9 more days in Dublin and Belfast, cont'd

Tuesday morning (July 27), my parents and I boarded a train to Belfast and checked in to the Radisson Blu hotel in the gasworks quarter of town. Before I left for Ireland, we did a little investigation into the Nimick ancestry (of Scots-Irish descent) and discovered that a great**** uncle of mine had built a church in a small town outside of Belfast in the early/mid 1800s. And so it was to the community of Glencraig, in the Craigavad area of County Down just outside of Holywood, that we went on this afternoon, and indeed dear readers, we found the church.

We stopped in Holywood and had a nice dinner on our way back to Belfast, and then walked around the botanic gardens near Queen's University in Belfast for a while before heading back to the hotel.

The next day, we took a train to Coleraine and got on a bus that took us to the Giant's Causeway, one of No. Ireland's biggest tourist attractions. There are some really weird and cool hexagonal basalt formations along the northern coast.

On our way to Derry, we stopped at Coleraine and Bushmills, where the three of us each had a rather large portion of fish n chips, which was excellent. In Derry, we walked part way around the old city on top of the wall and had a snack/dessert at a little bistro & pub. After a long and exciting day, we arrived back in Belfast after sunset.

Thursday was Belfast day. We saw the Grand Opera House, a few churches/cathedrals, and the Titanic Quarter. We walked pretty close to the giant yellow 300-ft tall Harland & Wolff cranes (Samson and Goliath) that have dominated the Belfast skyline since they were built between 1969 and '74.

After a day of sightseeing, we had a sturdy dinner and dessert at The Crown pub.

Thursday night was our last one in Belfast, and on Friday morning we stopped by the St. George's indoor market. We were lucky to be there on a Friday, because it is a remarkable place on weekends (incl. fridays). The place is full of little shops selling clothing, freshly baked breads, pastries, meats and cheeses, and other fresh produce. We were able to buy a wonderful lunch for the three of us for less than 10 pounds. sandwiches made on a big loaf of rosemary ciabatta with carmelized-onion cheddar cheese, salami, and a green olive tapenade.

After getting off the train in Dublin, we got a taxi up to the airport and checked into the Clarion Hotel. In the morning, we were homebound.

Thanks for reading!

9 more days in Dublin and Belfast

On Thursday morning, July 22, my [rather tired] parents landed at the Dublin airport and caught a bus to the Westin hotel in city centre, where they dropped their bags off before heading to a local cafe (Lemon Jelly) in the Temple Bar area. While this was going on, I was doing some last-minute packing and re-packing and saying goodbye to friends who were catching flights to the States. At last I made it to the Westin to drop my luggage off and then headed over to meet my parents at the cafe.

I led them around Dublin for a while, and then we hopped on a bus to the National Botanic Gardens and spent most of the afternoon there.

After dinner, my parents were introduced to the decadence that is Butlers Chocolate Cafe. mmmm

Friday morning, the three of us got on a bus for a scenic tour of Wicklow National Park and Glendalough. We stopped at the site of an old monastic settlement and hiked around both lakes (Glendalough = two lakes). It is a really gorgeous area of Ireland. On the way back to Dublin, we stopped at the town of Avoca to look at the looms and weaving mills. There were both manual and electric looms, all in working order and in use.

A shot of Glendalough:

Back in Dublin, we were able to meet up with an old friend and her fiance for a drink and some dinner at The Porterhouse and The Turk's Head. We also stopped by the wonderful Milkshake Bar.

On Saturday, my parents and I did the hike from Bray to Greystones. It was my third time to do this hike, but we took a different route than I had taken before. We even ended up on private property somehow, but eventually we made it to Greystones and stopped for food.

From there, we went up to Dun Laoghaire for the Festival of World Cultures. There must have been at least 100,000 people enjoying the great weather and walking around to the various showcases and events. We stopped and listened to a band playing traditional Irish music and then saw an Algerian pop band before deciding to escape the crowd and head back to Dublin.

The next morning, Sunday, we went to a service at Christchurch Cathedral. There was coffee, tea, and biscuits down in the crypt afterwards. It was a bizarre place for a snack.

In the afternoon, we did more walking (imagine that!). We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the arcade mall on St. George's Street, the Powerscourt Townhouse, and Merrion Square. I took my parents back to Afsana, the Indian food restaurant I had discovered a couple weeks earlier. At The Duke pub later, we enjoyed relaxing and listening to a group of 4 people playing some traditional Irish music.

We took a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells the next morning (Monday), and then met up with Brandon Geller, an old friend of mine from high school. He and I went over to the Guinness Storehouse together, and then all of us went on a literary pub crawl in the evening. This was our last night in Dublin at the Westin hotel before heading up to Belfast in the morning.

to be continued...

another update; first trip to Belfast

For those of you who haven't heard: My parents and I arrived back in Tulsa safe, sound, and tired at 7:30 pm yesterday evening (saturday) after a 9-day whirlwind tour of Dublin and Northern Ireland. I've been home a little over 24 hours at the time of this writing.

To continue where I left off at the end of my last post...

(Unfortunately, I stopped keeping up with my journal around Sunday July 11, the weekend some friends and I were in Galway. So I'm writing the rest of this post just from what I happen to remember and from pictures.)

After coming back from a memorable trip to Galway on Tuesday afternoon, I had to do some clothing shuffling and re-packing for our group 3-day "field trip" up to Belfast the next day. We left Dublin at 8:30 wednesday morning and ever-so-sneakily drove into Northern Ireland. It's rather strange - despite being different countries, there is absolutely no border control of any kind between Ireland and the section of the UK that is No. Ireland. Traveling by car, the only way to tell when you pass the border is looking for when the painted road lines on the outside edge change from yellow to white.

We arrived in Belfast and drove around the suburbs for a while, going past many large murals like this one (actually photographed in Derry) painted on walls:

We also stopped to take a look at an interface - or peace wall - that ran beside one road. These walls are in place between Nationalist and Unionist (or Catholic and Protestant) suburbs to deter violence between the two sides.

After checking into our hotel and grabbing some lunch, we drove over into the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, where the Titanic and her sister ships Britannic and Olympic were built by a company called Harland & Wolff. Comprising of the shipyards, docks, and surrounding area, the Titanic Quarter is an area of Belfast that is currently undergoing a significant development and rejuvenation. There are literally dozens of cranes in the area working on constructing hotels and other buildings. A state-of-the-art Titanic interactive exhibit should be complete in a couple years. Our group was given a special tour of the building that served as the Harland & Wolff headquarters at the time. We saw the ornate drawing rooms in which the plans for the ships were made, as well and the room where the fateful decision about the number of lifeboats was made. Then we headed over to the dry dock where Titanic was stationed for a paint job and to have the engines attached. The dry dock can hold 23 million gallons of water, and the steam-powered pumps in the pump house nearby could drain all 23 Million gallons in less than 2 hours.

The next day, we hopped on the bus and drove over to the city of Derry - the only European city that remains completely walled. There is a wall that encircles the original layout of the city. Of course, it is a modernized city both within the walls and outside, and it has expanded far beyond the constraints of the old walls. Today, people are able to walk all the way around the old city along the top of the wall, which is what we did. We also had time to view some wall murals, visit the Museum of Free Derry, and explore city centre for a while before driving back to Belfast.

On Friday, we headed up to Carrickfergus to have a tour of the well-preserved large medieval castle. At the end, our guide showed us some pretty cool replicas of old weapons and armour. After seeing the castle, we went back into Belfast and saw the Stormont parliament building - home of No. Ireland's parliament. It was a relaxing afternoon, and after dinner, we all spent some time at a historic pub called The Crown. If you ever find yourself in Belfast, stop by this place.

We came back to Dublin on Saturday morning, and the rest of my time until Thursday was mainly spent doing some research and writing essays. Monday evening was our farewell dinner at the greyhound race track, and I had fun watching 11 dog races. And then Wednesday night was packing night, and I officially moved out of Dublin City University on Thursday morning.

more to come...stay tuned!

Time for some updates, yes?

MANY APOLOGIES FOR THE LONG TIME DELAY SINCE MY LAST POST.

now that I've said that...

I am currently at the Clarion Hotel close to the Dublin Airport. My study abroad program ended on July 21, and my parents arrived in Dublin a day later. We have been traveling around together since then. To fill in some of the gaps (or the large gap):

On American Independence Day, Sunday July 4, our group got to watch the Leinster (one of the 4 provinces of Ireland) hurling final match between Kilkenny and Galway, which Kilkenny won. We learned later that the Kilkenny hurling team is one of the best in Ireland's history. If they win the all-Ireland final in September, they will be the best and most victorious team ever.

A couple days later, some friends and I discovered a really great Indian restaurant, Afsana, in the Temple Bar area. I took my parents back there a few days ago.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of meeting up with a few friends who graduated from TU a couple years ago - James and Eleanor Bailey. We went to the Turk's Head in Temple Bar, where I discovered Dublin's best fish n chips. We also watched Spain defeat Germany in the World Cup semifinal match. It was great to see Spaniards in the pubs and out on the streets of Dublin celebrating like there was no tomorrow.

The next weekend (Friday), the six new people and I headed out to Galway and checked in to Snoozles hostel. Some of them went to see the new Twilight movie (I did not go...), and the others and I found a restaurant that serves up some really fantastic crepes. The next day, we headed out in the morning on a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher and surrounding area. The weather was a bit worse than the first time I went; it was raining for most of the tour, but the rain stopped temporarily when we were at the cliffs.

Before coming back to Dublin on Tuesday (no class Monday or Tuesday!), we ate at the crepe place one last time and then headed to bed. I, however, upon returning to my room at the hostel, discovered two cute French gals who were also staying there, and they invited me out into town. How could I refuse? and thus ended my last full day in Galway.

I have more stuff to post later. stay tuned.

new hobbies and a new session

Time for another blog update. In Ireland, a lot happens in 9 days, and we are now a week into session II - The Shaping of Modern Ireland.

The period in between the summer sessions was a relaxing one. A couple of the first session students were staying in Dublin for a week after it ended, so most evenings we got together for dinner downtown. On Saturday, June 26, I encountered a stroke of luck, and I obtained some bravery from the wizard. The stroke of luck was finding on the ground a 30-day, 100 euro bus pass that still had 16 days left on it. I used the bravery to make myself an open coin container out of a cereal box, take the box and my recorder downtown, sit on the ground, and begin playing. For 2.5 hours that afternoon, I pounded out the same three tunes over and over and made myself 10 euros. And bought a milkshake. An Irish guitarist even invited me to play with him later that evening, but I never found him again. And then Ghana defeated the USA in the World Cup and ruined my whole day.

The next morning, six new, sleep-deprived ladies showed up on campus for the second session. After meeting them, I headed back downtown with my box and recorder and earned 3.56 euro in the afternoon. After dinner, I cruised the street and played a couple songs with a Jamaican drummer and another guitarist for another 3.40. I had developed a new hobby, but I haven't had time to work the street since then.

On Monday morning, we had breakfast and a tour of city centre for the new people, and then I took them to O'Neills pub and the milkshake bar. Had to get the local favorites into their brains. Our afternoon tour the next day was of St. Michan's church and crypt, in which there were several naturally well-preserved mummies dating as far back as 800 years. Wednesday was highlighted by a visit to St. Patrick's cathedral and a chance meeting with a friend from college back home. We met up for dinner and drinks in the evening. As it turns out, the walk from city centre to DCU campus is feasible with comfortable shoes and something to occupy the mind.

There was no class on Friday, so four new friends and I headed up to see Howth and Malahide (for the castle, which is overrated in hindsight). On Saturday, we hit some of the southern coastal villages; we did the hike from Bray to Greystones and stopped by Dun Laoghaire on the return trip. In the evening, we had dinner at Bewleys Cafe and hopped around in the Temple Bar area for a while before returning to campus.

In other news.....Happy Independence Day!! I hope all of you will party all day.

The last days of the first session

Hello Americans, I'm Stephen Nimick. You know what the news is, in a minute, you're going to hear the rest of the story.

Things have gotten a bit quieter here at Dublin City University. Many of the friends who were enrolled in only the first summer session have departed for home or elsewhere. Four out of the six people staying for the second session are traveling in Scotland for a few days. So now it is just my buddies Andy, Ariel, and I being Dublin chums. Our only plans so far: shopping (go figure), eating at a burrito place, and finding the city's best Chinese food.

Last Sunday, some of us went to Croke Park stadium to watch a couple hurling matches. As far as I could tell, hurling is a sport played on a large field in a large arena. The players on the two teams each carry a wooden 'hurley' that resembles a field hockey stick, except a hurley is shorter and wider. The one game ball is spherical and is smaller than a baseball, but just as hard. Players can pass the ball to each other or carry it on their sticks or in their hand. The goals are made up of two components: a soccer-like goal at each end of the field, and attached to the upper corners of that goal are two upright poles, much like field goal posts in American football. Hitting the ball through the uprights earns 1 point, while getting the ball past the goalie into the net is 3 points. There are two 35-minute halves. Players where minimal padding besides soft helmets.

After Sunday, it is about at this time when people began focusing on the three essays that would be due Wednesday at midnight. ~Wait, you mean we're taking a class right now? ~ back to the academic reality of things.

We had a group farewell dinner on Monday evening, and not much has occurred since then, save for going out Wednesday for a last night in Dublin (for most people), and seeing some live music and Irish dancing Thursday night.

I will post again when......when it makes sense. Reporting from Dublin, Stephen Nimick. Good Day.

Field Trip - West of Ireland

Last Wednesday, our group departed Dublin and headed west. Along the way, we stopped at the Strokestown House, Museum, and Gardens - a complex dedicated to showing how the 19th century rich landowners lived and the famine's effect on the native Irish tenant farmers. We also stopped at the National Museum of Country Life near Castlebar, county Mayo. As the name implies, this museum displays how peasants lived from 1850-1950.

At long last, we arrived in Westport and checked in to the Mill Times Hotel, a very nice rustic-feeling place. After walking around the town and doing a little shopping, it was time for dinner. Allow me to give you a taste of what was on the menu:

Appetizers:

Soup de jour

Deep fried mushrooms with petite salad and a garlic & herb mayonnaise

Chicken Caesar salad

Main Courses:

Pan fried breast of chicken on a bed of stir fried vegetables with a garlic dressing

Stuffed leg of mayo lamb with pureed vegetables and a red wine & rosemary jus

Traditional deep fried fish & chips with salad and tartar sauce

Desserts:

Selection of ice creams with a brandy butterscotch sauce

sticky toffee pudding with creme anglaise

creme brulee with freshly whipped cream

are you hungry yet?

Breakfast on Thursday morning (and every morning) was a combination of a continental buffet and hot foods to order. We left the hotel at 9:45 to do some hiking and see some famine monuments and memorials. Our first stop was in the small town of Murrisk, near the Croagh Patrick mountain. St. Patrick supposedly built a chapel on top of Croagh Patrick in the fifth century. Every year in July, thousands of people gather at the base to make a pilgrimage to the top. Some of them climb barefoot.

Murrisk is also home to the National Famine Monument, a metal sculpture of an emigration boat, or 'coffin ship'. You can see why.

Later, we headed to Connemara National Park for some scenic hiking through a wide-open, hilly, grassy plains-like area and a chance to play on a playground for kids under 12. We were told to hike along the short loop path, about a 20 minute walk, but somehow we ended up on a longer loop. The beautiful views of the coastline made it worth it.

Then it was back to the hotel for some dinner. Please allow me to show you our menu:

Appetizers:

Soup de jour

Fresh water shrimp salad with marie rose sauce & seasonal leaves

Herterich's pan-fried bavarian sausage with savory mash & red wine jus

Main Courses:

Roast stuffed turkey & ham with a rich roast gravy & potato croquette

Poached supreme of salmon with stir fried vegetables & a white wine cream reduction

Pan fried pork cutlet on wholegrain mustard mash & a thyme & rosemary jus lie

Desserts:

Warm apple pie with lightly whipped cream

poached pears covered in a mulled wine syrup

sticky toffee pudding with fruit coulis

After dinner, we went to see a live traditional band - Captain Mackey's Goatskin and Stringband - over at Matt Molloy's pub. Any fans of the Chieftains should recognize that name. We met briefly and shook hands later in the night.

After breakfast on Friday, we headed to Hennigans Heritage Centre, a museum of sorts in a rural area of County Mayo. The Centre is made up of a house and farm on which the Hennigan family has lived for nearly 200 years. We were met there by Tom Hennigan, a man who grew up in the house and lived there until 1970. The 22 of us gathered in a small room of his 2-room house and listened to Tom tell stories of his family's history. A wonderful storyteller, Tom can give you an account of every artifact in the house, and can remember everything you say in an interview. In the words of one of our directors, Tom is keeping it real.

After grabbing some lunch, we went on a bus tour of the Atlantic coastline, then headed back to the hotel for dinner. This is the last dinner, I promise.

Appetizers:

Cream of vegetable soup

Atlantic seafood chowder

Deep fried brie with petite salad, orange reduction and mixed berry compote

Farmyard chicken and field mushroom vol au vent

Main Courses:

Blackened salmon fillet with ratatouille of vegetables and sweet chilli mayonnaise

Pan-fried supreme of chicken on stir-fry of vegetables, wholegrain mustard and wild mushroom cream sauce

Roast rump of mayo lamb with puree of vegetables, potato rosti and rosemary and garlic jus

Desserts:

Selection of ice creams with butterscotch sauce

strawberry cheesecake with whipped cream

poached pears with vanilla ice cream

sticky toffee pudding with whipped cream

After eating our last breakfast Saturday morning, we hopped on the bus for the last time and drove back to Dublin.