Fun with Water Sampling

Today I went on an educational adventure for funzies. Zach and Cassandra are in the biology program at their school in Minnesota, and one of their professors, Paul, is in Ireland on sabbatical for part of this year. 



Pika-boo!



(Also, it certainly was not a bad day to spend outside adventuring.)



Oh, hello jaw-droppingly beautiful day.



That's a grotto full of water!



 They are working on a project with him taking samples of water at different Holy Wells around Ireland. It is a custom to come to these sites and drink or wash in the holy water to cleanse yourself. However, most of these wells are near horse and cow pastures, which led Paul to believe that perhaps people should not be openly drinking and washing from them.

When the water samples get back to the lab they are going to observe what sort of bacteria is present and conclude the safety of the water.


The whole trip was a lot of fun. Paul was wonderful, and even stopped by the beach because we HAD to try fresh "winkles." Do you know what winkles are?

Get it, girl.

Cassandra and I fearlessly scooped the cold, slimy buggers out of the shells and ate them up.


It's snails. Winkles are snails.

Zach was not keen. We almost got him to try but he just couldn't do it, so he opted for the "dillisk" instead, because apparently he's ok with seaweed.

Cliffs of Moher (Part 2 of trip!)

My roommate Nerea

The suspense must have been killing you! Here it is... Part 2 of my trip last weekend!

 The second half of the trip was to the Cliffs of Moher. Which, in one word, was breathtaking. They were massive, and there is not nearly as much fencing as you would think. In fact, the stone fence on top of the cliffs are what one could call "optional," as there was almost not even a single person on the "correct" side of it.



Me, Zach, Cassandra

Shout out to Nettie and Con if you are reading! The tower on one end of the cliffs was called O'Brien's Tower, built in 1835 by Cornelius O'Brien, a descendant of the first High King of Ireland (Info credit to the free pamphlet I got when I talked to the security inside the tower) 

The cliffs may have been my favorite experience in Ireland so far. Truly b-e-a-utiful.

Don't mind the nervous picture earlier. Eventually I just embraced the Cliffs and their awesomeness.

Aillwee Cave (Part 1 of trip!)

I paid 10 euro for a trip to the Cliffs of Moher with the other international students, which somehow magically meant we were stopping along the way for pictures and also to this cave. I didn't know anything was happening besides the Cliffs, so this was a cool edition.


First Photo Stop on the bus ride!

This cave is MILLIONS of years old, but it was only discovered about 75 years ago. So, naturally, it is now a tourist attraction. We were split into two group and given informational tours about the cave.

The temperature does not fluctuate, it stays right around 10 degrees celsius. Which was a little chilly.



Stalactite and Stalagmite 

Natural running waterfall inside cave

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


As we were packing up to head to the Cliffs, a girl in our group unfortunately hit her head in the bathroom. Since there was blood, we had to wait for a doctor to come see her and make sure she was ok (Spolier: She is, don't worry). With this, we ended up having lunch at the cave site instead of at the Cliffs, which gave us an opportunity to climb on the "Mountain Trail" going up on top of the cave. I think this was my favorite part of the cave section, and the girl was able to continue the trip with no problem so everything turned out alright!

We went a little higher up than was clearly marked, which made it a lot of fun and rewarding when we finally got up there!

Climbing Up!

Climbing Partners in Crime: Zach and Ayman

Clonmacnoise

This week's trip with Heritage Studies was to Clonmacnoise, a monastic site. It's centuries of years old and still occasionally has sermons spoken. In fact, Pope John Paul II came to this site in 1979 to speak and there was a HUGE crowds of people.

In it's prime, Clonmacnoise was a bustling and large community

Our class went to the site and talked again about how we thought it was being preserved. It was pretty unanimous that this site was being presented a little better than the Athlone Castle.

It was a lot of fun and really interesting to walk about the site, as it is not reconstructed you can see the effect of the raids that went on years ago.


The Little Church. Rightly named.

At the "Little" Church, it is said it lost it's balance because people could take parts of the clay from it's foundation because they believed that if they spread it across their fields it would help them grow more bountifully.

Remains of one of the structures

Some Details remained intact

                                  

 

After the tour was over I did a little exploring on my own and found a few more beautiful places we didn't have the chance to talk about.

The Cathedral







Athlone Castle

This week was a little crazy, it was all orientation and introduction to my classes, but I'm finally back to tell you about something cool!

 
Thursday, my Irish Heritage Studies group went on a trip to the Athlone Castle. It's a castle (in Athlone, Ireland) with a rich history that was reconstructed after its near total destruction in 1691. Now, it is a museum with tons of interactive exhibits and games.
 

What my class does on these trips is discuss the heritage of these historical sites, and debate whether or not they are being persevered/presented well. I liked the castle and its modern interactive exhibits, but the lighting was too dark to see things easily.
 

Classmate for scale on the gun.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The giant chess game on the left was the view I saw from the top of one side of the castle, looking over at a church. That's my professor, John, and classmate, Niall, playing.
 
 

After the castle we went to a cemetery near by that had been preserved in an interesting way. Years ago, people thought the 1600's cemetery was an eyesore, so they moved all of the tombstones (not the bones!) and lined them up against the walls, making the location into an eerie, grassy park surrounded by headstones. There is even a path lined with the headstones on either side that makes you feel a little uncomfortable as you walk through it.

 
Things like this are what the heritage group discusses, and how nowadays that could have never happened, as there are regulations on it. So we talk about what could have been done instead to not ruin the whole site.
 

 
 
 This is one of my professors, Paul, leading us into the cemetery Abbey. I like this picture because he looks like such an adventurer.

Hurling

HOLY COW GUYS. Hurling is a big deal. And I do not mean losing your lunch after too much Guinness. I mean the sport. Never heard of it? Me either. That is until this week.



Zach, Cassandra, and I  before the match.

Every mannequin in town has been covered in only Galway-colored clothing since I arrived...





The mall in the city looks great in white and maroon!


Every street corner had a vendor full of Galway apparel.



I have learned since I got here that hurling is the national sport of Ireland. Basically, it's like football, soccer, and lacrosse but with hockey sticks and no protective padding. And on Sunday, September 6th, Galway was in the championship for the first time in 27 years. Against Kilkenny, a team that hasn't lost for like 65 years or something ridiculous like that.

The WHOLE city was in the park where a projection of the game was being played in the center of town. Every bar was barely even standing room, and all eyes were on the screens.

O'Connell's Pub for the second half of the match.

It was wild! I mean, the Irish take this sport SERIOUSLY.
 

Unfortunately, we didn't win. Which quickly turned the town from excited and happy drunk into angry and disappointed drunk. But, it was a crazy cool experience, everyone was there together supporting Galway. I think it may have been the highlight of my time here (for these first 2 weeks).

I did this post with Galway colors, just to show my enthusiasm ;)