. until then and headed off back to Cork!

I loved London sooo much! I was very grateful to have Megan with me to help me get around and tell me interesting facts about the city. I don’t know if I would be able to live there though. It was very crowded and you have to know your way around which I don’t know if I could ever get used to. But it was such a great weekend trip and I would like to go again sometime.

Norah, Laura, and Birthday!

VERY sorry about the delay in this post. I know everyone has been waiting on the edge of their seat to hear about my loving sister, Norah and amazing cousin, Laura’s visit to me!

Norah arrived into Dublin airport on February 25^th and I met her at the bus station that day. We walked around Dublin with our giant backpacks and talked for a few hours catching up. We mainly rested this first day because of her jetlag. The next day we saw a lot of things that I had already seen the last time I was in Dublin, but it was a gorgeous day so we walked around Dublin for a while. We also went to an archaeology museum which was surprisingly interesting to me. That night we went to a few pubs and met a lot of people, even someone from New Jersey! It was a fun time with the sis, but we were obviously anxiously awaiting Laura the next day.

We met Laura in front of her hotel and hung out for a while exchanging gifts (a.k.a me receiving gifts) that the family had sent over with her. I woke up sick that morning completely congested and stayed in Laura’s hotel room while they saw some museumsand more of Dublin. When they came back, we went out to dinner and had I got a hot whiskey to clear out my sinuses. Afterward, since I felt better, we bar hopped around Temple Bar and made friends with bartenders. It was a lot of fun and we slept comfortably in the king size bed together. The next morning, we got breakfast and I headed back to Cork to begin the dreadful 8 page paper I put off for 2 months.

After not sleeping for 3 days, I handed in my paper and met up with Norah and Laura at a pub in Cork! I was so excited to show them around my new home. After Norah made a delicious meal in my kitchen we went out for the night. They met all of my friends and had a lot of fun. The next day, I shipped them off to the Blarney Stone while I got ready for my birthday celebrations. I was going to be hosting a party in my apartment that night since my birthday was at midnight! I will spare all the relatives the details that made my 21^st birthday an epic one and just say it was just what a 21^st birthday should have been like…

The gorgeous cousins in my apartment.

The next morning/afternoon, we woke up and Norah left to go back up to Dublin because her flight was the next morning =(. For my actual birthday, we had a lot planned. My friend was hosting a pot luck and then we were off to a Munster Rugby game which was a decent walk from her apartment. It was sooo much fun! I kind of caught onto what was happening in the game but usually just cheered when everyone else did. It was a fun atmosphere and I definitely want to go to another one.

Laura left the next day and I got really sad =( Their visit made me miss home more than I had since I’ve been here. Especially since the West Orange St. Patrick’s Day Parade was the next week. But I am still loving my life here forrr sureeee! Stayed tuned for more posts veryyy soon =)

Weekend in Galway! Finally!

Hello there! Sorry it took so long to post this next one. The longer I procrastinated, the more and more I forgot what happened. But I just looked in my friend’s blog to remind me =D. It’s gonna be a long one- just a warning. Two weekends ago, a group of us all decided to go to Galway for the whole weekend since everyone raves about it and there’s so much to see there. A detailed description of every day follows:

Day 1: The bus ride wasn’t too bad- just 3 and a half hours. We arrived at the hostel and ate our packed PB&J sandwiches and apples and left to meet up with one of the Marist girl’s friends who was studying abroad there. We went to the grocery store and all split a big pasta and garlic bread meal for 2 euro each that we were going to cook in the friend’s apartment. We also split stuff for breakfast and dinner the next night saving probably around 20 euro on food if we went out to eat for every meal. (I’m very proud of our poor student tactics we’ve been taking to save money =)) After dinner, we watched our favorite Irish dating game show, Take Me Out, and then headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out. We ended up going to 2 bars with live bands which were really fun.

Day 2: The next morning we woke up early to go on what we thought was a pretty cheap bus tour of many different sights, the main one being the Cliffs of Mohr. We drove about 30 minutes listening to Bill, the tour guide/bus driver crack corny jokes and tell us interesting things about sheep and castles. We stopped first at the Aillwee Caves which the only thing I can remember about them were that they were old caves. However, it cost an extra 5 euro, so naturally we chose not to see them. Instead, we went to do a little exploring on our own. We saw a sign for a Woodland Walk, which ended up being a half mile of a circle of tree stumps with creepy men carved into them. But we had fun anyway (see picture below)

We then saw this cool rock mountain thing across the parking lot that we decided to climb somewhat gracefully. The view was really cool.

We then hopped back on the bus and headed to another photo stop called the Poulnabrone, or the Portal Tomb. It looked like a small version of the Stone Hedge. And there, I also made friends with a horse.

We finally headed to the Cliffs of Mohr, which was incredible. The view was amazing and even though it was freezing up there, I’m glad it was a clear, dry day. We took about a trillion pictures after we climbed over a wall to stand on some illegal section of the cliffs which we should have been afraid of after all the stories Bill told us about the people that fell over. We took in the stunning sights and went back on the bus to continue our day.

We stopped at a photostop Ballyreen which was a mini version of the Cliffs of Mohr, but still pretty because it was during the sunset.

We got back on the bus once again and began nodding our heads out of exhaustion. But then something interesting happened. While Bill was explaining every detail of everything we passed, he pointed out that there was a cow lying down on its side which is strange to see. He put the bus into reverse to observe the cow, said “I don’t think she’s breathing, I think she died. It was probably during giving birth.” Pauses, stares some more and says “Yep, she’s not breathing, let’s go find the farmer so he knows.” We stopped at the next house and Bill demands his whipped tour guide in training to go to the door and tell the farmer. He finds out he’s not the right farmer so he goes door to door to find the correct one but ends up leaving a message with a worker at 7-11 type shop. We found it so strange to see people really going out of their way to inform the farmer of the dead cow. If this was a bus tour of the farms of New Jersey, the cow would have probably never even been noticed. This is one of the big differences I see between Irish and American people.

We FINALLY get back to the hostel, take a nap, eat our ready-made pizzas from the grocery store, and are reenergized for another night out. We went to another bar with a really fun live band who played awesome covers. We all took shots of what we were told we had to get while in Galway. They were called Baby Guinness’s. It was chocolaty Guinness goodness. I also ran into my friend Megan from home who is studying abroad in London but was visiting her friend in Galway for the weekend. I would call that a successful night.

Day 3:  We woke up at the last minute possible before we had to check out of our hostel, after having a terrible night’s sleep because one of the guys staying in the same room was getting sick all night in the bathroom (I received this virus 2 days later). We went out to do some exploring on the streets of Galway. Because it was Sunday, the entire town seemed abandoned. (The whole country shuts down on Sunday and then necessary shops open around noon)

We walked over to the Spanish Arch which was pretty hyped up because of its historical significance but it was pretty puny. We headed over to Salthill which was the beach on the coat and it was beautiful. There were palm trees (which are everywhere in Ireland anyway) and docks. The smell reminded me of the Jersey Shore and it gave me a little taste of home.

We then went to lunch at a café (our first meal out might I add) which we had 20% off coupons for =) It was deliciousss!

Then we headed home and slept until now. That’s really why I didn’t post this until today =)

Weekend in Dublin!

I was in Dublin this past weekend! A group of 9 girls all went on an 8 am bus on Saturday morning. 4 hours and a nap later, we were there!...and only a 5 minute walk to our hostel.

My first hostel experience was a generally good one, I’d say. We walked in the room and there was a Mexican girl there who was about to leave for the day. She left her laptop out and told us we could use it if we wanted to. We were shocked at how trustworthy she was of us….considering I brought my money belt with me which carried my passport money and credit card. But I don’t blame her for trusting a group of American girls who were eating PB&J’S and drinking out of juice boxes for lunch…We were in a room of 12 people including a few men, which was weird at first, but they were really friendly. One was from Ireland, one from Switzerland, and two from Germany.

We then made it over to the Guinness Factory after a half hour rainy walk through Dublin. It was kind of like a prettier version of NYC except it had a river running through the whole city and a different bridge every 3 blocks. After arriving at the Guinness Factory we went through the tour ourselves, with each of the 7 floors representing a different aspect of Guinness. It was probably one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever been through. I actually read everything! We got up to the 7^th floor and there was the Gravity Bar. A room with glass walls looking over the city of Dublin. So pretty! We handed in our tickets for our free pint of Guinness and began a difficult task of getting through the whole glass before it getting warm. Success! Sorta..

The girls at The Gravity Bar!

We then walked around Dublin looking for a place to eat dinner. We ended up at a restaurant called Sweeney’s and I got a chicken sandwich- soo Irish. On the way back to the hostel, an short little Irish man began yelling at us for causing the Civil War. We walked away…fast. When we went back to the hostel, we talked to our roommates and decided to go out with them. We ended up going to Temple Bar- which is an area of bars and well as an actual bar. Everything was way crowded and kind of Americanized which was a disappointment. So we just bought some packages of 99cent cookies and went home to sleep in our surprisingly comfortable bunk beds.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to get our FREE breakfast, where we all had at least 2 of everything and then set off on our adventurous day through Dublin. It was sunny and 50 degrees yay!! We first headed over to Trinity College and became very touristy and took pictures of everything. It was soooo beautiful. And I thought Marist was nice…

Gateway into Trinity

Then we walked over to St. Stephen’s Green, which was also gorgeous! A soon as we walked through the gate, there were a group of children wearing yellow daffodil appreciation day t-shirts having bouncy ball races. After creepily taking pictures and videos of them, we walked through a path with fountains and ponds with swans and ducks and there were babies everywhere! A dream come true. I almost gave out my babysitting card…

St. Stephen's Green

We walked over to the Dublin Castle which had a stunning chapel in it, and then headed over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and took pictures from the outside, considering it was 4.50 euro to see inside.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

We kept walking through the streets of Dublin where we saw people of many races and people of different psychological levels. (One man pulled out a real diamond ring and asked me to marry him through a window where I was sitting trying to enjoy my hot chocolate…He stared at me for 3 minutes, until the owner of the café told him to leave…awkwardddd).

We went back to the hostel and took a 4o’clock bus back to Cork…man I missed it here. Although my weekend in Dublin was really fun, it reaffirmed my decision of coming to Cork for the semester. I don’t think I would be able to handle too many proposals for 5 months in Dublin. One weekend was definitely enough.

Some new facts I've learned...

1. You do not have to walk around clutching your purse when walking around the city by yourself- Irish people will only come up to you to tell you to have a nice day or that the weather is lovely.
2. Many bars with many Irish men smell like B.O.
3. The Blarney Castle is meant for only very tiny people.
4. Irish men can tell American women apart from Irish women because we have straight teeth.
5. Irish women can tell American women apart from them because we wear less eye makeup.
6. Girls bathroom lines are long no matter what country you're in.
7. Chicago accents are easier for me to catch onto than Irish accents, unfortunately.
8. Americans have it harddd in college.
9. "Quay" is pronounced "key."
10. They have no hulu here =(
11. I love Ireland even more than I used to.

First Few days!

So I'm here! I arrived here on Sunday afternoon after a 6 and a half hour flight, a four hour bus ride, and a 20 minute walk to my apartments with my 150 pounds of luggage. I arrived at Leeside which a cute apartment complex 15 minutes from UCC. I have my own room and live with 3 other girls. They are all really nice and easy to live with and we're getting along great.


Me and the 3 other girls from Marist walked around city center the first night to find food since we hadn't eaten since the plane ride 11 hours earlier and quickly found out most bars stop serving food at 6 on Sundays. We finally found a place that is actually practical and served us dinner.


Once I caught up on my sleep that night, a group of us went food shopping and tried to figure out what every brand meant and if it was actually expensive or not with the exchange rate. We then gave ourselves a tour of the university which is GORGEOUS (stay tuned for pictures).

UCC Main Quad

Cute river running through campus...a little different from the Hudson

That night a group of us went to a bar call An Brog. It was really fun! We asked many of the locals what we should drink and my first drink was a Murphy's. It wasn't too shabby. That night, we were the only Americans in the bar and everyone was amazed by us. We were asked crazy questions about America that we had no clue the answers to. But it was fun being a "celebrity."
It was a great first night out in Ireland. The next day we had orientation and it was cool seeing all of the international students which I found out there are 325 of us I think.

First night out!

That's pretty much been my life since I arrived! I start class tomorrow and just found out I don't have any classes on Mondays or Fridays...Four day weekend! wooo!!


I'm so excited to continue my journey and fill everyone in!
Side note: My internet in my apartment is absolutely awful and I can usually only get on about 3 times a day for a certain amount of time but I'll try to update this as often as I can!