Half way through, and boy does it hurt.

That's right. I've been here exactly 2 months and in 2 months I'll be on a plane on my way home. Kind of a bummer, kind of a relief. I love it here, but that's not to say I'm not stoked to come home and see all my friends and family. I miss you all a metric ton. I know it's been a while since my last post and I do apologize for that, but I really haven't done anything too exciting since we went to Inis Oirr. Sunday I went on a hike with the mountaineering club. Being from Colorado and having climbed mountains before I decided I could go on the most challenging route seeing as how the mountain is probably only 2km (approx. 6000 feet) or so tall. This proved to be one of the worst choices of my life. It started out rough, going over hills and rocks, and was a lot of fun and my confidence was high. As it turns out the Irish don't use trails and shortly after the rest of the group split off we found ourselves hopping on rocks across creeks, and walking through marshes.

It started off very flat, quickly became a swamp with random drop offs into creeks hidden by bushes. We walked along a quite easy path for a while, aside from being wet and having to watch where we step. After a while we came to a cool little lake hanging out in a valley. It turns out this mountain range is a big horseshoe shaped ridge around the lake. We could see this the whole hike. We wandered along through bog until we came to the side of the mountain, where we meandered down and into the valley, by the lake. We marched through rocky beaches and across creeks and streams, hopping from rock to rock to get across.

shortly after we had to start trekking back up the mountain, and this meant we had to climb over rocks and such. When I say climb over rocks I MEAN climbing over rocks. This was by far the funnest part of the hike. When we got over the rocks we had a good view of the lake and they handed out chocolate as a "morale booster." Having a lot of  fun so far I was curious as to why we needed our morale boosted, then I realized the near impossible task ahead of us. Hiking up the side of the mountain, no trail, over rocks and bushes and bog like terrain at a 50 degree angle (not exaggerating)

We hiked up this in a very round about way, and it nearly killed me. The rocks were not good footholds and several times I found myself grasping at bushes as the ground gave way and I slid down the mountain. Several times I found myself on all fours literally clambering up the mountain, which proved much easier than walking. After seemingly hours of hell we made it to the top.... just in time for it to cloud over and give us no visibility at all. There we stopped for lunch and rest, then followed the ridge along up to the very highest summit, which was up a stone covered staircase type climb. Not as bad as the first, but still decently challenging. After that it was a long and tedious downward slope that was a knee and toe killer. After a while of heading down we crossed a cool little bridge by a lake, that was a good place for pictures. After we made it back to the bus we had to wait for one group to get back, and then we headed to a pub for some food and drink after a hard days hike. Unfortunately I got food poisoning from it... fun. Other than the hike I've just been doing the same old things, day after day, weekend after weekend. Hopefully my traveling will pick up soon and I'll have more fun stuff to talk about. This weekend is the world famous Cork Jazz Festival and so far it's been amazing. Last night we saw the ending set of a Queen cover band that rocked us.

That's all for now, I'll try to be better at keeping this updated.

Long time, no see.

It's hard to believe I've been here over a month already. Times been moving pretty fast the past couple weeks, and we just had our first week of classes. I'm planning on taking Archaeology of the Viking age, Introduction to Traditional Irish Music, Modern Irish, Celtic Religion and Mythology and finally Celtic Saints. Celtic Saints seems unbearably boring, but incredibly easy for international students, so I'll probably stick it out. I was sick last weekend, and took it pretty easy this weekend so I don't really have much to update on, check back next week... sorry gang.

Inis Oírr (Inisheer - "East Island")

This weekend was the second field trip with my early start and after a 6 hour bus ride and 2 hour ferry ride we arrived on the small island, where our class made up about 10% of the population(approx. 300). We stayed in a small hostel which had no locks, but our window faced out to the ocean, which was only about 100 feet away. Due to a water shortage the whole island basically turns off the water from 8 pm to 8 am. It was fascinating really. I don't know if they have a small reservoir, or bring in water, or if they just purify the ocean water or what, but it all tasted like minerals and chlorine. It's got the feel of a tiny town in Wyoming where everyone knows everyone, because I legitimately think that everyone does know everyone so we stuck out like 34 sore thumbs. My friends and I stuck out less than everyone else because apparently we were the only ones who had ever heard the term "ugly Americans." 90% of the rest of the group were exactly that. Loud, obnoxious, comparing everything to the U.S., telling Irish people they couldn't understand what they were trying to say through their accents. It infuriated me. I actually found myself reminding some of them that we're the one with accents here, which they didn't seem to comprehend, because they all just sat there and stared back with confused looks.

The whole of the Island is covered in these rock walls that really aren't used for anything. Occasionally you'll come across a cow or a horse inside one of the walls with no gate and wonder A. how they got in there and B. how the owners get them out. and when I say covered, I mean covered. with the exception of along the coast there's a stone wall about every 25 feet, if not less. The walls are pretty cool too, they're awkwardly stacked rocks, that some how manage to stay up, and along with the stone castles, I have no idea where they got all these rocks. Seriously, there's an unfathomably HUGE number of rocks put into these walls. No... seriously I can confidently say without even exaggerating, many hundreds of thousands if not millions. Below that is a picture of the walls a bit closer up so you can see how I'm not pulling your leg or any other appendage by using numbers that big. Another thing is that people here become maniacs when they board any vehicle. In cars they drive fast and terrifying and on bikes they weave in and out of these crazy drivers. I don't ever want to hear anyone complaining that people who bike on the roads in the U.S. are annoying, cause over here they become a hazard. In Cork there are plenty of roads that go from two lane two way roads to one lane two way roads without any notice other than the fact that the lines are gone. Either that or people just choose to drive the wrong way on one way roads. I'm really not sure.

 One of the big things to see in Inis Oírr is the shipwreck. I can't tell you a whole lot about it because this place isn't really touristy at all. There are no signs at the sights, and the road signs and maps are all in Irish. In fact, most people on the island speak Irish instead of English, which is really cool aside from the fact that the 2 pubs on the island were full (10 or so) of Irish people quite blatantly talking about us in Irish. Anyways, back to the ship. It's big, it's old and it's tetanus just waiting to happen. I don't think you're supposed to go inside... but we did anyways. There wasn't a whole lot to it other than the fact that it was rusty and dripping everywhere. Also, the back wall of the interior has become a canvas for spray painters. On the right is a picture of what we got to wake up to. That's the view from our hostel room, and it was amazing. Unfortunately it only happened on Saturday, because Friday morning was cloudy and it rained the rest of the day.

Quick quiz. Ireland is associated with what?
a. Beer
b. Potatoes
c. The Irish
d. Shamrocks
e. All of the above but it should also be known for the hilarious warning signs everywhere.

Answer: e
Seriously. This is the only funny sign I have a picture of so far, but I'm really tempted to make a completely separate page just for all the comical warning signs I see.

That's right by the dock, in front of parking spaces.

The greenest green I've ever seen.

This was an interesting weekend for sure. On Thursday my class took a field trip out to a small city by the name of Bunratty, which is known for it's one castle, which was pretty cool despite that its surrounded by a "Folk Park" which is one of those historic parks where everyone dresses in era clothing and works jobs that would have been done in a historically accurate manner. It also had the first pub I've found that puts the shamrock shape in the head of a pint of Guinness. The castle was interesting and as we went with the class we actually took a guided tour that gave us some very interesting insight on how clever the architects where back then. I thought this was a really cool shot of a castle with the Irish flag blowing in the wind.

This is a full shot of the castle. Every corner of the castle is a staircase, and each staircase is narrow and rotates clockwise upwards. The reason for this is because if soldiers were attacking the castle then they would have to charge up these stairs, and as most used their right hands to carry their swords they wouldn't be able to get very much strength in their swings because the center pillar of the staircase would confine their movements. Pretty smart on the builder's part if you ask me. They also had all sorts of traps and hidden areas, along with eye holes in the tapestries that the guards could watch from and spy on what was going on in the castles. This place was straight out of Scooby Doo. It also used a draw bridge as the only access point to the castle.

Besides the castle the only real interesting things are the long walkways covered with tree's over hanging the whole area. It was like Lord of the Rings scenery going on in this place and it was absolutely breath taking. I got a little trigger happy with the camera when we were walking about the folk park.



Who said there's no mountains in Ireland? This is from the weekend trip we took up to Killarney. We hopped a bus up there Friday afternoon, and came back Sunday morning, so we really only had one day there, so we rented bikes and rode around in the national park which was absolutely gorgeous. We spent the majority of the time looking for places in the park that were in a different segment of the park. Apparently the national park is actually several parks all about 3 or 4 km from the last. This is in the second park we got to, and took about at 4 km ride through which was very scenic. This was on the way to beautiful waterfall that is nestled deep in the forest on the side of a mountain. Everything here is super green and super awesome. I completely understand why it's called the Emerald Isle.

Torc Waterfall. Pretty big, pretty beautiful ----->

<------- Climbed up the waterfall past the rocks... probably weren't supposed to but it was worth it. I drank a little bit of the water (partly because I was out of water and really thirsty, partly because I wanted it to give me eternal life) I hope it doesn't kill me. It probably won't because people down below were doing it. I don't know if there are any superstitions as to what will happen if you bathe in/drink the water from this waterfall, I'm just hoping its magical really.

After the waterfall we rode back out of the forest and went and chilled down on a rocky beach by an enormous lake. We hung out there for a while and skipped stones but really nothing interesting happened (so I'm not really sure why I brought it up... I think it's just because I really like this picture).

Ross Castle. On the edge of a lake, it's truly a sight to behold but I couldn't get a good picture because you have to pay for a tour to get in and we all decided it wasn't worth the 2 euros to go in when we could bike to the waterfall for free. We were allowed to go into the grounds, just not the castle. This was the boringest (so far, aside from the fact that it's on a lake) castle I've been inside next to.

 Nothing really special about this picture, I just really like the landscape shot again, so I thought I'd share it.

That's all for now, check back next week for a new post (probably)

Pucker up and hope you don't die.

Popped on up to Blarney today, and checked out Blarney Castle. Surprisingly it's only about 6 or 7 kilometers from my apartment, and that's by road. As a bird flies it can't be more than about 3 I'd say. Got my first glimpse at the rolling green hills covered with farms on the drive there, which was absolutely breathtaking, would have snapped a picture but it was gone so quickly I barely had time to say "my god..." I'll hopefully get some good pics up of that in the coming weeks after I go check out Dingle.

This is the Castle. It looks pretty small on the outside, but is surprisingly tall once you get to the top. When we first got there we went into the dungeons, which you would think would be in a basement, but were actually up a short set of stair, and then through a long 3' x 3' tunnel that had loose rocks, mud and water scattered on the bottom. An incredibly tedious 20 feet later and you get into a small cramped room, and wonder why you put yourself through all that to really see nothing. After that we started to head up to the top and see what all the hubbub was about. The interior of this place is just one huge maze. Spiral staircase after spiral staircase, leading to rooms and other spiral staircases. The worst part is the stairwells got smaller and smaller the higher you got and by the time we were about 6 steps from the top I had to hunch my shoulders to squeeze through.

And if you can mange to fit out of the door, the cool wind will blow your hair all around and it's impossible to no gasp at the sea of green the castle is floating in. Promptly out the door there's a good chance you'll be stepping right into last place in line to kiss the stone. While waiting in line (which slowly wraps around the top of the castle) there's plenty of time to snap pictures, and get all hyped up, because you're about to be dangled upside down, with nothing between you and falling to the ground but the old man holding onto your jacket, and your grip on the bars, but we'll get to that in a bit.

This is a shot from the top of the castle of the Blarney House, a cool old house that... well I don't actually know what the deal with it is because we didn't want to pay again for the tour, and you're not allowed in unless you do... All I know is that it's cool looking.

And suddenly, you're at the front of the line and the man tells you "no hats, no glasses, sit down and lie backwards, grab the metal bars, lean down and kiss the bottom stone." and you do, and then you're back up. Only I thought he said "lean down and kiss the bottom of the stone" so I pulled myself as far down as possible to kiss the bottom corner, and I'm glad I did cause right when I got down there, I could see all of the horizon (only inverted) against the smooth black stone.

                  (By the way, that's not me in the picture above)

This on the left is Blarney House. It's pretty big, pretty old and pretty cool. Once again, I have no idea what it's story is. I'm assuming someone lived there at one point.

To give you an idea of it's size that pink dot on the front steps is a person.

After that we just putzed around for a bit before catching a cab back to cork. There were some decently cool rocks and trees, as well as a waterfall with a staircase behind it know as the "Wishing Stairs." What you have to do for your wish to come true is go up the stairs, then walk backwards down them with your eyes closed and then walk back up them with your eyes closed still. There's a large rock sticking out at the top of the door (which is only about 4' tall) so when going back up I suggest keeping a hand a couple of inches in front of your face to know when you've almost hit it.

Chronicling my journey, take two.

I've got some pictures of the campus and of the view from just outside my building that I guess I can post. So far most everyone has been very nice and friendly. On the tour of campus at orientation our guide gave us his attempt at an American accent (after much begging from the rest of the group) and apparently to him we all sound like Pres. Bush but only higher pitched and nasally. We all had a good laugh.

Yesterday was the All Ireland Gaelic Football Semi-Finals and me and some friends went to a pub donned in Cork's colors and tried to make sense of the game. Really it's very fascinating. Imagine soccer, basketball and volleyball mixed into one sport, and played on an enormous field (much bigger than a soccer field) with 30 players on the field (15 per team) at all times. I really recommend you look it up. Cork won by the way, 1-15 to 1-14. I wish I could see a game of Hurling, but unfortunately Cork was beaten by Kilkenny just before we got here so it may be difficult to come by.

This is some building on campus, I'm not sure what, but its gorgeous. Also every door is like that one you can see in the background behind the biker.

This here is the Main Quadrangle, and houses most of the offices of the important people at the school as well as the Aula Maxima (Grand Hall). It's basically the main building on campus, and its kind of hard to see, but the whole lower half is covered with vines. It's very cool.

This is the Chapel, and much like the one at DU is constantly booked for weddings. I have yet to pass it during the day and not see a wedding party hanging out outside.

LiveJournal sucks!

The post about my room and my arriving that has been posted on LiveJournal.com will be the only post there. Likewise, it will be the only post not listed here, because I don't care to put it up again. It can be found here if you haven't already read it (although I must admit its very boring). Now you may be wondering why it is that I have switched from livejournal to blogger. Live journal had this nasty habit of NEVER letting my upload photos. It worked long enough for me to post the picture of my room key, and I guess decided it was too good for my photos. Either way, I've moved here because it doesn't make me wait through 30 minutes of a loading screen to tell me that the photo could not be uploaded.