10 Things I've learned in Ireland

1. The people here lack "walking etiquette".  When you are walking on a busy sidewalk in the States people stay to the right and all confusion is diffused.  However, the Irish haven't yet figured this out.  They walk right, left, and right down the middle of busy sidewalks which makes you feel like a running back trying to find a small crease to cut through.

2. The Irish have some sports that are played nowhere else in the world (or not that widely).  First, there is hurling which is a sport played with a wooden paddle where participants attempt to get a small ball about the size of a lacrosse ball either through uprights (like in football) or in a goal (like soccer).  You get three points for whacking the ball past the goalie and into the goal and one point for going through the uprights.  The other new sport for me is Gaelic Football.  Gaelic Football is a very difficult sport to explain.  The athletes carry around a ball similar to a soccer ball and can only take 4 steps with it before either kicking it back up to themselves, slamming it into the ground so it pops back up, or hitting it away to another player.  There is technically no contact in the sport but some nasty collisions take place.  The scoring is the same as hurling and the players can kick the ball into the goal or through the uprights.  Both sports are pretty fun to watch in person and would be something I would recommend seeing.

3. School in Ireland is very different than in the United States.  Our classes at UCC (University College Cork) are never mandatory and Irish students only show up about half the time.  It is extremely easy to skip classes because in most there is only 1 paper and 1 final for the entire year.  Also, classes only run until the end of March and then we are given a month off in April to "study".  It really doesn't get much better than that.

4. Everyone wants to kiss the Blarney Stone but why?  In Cork I am located about a 25 minute bus ride (or a 2 hour walk) from the Blarney Stone.  Ireland's most famous stone is fun to visit and kiss (I will probably end up doing it about 4 times).  However, why are we kissing this piece of rock that was put so far out of the way that you have to imagine it was some drunk Irishman's idea of a cruel joke.  I understand they say that kissing it brings about eloquence or something like that.  Who decided that this piece of rock determined this and why?  That is my only questions.

5. Sometimes it's not all about sightseeing and going to every possible place imaginable.  Although traveling around Ireland is fun and going to Belgium was amazing sometimes it is nice to just hang out in Cork.  I am extremely comfortable with the city and it is fun to just live in a city in a foreign country.  It is an opportunity which I may never have again and my main goal is to take advantage of it.

6.  The beer in Ireland is very good but also very expensive.  At a pub the normal cost for a Guinness, Murphys, Beamish, or whatever else is around 4 Euro.  This is the equivalent to paying about 5.50 for a beer in the States.  The only place that doesn't beat those prices is Yankee Stadium.  However, you do get what you pay for with the extra 4 ounces (because its a pint) and the stouts are excellent.

7. They speak their own form of English.  The Irish people use words and phrases that I never really hear used in the United States.  Every time you order anything they say "Cheers".  They also like the words "lads", "grand", "craic" (meaning fun), and using "like" at the end of sentences instead of the middle.  I have to admit that some of these words mentioned above and others are going to be tempting to bring back to the States.

8.  It doesn't rain that much in January/February.  I came over here expecting massive amounts of rain that occurred all the time.  However, so far the weather has been fairly cold (37-45) and it hardly has rained at all.  I guess we will see if this changes when Spring rolls around.

9.  People in Cork believe that they live in the "real" capital of Ireland.  There is a lot of pride in where you live and people in Cork believe that it is the place people should look to as the capital of Ireland because of the culture.

10.  St. Patrick's Day is a holiday here where all classes are cancelled.  It's also probably the craziest day of the year but of course most of you know that.

Well, here are my 10 things I've learned.  I will have more coming soon as I plan my 10-14 day trip in April which will include trips to Paris, Berlin, Prague, Venice, Rome, Barcelona, and possibly Madrid.

Trip to Belgium

So, I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while but life has been busy and I haven't done much new until this past weekend.  On Thursday morning at 9 A.M. my three friends and I caught a bus from Cork up to Dublin for our trip to Belgium.  From Dublin we caught a 3:30 flight to Charleroi on Ryan Air which is the cheapest airline in the entire world.  We flew into Charleroi and then had to endure a 3 hour commute to Leuven (where we have friends living so we had a free place to stay).  On Thursday night we went out to one of the bars where we all hung out and drank some really good Belgium beers which are extremely high in alcohol and not as expensive as they are in Cork.

On Friday we slept in and took a 25 minute train ride to Brussels.  Brussels was a pretty cool city and was a lot bigger than Leuven.  We walked around a ton and saw the "peeing boy" which is the major tourist attraction in the city.  Honestly, it wasn't that exciting as the statue is extremely small and located on the corner of the street.  We also saw Grand Place which is their center square and is absolutely beautiful.  After that we just walked around, ate some food, and headed to Delirium.  Delirium is a bar in Brussels that has the largest beer selection in the world.  There are three floors and each one has a difference group to choose from.  Apparently there are over 2,000 choices.  I had the Delirium Tremens (voted the best beer in the world) and Satan.  It was a great atmosphere and we had a lot of fun.  We headed back to Leuven that night and hung out in one of the bars smoking cigars for the night.

On Saturday we headed to Bruges!  This was the most exciting part of the trip for me as I have wanted to visit this city ever since I saw the movie In Bruges (which is an excellent movie if anybody needs a good movie to watch).  This city is much different from Leuven, which is a student city, and Brussels, which is a lot larger and more modern.  This city is all cobblestone streets and has a very old look to it.  We visited a cathedral which has a vial of Christs blood which apparently turns to liquid every so often (and by that I mean it hasn't happened in 200 years or something) which was cool to look at.  Bruges is a hard place to explain without seeing it so just check my Facebook for the pictures.  We went back Saturday night to Leuven and went out to the bars for a little while.

On Sunday we left Leuven at 3:30 because we had a 9 PM flight out of Charleroi.  I'll skip the details but it turned out that we got into Shannon Airport (about 2 hours from Cork) at 9:50 and there wasn't a bus until the next morning at 8:50 AM.  We got some food and ended up sleeping in the airport.

The best thing about Belgium?  Well, the four things I took away were great waffles, excellent fries, chocolate, and a large selection of beers.  The architecture is also pretty incredible.  Overall, it was an amazing trip.