Visit to Howth

Today, my friends Lena and Johanna (both from choir) and myself ventured on up to Howth, a fishing village north of Dublin.  We had decided that there were a lot of places still in the Dublin area that we needed to see, so we hopped on the DART train and headed up the coast. 

We lucked out with the weather.  While it was on the cold side, it was a sunny day, and we took advantage of that by walking around Howth for about 4 hours.  We walked along the sea wall between the harbor and the Irish Sea and up to the harbor lighthouse.

 After walking around the town and harbor for a while, we headed on up to the cliffs that rise over the area.

It was a bit of hike up to the cliffs, but it offered some great views and vistas of the town of Howth and of the Irish Sea.

Zoomed in view of the harbor and lighthouse from the cliffs

Islands in the Irish Sea

After we finished up the cliff walk, we headed back into town and had fish and chips for dinner from Beshoff's and we walked around the town a bit more.  In one area of the harbor, there is a fish store were people can buy fish to feed some seals that live in the area, so we went to see if we could get a glimpse of the seals.  Sure enough, there was a group of people throwing in fish to happily waiting seals, who would then tease the seagulls circling around them by holding the fish up for them, and then diving under the water when the birds got closer.  By this time, the sun was going down, the wind was picking up, and the temperature was dropping, so we caught the DART back into town.  While on the train, we made a list of the places that we wanted to visit this semester, so be on the lookout for posts soon.

Phoenix Park

So today, a group of my friends from class and I decided to tour the Aras an Uachtarain, or the residence of the President of Ireland, which is located in Phoenix Park.  The park is one of, if not the largest city park in the world, and it is completely surrounded by a perimeter wall, which is six miles in length.  It is home to many monuments, attractions, a herd of wild deer, and the residences of both the Irish President and the US Ambassador to Ireland. 

The excursion started off on an interesting note when myself and two of my friends wound up locked in a Spar (a mini-mart store) when they were changing money in an ATM.  After that, we hopped on the tram and made it to the park, where we had a bit of a walk before the house.  This is where the adventure really gets interesting.  After meeting up with a friend in the park, we made it to the gate to the Aras an Uachtarain, only to find out that it is not the pedestrian gate.  The security office told us where to go and we headed off in that direction, only to miss our next turn and continued to walk the wrong way.  After several minutes of walking, a park ranger tried to give us directions, but those proved to not be all that helpful.  Long story short, we finally found the visitors center where you pick up a bus that brings you to the Aras an Uachtarain, and just in time, as we caught the very last tour of the day.  All in all, we walked over 5 miles getting to and from and around the park.  The tour of the residence was very good, and the person leading the tour was very informative, I would definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Dublin, and its free!

Entrance to Phoenix Park

Wellington Monument

The Aras an Uachtarain

Papal Cross

Back to the grind

So I arrived back in Dublin this morning after about a month or so off on break.  I went home for the holidays, and I really enjoyed being home for a bit.  My flight went well.  I actually ran into a friend from Trinity who was on the same flight, and I had a row to myself on the plane, so I was able to stretch out my legs a bit and sleep.  After a quick nap, I spent the day with two of my friends from back home who took a little vacation for themselves and came to Dublin.  Even though I had seen one of these friends a few times over break, it was a lot of fun to hang out with them in Dublin.

Like I said I had a great time over break.  I got to spend time with my family, eat latkes with my grandparents, catch up with friends, drive, went to a few Devils games, and just relax.  Christmas went well, and as usual, we had brunch with the Mittermaiers.  I also had some friends from Lyco over for New Year's Eve and some of us went into the city the next day to see the tree and get dinner.  It was a lot of fun.

So now its back to the grind.  I have four classes this semester.  Two of them are only half-semester long.  I have two classes on the European Union and its policies, a class on international organizations, and a class on statistics.  I will also be working on my dissertation, so it will be a busy semester.  Hopefully, I will get to travel a bit more this term.  I really hope to make it to Angers to visit Amy and Strasbourg to visit Tara, and to London, Rome, the Vatican, Gibraltar, Belgium, and Morocco.  Its an ambitious list of places to go, but I hope that I can make it to all of those places, and hopefully, even more.  I also am going to try and write a little more frequently on this blog this term.