My elementary school Spanish was not cutting it on this trip.

My attempt to buy soap: I asked a very confused man at the counter whether this bottle was “sopa” (soup). It wasn’t. I then asked if it was “jamon” (ham). It wasn’t that either. Only when in the shower did I actually confirm that this bottle did in fact contain liquid “jabon” (soap). 

I also apparently managed to communicate that I wanted my steak fried when, in fact, I only wanted it medium-well. Fried steak is an interesting and not-to-be-repeated culinary experience. Also, any number of words that sounds like they could mean “olive oil” in Spanish all actually mean “mayonaise.” This is when the second waiter of the trip started complaining about us “blancas” 

I spend Sunday through Thursday of last week in Spain! We spend Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Malaga and spent Wednesday in Granada. 

While we were originally staying with my flat-mate’s aunt, that ended up falling through in a sketchy way the night before, and we ended up in a hostel all four nights, in a room which we shared with everyone from U Mich frat boys to an Italian boy who had just graduated high school, to this sketchy guy we nicknamed “the shuffler” due to his walk. 

The good news was that our hostel was on the beach, and I wasted no time breaking out my Lilly bikini and norts and soaking up the long-lost sun (Dublin’s a liiittle dreary).  Having a fruity cocktail on the coastal beaches of southern Spain is perfection. I highly recommend the experience, even if the waiter did refer to me as “blanca” or “white girl.” 

This photo was taken in the early evening, but still! so nice. I even got a tan!

We spent some quality time on the beach, but we did do some more cultural activities to be blogged about later - promise! 

Last week was “reading” week at Trinity (a.k.a all vacation and no reading…oops). I’ll blog about all my adventures soon, but something struck me on the journey back to Dublin. 

When Aer Lingus touched down, before I could even help myself, I thought, “I’m home.” I walked into the area near the exit to the airport that I had sat in waiting for the coach to pick us up on my first ever day in Dublin. On that day, I was unbelievably tired, but full of excitement and anxiety, surrounded only by strangers. This time, I felt comfort and relief walking through that same space. I felt like I had come full circle in some ways. I caught my bus to Trinity and walked down the streets that have become so familiar back to my apartment. I even felt annoyed with the slow moving tourists clogging “my” Grafton St. in “my” Dublin home.  

Dublin doesn’t feel like home in the same way or to the same degree that my childhood homes or Vanderbilt feel like home. But, in it’s own special way, it has that feeling of home, even an entire ocean away from my other homes. 

Trinity Ball - it’s the largest private party in all of Europe…and I’m going! It’s okay to be jealous. So excited for an evening of dressing up in black tie with my friends and taking part in a time-honored (sort of, it’s 53 years old) Trinity ritual. I woke up at 9am to go online for tickets, and it’s a good thing I did as 1000 tickets (out of 8000, I believe) sold in the first 2 minutes! I think it’s sold out now, or almost. There was a HUGE line of hundreds of people waiting to pay on campus (I paid online from my bed…it’s the 21st century y’all!)

Yes, I posted this to facebook, but I have to document for my blog too! The full line-up can be found here, http://trinityball.ie/lineup.php, and includes The Friendly Fires (featured on Gossip Girl!), Professor Green, and Marina and the Diamonds. I need to get acquainted with more Irish music!  

alternatively titled “in which we get free things from old men all night”

My roommate and I went out for tapas Saturday night in Belfast (yes, tapas, in northern ireland). I ate almost an entire loaf of bread with mine, it was casual.

On the way back from dinner, we literally bump into these two drunk men in their late forties. Who, after talking to us for awhile, assure us that their wives are behind us, and sure enough we see two women who are even more drunk (if possible) than their husbands stumbling behind us. They told us about an old, famous victorian bar in Belfast called The Crown, that they were headed to and that we should check it out. 

We tried to head back to our hotel instead, but after failing to find it we decided, ‘what the heck’ and went to go find these two old couples at the bar. We awkwardly joined them in this private closed booth where they bought us a pint and we chatted. One man could not work my camera, although he was very excited to get a picture with “the american girls!” Yikes. One couple even opened up to my friend about the bankruptcy of their catering business - yikes!

Our third roommate then joined us, having just met an 80 year old man who bought us all fake flowers from the Romanian woman outside the bar. We also got his number and he offered to show us around if we ever came back to Belfast before he died. awkward. 

Free drinks. free flower. BEAUTIFUL bar. all this stained glass and intricate detailing.

as we walk in the bar:

us and tom. normal. taken from above by the other 50 year old who couldn’t work my camera. wife slumped in corner: 

We met up with friends and headed to a bar for some Irish music! Then we munched on late night pizza and went to sleep. 

Everyone we met in Belfast seemed to love it and love living there. It was wonderful, but it also seemed considerably gloomier and more working-class than Dublin. Cork was more of a mini-Dublin, but Belfast was entirely different.

My friends and I woke up and explored a farmer’s market in Belfast. I saw interesting crafts (like smooshed liquor bottle transformed into clocks and cheese trays) and snacked on yummy olives (again… more on our visit to Howth soon). My friend Kat loved this tapestry, but couldn’t get it, and a stranger she had been talking to at the market gave her 15 pounds to buy it and wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer! Proving once again that Irish people are so nice!

pretty spices at the market:

Then we learned about ‘The Troubles’ black taxi tour of West Belfast, where a lot of the neighborhoods are still split between Protestant (loyalists) and Catholic (republicans). There were enormous portraits of men who had killed innocent people on the opposing side painted on houses and neighborhoods in a worshipful way. It was really disturbing, and not at all something you would expect to see in a developed country in the UK. Even now they close the gates between the Protestant and Catholic sides in the evenings to prevent trouble. 

People put their names and pleas for peace on the peace wall dividing the neighborhoods. I joined the Dalai Lama, Rihanna, Bill Clinton and several other famous people in signing this wall and hoping for peace:

the wall:

We also visited another wall where people paint murals of contemporary situations (eg Israel/Palestine conflict) that they feel are similar to the conflict in Northern Ireland. We also went to a memorial built for those innocent people who died. So many were little children shot at close range with these huge rubber bullets - absolutely heartbreaking. 

Thursday through Sunday I was up north exploring Belfast and the surrounding area! It’s very strange to think about Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland being two separate countries with separate currencies, but also kind of the same.

On the first full day (friday), we went to:

1. Carrick-a-rede bridge. We bravely crossed over this rope bride connecting Carrick Island to the mainland. The water and islands were nothing short of beautiful, and in crossing the bridge we crossed over the mouth of a dormant volcano.

crossing the bridge:

looking down: 

2. Dunluce Castle. We toured the remains of a majestic castle set against a backdrop of steep cliffs and wide ocean. 

the castle through the fog:

3. Giants’ Causeway. These stone formations were made during the rapid cooling of lava from volcanic activity that happened 50-60 million years ago! The majority of the stone are hexagonal, although some have varying numbers of sides. At first, it just seemed like a pile of rocks to me, but on closer look, this was actually really cool. It’s amazing what nature can make. There are lots of Irish mythical legends about giants and trickery in the creation of this causeway. There are stones in the shape of a chair (“the wishing chair”), in the shape of a giant’s boot, and in the shape of an organ etc. 

hexagonal stones:

Me in front of the organ. Also, why do I bother to have different shirts, again? every photo ever is of me in this same jacket/scarf combo. 

Later that night we each treated ourselves to a bottle of wine and headed into Belfast for our first night out in Northern Ireland, and my first ever tequila shot (really). Craziness ensued, but all’s well that ends well (although I did lose an earring :/)