Day 70: Spring Break Part 3 (Is cuma báisteach nó ghrian)

The last five days of my break was spent in Spain. I spent one day travelling Madrid by myself, then I went on a 3 day guided tour starting in Madrid ending in Costa del Sol, and then one last day in Torremolinos before flying back for school. I was supposedly in the driest area in Spain, but I happen to come for the one week were it rained everyday and we got very little sun. Though it was wet, it still didn't dampen all the fun and experiences that I had on the trip.

Day 1: Madrid
This day had two different purposes, the first was to regroup after St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, and to explore Madrid because I was certain that the tour that started the next day would not highlight anything in the city itself. In order for me to fill both of those purposes, I decided to take a hop-on hop-off bus tour through the city. It did a great job explaining all the historical buildings in the town and it also kept me dry from the rain. For lunch it was recommended for me to go eat at a small Asian restaurant that was literally underground in the car park entrance for Plaza Espana. They had really good and fairly priced food, I ended up ordering egg fried noodles (similar to lo mein but with rice noodles) and steamed vegetables.

Plaza Mayor

Some of the street signs

One of the buildings found on the tour

my lunch!!

After exploring the city for a while, I thought it would be smart to go back to the hostel that I was staying at to relax for a bit and figure out what to do that night for dinner and afterwards. The hostel that I stayed at was in a great location and had a more relaxed and mellow atmosphere than what I was expecting. The people there though were really nice and helpful about what to do in the city and providing me assistance with arriving and leaving when it came time to.

That night for dinner the hostel had a representative from a group called Mad Ride come and recruit people for a Tapas and Flamenco Crawl. I was one of three people that showed up for thus event and the three of us plus the guide had a great time talking with each other and just enjoying what the night would bring. We started off at a restaurant that served four amazing dishes of tapas. they gave us a dish each of sausages, potatoes, meat and cheese, and goujons. After spending around 1 hour there, we made our way over to the next stop of the night for the flamenco show. It was a cute little 1 hour performance where they had a guy and a girl perform dances on the stage with a vocalist and guitarist staged further back. While the show lasted an hour, they performed a good amount of dances together and as soloists. After their performance, the last stop of the night was to join up with the pub crawl in Madrid and hit a couple bars before going to bed. The pub crawl itself was fun because we were able to meet up with more people and continue to have fun but with a safer environment. The group of us spent about an hour in each place enjoying the atmosphere and whatever drink special they had before moving onto the next bar.

Tapas dinner!!

Flamenco Show!!

Day 2: Cordoba
The guided tour started this day and we left Madrid around 9 in the morning to travel 250 miles to our first stop of the day. About halfway through the drive we stopped at a rest stop for a break and lunch. When we eventually got to Cordoba the weather was looking a lot better and we were all just glad to get off the bus and explore more of Spain.

Views of olive bushes the whole drive down to Cordoba

In Cordoba we had some free time to walk around the city and do some shopping before the guided tour started. We then had a guided tour of the Mosque and the Spanish quarter from a local guide. The Mosque is this beautiful massive building that has been used for religious purposes through history in the Christian and Islamic faiths. It is dominated by beautiful arches made from marble and stone and in the center of the building, you can find that a cathedral was built and they had two amazing organs that were still playing when we arrived. They still had portions of the building dedicated to the Islamic faith even though most of the building had been transformed back to the Christian faith. The amount of architecture and the attention to detail in the place was breathtaking and you could spend hours just looking at everything and enjoying all the pictures and mosaics.

one of the organs

the arches that seem to go on forever

Unfortunately, we had to leave after a couple hours in Cordoba so that we could make it to Seville in time for us to get our hotel rooms and regroup before we ate dinner in the hotel.

Day 3: Seville
This was our free day in the city of Seville. It started off with a two hour walking/bus tour of the Expo '29 area and the Jewish Quarter. The Expo area is filled with different pavilions (buildings) created by different countries showing off the pride and architecture of that country. Each building had some unique feature and you could see the beauty in all of them. The major piece in this area is the Plaza de Espana. It really is the big semi-circular plaza that represents Spain and all of its people. Along the main building they put together big ceramic mosaics for each province showing a big moment of their history and a map of that province. The Jewish Quarter was very picturesque with its narrow streets and cute little shops and houses.

Argentinian Pavilion

Plaza de Espana

Ceramic Mosaic of Malaga

It was after that where we all went in our own directions and did whatever we thought would be fun. I decided that doing another hop-on hop-off is the best way to see everything so I took that around the city a couple times and got off a couple times to see things that seemed interesting to me. The first time I got off was in the Expo '29 area because they had this cute little science building. While the place was small, it did have some great stuff in there for the smaller children and I was more fascinated with the architecture of the building than the exhibits inside. The rest of the time was spent just walking around the city and exploring some of the side streets and the local shops.

Torre del Or

inside of the Casa de la Ciencia

Day 4: Ronda and Costa del Sol
This was the last day of the guided tour through Spain. We left Seville after breakfast and made our way down to the coast through a small town on a cliff side called Ronda. Even though we came on a cloudy day, the views of the mountains and even of the town were amazing and covered in the nature that surrounded them. The town itself is split into two different parts both physically (through a valley between the two cliff edges) and historically. On one side is the urban city where you can find the Plaza de Toros de Ronda and where I happened to spend most of my time. On the other side is the old city where you can find more of the mining station and quaint buildings. These two sides of the city are connected by one bridge.

view at over the landscape

view of the old city from the bridge

I decided that after a great lunch to walk around the bullfighting arena and the museum to see the history of the sport and some of the beautifully decorated costumes and horse apparel. The arena itself was pretty big and you could imagine all of the people cheering on the men and the whole atmosphere that would take the place over.

Plaza de Toros de Ronda

some of the costumes with a cape in the background

inside of the arena

We eventually had to leave though in order to get down to the coast in time for me to part ways from the group and try to get some time on the beach with the sun. I was lucky enough to get down to the beach and checked into my hotel with the sky clear and the sun out. I then spent a couple hours just walking along the beach and enjoying walking in the water too. My day ended at a restaurant on the beach with a nice kebab dinner.

view of the distant coastline

so pretty!! with the grass umbrellas

kebab dinner with some sangria

Day 5: Torremolinos
Torremolinos is the town in Costa del Sol that I stayed at for the two nights. And I lucked out with finding a hotel that was really cheap and just across the street from the beach. I even lucked out with getting a room with a balcony and a partial view of the sea.

View from the balcony of my room

However, it decided to rain the whole day, so I was stuck under an umbrella and on the sidewalk the whole time. After a disappointing afternoon of walking along the coast and standing in the rain, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and reading in the airport before my flight back to Dublin.

Day 65: Spring Break Part 2 (Féile Naomh Pádraig)

So if you are ever in Ireland around the time of St. Patrick's Day (or the festival) I highly suggest participating in one way or another. There is so much more to the festival than going to the Temple Bar area and having too many beers or other forms of alcohol. I actually had a better time doing to events that didn't involve alcohol than going and getting drunk with a whole bunch of strangers.

On Saturday, my parents were still on their vacation so we went and did 3 very different events put on by the festival committee. The first thing that we did was the Treasure Hunt through the city. We were given tasks to do at 8 different sites in the center of Dublin and we were able to get free admission into some really nice places. One of the places that we went to was St. Patrick's Cathedral. And we happened to arrive at the best time because we were able to catch a choral performance there and take a break before moving onto the next stop on the map.

The team is all set for the hunt!!

Such a beautiful performance

After the treasure hunt, we decided to go relax for a little but and widen our cultural palette by attending the Irish Beer and Whiskey Fest. This was held outside the city center and in a big warehouse. Inside you were able to purchase half pints of craft beers and cider, and small glasses of Irish whiskey all from local breweries from the country. We had some fun trying different types of beer and cider and then tasting each others too.

I also was able to cross another thing off my Ireland bucket list because I finally met someone named Seamus!!!!!! We were talking to this really nice group of lads and it was brought up in conversation. They remarked that there father had that name and he while he was a shy guy, we could be convinced into getting a picture with him!! And that is what happened.

Me, Seamus, and his son John

After what turned into an eventful afternoon, we had a relaxed evening by attending the Ceili House Live concert at the National Concert Hall. My family went our cousin and his cousin that was in town the same time. They had five different performance groups that performed traditional music and variations off the traditional that were more internationally influenced. My favorite performance was probably the first group. It was three sisters from Glasgow that performed songs that they learned from their grandmother. They sung in amazing harmonies but also played the tin whistle, fiddle, and uilleann pipes.

The stage is all set!

Day two of the festival was just time for me to explore what I wanted to see because my parents left that morning and I had signed up for a couple events through "I Love My City". The first event was very interesting in a historical way. It was a short lecture on the forgotten history of Dublin. The lecturer is a professor at UCD and highlighted 4 different places in Dublin that have an amazing story, but for some reason has been forgotten through the decades. If you are interested about this type of stuff here is the guys website where he explains some of these stories:
http://comeheretome.com/

After the lecture I had some down time before my next event that night so I happened upon Merrion Square where they had created a small festival geared towards kids and families. They had science workshops for kids to practice different science techniques, magic/clown performances, big puzzle games, and even a little urban farm with some animals for kids to pet and hold.

bunnies at the urban farm!

World Champion juggler

Comedy audience participation performance

When it finally came time, I went to my last event of the day called "The Pipes, The Pipes". It was a performance of jigs, reels, and slides performed by three uilleann pipes performers. What made it interesting is that they had 2 artists there creating live art on a projected screen in time to the music. It was interesting watching the art change with whatever song was played and how the artist interpreted the music.

Day three of the festival was more low key for myself and I only went into the city for the big festival ceili that was happening that night. If you have ever participated in any form of folk dancing, ceili dancing is very similar. It is based off of dancing with a partner and either in a line or with another group you dance a pattern of moves and just have fun, We ended up doing about 3 hours of dancing broken up with guest performances of step dancing professionals and other music groups. I had too much fun dancing that it all just flew by when the three hours were up.

Day four of the festival was the big day because it was actually St. Patrick's Day and the parade was coming to town. I was smart enough to get down to the parade route early enough to secure a spot right on the barrier and got a front row seat to the whole parade. The parade itself was a lot of fun listening to the different bands that came and watching the performance "floats" show why they are proud to be Irish. I ended up making a friend at the parade and we spent several hours more together when the parade ended

All ready for the big day!!!

St. Patrick himself showed up

Bagpipes band!!

After the parade, we decided to be smart and enjoy celebrating the day back at the Irish Beer and Whiskey Fest where I knew people were more considerate and that very few people would actually get too drunk. So we both ended up trying more ciders and visiting my favorites from Saturday again. It was a great way to end the festival with a couple glasses of cider and still being able to get back to our rooms safe and sound.

Day 61: Spring Break Part 1 (Cósta go Cósta)

My first week of spring break was spent travelling Ireland with my wonderful parents and sister! We spent five days travelling around Ireland seeing the sights and enjoying each others company.

The first day that they arrived was spent in the city of Dublin seeing certain attractions that they have wanted to see from their previous trips here. We started off the day going to Dublinia. It is a museum dedicated to the history of Dublin from when it was first settled by the vikings and then later during the medieval period. It was a lot of fun walking through because they had many opportunities for the public to pretend like they were in that period too. For example in the viking area, we were able to write our names with their alphabet and in medieval area, we were able to try on clothes that resembled those from that time period.

Dad in his furs!!

After the museum, we got a tour of Trinity College and a pass to see the Book of Kells and the Long Hall. Trinity College is a very beautiful school that contains a lot of history and tradition inside its walls. The first quad that you enter has some great architecture and the bell tower is something else to be seen. The Old Library, where the Book of Kells and the Long Hall is located, is something that everyone should go see. The Long Hall is majestic and grand; the books are beautiful and look fragile sitting on their shelves. They also had busts of famous philosophers, historians, scientists, etc. placed along the main walkway too.

The Bell Tower

Inside the Long Hall

After those two big events and very little sleep on the plane, you can assume that my family was tired. So, we went back to our cousin's house in Dublin and they rested (or fell asleep) for a couple hours. And that was the end of the family vacation in Ireland.

Day two was spent driving out to Killarney where we spent several days seeing the sights out there. In order to break up the drive we stopped in a small town called Cashel. The main reason that people stop there is to see the Rock of Cashel. It is a church that has seen better days. While we were there you could see the parts that were under restoration. You could see some of the original paintings that were on the walls and have since been plastered over.

Inside the Rock of Cashel

The next two days were spent in Killarney and the surrounding areas in Kerry. The first day was spent driving around the peninsula north of where we stayed. On this peninsula we drove by Inch Beach, the town of Dingle, and Slea Head. It was such a beautiful day with the sun, but the wind kept it from getting too warm out. We also stopped at some ruins out there too. There was a fort on a cliff edge that used the cliff and then surrounding walls made from stones to protect the people that lived inside. The other ruin site that we stopped at was the Beehive huts. These houses get their name because they really do look like beehives, They are only one room and are circular with the walls coming up to form a dome. the doors were small and trying to get in was interesting because you had to crouch down and walk about 18 inches before you could stand up. However, sometimes you stopped short and knocked you head on the doorway.

Dad in the Beehive!

View from Slea Head

The next day in Kerry was spent walking through the Gap of Dunloe between the mountains and by all the lakes and over to the Muckross Grounds site. If you really love nature, the Gap of Dunloe is a definite must. You start at this little cafe and then follow the road through the valley for however long you would like. Along the way, you will find farms with fields of sheep, small lakes, and the mountains surrounding you. We unfortunately did not spend much time at Muckross because of the time spent in the Gap of Dunloe and also because it was still the off season of tourists (but only by like 1-2 weeks).

The Gap of Dunloe

After spending time in Killarney as a family, it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to my sister because she had to get back to her school and friends in the Midwest. But my parents stayed a few more days and the three of us went to Northern Ireland and toured some of the beautiful landscapes there too.

The Family at Slea Head

The first thing that we went was the Ulster American Folk Park. This park shows the public what it was like to live in Ireland during the time of the famine and then showed the transition of what life was like when they moved to America.  We then made our way to where we stayed for the night. However, along the way we ran into a small traffic jam on one of the small roads through the national park.

Traditional Farmhouse found in Ulster

Another farmhouse that could be found in Ulster

Log house common to Pennsylvania back then

Traffic Jam!!

The next day was full of coastline and the sun as we did the two most popular activities in Northern Ireland that most people come to do; the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Giant's Causeway. However, my family added onto this adventure by walking a section of the Causeway Coastal Walk from the Giant's Causeway to Dunseverick Castle.

We started off by going to the rope bridge. From pictures and the description, I assumed that it would be longer and less stable than it actually was. The bridge was very stable and about 30 yards long. The bridge led to an island where you could get a better view of the water and the coastline from where the trail started.

We made it across the bridge!

The bridge in its entirety

After that we drove over to Giant's Causeway. We walked all along the trail through the causeway. It was a nice day and I fell in love with the water and the waves crashing along the cliff edge. We then moved up the cliff edge and started the long journey along the cliff edge back to where we left the car. The walk was fun, but after awhile it all looked the same and the muddy shoes were making the trip more difficult.

Giant's Causeway

Dad and I at the end

Look at that wave hitting the cliff! So pretty!!

Overall, the trip was great and adventurous, like all our other vacations as a family. We saw some new things and some old things (anything in between). It was a great start to my spring break in Ireland (and Europe too). More to come later!!