Stockholm

When I first got to Ireland, I set up a bank account with the Bank of Ireland.  If I used my account ten times within a certain period of time, I became eligible for a free flight to a European city.  I met the requirements and picked my top three cities for travel (Rome, Milan, and Stockholm).  A few weeks later, I received a call with an offer for a flight to Stockholm and was able to work out dates that worked with my schedule.  I convinced a friend of mine from class, Rose, to come along with me, so last weekend, we traveled to Sweden.

Stockholm was a really cool city.  It is built on 14 different islands between te Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren, which are connected by over 50 bridges.  We spent most of our time in Gamla Stan, the "old town" part of Stockholm.  We got lucky with the weather (it only rained once, and when it did, we ducked into a pub for a bit).  A few things really stood out about Stockholm.  First, it is quite expensive (especially alcohol and there is a 21% VAT, a type of tax, on everything).  People in the US have mentioned implementing a VAT in the US, and I would recommend them spending time in Sweden as see how much stuff costs when there is sales tax and a consumption tax, no bueno.  Second, the city was extremely clean. Third, every Swedish person speaks English quite fluently, and apparently learned a lot of slang from watching Beverly HIlls 90210, according the the guy who sold me my pin at the Hard Rock.

We spent a lot of time walking around, we went to the Royal Palace (and the four museums in the palace), saw the changing of the guard, went to a viking museum that had a 17th century viking ship, and took a boat tour around the islands.  In addition, I tried moose (which my Norwegian friend thinks was really elk, and just poorly translated on the menu, either way, it was good).

Here is a video of the Royal Cavalry Band at the Changing of the Guard

Royal Guard

Me and Rose at the Royal Palace

Changing of the Guard

Royal Palace from the boat tour

Museum Island

Gamla Stan

I really enjoyed the trip and had a lot of fun.  You can view more pictures here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.543847508742.2038494.67101704&l=8805e2532d) and here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.543843736302.2038492.67101704&l=d631998e93).

I had my final class today and my friends Amy and Christina are in town visiting.  The Queen was in Dublin this week (I'll post pics later), and we are going to Cork tomorrow!

Hitting the Links

Today I ventured up to North County Dublin to meet up with my classmate Rob, to finally play a round of golf while I am here in Ireland.  I would have been really mad if I had not squeezed a round into my time here in the Emerald Island.  Neither of us had clubs, which posed a bit of a problem.  We first went to Rush Golf Club in Rob's hometown, a nine-hole links course, but they did not rent clubs, so we went on up the road to Skerries Golf Club.  Because of a slow foursome ahead of us, we paired up with two guys from Skerries and got in a late afternoon nine-hole round.  We would have played more, but we were quickly losing daylight, the rain was moving in, and I really need to prepare for my dissertation presentation on Thursday.  Despite it being my first round of golf in 9-months, playing with rented clubs on a course marked in meters, I managed a 50 (with one or two mulligans).  Not my best nine holes by a long shot, but not too bad either.

Third Hole, Skerries Golf Club

Skerries Golf Club, with the Irish Sea in the background

Cliffs of Moher and Western Ireland

This past weekend, a friend of mine from France, Anne-Sophie, came to visit Dublin.  While we were thinking of things to do while she was in Ireland, she mentioned finding a day tour to County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, to see the Cliffs of Moher.  So, this past Sunday, we got up early and met up with our tour bus at 6:45 am and set out for County Clare, which is about a three and a half hour trip by bus.

On the way, we drove through the city of Limerick, the third largest city in Ireland, and we stopped to see Bunratty Castle.

Limerick, with St. John's Castle in the bottom left

Bunratty Castle

The River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland

After those stops (and a few coffee/tea breaks), we finally made it to the cliffs, which were probably one of the nicest natural sites that I have ever visited.  Our bus driver joked that there are four seasons in Ireland, but on the cliffs, you can experience six seasons in one day.  He wasn't joking.  In the hour-plus that we spent on the cliffs, it was sunny, cloudy, raining, and there were wind gusts that literally swept people off of their feet.  The Cliffs themselves were magnificent, and the pictures do not do them justice. At their highest point, the stand over 800 feet tall, rising out of the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean.  There was a tower on the highest cliff, called O'Brien's tower, which gave a nice vantage point to look from.  In the distance, you could see the Aran Islands, a group of islands of the coast where Irish is still the language of everyday use, and where the famous Aran Sweaters originated.  I learned that each family in the Aran Islands would have a specific design for knitting sweaters, which made identification of lost love ones who died fishing at sea easier.  The cliffs might seem familiar, and you might recall a scene in the sixth Harry Potter film where Harry and Dumbledore search for a horcrux in a sea cave under a cliff.  That was filmed at this site.  Anyway, here are some pictures from the top of the cliffs:

On the way back, we drove through the Burren, a unique geological region filled with karst, a type of stone, and were a type of self-draining lake unique to Ireland is found.  There are literally miles of stone-covered fields and mountains.

It was a very long and tiring day, but it was a lot of fun.  If you ever find yourself in Ireland, definitely check out the cliffs.  Like I said, the pictures do not do them justice, and do not capture just how dramatic the drop off is.  Anne-Sophie flew home today, and instead of working on my dissertation presentation for this Thursday, I am writing this entry and thinking about my trip next weekend to Stockholm.  Hopefully, all will go well.

Over the break, I wrote an article about open space preservation in New Jersey for a colleague of my mom, Dr. Judy Shaw, of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.  The format of the paper was sort of an open slate, and I approached it like a policy research paper.  I knew going into to the project that there was a possibility of the paper being published, but that was sort of depending on the final work.  Long story short, my paper was published last week with Blue Raritan, on organization that promotes the health of the Raritan River basin.  Here is the link to my paper, http://www.blueraritan.org/resources/Hollander.pdf.

Waterford, London and Wales

Since classes ended a few weeks ago and before my dissertation seminar began today, I was fortunate to be able to travel around both Ireland and the United Kingdom a bit.

Last Wednesday, my friend Vanessa and I grabbed a train from Heuston States and down the Irish coast to the town of Waterford, home to the world famous crystal, for a day trip and to meet up with our friend, Warren.  Waterford is the oldest town in Ireland, founded by Vikings in the the 10th Century, and it is now the 5th largest city in the Republic of Ireland.  We spent the day walking around the city center, visiting the towns two cathedrals, a Viking tower, and we toured the Waterford Crystal Factory.  It was a fun day trip, and a good distraction from the work that has been piling up.

The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, the oldest Catholic Cathedral in Ireland and the UK

Reginald's Tower

City Center, Waterford

blowing glass at Waterford

some of the finished products

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to spend the day in the city of London and travel a bit around Wales.  I had an early morning flight from Dublin on Saturday, getting to the airport at 5:00 am for my flgiht, which took only about twenty minutes longer than my bus journey from Dublin to the airport.  Once I arrived at Stansted Airport, I hopped on a train that took me to London, where I promptly got on a double decker, hop-on, hop-off tour bus to see the sights of the city.  The city itself was still packed from people there for the royal wedding, which was only held the day before.  The first major attraction that I saw was Buckingham Palace, which was crowded with people hoping to get a glimpse of the couple or the Queen (despite the fact that they were not there).

Buckingham Palace, with the iconic guards

From there, I made my way to Westminster, to see Westminster Abbey and Westminster Palace, better known as Parliament.  The line to get into the Abbey was nearly two blocks long, and all the flags, decorations and bleachers for the spectators were still set up, and there were video monitors replaying the ceremony for the people waiting in line.  I took the opportunity, and the much shorter line, to get a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

Westminster Abbey

Me in front of Big Ben and Parliament

Following my tour, I got on a river boat cruise that was part of my original bus tour and saw the city from the River Thames.  We sailed from Westminster, under the London Bridge, and docked again at the  Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.  I took a tour of the Tower Bridge, and was able to climb to the top of the towers and see the original victorian engines that powered the drawbridge on the bridge.

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

After that, it was time to head to Paddington Station and to catch the train to Swansea, Wales, to meet up with my friend Emily, who went to Lycoming with me and who came to visit Dublin last year.  Getting back to the train station was a bit hectic, and after the bus I was on and a train on the Underground that I was on breaking down, and springting through Victoria Station and Paddington Station, I missed the train that I was supposed to get to Wales, which meant that I had to wait in the train station for an hour, which gave me time to sit down for the first time in awhile and get something to eat.  Saturday night, after a three hour train ride, I arrived in Swansea, met up with Emily, and we went out for a pint.

On Sunday morning we got up early and caught a train to Cardiff to explore the city for a day.  While I enjoyed my time in London, I really liked the city of Cardiff.  We took a tour of the Cardiff Castle, which was located right in the middle of the town, completely surround by fortified walls, some of which dated back to the Roman period of Welsh history.  Following that, we grabbed some lunch, and then walked around the city a bit, seeing the downtown, the University of Cardiff, and the National Museum of Wales.  After that, we caught a bus down to Cardiff Bay and saw the Pierhouse, an extremely important building in the history and development of Cardiff as a major port city, and the National Assembly of Wales.  We then headed back into the city center, got coffee, and then went back to Swansea for the night.

The exterior walls of Cardiff Castle

Wartime Bomb Shelter Tunnels in Cardiff Castle

Me and Emily with the Norman Keep in the background 

Saint David's Cathedral

The Pierhouse

Welsh National Assembly

We started Monday morning on the early side because I had to catch a train to Bristol to fly back to Dublin.  We got a quick breakfast, and then walked around the town of Swansea a bit and then we walked along the beach to the University of Swansea, where Emily is getting her Masters degree.

Swansea Castle

Beach in Swansea

I had a great time on my trip, but it went by way to quickly.  It is hard to believe that my time in Dublin is over in three short weeks, but I have a lot to cover in that time.  Today we started our dissertation seminar (I present my work in progress next Thursday), and I have two (and possibly I third I hope) friends coming to visit, and I am going to Stockholm next weekend.  In addition to all of that, I got an article that I wrote published through Rutgers University (http://www.blueraritan.org/resources/Hollander.pdf) and I submitted an article to a student journal here at Trinity, so I am hoping to hear good news about that soon.  I know that I haven't posted in awhile, but I hope to get a few more posts in before I head back to the states.

Verdi's Requiem

As you know, I sing in the University of Dublin Choral Society.  This semester, we have been working on Verdi's Requiem, and it was a very special concert.  Not only we were singing for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the medical school at TCD, we were performing with the Guinness Choir and the Ulster Orchestra (who cost 40,000 pounds sterling to have perform), and we were putting the concert on at the brand new Grand Canal Theater in the Docklands in Center City Dublin.  It was a fantastic venue and a great night, and I was very lucky to be a part of this and to have many of my friends come out for the concert.

Grand Canal Theater

                 
A lot of preparation went into this concert, including a weekend rehearsal in Belfast so that we could rehearse with the Ulster Orchestra.  It was all worth it though, when we got on stage and you could see over 200 singers and a 70-piece orchestra getting ready to perform a truly moving piece.

The concert went really well, and there are a few video clips of us singing.  Here is a video of the beggining of the second movement of the piece, the Dies Irae, which also inlcudes one of my favorite parts of the whole song, the Tuba Mirum, which is the part that includes some fantastic brass instrumentation and vocals.

The second link is for the fourth and fifth movements of the piece, and can be found here.  The fourth movement, Sanctus, is a double fugue, with the choir being split up into two choirs whose parts mimic and follow the others.  The fifth movement is the Agnus Dei.

Here is a link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-vvNB_wWU, to a bit of the final movement.  This part is the Rex Tremendae.

Here is a link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFiFwM7SJM, to the Requiem aeternam, from the opening movement of the piece.

Here is a link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkotiT3HehQ, to the final movement of the piece, Liberma Me.

Enjoy!  I know that I did.  Singing with the UDCS was one of the highlights of my time here at TCD.  It was a completely different choral experience singing with a large choir that performs larger scale works with full orchestras.  While challenging at times,  it was an experience that I absolutely enjoyed.

Wicklow and Gelndalough

So this post is a little delayed, but oh well.  The Saturday after Saint Patrick's day, my friend Pam (who was visiting from NJ) and I took a day tour to County Wicklow, which is the neighboring country to Dublin, off to the south.  Even though it is just a short bus ride away from the capital, Wicklow is a sparsely populated, heavily rural and agricultural area, and it is known as the "Garden County" of Ireland.  Some people might recognize some of the pictures that I took from scenes in several movies, including "P.S. I love you," (though Pam had to explain to me some of the references, since I have never seen the movie) and "Michael Collins."

From Dublin, we headed South, and drove towards the Wicklow Mountains.  There, we passed by the Blessington Lakes before we made our way to the Wicklow Gap.  It was quite an impressive view from the top of the gap, and there was literally nothing for miles around us.

Blessington Lakes

Blessington Lakes

Wicklow Mountains, top of Wicklow Gap

Wicklow Gap

After the gap, we headed to Gelndalough, a 10th century monastic settlement, which was founded by Saint Kevin.  The name means "the valley of two lakes," and the settlement was set in a glacial valley, surrounded by forest, bog, rivers, and yes, two lakes.  We took a short walking tour of the cemetery and to see the Round Tower.  Since the settlement is considered sacred ground, there is a high demand for burial plots in Glendalough, and now, in order to be buried there, you must be related to someone who has been interred there.  After the tour, we walked up to the Lower Lake and sat on the shore eating lunch, and enjoying the sun.  It was a fun day, and it provided a very different take on the Irish landscape, departing from my normal views from center city Dublin.

The Round Tower

View of Glendalough from the Lower Lake

The Lower Lake, with the Wicklow Mountains in the background