Giants and Gaols

My final weekend in Ireland *sob* I went up to Northern Ireland to see the Giant's Causeway.  My friend Lauren and Calli, her friend from home who was visiting, came along too.  We bought our train tickets and took the bus into the Dublin station.  The train was packed for the first half hour so we camped out on the floor until a few seats opened up.  The rest of the trip went smoothly and we arrived in Belfast in the early evening.  Belfast has a really beautiful downtown with an elaborate city hall and long streets lined with huge shops.  The whole area felt rather eerie though.  We only passed a handful of people and all of the shops were locked up tight for the night.  It made me wonder if this was a lingering effect of the Troubles.  The silent streets did not encourage us to venture outside to explore so we stayed tucked away in our hostel for the night and went to bed early.

The next day Lauren, Calli, and I climbed aboard a tour bus that would take us to see the Giant's Causeway.  Our bus driver had a thick accent and was extremely funny.  He told all of his jokes completely deadpan so we had to pay close attention (especially to understand his accent).  We started off driving around Belfast.  There were some parades and protests going on so we had to take a lot of detours.  I'm not sure if I heard our guide correctly but, judging from the flags they carried, I believe the the people we saw parading were in support of Northern Ireland's relationship with England.  Armored police cars were everywhere to protect those walking in the parade and observing.  We also drove past the Titanic Museum.  Our guide told us that the engineer steered South and the captain steered East which put the iceberg directly in the center of ships path.  At the edge of the city was Carrickfergus Castle, an old Norman castle situated next to the harbor.  As we drove away from the castle and left the city, our guide pointed out to us that the bottom of the lampposts have different colors on them to show that the people living in that area are supporters of a unified Ireland or a Northern Ireland.

The coastal road we drove on offered beautiful views.  I loved peeking out the window at all of the tiny towns we passed.  Aunt Mary and Uncle Bruce would have drooled over the many golf courses that lined the road haha!  We briefly stopped at Bushmills, the famous whiskey distillery, and then headed back to the coast to see Dunluce Castle.  Apparently C.S. Lewis used this castle as a model for Cair Paravel from the Narnia books.  I could definitely see the resemblance!

Our next stop was the one we were all waiting for: the Giant's Causeway!  Ages ago, volcanic eruptions resulted in the tall, hexagonal pillars that make up the causeway.  Lauren, Calli, and I walked down a steep hill to get to the formations that seemed to fall into the ocean.  I was surprised by how large the causeway was.  From what I had heard, I expected it to be much smaller.

Legend tells us that a giant by the name of Finn MacCool built the causeway to connect Northern Ireland to Scotland.  A Scottish giant called Benandonner crossed the causeway to challenge MacCool.  Now Benandonner was extremely large, even for a giant, and MacCool wasn't sure that he could win.  Luckily, MacCool's clever wife Oonagh thought of a plan to help him out.  She had her husband dress as a baby and climb into a huge cradle.  When Benandonner arrived at the house Oonagh told him that her husband was out but asked him to wait inside until he returned.  She asked the Scottish giant to remain quiet so as not to wake her sleeping son.  When Benandonner saw what a massive baby was asleep in the cradle he quaked with fear at the thought of the father's size.  He waited not a moment longer but left the house and crossed back over the causeway smashing it to pieces behind him so that MacCool couldn't follow him.

After hopping from pillar to pillar we headed over to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge.  Salmon fishers have been building bridges over to the island for more than 350 years but the bridge we crossed is only 4 years old.  I was nervous to go over but it was pretty stable and only bounced a little as we walked.  The tiny island of Carrickarede had really steep slopes since it reached so high out of the water.  I was afraid we might roll off the edge!  The day was so beautiful that we enjoyed just basking in the sunshine on the island.

The rope bridge was our last stop before heading back to Belfast.  Lauren, Calli, and I caught the train back to Dublin.  Our trip back was rather uneventful except for a few drunk knackers on the train who were chased off by Gardaí before we even departed, but not before they were inspired by the sound of our accents to regale us with the story of their holiday in America haha!

On my last day in Ireland, Lauren, Calli, and I headed back into Dublin where we visited the Kilmainham Gaol which housed almost every prominent nationalist who fought to free Ireland from England (including Éamon de Valera who I had just researched and written on for my Irish history final).  The gaol is now a museum filled with information on its famous inmates and their fight for independence.  The picture to the right shows the East Wing, but many prisoners were kept in other parts of the gaol made up of smaller, dank cells with little access to light.  I was surprised to learn that women, men, and children were not segregated in the gaol, and women and children experienced worse conditions than the men.  Children were most often incarcerated for petty theft.  The youngest prisoner was only five years old.

One of the most interesting stories we were told by our guide was that of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford.  Joseph took part in the Easter Rising and was captured and sentenced to execution by firing squad.  Grace was his fiancee and though they had planned on being married on Easter of that year, they were forced to move up the wedding to just hours before the execution and were married in the chapel of the gaol.  Grace was an artist and, following her husband's execution, she began to use her art to promote the ideas of the political party Sinn Féin.  She also joined the Anti-Treaty IRA and was arrested and incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol just like her husband.  During the four months she was in prison, she painted a mural of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus on the wall of her cell.  Grace never remarried.

After our tour of Kilmainham Gaol, we spent another hour in Dublin so I could get some last-minute presents for the family then headed home to Maynooth.  I ate dinner with my roommates and then the frisbee team came over to hang out for a while.  We walked into town to one of our favorite pubs, Brady's, and stayed until the barman kicked us out.  I didn't sleep a wink that night but spent the entire time packing and then repacking my bags to make everything fit.  I managed to get it all in there somehow.  In the morning, I said a final farewell to my roommates who were all  bawling.  I hadn't shed a tear yet because it still didn't feel real.  I also couldn't bear the thought of wasting any of my remaining time crying!  I took the buses into the airport for the final time and flew back where I met Mom and Dad at O'Hare.  It was definitely the worst flight I have ever been on (and probably will ever go on).  Now I'm just counting down the days until I can go back!

Jean Valjean, I Love You!

This blog post is by far the most overdue!  I give you my sincerest apologies, but school got the better of me and I had no time to write sooner.

 Back in May, I planned a trip to England with Gia, one of my Saint Mary's friends.  We had an easy and short flight over to London where we promptly exchanged our euros for pounds and caught a bus into the city.  The bus company had an excellent sense of humor and displayed it with a large sign on the sides of their buses proclaiming, "Even Ryanair passengers welcome!"  Gia and I died
                                                                                                               laughing!

Our bus dropped us off right across from the Sherlock Holmes Museum so of course we had to investigate.  The museum was a bit out of our price range but we did snoop around the gift shop which felt like a shrine to all things Sherlock.  There were detective hats, pipes, souvenirs, canes, and more!  There also had a collection of teapots including some shaped like toilets, baths, and sinks!

After poking around the gift shop we unfolded our map and set off to hostel.  We were deceived into thinking we didn't have a long way to walk, so we didn't get on the Tube immediately.  This quickly proved to be a mistake as it began to downpour.  We made it to the hostel eventually and after drying off and resting our feet for a little bit, we headed back out and made our way to the famous department store Harrods.  It had everything!  There were food, pets, furs, toys, sports equipment, jewelry, makeup, shoes, and accessories.  Gia and I even found bulletproof clothing!   My favorite area was of course the toys.  They had giant stuffed animals, intricate doll houses, Legos, remote-control helicopters, and William and Kate Barbies.  I also enjoyed petting the ermine fur coat (though I'm not sure that saleswomen appreciated that I did so).  As fun as it was to look at everything for sale, I loved just looking at the different rooms too.  Each one had a different theme.  There were mosaics of hunting parties, chandeliers of grapes, and escalators inspired by ancient Egypt.  I've never had so much fun shopping and not buying anything in my life!  When Harrods closed, Gia and I headed back to the hostel and got some sleep to prepare for our next day

We started off the morning by stopping at a grocery store to get some food for the day and then hopped on the Tube to go to Buckingham Palace.  We arrived just in time to get a good view of the changing of the guard.  Those tall, fuzzy hats must really slow the guards down because after watching for 30 minutes they still weren't finished.  Gia and I decided that we'd seen enough, so we took a stroll through St. James's Park where we saw some strange birds and got a lovely view of the London Eye.  This only inspired us to see it up close so we got back on the Tube again.  Standing by the London Eye we saw a beautiful view of Big Ben and the House of Parliament.  We crossed the River Thames and saw Westminster Abbey as well.

Tower Bridge

With all of these historical monuments impressing their greatness on our memories, we felt motivated to visit one more famous site: the London Bridge.  I must confess, there are few times when I can remember being more disappointed.  The London Bridge is a simple road crossing the River Thames.  It has no distinguishing features whatsoever.  I don't think anyone would really mind all that much if it fell down.  Although it does allow you a great view of the Tower Bridge.  It is very probable that the London Bridge has become an incredibly nasty and spiteful bridge over the years as it gazes at the glorious, beloved Tower Bridge and repeatedly realizes that it is only famous for collapsing.  Poor, ugly thing.

After being disappointed by the lack of grandeur possessed by the London Bridge, Gia and I decided to check out the site of the upcoming (now past) 2012 Olympics.  Of course we couldn't tour the grounds themselves since they were still under construction, but we did find another way to sneak a peek.  There is a huge, extremely fancy mall right next to the Olympic stadium and John Lewis, one of the department stores, offered a viewing room to tourists.  Gia and I headed up to the top floor and walked to the very end of the mall where three large, floor-to-ceiling windows displayed the stadium, the water polo arena, the aquatic center, and the orbit (whatever that is!).  The room wasn't too full when we were there, but I can just imagine how packed it was during the Olympics.

Gia and I next set off on a bit of a goose chase.  We wanted to find Abbey Road where the Beatles took their famous album cover photo.  Thinking that we were savvy travelers, we decided not to ask for directions but just consult our map.  Eureka!  Clearly marked was a Tube stop called Abbey Road.  I remembered another friend who had been to London telling me that Abbey Road was a couple blocks away from the Tube station, so when we arrived in a run-down neighborhood, I wasn't too concerned.  We found Abbey Road easily enough, but it looked nothing like the picture. There were no pretty houses, green trees, and white cross walk.  There were only sidewalks and sketchy apartment buildings.  Gia and I quickly realized that there must be another Abbey Road and we got back on the next train out of there.  Our search would just have to continue.

We got off the Tube at Trafalgar Square and entered the National Gallery.  It was closing in ten minutes, so we were only able to look in a few rooms, but we liked what we saw and promised ourselves to come back tomorrow.  When we walked outside, Gia and I were consulting our map when we were approached by a group of school children asking us for help in a competition they were having with their classmates.  Apparently to pass the time, their teacher had created a scavenger hunt for them and they had to ask people outside the gallery different questions and be the first ones back with the correct answer.  Their current mission was to learn how to say "I love you" in a different language but it couldn't be English, Spanish, German, Italian, or French.  Gia and I admitted that we didn't know any other languages besides Spanish and the kids were about to turn and find someone else to ask when I remembered something.  "Wait!" I shouted.  And then I showed them how to say "I love you" in American Sign Language which my nieces had taught me once upon a time.  They quickly ran back to their teacher and Gia and I could see that they were the first ones there.  We saw the teach hesitate for a moment as they held up their hands saying "I love you," but then he nodded his head yes and smiled.  They had won!

Gia and I felt victorious as well as we headed towards the West End where all of the theaters were located.  We had gotten tickets to see the most fabulous of all the London musicals: Les Miserables!!!  We got settled into our seats and no sooner had the introductory music started then I died of happiness.  Someone must have brought me back from the dead because the next thing I know I'm watching Jean Valjean stealing from the bishop.  The entire musical was spectacular! The cast was perfect and the set genius!  The singing and music are still playing in my head!  Les Miserables is one of my favorite books, so seeing the musical was a dream come true!

I was in a happy daze when we left the theater, but somehow my feet followed Gia as we entered the M&M store.  One of the workers proudly informed us that they had three floors!  They also had an impressive wall of M&M dispensers of every color imaginable.  We had fun looking around at all of the M&M themed double-decker buses and other London icons.  We couldn't handle the chocolate temptation for too long so we headed back out and walked over to Piccadilly Circus which had giant, lit-up billboards making it look like a miniature Times Square.  We watched for a little bit as some street artists performed before finally calling it a night.

Our last full day in London was wonderfully sunny (in fact, we had beautiful weather the whole weekend except for that first rain shower).  Gia and I walked a couple blocks and had breakfast in Hyde Park.  Then we spent most of the rest of the morning walking around and seeing the swans, Kensington Palace, and the Peter Pan statue.  My favorite part was the beautiful garden around Kensington Palace.  The flowers were in blooming and filling the garden with bright colors.  We also solved the mystery of the mysterious Abbey Road while we were there.  We happened to pass a man who had a t-shirt with the picture of the Beatles on Abbey Road, so on a lark, I stopped him and asked him if he knew where it was.  He didn't, but he had a smart phone and quickly looked up the Tube stop we would need to get off on to see it.  We thanked him and decided that we would make that our next trip.

When we had seen all we could of Hyde Park, we hopped on the Tube and finally arrived at the real Abbey Road.  Gia and I, along with about five other tourists, took turns stopping traffic as we crossed the walk and tried to capture the perfect photo.  Our pictures didn't turn out exactly like the Beatles but we were happy with them and I think the passing cars were happy that could finally pass freely.  We also took a look at Abbey Road Studios and added our names to the list of many fans who had signed the white walls surrounding the property.

Afterwards, we headed over to see the Tower of London and while we didn't go inside, we were rather impressed by the how massive it was.  Gia and I made our way back to the National Gallery where we spent a couple hours looking at all the different paintings.  I was especially excited to see some works by J.M.W. Turner.  My English professor had incorporated Turner's paintings into some of his lectures on British literature and I loved seeing them in person rather than on a slide show.  The gallery put on a free concert too that Gia and I enjoyed a lot.

By the time we left the National Gallery, it had gotten pretty dark so Gia and I took the Tube to Kings Cross Station to visit Platform Nine and Three Quarters.  We had a little trouble finding it but once we spotted it, we wasted no time in grabbing our luggage carts and running through the magic wall to the Hogwarts Express.  Unfortunately we had just missed it so we decided to head over to Mayfair, an area filled with beautiful homes and shops, and walk around.  On our walk, we just happened to stumble upon the American embassy.  We were a bit turned around so we walked up to the fence and asked for directions from the heavily armed, mustachioed, and extremely friendly guard marching on the opposite side.  He helped point us in the right direction and our tired feet carried us back to the hostel where we slept soundly in preparation for our last day in London.

We started our last day much like the one before and breakfasted in Hyde Park.  We cut through the park and past the Prince Albert Memorial before walking a few more blocks to the National History Museum.  Unfortunately we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore but the different animals, fossils, volcanoes, and other exhibits were interesting to see.

We had to catch the bus back to the airport but we arrived a little early for it, so we stopped in a Beatles themed store to kill some time.  Our flight back was pretty smooth except that for the first time during my entire year of traveling, Ryanair landed late.  I was actually a little sad not to hear the jubilant trumpets they always play when they land early.  Still, it was a pretty fun weekend and one of my friends from frisbee even picked us up from the airport so we were saved from the Dublin bus system.  I was happy to be home!