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 ;)

Festival of Colours

Today some of the international students and I went to the Holi Festival of Colours in Galway. Basically, it's a big party with a DJ and lights, and everyone buys a ticket and also some bags of paint powder, and you throw it. Everywhere. At people especially! I took countless wipes of paint powder to the face.


Before we entered the festival

The paint was a whole lot of fun, but not many people showed up to the event. So, after we used up all of our paint, most of us sat outside (on the first clear and sunny day since I got here!) and got to know each other some more.



After!





























From what I have found the internationals are a great group, and we have more plans to come! :D

This is only a handful, there are 65 international students at GMIT

Free Bus Tour :D

This morning all of the international students were invited on a free bus tour around Galway. By now I have seen most of the town, but I wanted to meet more of the international students and see the far part of Galway near the beach that I hadn't been to yet. I included pictures of this Church, which was one of the original structures in Galway, named for Saint Nicholas, the Patron Saint for the sailors and merchants that traveled through the city. It was really, really, beautiful. The town is very cool because it has been preserving real structures from when it was built and doing work to keep them authentic and not torn down and remade.

I really enjoyed the beach part of the tour. It's not very warm, so I wasn't looking to dive in. But it looked super cool. Plus, it was tons of fun to mingle with internationals as we looked at it. 

Americans in Ireland

This guy was cool! I'm not sure how uploading a video will work but he was pretty much beatboxing into a didgeridoo. The city of Galway is famous for their busking, and I liked this one a lot. 

I found a fellow Michigander, Michael, who also thought it was cool, and we talked and walked around a bit. We tried to get some local's car to start, but it wasn't happening, despite all the valient efforts.

Michael (blue sweater) trying to help the locals.

Sight from a high point in Galway!

Cassandra and I enjoying our first Irish Guinness.

The next day I met some other Americans at orientation for school, and we went into town together to grab a bite to eat. Zach, Cassandra, Michael and I bonded over lunch and a little Guinness. (My first official Guinness!) After we walked around to see some of the sights we hadn't yet. A great couple of days!

Crossing the bridge that brings you to the west part of town.