Sunday, March 27, 2011

Yeats

Recently I have been learning about Irish Literature and focusing on that class only for 2 weeks.  An English professor from Taylor flew out here for all of last week and we traveled with her for a few days up near Northern Ireland in Donegal, Sligo, and Derry.  The purpose of these travels was to visit sites from our novels, plays, poems, and short stories we are reading.  My favorite of the writers thus far is Yeats.  I enjoy his poems with influences from nature and fairies.  Pictured below are places we saw that are in his poems.  






Innisfree 


Waterfall from poem, The Stolen Child



The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sound by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Yeats wrote this poem while away from Ireland, in expression of his desire to come back to Ireland and live in rest on the island of Innisfree, I don’t blame him! 

Even though English is not my favorite subject, visiting waterfalls and lush green forests doesn't make it that harmful. 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Edinburgh was the place to be!

So last minute a couple weeks ago my friends Emily Guebert and Alyssa Beck (the other PA) decided that traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland would be a grand place to travel over our short Spring Break.  I was hesitant because I had never heard of the place before but decided to go for it!  All I had in mind was people playing Bagpipes and I pictured it to be similar looking and feeling to Ireland.  How I had no idea of the magnificent city of Edinburgh!
View of the Castle and city from above on our hike.

Looking down at all the different hiking trails that you can explore on the mountain.

It snowed for one day!!!

The snow was great at first.

Out at night

My favorite pub, and our favorite non alcoholic cider!

Amazing mountains behind the city

The peak at the top is where we hiked to on the first day

Bagpiper!

New Town area of Edinburgh.  All Georgian style buildings.

The birthplace of Harry Potter!!! JK Rowling's cafe where she wrote the first book!  Mocha and inside the cafe was great

Walking along the Royal Mile.  St. Gile's Cathedral spire, where we attended church on Sunday morn

Grand live music on the last night at the Royal Mile Tavern

Lobby of the hostel :)

Top of St. Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park, what a hike but so worth it

The crew.  Picture taken by a Californian I met!

And one night we made dinner in the hostel kitchen.  Peas and pasta!

Well I guess it is a long story but the whole trip I wore my passport pouch under my clothing so me and the kanga are twins with our front pouches.  You can't see mine in this pic, luckily.

In Calton Hill area.  Edinburgh was building this huge monument and ran out of money, so now it is just a great place to explore and take pictures

And finally, Brodies.  My first legit hostel. 
So backpacking in Edinburgh for 3 days was such a great time.  We didn't even have travel problems except when I mislead the group to the wrong gate at the Dublin airport at 3am and we had to exit the whole airport, go through security again and go to the correct Edinburgh gate.  I felt so bad but we didn't miss our flight :)
While in Edinburgh my favorite thing was the hike on the first day up to St. Arthur's seat!  And every single day we did miles of walking around the city.  We went to:
*see the Edinburgh castle
*the National Galleries- saw pieces by van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, Degas, Millet, and so much more!
*the Elephant House- where the first Harry Potter was written
*Gallery of Modern Art
*went out at night in search of the best live music and non-alcoholic drinks
*St. Gile's Cathedral
*Princes Street
*all over :)
I highly recommend traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland!  It was a great city to experience.

Today is St. Patrick's Day!!!!!  We are going into Dublin for all day and night.
First, the Dublin parade.  Then Gaelic games, football and hurling!  Back to Dublin for dinner and everything else that happens on St. Patrick's Day.  All the locals have the day off school and work.  It is going to be a huge party!  And an overload of tourist in Dublin, oh man...

Well hope everyone has a grand day, missing America but love Ireland!