Cliffs of Moher by Star Cat on Flickr.

Cliffs of Moher by Star Cat on Flickr.

Donegal landscape by jennifée {struggling to keep up} on Flickr.

Short walk home to the castle from

Durty Nellys

Dingle - Ireland

Photograph by Medford Taylor, National Geographic

From Far&InBetween:

“Kylemoore  Abbey in Ireland - A door in the Victorian Walled Gardens
The owner of this great castle built this garden for his wife, and the garden 
has high walls so they could have privacy. However, she died at a young age
when they were vacationing in Egypt. Afterwards, he rarely came back to the
castle, and the Benedictine Nuns are now taking care of the gardens.”

More info about the Victorian Walled Gardens here.

There will be an engagement party in Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland on Saturday the 9th of July 2011 in the Sheebeen, just outside Westport Quay.

There will be live music.

My Shadow @ “Inisheer” - by Akshay Bhardwaj

Eyeries, Ireland (by Clivy)

lahinch.

Donegal landscape by jennifée {struggling to keep up} on Flickr.

I have a particular affinity for Irish street art and political posters.  

Somewhere you’d like to move or visit.

I’ve been to Ireland and it’s absolutely lovely.  The people are friendly and the landscape is beautiful, plus there’s a lot of rich history mixed with wild legend.  I’d like to visit again. 

As for moving, I’d love to move to Washington, D.C.  I love it there and I’d like to make it my home.

having a good crack means having a good time or enjoying yourself in irish slang. sometimes they say: “how’s the crack?” or “what’s the crack?” or “i’m having a crack”. pretty funny sounding to me. it comes from the gaelic word “craic” which essentially means “fun” though it doesn’t have an exact english translation. 

monday night we went out to dinner to get some “pub grub” as it’s called here. i, of course, ordered a guinness and it tastes so much better here! seriously. never buying it in the bottle from the states ever again, haha. since i bought a pint, i decided to buy something cheaper for dinner and i got some creamy vegetable soup with homemade brown bread. uhhhh AMAZING! so delicious and extremely filling. only 8 euros all together too. i was expecting great, filling soup and bread in ireland and i was not at all disappointed (:

after that, we were all a little jet lagged and decided to call it a night. the weirdest part of being here is walking home around 10:15 at night and it’s completely bright out. that’ll take me awhile to get used to, haha. 

the next day (tuesday) we met up with our CEA correspondant. CEA is the program i went with through my school. (sorry if that sounds confusing.) his name is brian and he is a graduate student here. so nice and his accent is adorable! haha. he showed us the path to take to get to school where we got our class schedules. after, we got a tour of campus. the campus is really small and very modern in most parts. my favorite part is the oldest part of campus. it’s called the quad and it is exactly what you would picture an irish university to look like. 

 

after the campus tour, we went to lunch and CEA bought our lunch so i was able to finally get some fish and chips since we could spend up to 15 euro and the fish and chips are about 9 or 10 euro here. SO DELICIOUS. i’m not even kidding. i’ve had fish and fries in the states before, but there is no comparison here. the irish definitely know their fish. and the tarter sauce was amazing. ask my parents and you’ll know that i don’t normally like tarter sauce, but it was perfect here. 

when we were done with lunch, we walked through town and brian showed us the direction to take to get back to the apartments and then he left us on our own. all of us split up in groups and about 4 of us stuck together and wandered through town. we needed to buy phones/sim cards so we got those first. we found out that it costs more to call an irish person than for me to call the states. weird, right? we found this amazing chocolate shop. it has chocolate that is made in dublin. soooooo good. i was expecting it to be just alright, but it was so yummy. i got an irish cream truffle… heaven. we saw this little boy playing music on the street and he sounded so much older. he is definitely the next justin bieber. i got about 10 seconds of him singing on video and i’ll upload it to facebook later so you all can it (:

we also took a few pictures by the corrib river. we were able to dangle our feet over the ledge and just sit for awhile. we decided that we were always going to study outside, as long as it’s not raining! haha. the river is so pretty and peaceful. you can see a church across the way and the city behind you. i still feel weird calling it a city, though, since it’s so rural and quaint. 

this is a picture of shop street below. there are tons of little shops (hence the name, haha) and some restaurants and pubs on this street. i love the way it looks. 

we decided to walk back to campus and buy some hoodies. 35 euro for one hoodie (over $45 converted) and there was only one choice… but i know i’ll love having it later. it’s super comfy and i didn’t bring a hoodie, so it’s perfect to sleep in (:

we decided to eat a small dinner at home since we’d already eaten out for lunch and then we headed out to the local pubs. we started walking there and it started pouring. not just a light drizzle, but to the point where we stayed under a bridge until it let up a little. then we eventually called a taxi to take us the last 15 minutes of our walk to the pub. it cost us 9 euro all together, which is not how i would like to spend my money next time. i will not be forgetting my umbrella next time, no matter how lame i look haha. 

i tried a bulmers last night at the pub. it’s a hard irish cider. it was really delicious. a nice alternative to the heavy guinness. this is my friend meggie and i. she’s a really sweet girl. i really seem to hang out with her and my friend jamie a lot, which is great. i love having some pretty close friends already. all of the girls are super nice and friendly, though, which makes this all so much fun. oh yeah, and there’s one guy in the group… poor guy, haha. 

today, i woke up and went to a small lecture that discussed what all the classes would be going over. then i went to my first class at 11am: irish society. it seems pretty fast paced and i’m a little worried since i’m one of the only people taking two courses. i hope i still have time to explore ireland as much as i want to. later today at 4pm i have my “representing ireland in literature and film” which i’m excited about. wish me luck! also, my class schedule is completely different each week, which i hate. i would love to just have two different days that i have class, but it varies each week. 

i have my window in my room open right now. it’s a gorgeous day today. the sun is shining and it’s nearly 60 degrees. perfection (:

fun fact of the day: yesterday was the longest day for ireland. it was the summer solstice and the sun set at 11pm and apparently rose at 3am. (i was asleep at this time so i do not know if this is true or not, haha. our cab driver told us this.) but i kinda wish i would’ve stayed up to see it because that’s pretty amazing.

another fun fact: it is not customary to tip people here. you normally tip maybe 10% at restaurants, but for cab drivers and anybody else, it would be weird for you to tip.

Lough Eske, Donegal

The world can be quite beautiful sometimes.

Dunguaire Midsummer (by Robert Riddell)

Moody sky on a June evening as the tide was turning.
Dunguaire Castle (Irish: Dún Guaire) is a 16th-century tower house on the southeastern shore of Galway Bay in County Galway, Ireland, near Kinvarra. The castle’s 75-foot tower and its defensive wall have been restored to excellent condition, and the grounds are open to tourists during the summer. It is thought to be the most photographed castle in Ireland.

The castle was built by the Hynes clan in 1520, a family who may have been associated with the area since 662, when the site is believed to have once been the royal palace of Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, the legendary king of Connacht and progenitor of the clan. Dunguaire Castle was transferred in the 17th century to Oliver Martin, (father of Richard Martin fitz Oliver). It remained in his family until it was purchased in the early 20th century by the surgeon and poet Oliver St. John Gogarty. Gogarty began restoring the castle and established it as the meeting place for the leading figures of the Celtic Revival, such as W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Augusta, Lady Gregory, and John Millington Synge.

The officer and the champion golfer

Barney Murphy is a 49-year-old Irish-born cop on Cape Cod with a golf game so utterly hopeless that he can’t bring himself to keep score. Rory McIlroy is the new United States Open champion, a 22-year-old Northern Irishman who has captured the hearts and hopes of the entire golfing world.

“May God give you…For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a...

ireland32 (by shawn lenker)

I went to Target to purchase all sorts of tiny toiletries for our upcoming trip to Ireland. (I’m not checking a bag, and that quart-size Ziploc shit is ridiculous.) I decided to take a little pitstop in the luggage section and ended up leaving with an adorable new passport cover. If I’m going to continue traveling internationally with a hideous photo of my 16-year-old self, I deserve something cute to distract people.

When my boyfriend got home, I wanted to show him.

“Look at this, E! Isn’t it cool?!”
“For being completely unnecessary, I guess so.”

He spent five minutes complaining that I didn’t need it.

“Let me see it,” he finally said.

After I handed it over, he began beating it on the counter.

“Let’s see how this holds up! I’m going to simulate the most extreme travel scenario.”

Then he threw it across the room.

“Is your passport ok?” he asked after I retrieved it.

Sort of annoying. 

i imagine ireland to look like this

Summer evening, 40 foot, Dublin, Ireland. (by 2c..)

The Soda Parlour (by Dale Simonson)

Powers Of Three  by Mickey Smith

Michael Fassbender, actor

The Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland.

I took this photo atop the brewery’s Gravity Bar, the 360? glass enclosed lounge where visitors can enjoy a free pint of fresh brewed Guinness and view a remarkable, panoramic view of Dublin, Ireland.

Toby soaking up the sun we rarely have :)

“May God give you…For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.”

—Irish Blessing x

Photo

The Dubliners - Clavelitos

In the hostel in Dublin, there was a white board with suggestions of where to go next.

Shannon, Ireland

Swift is actually a crazy person. He uses biting Juvenalian satire in his works and is a coprophiliac. His writing is precise and clear and situationally ironic.

Gulliver’s Travels

• as a whole, divided into four books
• satire of men’s desires for scientific knowledge
• inventive travel through literature - plays around with perspective - makes insignificant things more important and unimportant things insignificant
• Gulliver is first a victim of a shipwreck and has lost his glasses so is concerned with his eyes because he lacks protection
• Swift wants the reader the see the emphasis on seeing clearly
• Gulliver has characteristics of every man - gullible - to gull someone is to trick them - he is easily gulled
• the Lilliputans are nasty and petty so we side with Gulliver - he is the gentle, well-meaning person who is not trusted
• the little people chain him to an abandoned church - they are small-minded, secretive, waspish, irritable and morally little
• they are representative of English people - religious quarrels, etc.
• the Lilliputans drug Gulliver while he is eating so they can move him to the church - satiric - fighting over religion
• Redrasol explains quarrels to Gulliver and warns him about what the court plans to do with him
• Gulliver is kept inside the church as if he is a big elephant - goes out to the end of his chain, as if he were a dog - Swift exaggerates our animalistic characteristics to us make us disgusted with being human
• Swift has nasty things to say about women throughout Gulliver’s - misogyny and misanthropy
• his works make you not proud to be a human
• Gulliver is accused of flirtations with some of the court officials’ wives - disproportionate and gross
• Gulliver is convinced to wade across the water to the Blafustus (France) to bring their fleet to Lilliput (Britain) and dispose of the people - he will not do it because he is too kind
• because he consumes too much, the Lilliputans plan to kill him off by slowly starving him
• progression of uncertainty to complete madness - satirizes Gulliver at the end
• progression of animalistic behavior and brutality
• being servile to the emperor, breaking the eggs, high heels and low heels (tories and whigs)
• with the Brobdingnads, Gulliver is now the small, morally little one
• the Brobdingnad king is horrified at the thought of all the animalistic tendencies of Gulliver’s nation
• the king realizes Gulliver has left things out and hates it
• Swift is famous for his lists of things - comic exaggerations
• satire of priests, counselors, lawyers, etc.
• last line of Brobdingnads insults human race - Gulliver is tortured in this book
• people are insects
• Gulliver tries to defend his country
• Brobdingnads are not all great - a girl finds Gulliver and gives him to her father who exploits Gulliver for money and keeps him prisoner in a doll house
• when Gulliver begins to wear out and get sick, he is sold to Brobdingnadian queen
• at the end of Book II, the little girl takes Gulliver to the seashore and Gulliver is dropped into the ocean by an eagle 
• Europeans see Gulliver in the doll house, rescue him and take him home
• Gulliver is bored and goes to a series of islands
• the island of Laputa - women’s husbands pay no attention to them and to get their husband’s attention, the men’s ears must be flapped
• the island floats above another island that the women climb down to to visit the men below
• Swift satirizes a number of projectors who are looking to make changes
• island of Strood Broogs - people are immortal on this island - satirizes instinctive hopes and beliefs
• there is sometimes a baby born with a mark on his head, signifying his immortality
• you would keep aging and aging and aging and as you aged, you got more decrepit 
• Book IV is the most satirical of human reason
• Gulliver arrives in the land of the Winnoms - reasonable horses who are so reasonable they do not feel any emotions
• surprised Gulliver can talk because the horses have slaves who are less-developed human beings called yahoos
• Gulliver is essentially a yahoo and makes sure he never takes off his clothes in front of them
• he is able to cook oatmeal and drink mare’s milk
• eventually, Gulliver is attacked by female yahoos one day while he is bathing - misogyny
• Gulliver is enamored with this society
• Winnoms believe yahoos came about by a sort of mock-Genesis story
• they are so rational they lack feelings - everything is very planned and they have countless theories
• racism of horses - mate according to color
• Winnoms decide Gulliver is dangerous and want him to leave because he is an educated yahoo ad might lead the yahoos in rebellion
• Gulliver leaves in a canoe and sees a European ship - he paddles away furiously to keep from being rescued by the ship
• he lands on an island of savages and the savages immediately attack him - he would rather be attacked than brought back to Europe
• the ship goes after him and the captain sees Gulliver has lost his mind - he tries to reason with Gulliver and brings him back to his family
• Gulliver goes to live in the stables with his horses because he cannot stand the smell of humans
• Swift’s satire is Juvenalian and extremely harsh

“Modest Proposal”

• narrator has come up with a “great idea”
• it cannot be right
• real proposal is given in italics - do not talk about those plans unless you are willing to carry them out
• saw the Irish as servile and too willing to cooperate - crass landowners
• Ireland is a cash cow
• rich Irish live pretentiously and exploit others
• Ireland had a lot of food but it is being exported - not available to poor
• eating of babies - got the idea from the Americans
• a problem with adolescents - too many - boys are not yummy, girls breed
• sold girl in roasts to a lady in Formosa
• animosity against women - frivolous and wasteful

Burren House, Ireland

Right now, I feel like cliff diving.

A Rَisيn nل bيodh brَn ort fé’r éirigh dhuit
[Little Rose, be not sad for all that hath behapped thee]

Ireland O.O

Ring of Beara, Ireland

My BUNAC packet came in the mail yesterday! I read through everything today and the whole section on Dublin in the handbook. SO FREAKIN EXCITED! Next step is finding a place to live and a job…oooook. Hop to it!

Ring of Beara, Ireland

Kylemore Abbey, Ireland - Mainistir na Coille Mףire, ֹire (+reflection!) (by Sir Francis Canker Photography ©)

Ring of Beara, Ireland

Cork, Ireland

Jameson Distillery, Midleton, Ireland

Broken on Flickr.

Ireland.

Available to Buy as a Canvas Print

Ireland O.O

The Champ

Howdy, y’all! *Ahem* Top of the morn- …eh, evening to you! Suppose I need to retire my Lutz/Land O’ Lakes lingo to something with more of an Irish flair. However, I don’t plan on actually saying anything that would basically be the equivalent to tattooing, “TOURIST” to my forehead…

 Welcome! Or Fáilte, as the Irish say. On July 21, I’ll be flying to Chicago. I’ve never been to Chicago (or anywhere in the Midwest for that matter), so that will be exciting. BUT, the real exciting part is after I partake in some deep dish pizza, I’ll be boarding a connection flight to Dublin, Ireland.

I’ll actually be taking this journey with fellow college-aged students, as I will be studying abroad.

[Thanks to irishways.com for the lovely photos.]

For the most part, I’ll be here. Spiffy, eh? That’s Trinity College - right in the heart of Dublin. I’ll be taking 2 courses while on my journey and this here blog will be my way of keeping in touch. I’ll be keep a tradition journal as well (you mean they still manufacture things to WRITE in?), but my Mommy taught me how to share, so I do hope you enjoy! Now, please excuse me whilst I go daydream about this natural wonder - The Cliffs of Moher.

[Credit goes to http://blazingatrail.es/ for this beauty of a snapshot!]

Sláinte,

Rebecca

 

Taken from on top of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin

larne 4.

thanks for indulging me. and because it’s interesting, satellite image of this exact spot courtesy google maps—

View Larger Map

larne 3

larne 2

So, I’m in Ireland with my boyf and his lovelyyy family for the weekend and today his auntie lent us her Peugeot 206 convertible to drive about in. It’s friggin’ lush, just like the country to be fair! :) this is it parked up on the beach earlier.

Elliott saw his first ghost when he was five years old.  He was put to bed early and was trying to relieve the boredom of his own company by counting the spots on the counterpane, when he noticed the door-handle move.

Gradually it opened and an extraordinary figure shot into view—tall with long arms and a head too big for its body—“Its eyes were of a yellowish green and sphinx-like. There was indeed nothing in the face to denote this thing’s attitude towards me, whether hostile or friendly, or ,merely indifferent,” After some minutes, it left. When he told his mother the next morning about it she simply said he was having a bad dream. Much later, after his mothers death, he learned that members of the household had seen it too.