Beach Day- North Bull Island

I wasn't really sure what to do today- it was a beautiful sunny and warm day, and because I had finished all of my papers ahead of time, everyone else was stressed out and stuck in the library typing and working and I had nothing to do. I couldn't sit around in my room all day, I wanted to go on an adventure. I had talked to Emily about beaches, and she said that she heard that one called "North Bull Island" was cool, it was a nature preserve and a golf course as well. I mapped out the directions, packed a lunch, and decided to go on an adventure. It was an hour and forty minute walk there, but I figured that I had nothing else to do, it would be nice to explore and be outside. With my camera, phone for directions (and Snapchats obviously), and a lunch I headed off. I started off with with a sweatshirt, but quickly

realized that wasn't necessary and tucked it into my backpack. It was a really nice walk through tree lined Irish neighborhoods, much more pleasant than I expected. After an hour and a half, I reached the bridge to the Island, I was so proud and excited. I stopped to take pictures on the bridge of the island, which was massive. I was just so excited to finally be there, and make it on my own. There was a massive high grass area, clearly the nature preserve, but I wanted to see if there actually was a beach. What I saw more than exceeded even my wildest expectations- it miles of sandy beach, with people swimming, dogs running and people walking all over. It was so huge that despite the decent number of people, it didn't

seem crowded at all. I immediately took off my shoes and walked into the water. It was so rewarding, and I smiled bigger than ever. The only way to describe the beach would be to say that it was a slightly chillier version of Sanibel Island, our favorite spot in Florida. I decided to walk to the very end, which took at least another hour and a half. I laughed really hard, as a guy tried to hold a Husky back, who just wanted to run the beach and was doing everything in his power to escape his harness. The guy was really funny, rolling his eyes saying that he gets that way anytime he sees open space. Further along the beach was a gigantic English Mastiff with a smaller dog, neither of which were on leashes but running free. The two were playing ball, and the little dog got to the ball first while I was behind them

and the Mastiff literally picked up the smaller dog with the ball, only to set him back down when he was scolded. The owners didn't seem phased, neither did the smaller dog, so I would have to guess this was a semi-regular occurrence, but it was hilarious to watch. I stopped along the beach and sat on the bank of the nature preserve and ate my lunch looking at the beach and ocean and listening to the waves crash along the shore. It was amazing, I just sat there in peace and took in the beauty of it all. When I reached the end of the island, I turned around and ventured through the nature preserve for a little bit, which was very irregular, made up of a series of small hills. I left there, and walked down with my feet in the ocean

again. I was starting to get concerned around the time that I reached the beginning again after walking around 4.5 consecutive hours now, my skin was getting red. Not wanting to leave, I went in to the water one last time, but the tide had drawn way out to sea so it was a completely different scene than the morning I had arrived. As I headed back in, I saw one of my Irish friends up on the pier, and he called down to me. I went and hung out with his friends for a while more, and he gave me a ride back to DCU, which I was really happy about. We stopped at a place called Hillbilly Joe's for chicken dinner on the way home, a sort of fancy KFC arrangement in Ireland for dinner. I was exhausted by the time I got back, and I was completely fire-engine red. It was an awesome day, but I knew I'd pay for the sunburn when I showered and tried to go to sleep!

Surprise in the Mailbox

Today I checked my mailbox, a regular habit of mine that usually reveals nothing, but I do it anyway. There was a letter in there today though, which was surprising. I got really excited about it because it was addressed from my mom at home. She had told me that she sent a birthday card, but that it wouldn't be there for a couple of weeks. It certainly wasn't a couple of weeks! It was really awesome to open it and read what she wrote, and I reminded myself that it was only a couple of weeks before I'd be with them again. It made me really happy.

In case you were wondering, the punch-line to the card was "heredity"

A Northern Ireland Experience

Our second class trip was to Northern Ireland- Belfast in particular with other stops as well. On Wednesday before the trip, Don lectured us on the culture and atmosphere of the area, as well as the historical and ongoing tensions. It sounded like we were in for an experience. I told my global climate change professor that I was heading to Belfast, and she continued to tell me that she grew up there in the height of the troubles. At one point, she wasn't allowed to answer her door after dark, her mother was held at gunpoint on multiple occasions and her father had multiple threats made against his life. One day she was walking down the street with her mother and the gas station just a short distance ahead exploded in front of them. They were merely lucky that they hadn't the house left a minute earlier. She said it has calmed down extremely from that time, but to still be careful. It was amazing how calm she was while describing these incidents, and when I commented on that she explained that it was a war-zone first and foremost, but it was home and her reality. That was an interesting prime to the trip.

We left early on Thursday morning, and I packed a sandwich and lunch so that I wouldn't have to buy one while we were out. When we arrived in Belfast, one of the first sights was a bus drive down "RPG Avenue", named during the troubles. It was immediately startling, and our director later said he cringed at what one of our first sights was. We drove past a funeral that was surrounded by armored police cars, and news cameras across the street. It was the funeral of an IRA leader, and the attendees were wearing black cloths over their faces, with sunglasses on and standard IRA attire. It was a startling sight, considering the violence that we had learned about all week before the trip, as well as the additional security forces present. We left that area, and drove to the International Wall, which depicted various celebrities including various

US Presidents. Belfast is split by massive 40 + foot walls that divide the city, into ethno-English and ethno-Irish, The IRA and the Loyalists, the Protestants and Catholics. The walls had to be so high to limit what could be thrown over at the other side. This is referred to as the "peace wall" to prevent violence. The city is filled with propaganda murals for both sides, including the "peace wall", pinning one side against the other. We examined the artwork, and were explained the symbolism behind them. We originally started on the Catholic side, and visited a memorial park to the victims of Protestant aggression. We later crossed through large metal gates that divide the city, and which apparently are shut and locked every

Gates that shut at night to block of the sections

night preventing communication and interaction between the communities. It was incredible to me that we are talking about the year 2014, and these gates are still shut nightly out of fear. We then walked through the Protestant side, and the communities were incredibly similar, despite the fact that there was British propaganda everywhere we looked, from murals of the Royal Family, to British flags and souvenir shops. It was as if we'd crossed the sea, and we all expressed a similar confusion. While we were walking down the street, clearly tourists, a couple of younger kids across the street began throwing rocks at our group, and hit one girl in the head, but she wasn't hurt. Our group director told us we were in no danger as they walked away, but it was alarming nonetheless. We visited a Protestant memorial garden, almost

identical to the one across the line but pinning blame on the Catholic community for the loss of their own members. Both were lined with flowers and clearly well maintained, so the impact was real and current. I was incredibly uncomfortable in this environment. We then went back to the Catholic side to visit one community which had received international attention when the Protestants burned it down. It was rebuilt, exactly as it was with the homes close to the wall. All of the homes on the back wall featured large metal cages that blocked off their backyards from the wall, which was apparently to deter injury when acid bombs were launched over the wall. This is a terrifying thought for me. It was incredible the

Cages on the back of homes

amount of flags and symbolism that were used to promote both causes, on almost every house, far more extreme than anything I'd personally seen before. The group was mentally exhausted after our venture, and we headed into the neutral peace zone of the city center for lunch. I had packed a lunch, so I ate that while everyone else bought food, but then they headed next door to the dessert place, and naturally I caved to a nutella crepe with vanilla ice cream. Yes, it was just as delicious as it sounds. We sat outside in the sunshine, and it was a gorgeous day. After a break for lunch, we reformed as a group and headed over to the bus to go to a Titanic walking tour, and we couldn't have asked for a better day.

The most striking moments of the tour included visiting the original ferry ship that was used to bring people out to the Titanic when the ship couldn't come closer because of shallow waters. It was decommissioned, and sent to Paris for display, but purchased back to be saved from scrap metal and restored in the 1990's. We were shown the original gates, where tens of thousands of men lined up early in the morning to look for work. The first ones through the gate were the ones who would be able to work for the day, the others would have to go home without pay. There were various stories of fights that broke out in competition for work. We were able as well to enter the original Harland and Wolff building, which

had been shut down until two months ago as a result of extensive structural damage from neglect and abandonment. Obviously, the company took a huge hit when the Titanic sank, and had to lay off 95 percent of its workers in Ireland, an industry seemingly gone overnight. We were allowed in the office of Thomas Andrews, who was in charge of the drafting for the ship and primed to take over H&W later  in his career. He perished on the ship, trying to do everything in his power to keep the ship afloat for as long as physically possible and save lives. Upon his death, his office was locked immediately, and nobody was allowed in as a sign of respect to him. We were able to see his desk, where much of the designs were reviewed and drawn, which I was very interested in. The next room was by far my favorite part of the tour. It was a plain room, but large. Apparently it was the corporate executive office, and appeared much grander until the fireplace was cut out and stolen as well as other changes to the now empty room. We stood around, and saw a picture of the original office, and pointed to where each of the key directors sat on one morning, with the financing party as well as the lead designer who had designed the entire ship top to bottom. The plans were going very well, until the top two floors, which were described by the chief executive as "cluttered", and he disapproved immediately. What were they "cluttered" with? Lifeboats. According to the new legislation that was out, Titanic's watertight compartment system allowed it to have significantly less lifeboats than were shown in the plans. The chief executive claimed that having that many lifeboats was unnecessary and would make people afraid to board the ship and lead to lost revenue from fear. The designer, who had completed all of the plans, is said to have desperately refuted this point. This lead to a screaming match and a large fight, after which the designer told all of the people in the room that he was removing himself from the project if they did not add the suggested lifeboats. They refused, and before the construction of the ship even began, he quit and told them on his way out "if anything happens to the people on that ship, it's on your head not mine". He immediately left the entire industry. As my dad said, did he have some sort of premonition? If the suggested number of lifeboats were on board, it is possible that the majority of people that were lost would've been safe and survived. Incredible to stand in the room where that debate and screaming match occurred, given the gravity of later events. We proceeded from there to the

actual drafting room where the plans were developed, which again was incredible. It overlooked the shipyard, where the titanic would've sat as it was being constructed. All of the work was done without calculators or any devices like that, which means that the men that sat in that room were literally super geniuses. They must've been so proud to watch the Titanic get built and finished, and devastated when it was lost. We continued to the dry dock, which was massive and actually walked down where the bottom of the ship would've sat, looking upward to where it would've stretched to. We were shown pictures of the ship from exactly where they were taken in front of us, real physical history. We also

were able to see and touch the same metal that was used on the side of the Titanic which formed the barrier to the dry dock. The entire dry dock could be filled and drained within three hours, which was an incredible engineering feat. The other side of the steel wall was blocked off two years ago and a new concrete wall protected it from the water, allowing us to see the steel exactly as it currently is on the Titanic, having been exposed to water of the same temperature for the same time period. It was awesome. We learned that there was a 6 week lag in the Titanic project relating to one of its sister ships, so it was 6 weeks late itself. Although this seems unimportant, he said to consider the fact that had the ship been on time,

the cruise would've been that much earlier, and said iceberg likely wouldn't have been there. Our guide said, if the other ship had been on time, we wouldn't have been here, those people would've likely lived, and the Titanic would've been a ship that would've been forgotten about. Additionally, we learned that if the Titanic had ran straight into the iceberg, rather than attempting to turn away from it, the ship would've been fine and came back to Belfast for some repairs. Because they turned, the iceberg ripped down the side exposing six of the compartments rather than just the one or two that the straight on collision would've caused. The ship could've withstood 4 of its compartments being compromised, but 6 was too many.

The Dry Dock

A funny follow up to that story, is that when H&W reentered the abandoned building years later, they

Tiles on Titanic's foyer in H&W Hallway (Damaged)

tried to figure out where the fireplace that was in the executive office had gone, as they couldn't find any piece of it on the property. Apparently after an anonymous tip, they got in a van and drove to the house where it had been put in, knocked on the door and told the man that they were here to take the fireplace back. He tried to deny it, but they held up a picture of the fireplace in the office, and pointed to the one in his living room. That day, they cut the fireplace out of his house, and brought it back to the office. As our guide said: "that's revenge, Titanic style baby!". I thought that was great.

We left the Titanic museum, and went back to the hotel for dinner. We were able to squeeze some time

before dinner to walk around the city center of Belfast, which was active and surprisingly friendly. We headed back for dinner, and I enjoyed a sun-dried tomato pasta as an appetizer, then pork loin in a red wine sauce and potatoes, finished off with a chocolate cake with chocolate sauce. Another awesome meal. I talked to a girl in my program, Emily, and who also grew up on a lake and around water. We were both saying how excited we will be to get home, without wishing away our amazing trip and the short time we have left. We went back to the rooms, and within a few minutes there was a knock at the door, and quite a few people from the program had showed up with some Stellas, so obviously we let them in. It was a relaxing night, just talking with a group of people from the program. After a while, we went out the

Northern Ireland Police Cars

"neutral safe zone" of city center to walk around, the area that they told us we would go out in if we were interested. We didn't plan on going out, but after the morning culture shock, we agreed that we probably would never be in Belfast again, so we may as well see the city while we were here as opposed to sitting in the hotel room. We walked in front of city hall, and the town was shut down completely, which is apparently relatively normal for Belfast given the conflicts on both sides. On the street in front of city hall, at one end of the street was a heavily armored Land Rover police vehicle with 4-5 heavily armed police men clustered. This was rather startling, but we kept moving down the street. When we got to the other end, there was the same exact setup. Two heavily armored vehicles with heavily armed police on a single street in sight of each other.... hmmm. We agreed that this would only happen in the states if there was
something going on. We decided that we were too far out of our elements and comfort zones with this type of action, and weren't sure if there was actually a safety issue occurring, so we gave up on Belfast and went quickly back to the hotel. Wow, I am so glad that I studied in Dublin rather than Belfast! In the morning we were meeting with American students who studied in Belfast, so I was really interested to hear what they had to say about their experiences.

Hotel Room View

The following morning, I went down to breakfast with Emily and Scott at 7am, as our meeting was at 9 with the Belfast students. It was a remarkable breakfast spread, with literally everything you could've wanted, unlimited buffet style. Clearly I made the right choice coming early! I think I had three servings, including bacon, hash-browns, eggs, croissants, yogurt, and fruit. It was great. Afterwards we met the Belfast students, and there were three of them. Their experience was completely different than ours, as they said they did enjoy their time here, just noting that you had to be really careful of what you say and know where you are when you say it. They detailed a couple of incidents that caused them to run into stores on the street for safety, as if it were completely normal experience. Nope, I'm way too much of a chicken for that, I'll stay in Dublin thanks! They were nice kids, but I wasn't too disappointed that we were leaving Belfast today.

Our next stop that day was a stop at Carrickfergus castle, a very old but beautifully maintained Norman castle. We had an awesome tour guide, and learned various facts and tricks of the castle owners and designers. One notable feature was a "trip-stair" in the original castle, one that was a different height than all of the others, designed to cause attackers running up the stairs to trip and fall back down and take out the people behind them. We also learned that the bathroom in the castle was a chute out the side, and you were judged by how much excrement was on the side of the castle, indicative of the type of diets that were consumed. This, I know, is absolutely repulsive. Why would anyone actually want to see that?

We were also shown defense tactics of the castle, including the arrow holes that were unnoticeable, as well as the locking cage at the gate. We learned that the castle used to be surrounded on three sides by water, but because of land reclamation it only had water on one now. We learned that at the time, there was no way to attack from a ship, so the water side was the safety side, as well as why the entrance was on a hill to make it harder to get the battering ram up to the gates. We also saw the cell, which was apparently rarely used and over dramatized by Hollywood films. We were able to try on knight clothing, which

Original Stairwell with Trip Stair

would've costed the equivalent of 20,000 GBP today, which is around $40,000 USD just for the uniform. What was more incredible was the cost of the sword, which was estimated in today's figures to be around $400,000 USD. It was extremely expensive to become a knight! The outfit also weighed over 50 pounds, which would've been unbearable! After the castle, we headed back to Dublin, and I was excited to get back. It was a very cultural trip, and I learned so much and saw some really cool things, but I learned that Belfast is just not the place for me, I much prefer the stability!

Front of the Castle

The "Bathroom" of the Castle...nasty

My 21st Birthday Festivities with Krista

Krista's 21st birthday was on Monday, and mine was on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I had a presentation to give at 9am on my birthday, and the following morning we were leaving for a trip to Northern Ireland at 7am on Thursday morning. Everyone was going out on Monday night, so I decided to join and celebrate mine as well with Krista. It was a great night, most closely described as the stereotypical 21st birthday festivities. We headed to the infamous "Copper Face Jacks" pub and club, and thanks to an app we were able to get on the guestlist and get in free! There were really funny parts of the night, and we had a great time. I was walking through, when I heard someone call out my name. I thought that was weird because I had come with all the Americans I knew, but it was one of Eoin's friends that I met in Cavan when I went to Eoin's house! I hung out with him for a while and that was really cool. We got back late, and I went straight to bed. Tuesday was a quiet day for me, but it was the perfect 21st birthday celebration in Dublin, Ireland!

Easter Weekend- Drogheda, Newgrange and Knowth

This weekend is Easter, but for obvious distance reasons I wasn't at home. I started to get a little bit down about it, but then I decided to do something fun to counter it and make it different this year. John, Kelsey and I were in the same boat, other people were away or their parents were here. We decided to head up to the town of Drogheda, Ireland. No, I hadn't heard of it either, but why not? We left at 9 am, and I woke up earlier to eat a egg and cheese bagel supplemented with strawberry yogurt and a banana and apple, which has become a staple of mine. I packed a lunch before we left so that I wouldn't get hungry or have to buy any food out there (that was a great call on my part). We had some difficulty with the busses, as they were doing construction and had removed a stop, so we had to take a private bus. When we arrived, we were struck by the number of massive churches, there were at least 5 in a small town! We were walking to the tourism office when we encountered a market, which was probably the most interesting market I will ever see. The only way to describe it was, "an eclectic Walmart in open air- you could get anything there from cell phones to used clothing to dog food to toys to farmer's food. Interesting. We wandered around for a while, then made it to the tourism office. They made a couple of recommendations in town then suggested that Newgrange was only a short taxi ride away. We took

The church behind which Cromwell broke through

their advice and went to the Irish Military War Museum, which included the military barracks at the top of the town that looked as far as the sea in the distance. When we walked into the office, we met an older man and woman. We asked what time the next tour was, and they laughed, and said whenever we were ready. They asked where we learned about them, and when we said the internet they were shocked. The woman who led us up to the tour must've been in her late 60's and knew everything there was to know about the town. She pointed the wall behind one of the churches, and told us that is where Oliver Cromwell penetrated
the walls of Drogheda when he came to Ireland with 12,000 troops, leaving 2,000 in Dublin and

continuing to Drogheda with 10,000. In one day, he massacred the town, killing over 1,000 people. She told the story of 100 people who hid from Cromwell inside a wooden church tower, and pointed to exactly where that church was. His reaction was to burn the tower, burning the people inside alive. It was chilling to think of that day, and see exactly where that happened so many years ago as we walked around freely without a concern. Additionally, she told us that Saint Patrick grew up just down the river, and Drogheda was one of the stops he made when he came back. The climb to the tower was intense, and she continued to tell us that during the civil war, the city was divided in half by the river. One

attack involved the shooting of a canon at the tower, which devastated the whole side of it and led to victory for the opposing side. Luckily for us, the tower had been reconstructed exactly as it was. It was a very cool experience. We also saw a collection of weapons that a Franciscan Friar had been holding for the troops during the war, which nobody knew about until he passed away. I thought of the Friars that I know, and yeah, I'd say that's pretty characteristic. When we left, we didn't stop talking about what a cool tour it had been. We were satisfied with the trip already.

Collection of weapons hidden by Friar

From there we stopped at a cathedral which was rather impressive, and headed out to Newgrange and Knowth. Newgrange is estimated to be around 5,000 years old, estimated to have been built around 3200-3000 BC and taking generations. It is dated back to the neolithic era, before metals  It is an incredible feat because of the mere size of the rocks that were used to construct it. The local stones were limestone, which don't last. Somehow, the builder's must've been aware of this, and all of the stones to build the tomb, which is over an acre and massive were imported by some means from elsewhere. The white stones that border the front are only found 50 km to the south or 70 km to the north, and it is in

unimaginable feat to consider moving all of them. Most notably, the tombs were designed so that the interior rooms only saw the light of day during two specific periods: the summer and winter solstices. This led the belief that these were used for religious purposes, but surprisingly little is known about the people who constructed or used the tombs. These passage tombs are littered with artistic works and drawings, most of which were spheres, and there is uncertainty if it was a sort of language or map. The first tomb that we visited had been build on top of for defense, so the passages were deemed structurally unsafe,

Sous-Trench (Passage was much
rougher than this!)

although we were able to view a sous-trench, which was built from the top and connected to the passages below. When we moved onto the Newgrange tomb, it was breathtaking and incredible. We were able to go inside through the passageway, which involved ducking, winding, and squeezing between rocks that had shifted over the 5,000 years. We had to keep our backpacks in front of us below our knees to as to ensure that we did not bump into or damage the artwork that was along the passage walls and in the main room. The main interior room, which was about the size of my bedroom at home featured a massive two story vaulted ceiling. In a full acre of building, it all led up to this room. There was no mortar used in the construction, the rocks were simply layered one slightly over the other one to come to the top. What's more- there was never any restoration done, I was standing in a spot which was identical to what it was 5,000 years ago. That was an incredible experience and reflection, considering how much had changed over those 5,000 years outside of the wall of this tomb. Who were these people that they were so intelligent and innovative?

Cow, Sheepdog, Farmer, and Tractor. Stereotypes.

A Dublin Pub Crawl

Sean's parents were in Ireland, and they wanted to do a pub crawl. He called up and asked if I wanted to join and maybe bring a couple of people. Like he had to ask... We showed up to Workman's Club at 7:30 for the trip. We paid and got a wristband, entitling us to specials throughout the night. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick joked about the guides running off seeing as how we paid on the street. From DCU, we came with Gillian, Morgan, John, Julia, Kelsey and I. I talked to Eoin, and he was going out to dinner with Aoife, but he would meet up with us somewhere. We started at Workman's, then went to Trinity Bar, then moved on to the Mezz, then O'Neills, and a stop at the Porterhouse and ended back at Workman's for the night. In between O'Neills and the Mezz, Mrs. Fitzpatrick had to stop in McDonalds for the bathroom, and Mr. Fitzpatrick went to get pizza for us. It was delicious pizza at a well known place called Rays. When Mrs. Fitzpatrick caught up with us, she had bought 7 cheeseburgers because she figured we might want those too. Of course we ate them. Gillian had missed dinner, so she and the girls were also feasting in McDonalds when we ate our pizza. By the end, everyone was in good spirits and Mrs. Fitzpatrick was hilarious and

looking for shots of Fireball. The pubs were beautiful, all in classic Irish style with woodworking. We split up for the night, and Addison came home with me because they were done running busses back to Maynooth for the night. When we got back to DCU we cooked a huge meal with eggs, chicken breast and a spicy pasta that Addison made. He had to catch the bus at 6:45, and I had an 8 am class so we crashed right after. I made it to the 8 am class! After, I went straight back to bed and woke up at 3:30, so I made up for the loss. It was such a fun night.