Sunday, June 28, 2009

Trim Castle

Trim Castle was amazing!! We got to go up into the keep and see where differnt rooms would have been and who would have stayed in them. This is also where all the castle scenes from Braveheart were filmed. We even got to see some behind scenes photos from when they filmed here.




This is the window in Braveheart where the King throws the son's advisor out of it.COOL!






Friday, June 19, 2009

BBQ

We had a BBQ at Barry's friends house the other day. It was great!

This is Tommy and I infront of a "real" Fairy-Fort.


Here is Tommy playing hurling(an Irish sport) with one of the kids we met there.


And here we are finishing off the day with a beautiful sunset...at 10pm!

What we are learning

This is what we are learning in our photography class. We were showed how to do this yesterday and this is what Tommy came up with at the end of class. VERY FUN!


Viking adventures to Clonmacnoise

Today we went to these amazing monastery ruins called, Clonmacnoise. The weather was perfect for it, nice and stormy looking. We took a viking boat down the Shannon river to get to it. We took a fun tour through the monastery, then our leader, Barry, took us to the nuns ruined building. The carvings on the stone walls were amazing!











Sunday, June 14, 2009

Dublin

We arrived with our group in Dublin at around 3pm Thursday afternoon. To our surprise we got our own private room at the hostel we were staying at. Barry, our leader, took us on a walking tour of part of the city and then to the tourist center. Shortly after we grabbed a crappy bite to eat out of our backpacks and headed over to "The Teachers Club" to listen to some story tellers. We heard Bat burns, who is a famous storyteller. He was GREAT!
The next day we got on the "Hop on, hop off" bus with Bob, one of the teachers, and three of our classmates (Vanessa, Jenna and Alex). We first headed to the museum. It was wonderful. We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum...bummer, but, it was still very cool to see all the artifacts.




After the museum we took the bus over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was beautiful! Sadly there was a fee to enter the cathedral, and we did not want to have to pay for it, so we just enjoyed the courtyard.



To end the day we headed off to the Guinness factory for a tour...and a pint. This was one of the main highlights of our trip into Dublin. The factory was HUGE and the atmosphere made it very entertaining. We learned a lot about how the Guinness is made and all the passion that goes into making it. We thought of Brian when learning about the brewing of the beer and thought he could use the info for when he brews his next homemade batch. Once we got to the top we handed the bartender our ticket stubs and he gave us a 'free' pint. It was great! Very tasty, nothing like it tastes in the states. After our pint we headed home for some dinner at "Eddie Rockets" (Very American, your typical 5 N' Diner) and called it an early night.





Tommy took this photo at the Sky Bar. It is the top floor of the Guinness factory. All the walls of the top floor are glass and you have a beautiful 360 degree view of Dublin. This quote was on one of the walls.



The next day we woke up early, had breakfast, and then headed out again with Vanessa and Jenna. We first stopped at Trinity College. The landscape and architecture was incredible. We took as many pictures as we could, but because so many people were there it was hard to get a picture without somebody in it.



After Trinity we headed for Dublin Castle and enjoyed the fine architecture and relished in the fact that we were in the exact same place where Liam Neeson was when they filmed, "Michael Collins". The day before our trip to Dublin we watched the movie and we were excited to see all the places in the movie. Not only that, but the movie was very inspiring and it gave us more of an appreciation for what Dublin stands for.




Notice the hole in the angels chest. This was a bullet hole from Irelands Civil War. Many of the statues in this area had bullet hole like this one.



After dinner we finished off the day strolling around Dublin in perfect, cool-breezy weather. This was a great trip!


Saturday, June 6, 2009

Trip to Birr Castle

Well, we had our first Saturday all to ourselves! So we took a bus to Birr and saw Birr Castle! We arrived in Birr around 9:30 and had breakfast. We then continued to the Castle with no idea what we were in for. First off you all should know that Birr castle still has people living inside of it. They leave the grounds open for visitors to explore. But the castle itself is off limits to the public. The grounds were incredible! The scenery took our breath away everywhere we looked. It is hard to believe people wake up everyday, look through their front window, and see this...










Look! I found the door to the secret garden!