While I was in Ireland on a work visa last summer (2008) I took a weekend trip to Glasgow. I had always wanted to go to Scotland and it was truly a great weekend. Besides getting to explore the city I took a day trip into the Highlands and saw the absolutely gorgeous mountains, valleys, lakes, etc. The tour left from Glasgow, and made stops all the way up to Inverness and back down again. I would love to see Glasgow and hope the photos from the trip inspire you to see it for yourselves! [View Full Entry]

---

---

So instead of writing all the minute details of every trip I take I think I'll make this more of a photo journal. Life as a student is hectic to say the least, so I'll post my photos and give some explanations here and there! Sound good? Great! My friend Aias and I wanted to do something fun for the fourth of July weekend this year. We originally thought of driving to Chicago, hear some good blues and explore the city. I had never been before so it sounded like a great plan. One night I got a message from him [View Full Entry]

---

---

It has been forever since I've posted anything here, but I figured I might as well finish what I've started. I've had so many more adventures recently and I would love to get them up sometime. So let's keep going where I left off. Venice: Day 2. and possibly Day 3. We'll save some bytes on this blog for once. :) Day 2 was very similar to Day 1, actually. We got up and basically just walked all day in the summer heat, a wonderful break from rainy Galway. Kevin and Jessica waited in line to tour the Basilica. Myself and [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left for Venice on Friday! Heather, Jenna, Zephyr, Mary, Jessica, Kevin and I caught the bus out of Galway City Centre to Shannon Airport and flew to Treviso Venice. The sun was going down and the colors of the place were beautiful, and we hadn't even made it to Venice yet. We got on another land bus to get to the water, and took a water bus, the main public transportation in Venice, just for a few minutes to get to where our hotel would be. We walked for a while, only to find our hotel was doen this tiny [View Full Entry]

---

---

Monday was cold and rainy, even more so than usual. Usually we fight it during the day and go about our business but no one was really into the weather today. It cleared up in the evening so I decided to finally go out with my roommate Serena. The girl likes to go out, unlike the way I like to go out, so we hadn't really spent any wild nights together. Don't get me wrong, she is such an amazing person and we have a great time together. Just not usually for night life. So last minute we decided to go [View Full Entry]

---

---

The weekend was slow but really enjoyable. I planned on getting some homework done (but isn't that always the case?), but it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't stay in doing homework. Anna and I took our time getting ready for the day and then went out on the dock behind the apartment to watch the day go by. We took some books out with us and hung out by the water for a few hours, reading and talking. We watched the boaters go by, waved to the many tourist boats and watched the local rowing teams practice. That [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was pretty amazing, to say the least. We left for Connemara around 9:30am and it was just the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Again, if you are on the west coast of Ireland, take a trip through Connemara. The ride itself will be an adventure filled with amazing scenery. We went through the peaklands of the area, what I guess to be the equivalent to the highlands in Scotland. The place was so green and the tops of the mountains were covered with that thick Irish mist. The river valleys we drove through seemed endless and to be [View Full Entry]

---

---

I finally feel like I'm falling into a kind of routine here in Galway. We go into Eyre Square almost everyday, sometimes to actually get things done, other times just to walk around. It's so peaceful here, even when the city center is crowded with people. Today me and Anna took the Corrib Village coach into the city center. A woman from Utah was on the coach and we started talking on the way. We ended up just walking around with her for while, making a stop at Java's, our favorite coffeehouse. If there was anything I learned about Anna right [View Full Entry]

---

---

So here starts my first day as a Galwegian! At least for the next five weeks. A slow morning, being ever aware of the water-contamination. (Reminder: these are accounts of last July. The contamination has been taken care of, as far as I know.) Had some tea, talked with the roommates, and met everyone in the group to go to the university classroom we would be using to do some very long orientation business. Afterwards I walked with Jennifer of Ohio, Lauren of NY, Anna of Ark., and Erin of Tennessee to Dunnes Stores in the city center. Almost everyone on [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our last night in Dublin was really exciting and so much fun, and a lot of the group was very overtired the next morning if you can imagine. But Dublin was over and it was time to make it over to our home for the next five weeks, Galway. It takes about three hours to drive from Dublin to Galway but we had a stop in County Roscommon on the way there. We took a tour of the Strokestown House and Famine Museum. The grounds of the estate were very nice but you could tell there was some history to this [View Full Entry]

---

---