Dublin revisited

Hello again...

As some of you might know, but most of you probably don't, I spent this past weekend visiting my friend Molly from BC at Trinity College in Dublin. I met up with my friend Ben, also from BC, at the Edinburgh Airport, and off we went to Dublin...

Before I tell you about the weekend though, I should probably talk about my first encounter of robbery in Scotland (granted I am partly to blame). On Wednesday afternoon, after much thought and consideration, I bought a new raincoat for myself. It was 50 pounds marked down from 100, so I thought it was a good deal, and was something I knew I would have for a long time... or so I thought. Thursday night rolled around and I was off to Edinburgh, taking the bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh City Center. After about 10 minutes on the bus, I fell asleep, and didn't wake up until we were on the main drag rolling through Edinburgh. I was to meet my friend by one of the memorials on this street, so I quickly gathered my things and ran to the front of the bus. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had taken my new raincoat off and had been sitting on it, and didn't realize I had left it on the bus until it was pulling away. I sprinted from there to the main bus station where this bus would be stopping next. When I got to the station the bus wasn't there (I wasn't sure if I had beat it, or if it had not gotten there yet). I went up to the desk to see if any coat's had been turned in, and while I was doing this the bus pulled into the station and passengers emptied off. Once I noticed this, I raced over to the bus, searched it up and down, not finding a single trace of the raincoat. I went back to the desk to see if someone had handed it in. Nothing. Upon my arrival home from Dublin yesterday I once again checked to see if anything was turned in. Nothing... Long story short, don't nap while traveling because you'll become disoriented and forget your new raincoat on your seat and it WILL be stollen.

Anyway.... Ben and I arrived in Dublin right around 11:30pm on Thursday night, and after a 20 minute bus ride we were outside Molly's dorm at Trinity! That night we were up late catching up, trading stories of our times abroad thus far and planning out the weekend ahead. Molly had class Friday morning, so Ben and I decided we would go off on our own and do some exploring. We woke up late Friday morning, and Ben and I headed out to tour the city. It was nice that I had been to Dublin once before because I found it very easy to make my way around the city. First we wandered around Trinity's campus a bit, and then up Grafton Street (closed to traffic and constantly filled with Dubliners and tourists shopping at the many stores along the street). At the top of Grafton Street is St. Stephen's Green which reminded me a lot of the Public Gardens in Boston.



On the other side of the green is the Boston College House of Ireland. I can't think of a nicer place for BC to have a home away from home. The building is filled with framed pictures of campus, the crest of BC printed on every pillow, shade and chair, and statues of eagles on every shelf. The woman who runs the BC House was very friendly, and allowed us to use a visitor laptop to check our emails/facebooks. It made me a little jealous that the BC kids in Dublin have such a great resource, but then I remembered that they don't make fried mars bars in Ireland so I guess we're even.


From the BC house we made out way down to the Temple Bar area. This is when deja vu started to set in. Walking through the area, I have distinct memories from my family's trip to Dublin this summer, and it was very strange walking along the same streets I was on only 8 months ago. In the Temple Bar there's the National Gallery of Photography which Ben wanted to check out. They had an awesome display of aerial photography from all over Ireland which was cool to see. After this Molly gave us a call to let us know she was out of class, so we made our way back to Trinity so we could get a tour of the campus.


Although I like to think BC is one of the nicer college campuses out there, it's hard to imagine one more picturesque than Trinity. When you walk through the Front Gate (which is actually enclosed in the building that Molly lives in, you walked through a small archway into a massive inner quad lined with cobblestone. In the center is a massive tower, and behind that are giant trees that must be hundreds of years old. When looking at the campus from above, it is almost like it was set up in the shape of a cross, with a giant quad at the intersection of the two lines, then four smaller quads behind the buildings which surround the central one. Molly showed us the library and some classroom buildings, and then the display of the Book of Kells and the Long Hall. The Book of Kells is a Gaelic translation of the Bible, and is one of the most important artifacts on display in the country. Above the display room is the Long Hall, which is essentially a really long, two-story hall filled with shelves of books and statues. From here we decided it was time to get some food to make dinner, so we made our way to the supermarket





By the time we were leaving the supermarket, the overcast sky of Dublin had gone from a monotone shade of gray, to one of the most vibrant sunsets I have ever seen. I could try to describe it, but I'll just show you some pictures instead...



That night it was Molly's roommate's birthday so we all went out with her, and got a chance to meet all of Molly's friends!

Saturday Molly had soccer tryouts two hours outside the city, so Ben and I were left to explore the city some more! I think on Saturday we must have walked at least 7 miles. On our walk we saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guiness Storehouse, Kilmainham Jail, The National Museum of Modern Art, Heuston Rail Station, the Molly Malone Statue and to wrap it all up, 120,000 protesters making their way through the city protesting the laying off of public jobs... In a nutshell, we saw a lot.

(Top to bottom: The Museum of Modern Art; Ben and I in front of St. Jame's Gate, Guinness Storehouse; Christ Church Cathedral; Dublin Castle; St. Patrick's Cathedral; Molly Malone Statue and 120,000 Protesters)






Saturday night was more low key, as Ben had to be up very early for his flight back to Liverpool. We went to a pub called the Ginger Man where we got to meet some more of Molly's friends from school. One of them happened to be from York, ME, so obviously I knew we would get along! (for those of you who don't know I'm obsessed with the state of Maine). After that, as I had promised my friend Elizabeth Egan who studied in Dublin last year, I went to the Porterhouse Bar and got a pint of strawberry beer, which unless you like alcohol tasting strawberry milkshakes, I would not recommend... sorry Ebo!

Sunday morning came early, and we sent Ben off back to the UK. Sunday was also somewhat of an unconventional day, but one that I really enjoyed. Instead of going to see more tourist sights, we decided to go to a flea market that is held the last Sunday of every month. It was a very cool place, and I ended up buying a cd for only 1 euro (Buena Vista Social Club for any of you who took Spanish at Medfield High School... Seniorita Hawkins would be proud). From the flea market we met one of Molly's friends at the bus station and went to watch a hurling match out in the suburbs. I had never seen hurling played before, but after my first game I think it can equated to a mix of field hockey, rugby, soccer and anarchy. It was a lot of fun though. After the match we were all exhausted from our long weekend, so we called it a night, and watched about 7 episodes of the Australian comedy Summer Heights High.



Although I had been there before, I am so glad I got a chance to visit Dublin and my friends there, and I hope to do so again sometime in the future!

Hope everyone's doing well and that I hear from you all soon!
Charlie

The Past Couple Weeks in Scotland

My apologies for waiting a bit to update the blog, guess that just means I've been really busy!

After returning from London on the 2nd of February, it was just two days before I was off experiencing my first "football" match in Europe. AC Milan was in town on the 4th for a friendly match against Rangers FC who are based in Glasgow. The end result was a draw, 2-2, but it was great to see some of the best players in the world out on the field (Beckham, Ronaldinho and Kaka to name a few).

That weekend (February 6th-8th) was relatively uneventful. On Friday the 6th my friends Sean, Ben, Maddie and I went out to Strathblane (about 45 minutes outside the city by bus) for a tour of the Glencoyne Whisky Distillery. It was great to get out of the city for the afternoon, especially to taste some of the world's best whisky (in 2007 Glengoyne was awarded with the world's best whisky). The rest of the weekend was filled with the library and paper writing. Normally this would have bugged me, but several of my friends were in London for the weekend, and those that weren't in London were on a two day trip to the highlands to see some castles and lochs. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get my work done ahead of time and had to stick around the university. It was good to relax a bit though.

The past couple weeks have been somewhat of a blur since then. Last Sunday I went on a day trip to St. Andrews with some friends from Glasgow. It was a nice easy 2 hour train ride, and definitely a good idea for a day trip. I think it was in St. Andrews that it finally dawned on me that I'm in Scotland. Glasgow is pretty urban, but to get out of the city, taking the train through rolling hills and out to the coast really woke me up to the fact that im not in Boston. St. Andrews is a great little town. We first walked along the 18th hole at the Old Course in St. Andrews, over Swilcan Bridge and up to the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse. I think I now know why my Dad is so obsessed with golfing. From there we walked down onto the West Sands, a 2 mile long beach that reminded me a lot of Drakes Island, and made me yearn a little bit for June to roll around. But then I remembered I'm in Europe on what is essentially an extended vacation and any nostalgia seemed to fade away... From the beach we walked up along the cliffs to the ruins of St. Andrews Castle. To be honest I wasn't that impressed, probably because I can't imagine a castel more impressive than that of Edinburgh. Directly across from the castle ruins are the Cathedral ruins. It really seems like the people of St. Andrews don't pay too much attention to the upkeep of their buildings. The Cathedral ruins were pretty cool. It was crazy to imagine the sheer size of the cathedral that used to stand on this massive bluff looking out over the North Sea. All that is now left it two sections of one of the towers and the foundations. Last on our list of sights to see was the University of St. Andrews. The univeristy is pretty small in comparison to Glasgow, with only about 7,000 students. With this smaller size comes much smaller architecture, which may not be as impressive as our main building but was distinct in its own right. That wrapped up our tour of St. Andrews. (I should mention that on this trip, I bumped into two more BC students... I really don't think I will visit a single city where BC has not already invaded).

Aside from traveling, I've been making good headway in learning the bagpipes (we've moved onto "grace notes" which are proving difficult, but with practice I should be able to master them). My other classes are going well too. This Thursday is actually my last day of class for Environmental Impact Assesment which is weird because I feel like I just started the course! Tomorrow afternoon I'm going on another field trip with Exploring Scottish Culuture. I think we're going to be learing about the urbanization of Glasgow? Not sure though. Politics has been ok as well. We've recently been discussing US Foreign Policy which has been very interesting, but high pressure! I think everyone expects me to know every point of US foreign policy but to be honest, it seems like they know more than me! Oh well.

Getting away from academics for a second, last Monday night we discovered "quiz night" at one of the small pubs near campus. About 9 of us decided to try it out, and after about 2 hours of questions revolving around Scottish sport, history and culture we were awarded with a bag of candy for our LAST PLACE FINISH! I guess we got an A for effort. On Wednesday a small group of us decided we wanted to make a big dinner, so we divided up the nights meal and made a nice dinner of mac and cheese, chicken and a finnish pastry role for dessert. All in all a great meal. Thursday afternoon, it was the nicest weather we've had so far in Glasgow so I decided to grab my camera and go for a run along the river clyde. This was probably the best way I could have spent my afternoon. Over the past decade the riverfront has seen a lot of redevelopment and has some of the city's most interesting builldings and bridges, including the Science Center and the "Armadillo" conference hall. Thursday was a great afternoon.





This past weekend I was in Dublin, but you'll have to wait til I have more time to type to hear about that.....


Hope everyone is well!

Weekend in London

2.05.09

Hello all.

Just as a forewarning, bare with the confusing picture placement... blogs are harder to organize than you might think...

This past weekend I made my first trip out of Scotland, although not off the island, and spent the weekend with friends in London! It was a great weekend filled with sight seeing, people meeting and SNOW!

Thursday night (January 29th) I took the night bus down to Victoria Coach Station in London from Glasgow. It was a long trip. 9 hours on a stuffy bus is not the ideal way I'd like to travel, but to say that I got to London on 12 pounds is something I'm pretty proud of. At 7:30am the next morning I rolled into London ready to see the city that I had only experienced through TV, movies and books since I was a kid. My friend from high school, Claire, met me at the bus station and it was only about a 5 minute walk back to her dorm. She's studying at the University of Westminster, and really I can't imagine a better location for a college in London. We got up to the room where my other friend from high school, Brett, was just getting up. He had just flown over from the states en route to Budapest for the semester and decided to stop in for a weekend in London.

After catching up for a bit, Brett and I decided to go exploring while Clarie got ready for our first full day in London. Within 3 minutes of walking out the front door of Claire's room this was our sight....



Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, all within the first ten minutes of walking through the city.... I have to admit that was pretty cool. (It was also good to get out the baby head for it's first appearance in Europe in 2009... for anyone who doesn't know the story behind the baby head, just don't worry about it).





From here we walked across Westminster Bridge to the South Bank which gave us an even more incredible view of the Parliament building to which Big Ben is attached. We made our way down the river to Millennium Bridge, passing on our way the London Eye, the Tate Modern and the Globe theater. From this side of the river we could also see the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London off in the distance. It was on this walk that I realized just how big London is.













After crossing Millennium Bridge made our way past St. Paul's Cathedral, which reminded me a lot of the Capitol Building in Washington, and down to Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square was full of people, many tourists and school groups, milling about among the flocks of pigeons. On one side of the square is the National Gallery which unfortunately we didn't get a chance to make it into. On the other side is Admirality Arch which leads to the Mall and Buckingham Palace. We decided to pass through the arch and see if we could catch a glimpse of the Queen. The Mall is lined with trees and huge buildings dedicated to the Royal Family. This led us right to the front gate of Buckingham Palace, but at this point it had been about 3 hours and we were tired so instead of sticking around we headed back to the dorm to rest up before some exploring later in the afternoon.










Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a tour of the Tower Bridge, arguably the most well known landmark in the city of London next to Big Ben. It was awesome getting to climb up inside the tower, learn about it's history, and then get some pretty amazing panoramic views of the city. This was definitely one of my favorite spots in London.


That night we met up with two of my friends from school, Caitlin and Casey, for dinner on Brick Lane, an area known for it's Indian food. Coincidentally it turned out that Casey and Claire are living in the same building for the semester which was funny to find out. After dinner we ended up at a "flat party" which was even more coincidentally being held by a kid from BC who is in London for the semester as well. Weird how small the world is.

Saturday was filled with more sight seeing, specifically a tour of Westminster Abbey and then a trip over to the National Portrait Gallery which had a huge collection of paintings from over the years. Saturday night we met up with another friend from high school for dinner and then a night out in the city.







Sunday we decided to wake up early so we could get a good spot at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. We were there about 45 minutes before the start of the ceremony and were generally unprepared for how cold it was going to be. However, once the ceremony got going and the sun broke through the clouds, it was definitely worth the cold wait. By the time the procession was making it's way up the road to the palace, the crowd had multiplied to huge numbers to watch what was really just a glorified marching band. Still a very cool thing to say that I've seen!







After the changing of the guard we went to the British Museum to check out what the British Empire has plundered over the past couple centuries from all over the world. One of the cooler things they had on display was the Rosetta Stone which helped unlock the mystery behind hieroglyphics from Ancient Egypt. One other item they had on display was the ENTIRE front and back sections of the statues which used to adorn the Parthenon in Athens. As cool as this was, I still can't believe that to see something SO Greek you have to go to London to see it! Wild.










After the museum we decided to take it easy for the afternoon and rest up for the Superbowl! We met up with another friend from high school, Jake, at his university which was pretty close to Westminster. At the union where we watched the game I ended up seeing another two kids I know from BC.... Again, very very small world. At about 2am we decided to head out, and much to our dismay discovered that the 4 inches of snow which had been piling up had caused the entire bus system in the city of London to shut down. This led to a two mile walk back to Westminster. On any other occasion I would have been annoyed at this point. However, to be able to walk down the middle of some of the busiest roads in London without encountering a single car was pretty cool. Aside from this, the whole city was covered in a blanket of snow which was definitely a sight to see. When we woke up the next morning there was about 7 inches of snow on the ground, the most that London had seen since 1991.







While Claire and Brett slept in a bit, I decided to embrace the cold and wander the city covered in snow. It was crazy. London had called all its buses off for the day, and many of the train lines were also shutdown. Compared to the previous three days the city was so quite, with the exception of all the Londoners who had strapped on their snowpants and boots and were out enjoying the snow. I swear I have never seen so many snowmen and snowball fights in one day in my entire life. The day in the snow was really a great way to cap off my weekend in London. Instead of worrying which sights were left to see and what I might have missed out on, we just got to relax and have fun in the snow with the rest of the city.