One of my friends visited from visited Dublin this weekend, and it turned out to be an extremely busy weekend but we both enjoyed ourselves. This is the first time I’ve had to show someone around the place I’ve been living for about 2 months now; it really tests your knowledge and also allows for some reconnection with old places too.
The first night we hit some local bars around the apartment: Boheny and Nesbitt and O’Donoughes. The former I had been to about three times, it’s a good authentic Irish bar with an older crowd that’s a lot of fun. I’ve walked past O’Donoughes at least 30 times this semester and I’ve always wanted to go because it seems like a good time. So I finally went with Dan and it was a pretty unique place. It has like a cool foyer type section where everyone hangs out and makes the atmosphere pretty interesting.
Friday started with a full Irish breakfast at Gerry’s and a trip to the Guinness Storehouse, pretty standard. We did some walking around Dublin and saw the things I felt were worth seeing. We had a flexible plan that night have a pre drink the apartment and then head into town somewhere(pretty broad plan). Both of my roommates are in the architecture program at UCD and their group is pretty tight nit because of all the time they spend in the studio. Anyway, they were going to come to the apartment to hangout too. We ended up not making it out anywhere except to the local kebab place, but it was actually a great night. We don’t often get to just hang out with Irish students as weird as that sounds, but they were great company and fun to chat with.
Saturday we took a train to Howth, about 30 minutes north of Dublin to do a cliffwalk. Howth was surprisingly awesome, I think you can neglect places that seem so close to you but the views were great and the trek along the cliffs was fun too. That night was a rugby match between South Africa and Ireland, so when the fans got out, things were a bit crazy. After we left a bar, a pretty funny sequence of events happened. First, we walked by another local pub with an older gentleman passed out on a barrel table, but still standing up. Next we walked further down the road to find a group of people chatting in a circle. Suddenly, one of the girls turns around and spikes her wine glass to the ground like she was Rob Gronkowski. Finally, a group of five guys lined up for high fives from Dan and I and were surprisingly happy when we followed through. It was probably the result of some celebration after the game, but funny nonetheless. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

Ryan

Alright so I made the trip with Won Ki, one of my best friends from high school so don’t imagine a romantic trip of the italian countryside but it was still a lot of fun. We flew into Milan on Friday and took a cab immediately to the train station to get to Verona. Maybe like 5 minutes into the drive, our cab driver is cut off and flipped off by the driver in front of him which sets both of them into a tirade in the italian language which was a dream come true.

Verona was pretty unbelievable, it was the smallest city we’ve visited so far but it was one of the more interesting. It wasn’t that there were a ton of cool landmarks or anything, but the layout and feel of the city just made it really different than the more metropolitan cities we have been to. We were only there for one night but we had some great food and had a nice chat with a couple from Oregon that was vacationing there. It was funny when the older gentlemen tried to explain to us this wine he had ordered which was probably like $60 while we were on the house wine grind. I’m sure one day I’ll have a clue of what he was talking about, but here are some pictures:

cool view except the crane kind of ruin it

view from the high point in Verona

cool view

Colosseum in Verona(still used for plays today!)

Venice was by far the coolest city I have ever seen. The way its situated is incredible, its pretty much like its own island. The canals run through the whole city as if they were roads. What they consider buses were actually nice ferries that had some nice views of the city(for a tourist anyway). As with the theme of the trip, we had some great food and pizza(3 pizzas in 3 days not to brag) and met a kid from Wisconsin on the train there. Funny note on the train, we payed about 75 euro total for our train travel and had our tickets checked 0 times. It’s a bit frustrating but they hit you with a hefty fine if they actually do check them and you don’t have them so its tough. Here are some pictures of venice:

This was our view for apertivo(drinks with snacks/food plate)

grand canal

Gondola at night

Milan was really nothing special to me. The duomo was extremely cool, as pictured below. But other than that, it seemed like a pretty underwhelming city to me. I will note that we were in Milan after Venice so it was a tough act to follow and we were only in Milan for one night so it may have been a small sample size. So maybe more time and preparation would have made the city a bit better.

cool building

Next trip on the agenda is Amsterdam! Halloween in Dublin was extremely fun, but I miss the candy back home. Until next time,

Ryan

Hi all,
It’s been a busy couple weeks so I haven’t updated in a while but I’m here to fill you in. Two weekends ago I visited London with Won-Ki. The city was pretty incredible, its gives off New York city vibes but has unique architecture that makes it more distinct. London is much larger than we had realized but we tried to see as much as possible, the tube(metro system) is very reliable and can get your pretty much anywhere you need to go in London. The food was incredible, we ate at Southbridge market for lunch Saturday and Sunday and the night life was awesome too. We had three different friends who were studying there so it was definitely nice to have them show us some of the good spots. I had a really cool conversation with a vendor who was a big De La Soul fan and collected all their vinyl, not something I expected to experience there. Here are some pictures from that weekend.

The following weekend was Paris, my first trip to a non-English speaking country. Contrary to what I had heard, the people there were pretty nice to us. Right when we arrived, my friend Alex and I got lost looking for the metro and a girl pointed us in the right direction without us even asking. It helps to start conversations in French if you’re looking for help, the locals appreciate that from what I can garner. I had one go to phrase, “Parlez-vous anglais?”(Do you speak English) and most said yes and proceeded to help me. It’s important to greet store clerks when you enter shops there, it’s just a custom there and the polite thing to do. This trip was also my first hostel stay experience, which didn’t end up being bad. When we walked in their was a long hallway and staircase which wasn’t lit well and smelled a tad funky so I was nervous. But after we settled in it wasn’t bad at all. There was a French guy who stayed in our section of the room(there were 5 of us and 6 beds). The first night was weird, he was really itchy for some reason and it was just kind of an awkward night. But we talked to him as best as we could the second night and he seemed like a cool dude who wouldn’t steal our passports when we left. We offered him a swig from our bottle and he took two gulps without any hesitation! The pastries and food was amazing, steak frites is the way to go. The second night we just drank cheap wine by the river and hung out under the Eiffel tower. The night life wasn’t great but I would have no problem doing that every night. We also visited the Louvre for our dose of high class art, and apparently Jay Z and Beyonce were there that afternoon so we might have just missed them! All in all, the trips were great but I was happy to go back to Dublin which has become a second home for me. Here are some more pictures:

Sorry for the delay here, I’ll keep everyone posted more frequently from here on out! Cheers!

Ryan

Figured I’d post some content about Dublin since it’s all been about western Ireland so far. We checked out a cool place called Leo Burdock Fish and Chips today, great food.

They aren’t beliebers here

yum

I felt it would be hard to top our trip to the cliffs, it would be a hard act to follow for sure. The following day we went to Aran Island, specifically Inis Mor, which is the largest of the three. It was two days in a row of waking up around 8am so we were all pretty beat but the bus seat offered a decent space for a nap. The bus took us the ferry port and we took a 40 minute ferry ride to the island across the beautiful blue Atlantic. Once we were on the island, we stopped at Burke’s Bikes to rent and ride around the island. He gave us some directions it turns out we didn’t understand on where to go on the island. The bikes were nice, and it was nice to finally do some exercise aside from walking. Long story short, we took a left where we should have went right but it turned out to be a great mistake. We ended up on the western coast of the island and the sights were incredible. We walked up some rock faces that were pretty cool and just looked out at the Atlantic.

We went back to where the ferry dropped us off and got lunch at a good B&B place. After awhile we went back to explore the island and try to see some of the landmark spots. After about a 30 minute bike along the coastline(breathtaking), we stopped at a spot that seemed cool. The waves were just crashing up against this tall rockface, it was just another incredible sight. Not to get super philosophical, but the fact that there is something this beautiful that is just the Earth’s natural beauty is baffling and hard to grasp for me. It makes you feel small that anything the human race can create would be inferior to sights like these.  In contrast, a very cool aspect of the island is all the manmade rock walls, it makes the whole island look like a maze. And it’s all done without mortar so it’s quite a feat.

Overall, Inis Mor was equally incredible as the cliffs and it made for an awesome weekend. There was more of a 360 view on the island whereas you only look at the cliffs while your there. Exploring on the bikes is right up my ally too so it was a good time. Hopefully I can post some better stories from here on out, not just instances of sights I describe as indescribable but I hope you bear with me. I’ll post some pictures in the next blog post for you guys. All abroad the train to Dublin, signing off,

Ryan

P.S I had another thought and wanted to record it here. While the experience of studying abroad is all about building new connections and making new friends, I think its cool how it can bring people who are already friends closer together. It was very generous of our friend Mike to house us for the weekend, he took us out and showed us the city,ect and it was just a very fun and comfortable trip. Peace.

My best 90s rapper impression

cool cliffs

best pic of the day

artsy train pic

Following our week of orientation mainly spent in the Dublin city center, I felt it was time to branch out and start crossing off some touristy destinations. On Sunday September 7^th, we ventured to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour and “free” pint. The storehouse was pretty cool, it takes you through the brewing process step by step for the 1^st few floors. At the start it felt much like a museum. After the process and historical background you start the fun stuff.  They had a tasting room where they gave you a mini pint and taught you the correct tasting protocol. The protocol was pretty comical, something like keeping your arm parallel to the ground when drinking Guinness which would get your weird looks in any pub. They teach you how to pour your own pint on the next floor us which sounds complicated but amounted to pulling a lever, waiting, and then pulling another lever. The gravity bar was probably the coolest. It’s the highest floor in the complex and gives you a good view of the area around Dublin while you enjoy your pint. It was definitely a tourist destination and very commercial (big gift shop) but it was a good thing to do once.

Up this point, everything in Dublin has been a blast. Just walking and performing mundane tasks like shopping for towels is fun because I get to explore new areas in the city and see new things. That being said, my appointment with the Garda scheduled for 4pm on Tuesday and this place is hell on earth. It was like a more depressing, less organized DMV. There were about 40 UCD students who were told to sit in the waiting room immediately.  All of us figured someone would come in and take us in at some point.  After waiting for about 2 hours, an off duty security guard told us we should have gotten tickets from the window when we got here. I think our jaws collectively dropped as we realized we had waited 2 hours for no progress.  But we got our tickets, and I went out to lunch and a walk with some of the other Holy Cross students. Slowly but surely, the line moved along and it was my turn to register. Not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous going up to the booth. I had all the correct documents, but the fact that this lady could reject me and make my life a whole lot tougher was weighing on me. I handed her the documents and waited nervously as she asked me questions about study and my documents. The conversation lightened when she noted my Irish middle name “Patrick” on my passport and I talked some about my family history in Ireland. Long story short, I was approved and received my GNIB card. It was a huge weight off my back.

On Thursday we left for Galway for our first weekend trip.  At this point I should mention one of my best friends from home, Won-Ki is studying with me in Dublin for the fall semester. Anyway, one of our friends from home is studying in Galway and said he would put us up for the weekend which saved us a decent amount of money. We arrived Thursday night, did some drinking, and went out into the city. Galway is actually considerably different from Dublin.  Our friend lives with 3 Irish students and the town has a more Irish feel where Dublin is much more international/Americanized. We checked out a couple different pubs which were very cool and gave a nice intimate setting in a unique way. We came relatively early for our journey planned for the next day.

The next day (today as I’m writing this) we took a trip to the Cliffs of Moher. As a disclaimer, the cliffs were probably the single most impressive and exciting sight I have seen and the words and pictures I post likely won’t do it justice but here goes. Just the vast size of the cliffs was insane to me, it was hard to take in everything at once. The cool part was you could walk right along the cliff edge which was amazing and terrifying at the same time. In America, there would surely be a fence there to prevent safety accidents. Each cliff has some much detail, and watching the water crash against the side rock just made me feel so small. Another cool aspect was the beyond the cliffs is pretty much water and the visibility was great. It was just majestic.  Hopefully the pictures below offer a better explanation of the cliffs than my text. Tomorrow we’ve planned a ferry ride to the Aran Islands, where we’ll probably bike around the island until it’s time to head back. Apologies for the amount of text, there’s been a lot to document. Until next time,

Ryan

here’s a pic of alex, wonki, and myself

Picture of yours truly at the cliffs

The plan wheels touched down in Ireland and as we rolled to a stop I kept telling myself, “I’m in Ireland right now”. It was just odd to me to think about how much my situation had changed during the 6 hour flight. So with all this pent up excitement I sped walk through the airport to be stopped by an hour long line for customs. The airport was obviously not much to see so it was like the equivalent of being forced to sit in the closet of a beautiful mansion. Anyway, we made it through customs and took a bus to our apartment and let in. The apartment itself is nothing special to say the least. Its a little dirty, and the wifi is terrible but its location to the city is unbelievable. Whalen’s and Flannery’s bars are a short walk on Camden street, there’s a beautiful park called St. Stephens Green I’ve walked through every day, Grafton street and O’Connell street are filled with shops, people, and amazing street performers. My favorite street performer is this man who wears a chrome helmet with big mirrored sunglasses, and a black morphsuit. He stares straight forward, not moving a muscle until someone throws a coin in his tip box when he proceeds to break dance like no other.

We’ve been to some cool places, and I think I’ve been out every night so far. This pace will slow down for sure once classes kick off tomorrow. We went to Whalen’s where they have lots of live music and I’ve heard they filmed a scene from P.S I Love You there too(never seen it). Flannery’s was across the street and gave a similar vibe though we just watched sports and chatted with the bar tender that night. He was kind enough to put on some baseball for us Americans, until 2 Irish men walked in and exclaimed, “What is this garbage!” On Tuesday, I took my friends from home to a Freddie Gibbs concert at the Twisted Pepper. Marcus Demascus went on first when there were just a handful of people in the venue but we got to talk to him after the show and he was very nice. Then a Dublin rap group came on after which was really cool just to here how it sounded with the accent.  I thought they were on to long but Gibbs eventually came out and gave a great show.  We were front row the whole show which was awesome. He was sweating on us which sounds gross but I’m a huge fan so I was loving it.

Last night we went to a club/bar open late, the name of it escapes me. It was a great night though, we met a group of Irish kids and some students from French as well. Overall, its been a hectic but exciting first week. Its been everything I had hoped and I think it’ll continue to be a fun ride as a settle in further. I’ll force myself to take some more pictures, but I’ll include one from the concert where you can see me front row. Cheers,

Ryan

I had a conversation with Marty today, one of my coworkers I’ve worked with a couple times over the summer. He told me stories of how he and his college buddies flew over to Europe following graduation.  They bought a bus shortly after arriving and just drove around Europe until they ran out of money. Sold the bus for plane tickets and came back. He reminisced and claimed it was the best time of his life. He kept exclaiming to me how I’m going to have a great time and I’m going to love it there. I could tell he was excited. Excited about the people I would meet there, the things I would do, thing I would see. As my flight to Dublin approaches, I feel the same way the Marty does.

There’s a lot to look forward to and a lot to discover, and I plan on keeping everyone posted upon my arrival. Cheers,

Ryan Ghizzoni