Croke Park and Pics

After seeing the Guinness Storehouse, we took a bus to Croke Park which is the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association or GAA. This park is one of the largest stadiums in Europe and has a capacity of 82,300 people. The actual field (here they call it a 'pitch') and the seating is all beautifully maintained and we learned that the middle of the field is actually a foot higher than the outside to create the illusion of a flat surface from the nosebleed seats. Our guide was a fantastic Dubliner who truly had passion for his job and GAA sports. He told us many interesting stories about every room we saw including anecdotes regarding his favorite players and his childhood watching famous matches. GAA sports include hurling, Gaelic football, handball, rounders, and camogie (hurling for females). These are all traditional Irish sports and the players, though very talented and dedicated to their sports, are all amateurs. 

I think that is the most amazing part of the whole thing. These individuals are not paid millions to play games and get endorsement deals and fame. They are all ordinary individuals who have full-time jobs but choose to dedicate hundreds of hours every month to training and traveling out of passion and love. And these players are not able to pick and choose which club they support. They are born into their club by which county they are from and would never think of playing for another. They are not playing for themselves but for their family, friends, and neighbors back home who want to see the small town athlete succeed on the big stage. Even the counties that are not traditionally very good always have a chance to make it to the All-Ireland final and that hope brings these people and this nation together.

At first, I thought that Croke Park was just another stadium. Another place where fans gather and get drunk to hopefully see an interesting game and walk out with a win. But Croke Park is so much more than that. It symbolizes unity and passion for inherently Irish sports. It symbolizes support for one's neighbors and pride in one's birthplace. It symbolizes sportsmanship and a job well done. In many ways, Croke Park is the embodiment of the kindness and passion of the Irish people, and I am so glad that I got to visit.

Now for the pictures:

This is the Waterford Crystal chandelier that is in the bar/eating room for the players. If you look closely, you can see that the spheres are actually made up of Gaelic footballs and sliotars, the balls used for hurling.

Some of the jerseys in the locker room. The stadium has two main locker rooms which are used for all matches. These lock rooms are exactly the same as in Croke Park there is never a 'home team' or special treatment for one team or another.

Our very enthusiastic guide who definitely deserves a raise.

Giant hurleys that are used for parades and such.

Outside in the actual bowl.

Cheering for Grandma Mel's county, Co. Westmeath!

Our guide again. This room is used for a variety of things, one of them being a game day mass that occurs before the All-Ireland finals.

The entrance with logos from every GAA team in the world. Interestingly there are many teams in Asia and in the United States.

Another shot of the entrance with a statue of Michael Cusack.

 Thanks for reading!

The Opinionated Lassie

New Logo

Here's to my new The Opinionated Lassie logo!

Guinness Storehouse Tour

So I believe I went to the Guinness Storehouse when I was younger and my family bused around Ireland. But I have to say, a beer-related tour is significantly different when you are of drinking age and can join in the activity.

The study abroad people told us that they would be hosting a trip to the Guinness Storehouse and Croke Park Stadium and that for 12 euro we could come. I immediately signed up figuring that it was a great way to see two of Dublin's most popular attractions and am sure glad that I did! (I will cover the journey to Croke Park in a separate blog as a combined post might run a bit long).

We boarded a bus around 9:45am on Saturday morning and by 10:00am we were off. Now this may seem early for a beer tour, yes, but I think Guinness tastes a bit like coffee anyway so the justification for it was not hard. 

The outside of the building (or rather complex of buildings) is very large and grandiose in appearance. When I entered the storehouse I was overwhelmed with its modern architecture, heavy use of glass, and its overall industrial vibe. Not to mention the tour guide quickly showed us how the building is constructed in the shape of a pint glass which really took my amazement to a whole other level.

You begin the tour downstairs by looking at the original 9,000-year lease for the brewery which was signed by Arthur Guinness in 1759. Only 256 years into the lease, clearly the company is successful. We then learned about the raw ingredients for Guinness and saw simulations of the beer-making process as we made our way up the floors.

After the tour there was a few different things we could do before our bus left. First we went to a pint-pouring demonstration where everyone learned about pouring the perfect pint of Guinness and then got to try it themselves. Mine turned out okay and then I got to keep it as my complimentary drink of the day. My group then took our pints and certificates up to the Gravity Bar where everyone just drinks their beer and enjoys the stunning 360-degree view of the city. We took some more fun pictures up there and then went to one of the restaurants for food.

I was also walking in the footsteps of a few familiar faces who have taken the tour in the past: Conan O'Brien, and my personal favorite, Pink!

The brewery has a few different places to eat and we decided on one and sat down. I ended up ordering some beef and Guinness stew which was extremely filling and delicious. Eventually I finished the stew and my pint (I am generally not a huge fan of beer, especially in the morning) and moved downstairs to the gift shop.

Due to my affinity for coffee, I have a growing mug collection. To add to this I purchased an adorable mug with the Guinness toucan and other vintage Guinness graphics. I also bought a toucan poster to hang in my room and other friends bought pint glasses and paraphernalia.

All in all it was a swell tour and we had a lot of fun. We definitely learned about Ireland's most iconic beer and the Irish culture along the way!

Fun Facts:

Guinness is really popular in Africa with Nigeria and Cameroon being in the top 5 markets for the stout. Three of Guinness' five breweries are located in Africa: one in Cameroon, one in Nigeria, and one in Ghana. However, traditional Guinness is not as popular in Africa but instead a variety called Guinness Extra Foreign Stout that has a higher alcohol content (7.5% compared to the draft's 4.0%).

In one pint of Guinness there are approximately 198 calories which, according to the Storehouse tour, is less than your average glass of orange juice!

The museum features the harp that is used as Guinness' symbol. Interestingly though, this same harp was later adopted as the official symbol of Ireland but faces in the opposite direction.

Sorry for the not-great picture but you get the idea!

How am I Already Sick?

I truly do not understand it, but it seems that every time I step foot on this island my immune system is severely compromised. I had two rounds of a horrible cold last semester and, once again, I have been cursed. This time it only took a week!

I started getting a bad cough on Saturday night and figured as soon as I woke up on Sunday I would feel all better! However after a horrendous night's sleep I woke up to aches everywhere and chills every 15 minutes. I ended up sleeping until 2pm yesterday and could barely move I was in so much pain. I decided that I had to leave my room for at least a little bit so went to a movie night hosted by the international office. I felt so miserable throughout the film and tried my best not to cough and distract the others. I then went to bed around 10:30pm in hopes that today would be better. And although I did sleep relatively well, as soon I got out of bed the chills, hot flashes, fatigue, coughing, and aching continued once again. After doing some things around campus, I am sitting in my bed (the only place where I am sort of comfortable) and am thinking I need to stay in for the night.

Not to mention the worst part. Today is a huge party night for UCD students as everyone is back in town and back at school. The is the night to go out with friends and have a great time kicking off the semester. But as an adult, I have to make adult decisions. And I feel that going out in my current condition would push off healing for far too long. 

Anyways, sorry for the not too exciting update... I just hate getting sick! But thank goodness I brought strong American medicine with me to hopefully get me feeling better soon!

Until next time,

The Opinionated Lassie

Without Further Ado...

I have now been back in Ireland for 3 days and am completely exhausted. My arrival in Dublin was a very complicated, hectic, and exhausting one which I was not overly-excited to blog about. However, things have begun to look up as my room is (pretty much) settled and I am learning my way around. Now if the weather would let up a bit, that would be perfect!

Here's a recap:

I began my travels to Dublin on Sunday, January 11th, in Kansas City. It was cold outside but not too bad and after checking my luggage and getting some coffee I boarded my flight and all was well. This trip would total two flights and after my first was complete I settled in for a 5-hour layover before my next. When I boarded the plane the flight attendants quickly rushed everyone on without regard for the lack of overhead storage. This resulted in about 30 people standing in the aisle with rolling carryons and another twenty minutes rectifying the situation. The flight was fairly turbulent but not nearly as turbulent as the flight attendant's attitudes which were not as sunny and positive as I am accustomed to.

We landed in Dublin an hour earlier than scheduled (how does that even happen?) and the officer that handled my immigration proceedings said I had the wrong documentation. I told him that I had already successfully and legally studied in the country but he insisted that I was wrong as I tried to just keep smiling (because what else are you supposed to do?). Eventually the man took my picture (and I may be on a list now or something) but begrudgingly let me through. 

After I settled back down I collected my things at baggage claim, casually talked to other students waiting for the bus, and we all proceeded to UCD. When we arrived I followed the others to the check-in area. Everyone quickly went through check-in receiving their keys and such until it was my turn. I was told that there was a problem with my account and that I needed to go sit in the corner and wait for a while. I was issued a red student card (all other students have green ones) and I proceeded to my accommodation. 

Then I got locked out of my accommodation. With my suitcase. And my duffels. And without any sleep. Or patience. A nice guy let me into my building where I found my door, plopped down my belongings, and shed a tear or two. After gathering my passport and my composure I then returned to the housing office and got the card situation sorted and handled. I made it back to my room, luckily the key worked, and began unpacking my things. 

The rest of this day was (fairly, sort of) uneventful and I went with some new acquaintances into the city for dinner and a drink at the famous Temple Bar. 

The next morning (1/13/15) I began all of the international office activities. One of these included a trip to IKEA and after 45 minutes of pleasant shopping I, of course, got lost. About an hour later I eventually found the group and ate some Swedish meatballs. That evening we went to a club and after accidentally staying there until 3:30am we made our way back.

Yesterday (1/14/15) I went on a shopping tour and had more orientation events. I then decided to take the night off and go to bed at a decent hour.

After further introductions and orientations this morning, here I am.

I apologize for the lack of blogging over winter break and earlier this week but I am officially back! Thanks for those of you reading my blog at home and around the world, I am excited to share my adventures with you this semester!

Please check out my YouTube channel and my Facebook page for more information and feel free to comment below!

Yours,

The Opinionated Lassie

The Magical Martin and Mags

The very first week I arrived in Cork I got this semi-sketchy Facebook message from a woman named Mags. She said that she was a dance teacher at UCC and that I should come to a traditional music session at Blarney. Now in my head, Blarney had one thing, a famous castle with one famous stone. I knew that I had kissed the Blarney stone when I was younger but was amazed that I could casually go to this town for more than that single reason. Not wanting to walk into an unpredictable situation alone I invited everyone that I knew at that point. Mags said that her friend, Martin, would pick us up in his taxi and take us to Blarney where we could see the castle, kiss the stone, and have dinner and music after.

The first time was a bit dodgy. Everybody seemed nice but we were all nervously skeptical and confused. And I had been the one to suggest it in the first place. But, over the following 12 weeks Blarney became my home away from home. I think that I missed a total of two Tuesdays during the whole semester but was there every other time. I enrolled in Mags’ dance class and discovered my love for Irish dance, which I would then practice at the music nights. I brought friends to these sessions and my friends brought their families as a way to explore some local culture.

Mags and Martin will forever be my lifelong friends and I will miss them very much. I always sat in the front of Martin’s taxi and from talking to him gained invaluable wisdom. He is so kind to everyone that goes to Blarney and was happy to see us every time. I never saw Martin in a bad mood and even if I was having a rough day, Martin’s “I am wonderful” attitude would always brighten my day.  Mags, on the other hand, became like the sister that I never had. She is the most talented dancing-fiddler and I am constantly in awe of her talent and grace. They also have a wonderful relationship with each other and even if it’s a student’s first visit to Blarney they feel as if they have been attending for years.

I will truly miss these Tuesday adventures and cherish the wonderful memories with Martin and Mags. What they do for stray international students is amazing and greatly appreciated by every student that comes. 

The Opinionated Lassie

Scotland - Land of Plaid and Starbucks

Two weekends ago I went on a trip to Scotland! Since I have had a lot of school-related work to do since then, I have yet to document this trip here. Let's do it!

We left for Glasgow airport around 10am the morning of Friday, November 28. Glasgow is only about 1.5 hours from Cork so after a short flight we gathered our things and headed to the city. My friend, Alaina, and I hopped off a city bus right in the middle of downtown and were amazed by the beauty and opulence of this area! I love cities so much! I love the hype and the bustle and how there is so much to do in such a close distance. Glasgow immediately made me giddy with excitement and after a short wifi check-in at the local Starbucks, we were on our way.

We had reserved a hop-on hop-off bus tour so ran some errands on the way to our bus' stop. Right next to the stop was Charles Square where Glasgow's Christmas festivities were set up with a ferris wheel and other colorful activities. We began the tour and, although it was freezing, we saw the bulk of Glasgow's downtown in under three hours. During this tour we realized that it was taking longer than we anticipated so decided to stay a few hours later in Glasgow  and skip our planned evening tour in Edinburgh that night. We got off the bus, sat down to a delicious Italian meal, and happily enjoyed our evening.

Then we realized that we had our time off by an entire hour! We had been following the time on Alaina's watch but didn't realize that phones were an hour behind. And since the sun had gone down at 3:45pm we were utterly confused. After a Twilight Zone sort of realization with our waitress we knew that we had plenty of time to make our Edinburgh bus and could still do our other tour! Thus, after our delicious meal, we walked over to the bus station and boarded a bus to Edinburgh which is about an hour away. 

We had planned it all perfectly and should have made it to Edinburgh with about 30 minutes to walk to the meeting point for our tour. However, we had the sassiest bus driver ever and she took her time getting to the city. Also, it was not an express bus so every two minutes you would hear the little beep and we would stop on the side of the road for another patron to get off. Needless to say we barely made it to Edinburgh in time. We arrived in the city about 10 minutes before our tour left and we had no idea where we were or where we needed to be going. After trying to follow Alaina's phone's directions to the meeting point, we asked a nice looking stranger who pointed us in the correct direction. Luckily we found our meeting point, an Edinburgh Starbucks, just in time to meet our group for the "Dark Side of Edinburgh tour."

The whole walk was a bit chilly but we learned a lot about murders, vampires, and cemeteries over about three hours that evening. Amazingly in just one day we got two comprehensive looks at Scotland's most famous cities. After the tour we were hungry again so went to the one place open at 11pm on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, a pizza joint. It was actually quite good and after we checked-in at our hostel, we dozed off to sleep.

The next morning, we got up early to head on our day tour to the Scottish Highlands (after Starbucks of course). We just love tours apparently! Alaina and I took motion sickness pills because the bus was not very large but these made us tired and we passed out for the first hour of the tour. In my sleepy daze I got off at the first stop which was a lookout point over some bridges. I have no idea the significance because I slept through the description but after the freezing air touched my skin I happily got back on the bus. Our next stop was the National Wallace Monument which was built to commemorate the life and work of Sir William Wallace who fought and led Scotland in unity against the tyrannical King of England, Edward I. It was a very nice monument and exhibit with many many stairs to the top. We were only given 40 minutes to stop there so when we realized that we were out of time and still at the top of the monument's hill, Alaina and I ran down the hill in hopes of not being left behind. In case you are wondering, we were not left behind.

Our next stop was a viewing point for Loch Monteith. I slept through this description as well but basically the area that we were driving through had a lot of lakes and lochs so our driver wanted us to see some of them. And then finally we stopped for lunch! We made an hour-long respite in the Highlands town of Aberfoyle and we wandered into a cute little place called Liz MacGregor's. I ordered some chips and a chicken and cheese panini for lunch. It was a ton of food but I was starving after a long day already. We then made our way to Trossach's National Park to view the Scottish Highlands in all of their glory. However, it was a bit foggy so, according to our driver, we couldn't see all of the mountains as some were clouded over. Then our driver, Jamie, started playing the bagpipes! It was crazy and I was so confused!

And then was my favorite part, the hairy coos! These are the most adorable short little blonde cows and we got to pet, feed, and take selfies with them! They were so cute and I just wanted to take one home, but, yah know, weight restrictions...

We then wrapped up our day with another loch, Loch Katrine, and a quick stop at Monty Python's Duone's Castle. I was a bit disappointed because after doing the song "Loch Lomond" in high school choir, I hoped that we would make it over there. According to the map that I looked at it was right next to Loch Katrine but I will have to save that dream for another day! 

After we arrived back in Edinburgh, Alaina and I went to a Mexican restaurant that we saw during our Dark Side tour. I have been craving Mexican food so much since being over here and it was great to have some enchiladas! We then did some shopping and headed over to the Christmas Market. It was so adorable and there were so many vendors with different gifts from all over the world! 

After shopping we went to the bus station to head back to Glasgow. We eventually found our hostel, which was really nice, and called it a night.

The next morning we got up,  got some Starbucks coffee and breakfast before shopping a little, and catched a bus to the airport. This trip was a whirlwind but we got so much sightseeing done in 2 days!

Yours,
The Opinionated Lassie

And for a video breakdown of this trip, watch my vlog! You can also see other videos of mine at my Youtube channel, The Opinionated Lassie.