Paddy's Day Festivities

As I mentioned yesterday, Dublin has been overrun with Americans this weekend and I’m happy to say that I contributed by hosting two of them. Helen arrived from London early on Thursday the morning, so she and I started the day at Er Buchetto, my favorite neighborhood café, before putting on our (metaphorical) tourist hats and hitting the sites. We started first at Trinity College, walking around campus and touring the Book of Kells, before continuing on via tour bus making our way to the museum at Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) where Julie met up with us, fresh off the plane from Spain. After a bit of an Irish history lesson at the jail, we began the cultural side of our touring at Jameson Distillery. Helen was selected to taste compare various Irish, American, and Scottish whiskeys and, loyal to her heritage if not her homeland, confirmed along with the rest of the crowd that Jameson was her brand of choice. We went out with my ultimate Frisbee team that night to celebrate the women’s 1st place finish in the Outdoor Intervarsity (All-Ireland) Tournament the weekend before (Go Trinity!!) where the gals confirmed their newfound affinity for Irish whiskey.

On Friday we continued our city tourism by bus at decided that our favorite stop was probably the Guinness Storehouse experience. I say ‘experience’ rather than tour, because it took up the better part of our day. We started off with lunch at the café where Helen tried the beef & Guinness stew, Julie a traditional Irish baked potato, and I had seafood chowder with Guinness brown bread, and we split a slice of Guinness chocolate cake for dessert (sense a pattern here?). Then there was the museum/tour portion where we learned about the brewing process and the 9,000 year lease that Arthur Guiness signed in 1759 for just £45 a year while the Mizzou Marching Band played in the background, brought in especially for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Another special addition for the day were face-painters, which of course we couldn’t pass up, followed by the interactive portion of the tour, where we all learned how to pour our own “perfect pints” (a perfect pint of Guinness takes 119.5 seconds to pour and the head will peak if touched), and ending with the beautiful view from the top.

While Guinness is certainly a staple in Irish pubs, it’s not the only local brew, so we headed to the Beerfest to try some lighter local options, and found one or two that I’d like to try again. There was a pretty good Irish duo on stage too – you could tell that this event was more geared toward locals than tourists since the music selection was songs by Irish artists, but more contemporary than traditional selection. Still, when in Ireland, the traditional music is worth enjoying, so I took the girls to hear some “trad” nearby (left) and they noted that unlike American bars that tend to attract the 20 – 30 year old crowd, Irish pubs are frequented by people of all ages. Also, people here are so friendly! This was a recurring theme throughout the weekend. That pub was less touristy than in Temple Bar and the locals were all singing along, which added to the atmosphere. Still, the Temple Bar area is worth seeing so we stopped by Oliver St. John Gogarty’s on our way to meet up with my friend Siobhán, but decided to take a pass since it was just too crowded for conversation. Julie did find herself a leprechaun, though!

As avid sports fans, Helen and Julie were missing March Madness, the NCAA college basketball tournament in the States, so I figured if anywhere would be showing it, O’Neill’s was a good bet. We didn’t find the basketball there, but we did get a seat next to the big screen showing the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells where Rafa Nadal was playing, so Helen was a happy camper. We were also able to stream some of the games on my computer throughout the weekend, so the girls didn’t miss all of the basketball and we were able to cheer on my Iowa State Cyclones v. Kentucky – a close game for a while, but heartbreaker in the end.

St. Patrick’s Day took us to the parade where we saw some good costumes and were relieved not to be pelted with candy the way we had been at Carnival. We got there early enough for a good view, too – an important factor in enjoying parades for those of us who aren’t the tallest in the crowd. Naturally, we were surrounded by primarily American accents, and the girls kept seeing friends of theirs left and right – it seems every American study abroad student in Europe found his/her way to Dublin for the weekend! We also met up with Kate and Woody, two other Rotary Scholars, and later managed to introduce my friend Siobhán to the American tradition of a Shamrock Shake, which we were able to find at McDonalds on Grafton Street. As much fun as Temple Bar looked, we opted for a less crowded scene and visited two of my local public houses for Saturday night, where the girls again noted how friendly the Irish are! We stuck out like sore thumbs in our green shirts and facepaint, so got a few curious questions about our nationalities (Ranelagh isn’t as big with tourists), but all were followed by warm welcomes, despite what the bathroom signs might have indicated (see right), and it was fun to have more of the local experience.

Sunday was Mother’s Day in Ireland, but we were able to find a nice brunch place where I ordered green eggs and thought of my uncle Joe’s bakery – he always used to dye his English muffin bread green in honor of the weekend. We spent most of the day wandering around through the gardens at St. Stephen’s Green and taking in the carnival and cherry blossoms at Merrion Square, and then made our way over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the evensong service. The choir really did sound heavenly and the sun streaming through the stained glass lived up to every rave review I’ve read.

The girls are heading home tomorrow to continue their study abroad ventures, but have a look at Julie’s and Helen's blogs too for their takes on the weekend. All in all, the weekend was all I’d hoped for and more, and I can’t think of a better place in the world to spend the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint. Sláinte!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, friends! I trust you're all celebrating in style.

So what is Paddy’s Day like in Ireland, you ask? Is it true that it was the Americans that shamed the Irish into celebrating the day properly? Well…yes and no.

I noticed a trend in chatting with people the last few weeks that many Dubliners told me they were heading to London for the weekend, though it’s hard to know if this was in an effort to avoid the incoming herds of American tourists or to go be nearer to the action for Saturday’s Six Nations rugby match between England and Ireland, or a bit of both. I can say that for the better part of the weekend, I’ve heard more American accents than Irish and it seems that the amount of Irish paraphernalia one wore (leprechaun hats, fake red beards, shamrock facepaint) was directly proportional to the distance they traveled to reach Dublin for the weekend. Many locals aren’t even wearing so much as a green top (ahem, Siobhán!), whereas the Americans in Ireland are decked out in full regalia (case and point: decked out tourists studying a map of Dublin).

Most of the expats also seem to be hosting American guests, and I’m no exception. My sister Helen, who is studying in London this term, and her college roommate Julie, who is spending a semester in Pamplona, both arrived to Dublin’s fair city on Thursday, ready to kick off the weekend of touring and celebrating our Irish heritage, and Helen brought along ‘lucky’ green shirts that my grandmother had sent along for us from the States to ensure that we were properly attired. In recent years, we’ve been able to spend the holiday with my grandparents in Florida over our college spring breaks, and even at 80+ years old, they never miss a chance to celebrate their Irish roots. As dutiful granddaughters, we promised to have a pint of the local brew for them.

Still, outside of city center and Temple Bar, my local pubs are packed and my accent is definitely the exception in this neighborhood – a much more local scene, and even if it's not quite the sea of green you'd find in city center, the locals are celebrating just as much as the tourists to be sure.

I’ll post more on our full weekend tomorrow, but for now, sláinte! Enjoy the day!

Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and Fight Polio

So after some fun travels around Ireland with my college roommate Elise over Reading Week, yesterday capped off the week with the Dublin Central Rotary Club’s President’s Gala Ball. I went to the reception hall early on Saturday morning to help put together the goody bags full of some pretty nice donated items, thinking that would be my contribution for the day, yet somehow before I left, the president had talked me into running the live auction that evening. He’s normally the one that runs it, but as president, had a speech to give already. Thank goodness for my years of training in public speaking from my mock trial coaches!

My dear friend Siobhán Brett accompanied me to the gala, and we had a grand time getting dolled up in advance (particularly when the cab driver rang the bell for us, sending the normally incredibly well-behaved dog I was caring for into hysterics as he tried his best to alert us of this visitor at the gate and we tried our best to keep the dog at bay while wearing stilettos and full-length dresses!), and nearly as much fun upon arrival attempting to explain to people how we knew each other: it makes complete sense that two girls who were born and (at least partially) raised in the US and now live in Dublin would have first met while living in the Netherlands, right?


Despite a lovely wine reception and dinner, I was still a bit nervous to take the podium for the auction during dessert – and not just because I was concerned about the fate of the delectable-looking Bailey’s cheesecake while I was away. Here I was at my first Ball, not even a Rotarian myself, speaking to a crowd of 150, many of whom had been regular attendees for years, trying to fill the shoes of a man with incredible stage presence at his own honorary event! Thankfully John, the emcee and one of the main organizers of the event, stayed up on stage to help me out and all in all I think we did pretty well together – plus the auction items were so great, they nearly sold themselves. And then the dancing began. It was definitely a fun and memorable night, but most importantly, the total amount raised on the night from ticket sales, raffle donations, and the live auction was about 6,000 euros – that’s nearly 20,000 polio vaccines for children worldwide.

In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” Just imagine what a worldwide network of one million Rotarians can achieve!

The Rotary Foundation, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been a major contributor to the End Polio Now campaign to eradicate polio worldwide, and the vaccination efforts are producing real life-saving results. Just this week the World Health Organization officially removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries, leaving three countries left to tackle: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. But don’t be fooled, just three countries left is great, and worth celebrating, but that last 1% can be the hardest to eradicate as it just takes one case to re-infect a nation. To learn more about Rotary’s efforts and what you can do to help, click here: Polio Plus Campaign.

A Day in Sunny Dún Laoghaire

Elise is here! It’s “Reading Week” now, a time midway through the semester when there are no classes so you have time to catch up on your studies. I, on the other hand, have interpreted it as “spring break” and the ideal time for my college roommate to come for a visit and explore more of this country’s great beauty with me!

Elise left snowy Iowa and landed in sunny Dublin early this morning ready to see the sites, but I just couldn’t stand to spend such a gorgeous day touring the insides of museums, so after a lovely breakfast at my local café, Cinnamon, we decided to let the museums wait a day and made our way instead to Dún Laoghaire, a port town on the south side of Dublin Bay.














We took a leisurely stroll in to town through St. Stephen’s Green, and had our cameras ready to capture the sites: the Molly Malone statue, buskers (musicians playing) on Grafton Street as leprechauns wandered by soliciting donations to their pots of gold, and through Trinity’s main square with a brief detour through the Book of Kells and old library before arriving at Pearse Station to catch the Dart train to the seaside.











With such a pleasant day, we spent most of our time in Dún Laoghaire strolling along the promenade, catching up on the news back home, and eating ice cream from Teddy’s, the local establishment, because it was a sunny day in February and we could.











We even caught sight of a few brave souls scuba diving in wetsuits, and bravest (craziest?) wetsuit-free, swimming around the historic Forty Foot beach, once a ‘Gentleman’s bathing place’ (read: nude beach), but now co-ed and (somewhat) clothed.











The jetlag set in about mid-afternoon for Elise, and I was a bit tired from our class potluck the night before* so we headed back to the house for dinner and a movie and to plot our next adventures. [*Sidebar: my apple-snicker side salad was a hit, though certain of my classmates questioned calling my creation a ‘salad’ when to them anything involving whipped cream and a candybar was clearly a dessert, apple or not…we agreed to disagree.]

We have a full week ahead of us, continuing first thing tomorrow morning. Check back for posts on some more of Dublin’s tourist highlights and few day trips around the island (and possibly off it!).

You can keep your traveling pants, I have traveling genes

So as I mentioned in my last post, I received some surprise visitors this week! Grandma and Grandpa Tobin have been touring about Mediterranean Europe for the past week with my cousins and had a few days of rest and relaxation planned in Zug, Switzerland, before returning home to the US, but decided last-minute that they had enough energy to visit me in ‘the homeland’ afterall. We'd decided in January that fitting in a trip to Dublin seemed like a little much for them at 78 and 80 years old, but they haven't let their ages slow them down yet and they weren't about to start now - and I'm all the luckier for it.

They arrived on Ash Wednesday, so our first stop was the airport chapel before making our way in to town to get settled into the hotel and find some lunch – a nice Irish potato and leek soup with brown bread gave us some energy to head on over to Trinity College for the afternoon where we walked around the main square and toured the Book of Kells and the Long Room, Trinity’s old library, which always reminds me of the library from Beauty and the Beast.

That evening was the highlight of the trip for me, as I got to take my grandparents to the Rotary meeting and introduce them around to the people who’ve been so hospitable and supportive to me this year. It was the perfect night for them to visit as a fellow Ambassadorial Scholar, Kate Goodrich (pictured), was presenting to the club on Texan culture (quite distinct from Iowan, I must say), so they got a taste of what I do as I visit the clubs around Ireland, and I was so thrilled that so many members were in attendance, including a few spouses as well. Once Kate finished her presentation and answered a few pointed questions about Texan-American views and culture, we all went to a nice dinner afterward to continue the conversations.

We had decided over tea earlier in the afternoon that rather than taking spending the next day on a bus trip elsewhere in Ireland, which could make for a long day of travel, Grandma and Grandpa would prefer to stay in Dublin and maybe visit the village where I live and see a few sights they hadn’t seen on previous visits, possibly even catch a movie at the Jameson International Film Festival that was on since they’d traveled around Ireland a few times before (most recently in 2010 when my cousin Zachary studied abroad in Cork) and besides, they never really had time to make it to the movies since there’s no cinema in the rural Iowa town where they live.

But sure enough, the spirit of adventure caught up to them and by the end of dinner as I walked them back towards their hotel, Grandpa turned to me and asked, “Is it true that Belfast is only 2 hours away from here? Boy I’d sure like to see it – we’ve never been able to go up North before.” So the next morning we slept in a bit and then caught a bus up to Belfast for the day where we sipped tea in the Europa Hotel (“the most bombed hotel in Europe,” having survived 28 attacks during the Troubles), took a bus tour past the top sight-seeing spots including the docks where the Titanic was first launched, the “peace wall” that separates neighborhoods that have historically been in conflict, the murals on Falls and Shankill Roads (pictured), and the Queens University campus where I might have studied if the Rotary Foundation had so decided. We wrapped up the trip with a visit to the Crown Bar on Great Victoria Street, which prides itself on retaining “an indelible flavour of yesteryear” where “there are no strangers, only friends who have yet to meet,” and as it turns out, we found that to be true.

The pub is an old Victorian with short walls surrounding the cozy booths, or ‘snugs.’ Since it was already busy when we arrived, one couple agreed to share their booth with us and we struck up a lively conversation with an Irish journalist ranging from his experiences serving in the Irish Defense Forces and his visit to Guantanamo Bay to cover a story in 2005 to the prices of farmland in Ireland and Iowa, to my proposed thesis topic on whether reintegrating former combatants into post-conflict societies as tour guides of conflict sites fosters reconciliation or keeps the conflicts and divides of the past alive. We had to cut the conversation short to catch our bus back to Dublin, but I hope to continue it another time.

Back in Dublin, we had dinner and listened to some live ‘trad’ – traditional Irish music – before cal ling it a very full day and quite a full trip for just two days. After a final leisurely breakfast, we said our ‘until we meet agains’ at the airport this morning, Grandma and Grandpa returned to Switzerland for the rest of their vacation, and I’m off to class and a potluck with my classmates tonight before I return to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up college roommate Elise for a weeklong visit over my spring break! More posts about our tour of the Irish countryside to come – stay tuned!

Carnival in Cologne

The year I moved out of my family home to start university, my family got a new addition: Katharina Jenni, an exchange student from Essen, Germany joined our family for the year to learn English and American culture, and of course we got a few lessons in German culture and festivals as well. So after hearing all the rave reviews of the German version of Mardi Gras, Carnival, in Cologne, my sister Helen and I wanted to go check it out for ourselves.

I arrived on Saturday morning, passport in hand. I consider myself a fairly experienced traveler, but sometimes it’s the simplest things that escape me…such as the most important of travel documents that remained hidden in my room as I took off for the airport at 4am. Thank goodness for the local cab driver who knew how to avoid the after-closing-time traffic as he drove me back home and into the city again, allowing me to catch the airport bus with plenty of time to spare and make my flight without a problem (well, once I convinced the airport security that my glasses case was not filled with liquid as their x-rays seemed to indicate).

So it was a relief when I arrived on Saturday morning, and my lovely sisters picked me up with coffee in hand. We went back to the house to drop off my bags and then headed into Essen to do a bit of shopping and catch up over lunch at Vapiano’s (one of Katharina’s favorite restaurants here, which also happens to be one of mine in DC). It was there that not one, but two dogs joined in the dining experience at the next tables over. To Helen and I, this was a bit mind-boggling as I’m pretty sure it’s against the health code in most restaurants in the US to have dogs sitting below the tables, and just unpleasant to have them yapping back and forth, but it’s apparently not that uncommon here. We also discovered later in the weekend that not all bars are smoke-free. It’s been a while since I’ve come home so smoky, but it was Katharina’s favorite place and I can see why, but I do like my smoke-free restaurants and bars in Iowa and DC.

On Sunday after a delicious breakfast of Nutella (I forgot how tasty that stuff is!), we visited a really cool photography exhibit inside the Gasometer Oberhausen called “Magische Orte” that featured photos of magic of the natural world in its own right as well as some man-made wonders of the world. We also rode the elevator (lift) to the top and had a lovely view of the city and the river with it’s frozen pieces of ice – it was a cold one, but the sun felt nice on my shoulders.


Then we warmed up back at the house with a delicious German meal of meat (there isn’t really a good English translation), potatoes and sauerkraut that Katharina’s mom made for us, and some chocolate cupcakes that we had made the night before – with lovely “schokoladedekorhartzen” (sprinkles) on top. Ask Helen for the pronunciation of the word, she had some fun with it.

But Monday was really the main event (a surprise to me since we celebrate Mardi Gras on Tuesday in the US, but Germans also open presents on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised about the jump start). We got up early and dressed in costume, and all five of us (parents included) piled into the car to drive to Cologne. We parked a bit outside the city center, put the final touches on our costumes: two hippies, Little Red Riding Hood, a peacock, and an Eskimo, and boarded the tram along with Superman, a couple of polar bears, and any number of other unidentifiable but sufficiently wacky costumes.

We strolled through town a bit taking in the sights, then found a nice spot with plenty of room to view the parade, and the Jennis all refreshed our memories of how to interact with those parading through the streets: when they say “Kolle,” we say “Alaaf,” and you can ask them for “kamelle” (candy) or “strussia” (flowers) – but fair warning, if the men give you flowers, they expect a “butzien” (kiss) in return [Note: spellings are approximate].

We were surrounded by people of all ages from the 3 year old in the helmet to my right to the college kids that started off behind us but somehow ended up in the front row during “butzien” time to the middle aged couple to my left, and the paraders ranged from very young to very old as well. It wasn’t long before I found out why the kid was wearing the helmet – the candy bars they throw are legit! I’m used to fun-sized parade candy or the occasional full-sized candy bar, but at Carnival, the full-sized candy bar seems to be the norm and you’ll even get a mega-candy bar or a full pack of cookies here and there – helmets were definitely a good idea.


All in all, people were cheery and out for a good time. At the point when I was expecting the parade to wind down (maybe 90 minutes in), Katharina told me we had just seen float 20 of 40! My toes were in need of some warmth at that point, so we stepped in to an adjacent restaurant for some coffee before calling it a day and heading home. But the whole experience was just fantastic and even the photos I’m posting don’t do it justice – if you have a chance, it’s definitely worth a visit, and I for one, hope to do so very soon.

We wrapped up today (Tuesday) with Katharina and I teaching Helen how to drive a stick-shift car on Idiot’s Hill. While I’d love to credit the back-seat instruction, she’s a quick learner and had it down within the hour. Granted, she already knew how to drive automatic transmission, but still, I walked away without even a hint of whiplash, and then Katharina took the wheel again to head over to Dusseldorf for lunch and stroll through town before Helen and I headed back to our respective homes in the British Isles, ready to take on the next adventure: Grandma and Grandpa Tobin planned a surprise visit to Dublin and arrive in the morning!!

Galway Girls

After getting in some really fun international travels over winter break, I’ll be focusing more on traveling within Ireland for the upcoming term and am excited to have friends and family visiting to travel with! My first visitor of the year was my cousin Emily LePage, who is currently living in Bristol, England, so flew over for a little weekend get-away to Ireland.

I met Emily at the airport on Saturday morning and we took the bus straight over to Galway to do a bit of touring about. After securing hostel accommodations for the night, we took on the town, wandering around the food and craft stalls on the aptly-named Market Street, perusing the claddagh rings at Thomas Dillon’s (the original claddagh ring shop), walking through the Spanish Arch, and of course, listening to Galway Girl on my iPod as we walked along the Salthill Prom. We found the cutest little tea room for lunch, then caught a nap back at the hostel before going out to experience the nightlight Galway is known for.











We made our way up and down High Street, chatting first with an older couple from Dublin seated at the table next to us who’d decided to take a post-holiday weekend away, then with a recent arrival from America on her semester abroad who knew a girl from Iowa (our state may be small, but at 3 million inhabitants, I don’t quite know everyone in it), and later on a group of Welshmen out on the town for the weekend who were highly amused by our attempts at Irish dancing during the traditional music session (I should note that neither of us have the slightest clue how to Irish dance, aside from what we’ve learned through clips of Riverdance).



Sunday was the more touristy day, and we spent the majority of it on a bus tour around Connemara, and the sun was nice enough to break through the clouds just as we arrived at Kylemore Abbey (see below)– a very picturesque area and it’s no wonder that the couple fell in love with the area on their honeymoon and decided to build their castle there, though Margaret Henry died suddenly just a few years after construction was completed. It’s said that Mitchell Henry was a kind and fair landlord who provided work, shelter, and even schooling for his worker’s children during the years following the Great Irish Famine, and that his treatment of tenants was rivaled not just in Connemara, but in all of Ireland from the time he built the castle in 1867 until he sold it in 1903. The castle has since been converted into an Abbey and gardens, and there is still an active community of Benedictine nuns living and working on the land.



We also stopped at a faerie tree along the way (above), a part of Celtic mythology that lives on as the portal to the faerie world – as the story goes, if you leave an article of clothing tied to the tree (or post nearby), your wish will come true. More likely the Irishmen giving the tours have a good laugh at people deciding which items to leave. But truly, most Irishmen will tell you that they don’t believe in faeries, but they also wouldn’t dream of cutting down a sacred faerie tree – that’s just asking for it from the faeries!

After a full day on our bus tour around the region, and cameras full of the scenic winter vistas, we caught a bus straight back to Dublin via the airport for Emily to catch her Sunday evening flight – just a quick trip over, but when it’s only a 45 minute flight, you can do a one-night stay and still fit in quite a lot. I’m excited for more people to come visit in nicer weather so the next time I’m out to Galway we can get out to the Aran Islands! For now, I’ll go back to the books for another week before traveling to Cork next weekend with my ultimate Frisbee team – should be an adventure to say the least!