STO: Final Days in Ireland

I have a lot to get to so I'm going to type fast and create a post of even lower quality than usual. After the trek to Central Europe, I had a few days off before I found myself sitting in a large room with a pencil and an exam in front of me. The UCD exams were rather crazy and unusual actually. They took place at this Industrial Complex about 2 miles down the road from campus that none of us had ever been to, and in two, massive rooms. So basically 200 students are taking exams at the same time, all with assigned seats, situated along with other people in the same course. I always asked why we didn't just take exams in the same classrooms in which we had the class, like we generally do at Georgetown, but I never got a satisfactory answer. The reason was probably cheating based, as "security" was extremely strict at this place although my roommate Matt managed to cheat anyways. The exams were two hours long and while they were the least stressful of my life, they were still exams which are universally stressful. It really can be unpleasant being in a room of 200 students taking exams, but I was always able to calm myself by remembering that all I had to do was pass, which was extreeemely easy. I didn't study too hard but I don't think it mattered.

In between my 2nd and 3rd exams, I had a solid 4 days off, and used it to take a weekend getaway. I decided I'd be kind of adventurous, not that I haven't been this year, and visit Belfast, Giant's Causeway, and then some "random Irish country town." The adventure really lay in my minimal amount of planning for this whole trip, which basically amounted to booking a night in a hostel in Belfast. I showed up to the Dublin bus station early Friday morning and realized I had forgotten my passport. Belfast is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, but luckily Ireland and Northern Ireland share one of the more interesting borders in the world. It is not quite as open as the Vatican City border, but is a pretty close second with passport checks rarer than Detroit Lion wins. In addition, people of Northern Ireland (of British or Irish parentage) can automatically apply to become citizens of Ireland and obtain dual citizenship and play for its national teams. Scotland and Wales make you question what the word "country" means, but Northern Ireland really pushes that envelope. Basically the only difference between NI and Ireland is that one country uses pounds and the other euros. And I like the Northern Irish accent better. Also, did you know that major banks in the UK print their own currencies? The ones in Northern Ireland are particularly different from the ones in England.

So Belfast - you may have heard of it in the same sentence as "Troubles" or "IRA." And I went to the city looking for scars from these struggles, and while I'm told they still exist, you have to really know where to look. Certainly down the main streets, I felt like I was in any other festive European capital celebrating Christmas. The City Hall courtyard was decked out in another Christmas market, complete with a ferris wheel and an impressive 3 tented bars. I had a lunch of international food at the market and then soaked in the surrounding area. There is a rapid dropoff from the consumer-laden main streets and the poor residential areas only a few blocks away, but I was unable to find the graffiti-marked murals for which the city is well known, nor the blood of Catholics for that matter. I'm sure I just wasn't looking hard enough.

The weather was absolutely miserable that day in Belfast. Constant rain soaked the afternoon, and on my initial walk to my hostel, I experienced an event which I had only previously witnessed on Seinfeld - a zooming car sped through a puddle right next to the slab of sidewalk upon which I was walking and drenched my jeans and shoes. Lovely. I met up with my friend Sean from UCD ultimate and Texas, and his American friend studying abroad in Belfast. I had by chance seen that Sean's facebook status had something to do with going to Belfast, because I am a facebook creeper, and texted him on the bus and realized that I would have a friend in the city. So we go around looking to grab dinner except that Sean's friend Sarah didn't know any restaurants in the city. Really, if you are an American studying abroad in Europe and you do know the restaurants of a city, it means you've been burning through a lot of cash. We walk into a Chinese restaurant and turns out the main server speaks Cantonese and is impressed enough by my shabby Cantonese that he offers to throw in a free bottle of wine for the table. However, their Christmas meal plan was really too expensive and I'm ashamed to say I turned down free wine. We went to another Chinese restaurant, also operated by Cantonese-speakers, and I figured that Belfast was a haven for Guangdongren, which is interesting cause they're almost non-existent in Dublin.

Ok we later went drinking, surprise surprise. The crown jewel of Belfast pubs is called the Crown Liquor Saloon, which is a marvelously-designed Victorian-style pub with a tiled mosaic floor in the shape of crowns, and a really exquisitely decorated interior. Nonetheless, the place doesn't feel like a museum - it's still definitely a pub full of debauchery. Anyways, that was a good night. We went to this one bar in a sketchier area where I told stories of Long Island Iced Teas in Beijing, and upon leaving, we almost walked into a collision of drunks. There were two absolutely smashed Irishmen outside who, I mean I don't even know, they were messes and kinda belligerent. Well Sarah stopped and helped these two people, first away from each other, and then towards (presumably) home, including taking one into a taxi. There were some tense moments involved during all this, as well as some hilarious ones, but while at the time I felt that this was a very memorable event, I actually don't remember it too well. So there you go.

The next day was a packed day. I definitely wanted to see Giant's Causeway, and my hostel supplied a tour there. However, the tour also went to a few other places, including a lengthy stay at the town of Derry, which while I'm sure would have been enjoyable, would involve us getting back at 6pm, which I deemed to late to then trek to a "random country town." So I tried to find public transportation to the Causeway, and unexpectedly succeeded. I bought a 15 pound ticket that would give me unlimited access to trains and buses all day (turned out to be a great deal), took an 8:30 train from Belfast to this college town Coleraine (pictured, above) and from there took a bus to the Causeway. And wow was this place worth it. The Causeway was formed 60 million years ago by a volcanic eruption. The geology behind this is more complicated than I'm prepared to understand, but basically the lava from this eruption somehow cooled and cracked in geometric patterns - generally they were all hexagons, with the occasional pentagon sprinkled in. Each hexagon is flat, but they're all of different heights, and the end result is really a bizarre and incredible terrain. On top of it all, the Causeway is located on the northern coast, close to Scotland, and that whole area is absolutely gorgeous. I was also lucky to be there on a great day, and regret that I was in and out in just 1 hour, because I had a bus to catch. Definitely a place one could return to.