UK Invasion!!!

Well, I'm a little late with this post again, but I think it will be worth it. I know that this is going to be a super long post because I had a ridiculously long weekend. It's going to take some time before I regain feeling in my butt from all the travelling I did. However, I would do it all again in a heartbeat, because I got to see so many beautiful things and experience so much history. A couple of times, I looked around and thought "is this really my life?" For the sake of expediency (and so that I have something to do between now and the time that I leave on the 17th), I'm only going to talk about my first day in London in this post. Maybe I'll do Friday's adventures tomorrow.

I'll start out with saying that I left for Dublin Wednesday night, with my flight leaving at 11:00 AM Thursday morning. I arrived at the airport shortly before midnight, and set up my computer to wait for my flight. After about an hour, I decided to take a nap. Luckily, the McDonalds upstairs had some comfortable benches perfect for just such an occasion. I think the security guards thought I was a hobo, because at one point they woke me up to ask if I had a flight in the morning. I looked down at my suitcase before replying, thinking "No, I just carry this heavy luggage around to tone my arms." I didn't say it (mostly because I think they would have kicked me out of the airport), but I really wanted to.

I arrived in England at around 1, and immediately started rushing around, trying to get everything that I wanted done accomplished. My easybus left London Heathrow airport and stopped in Watford Junction, where I picked up a shuttle to Warner Brothers London Studio tour of Harry Potter. I then waited for about 20 minutes for my tour to begin, all the while taking in some of the props and photos they had in the lobby. They had a Ford Anglia suspended in the air over the information desk, some pictures of the cast as they grew up on the walls, and a giant telescope from Dumbledore's office all on display before you even got into the actual studio.

Once in line, the first thing that I saw was the staircase in the Dursley's home, where Harry was forced to sleep at the beginning of the first book. Since it was the actual set where they filmed the scenes, you could see just how tiny Daniel Radcliff was when they first started shooting. It was so tiny! They even had an original pair of Harry's glasses sitting on the floor beside the staircase from the first movie, and they were so little. It amazes me to think just how long it has been since I was in second grade, and my teacher kept yelling at me to put "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" down and pay attention in class.

Once they let us into the main studio, they showed us a bunch of the movie posters from around the world, in a number of different languages. They then showed us a movie about how the movies came to be about, followed by an introduction from Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint welcoming us onto the set and telling us more about their time in the studio making the movies. It was a really cool way to start out the tour, which then continued into the Great Hall set. One of the most iconic sets in the movie, it was almost unreal to step inside and be a part of the Hogwarts world in a way that I dreamed about when I was younger.

They had a lot of the costumes from the ghosts and the students on display, including the costumes of the main actors. For example, they had Neville's sweater from the final battle, and Harry's tiny uniform from the first film. They also had the costumes from the main teachers, including Hagrid and Dumbledore, next to the Head Table and Dumbledore's podium. However, my favorite part of the Great Hall was getting to see the House Point counter, which didn't really feature too heavily in the movies. It was so interesting to think of all the work that went into creating the thousands of colored glass beads inside.

From the Great Hall, they led us in one of the main soundstages, where they had little stands that you could walk around and check things out at your own pace. For example, they had an entire section at the beginning dedicated to all the work the production crew put in for the Yule Ball scenes from The Goblet of Fire. They had Hermione's beautiful dress, as well as the costumes of Harry, Krum, Cho and Ron. They also had the crystal punchbowl and all of the fabulous dishes that they created with the "winter" theme in mind. My favorite part was, of course, the chocolate table that they had created for the opening feast of the fourth movie. The entire table looked good enough to eat, though none of it was edible.

From there, they had set up makeup and hair counters, where you could see all of the work that was put into creating the look for each character, particularily those with strange hairstyles, like Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. They even had Hagrid's beard pinned onto a mannequin so that the vistors could see that every single part was made up of individual components that I'm sure took forever to get just right for filming. It kinda weirded me out seeing all those wigs on the mannequins, though. It's not that I'm afraid of them, like some people. It's just that it looked like some of the characters had been scalped, and their hair placed on the mannequin heads. Though, maybe I've just been watching too much Bones lately. Also, the makeup counter was ridiculous. I have never seen that much makeup outside of the aisles in the store. It was insane to think of how long the actors had to sit in those chairs in order to look the parts they were playing. I certainly don't envy them that experience, though I'm sure they got used to it after a while.

Next to the hair and makeup stands was costumes. Obviously, they couldn't show every single costume worn by each person, but they did show a couple Luna and Lockheart's costumes on the rack like they would be for filming. I had a lot of fun thinking, "hmm...Luna wore that one at the wedding in the sixth movie." or "Ah! This was Fleur's costume during the Triwizard Tournament!" (that one you can just barely see in the background of this shot). Interestingly, the girl who played Luna Lovegood in the movie, Evanna Lynch, helped to design her costumes for the films. Pretty interesting, at least in my opinion.

From there, it was pretty much a free-for-all, where you could move around the enormous soundstage and check out some of the most iconic sets from the movies. Of course, I headed to the Gryffindor tower rooms first, where they had set up the common room and the boys dormitory sets. Interesting little tidbit: The beds in the boy's dorm room were created to fit them when they first started the movie. In other words, for their ten-twelve year old selves. They were never rebuilt, so by the end of their time at Hogwarts, the characters had to curl up in bed so that their legs didn't hang off the ends and appear ridiculous. Next time you're watching the movies, check out their legs to see if it's noticeable! I was weirded out by how small the room looked. In the movies, it seems like a huge room, but it was actually really tiny in person. The magic of cameras, I guess, because I never would have guessed that the actors probably had barely enough room to move around with all of the camera equipment in that tiny little space with them.

Right beside the dormitory was the common room set, which featured not only the lush chairs and cozy fireplaces that I expected, but also had some unexpected features. It had the costumes for Harry, Ron and Hermione from the first, third and seventh movies on display, as well as the Invisibility Cloak, both the green screen version and the exterior, celtic-design inspired exterior. Also, if you look in the upper right hand corner of the picture to the right, you can see the painting of a young woman with her hands behind her back. Turns out this was a young Professor McGonagall. All of the paintings in the dormitory were of former Gryffindor Head of Houses. A tidbit that wasn't in the books, which I found very cool.

One of my two favorite sets on the interior sound stage was the Potions classroom. You can't really capture the magic of this set on film, because a number of the cauldrons were stirring themselves. They were lit up from the inside with green or red lights so that it looked like the potions were phosphorescent.  Plus, all of the bottles on the walls actually contain real ingredients, like boiled bones from the local butcher. All of these vials are handmade and hand labeled, which made it truly fascinating. The whole set was coated in dim, green lighting, making it feel like it was underground. Like, say, in the dungeons? (that was sarcasm. I have read the books, and thus know that the potions classroom was, in fact, in the dungeons)

My 2nd favorite set was also probably Harry's 2nd favorite place in the world. I, of course, am talking about the Burrow. From the blanket that was knitting itself, to the carrots that were being chopped by a magicked knife, the entire room had the feeling of home, which I am missing terribly at this point in my trip here. Of course, my family isn't as home-oriented as the Weasley's, but it has its moments. And I'm sure that my mom would envy Mrs. Weasley her wonderful clock. Insider's Info: The Burrow was supposed to look like Mr. Weasley had built it, so the house was first built entirely level, then production pulled it with ropes until nothing was at right angles while still maintaining the safety of the set. So the room looked slightly lopsided.

The sheer amount of props that were used in the movies were truly amazing. They kept almost everything, from the wands, to the Triwizard and Quidditch cups, and Rita Skeeter's Quick Quotes Quill. And most of the important props from the movies were on display. My favorite props to get a closer look at were the Horcruxes. They obviously couldn't put Nagini or (Spoiler Alert for those of you who still haven't read the books or watched the movies) Harry on display, so all they had in the case were Ravenclaw's Diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's Necklace, Marvolo's ring and Riddle's diary. Also, there was another case that had the Rememberall, the Snitch, and the Sorceror's Stone inside that I spent quite a while standing at.

From there, you could go and check out the green screen technology, including getting the opportunity to film yourself playing Quidditch. I wasn't really in the mood to stand around for an hour to wait, so I just looked around the green screen area that was already set up. They had the Gringott's cart, Hagrid's motorbike, and Moody and Harry's brooms on the mechanisms that made them fly against the green screen. The pictures I took of the cart and the brooms were really fuzzy, but this one wasn't too bad. They also showed clips from filming, where Daniel would be on the broomstick, and you could see it moving around. Then, they added the background, and Harry was on the Quidditch pitch, reaching for the Golden Snitch.

There were more sets in this part of the tour, including the Ministry's fireplaces, the Magic is Might statue, and Dolorus Umbridge's office (which looked like someone had thrown up a lot of Pepto Bismol inside). However, the one that drew the largest crowd was Dumbledore's office. The office had the costumes of both Dumbledores (Richard Harris and Michael Gambon), as well as the giant telescope and all of his various textbooks and trinkets that lined the walls. They also had the Griffin statue that led up to his office on display outside the doorway. However, it led to nothing but a wall, as this version wasn't mechanized.

However, the coolest part was tucked away where, strangely, no one was looking. I'm, of course, talking about the Pensieve and all of Dumbledore's collected memories. Each vial in the case on the left was handblown and labeled in spindly handwriting, which must have taken the production team a very long time. The Pensieve, regretably was pushed back on the shelf and not quite as majestic as it appears in the films, but still pretty cool.

The next part of the tour was the outside backlot, which hosted any scenes that were outdoors in the films, including the bridge outside Hogwarts, the exterior of Privet Drive, and the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow. Bet you'd never guess that Harry's very first home was about 10 feet from the house that made him so miserable, would ya? Also outside was one of the two versions of the Knight Bus. The team created one bus that was motorized and able to move, and another that didn't move, but offered access to the inside for shooting.The bus itself is the product of two London tour buses, with the double decker portion of one bus cut off and welded onto the top of the other to create the three-tiered bus. Sadly, no shrunken heads were on the inside of the bus.

Once I was done walking around the outside, taking pictures of giant wizard chess pieces and Tom Riddle Sr.'s gravesite, it was into the creature room I headed. It was here that they created all of the animatronic elements for the movies, including three versions of Fawkes the Pheonix, Grawp, Aragog, Buckbeak and the emaciated, tiny Voldemort. They also had life-size, rubber molds of several of the cast members, including Hermione, George, Harry, Dumbledore and Hagrid. The Hermione mold was most likely used both when she was paralyzed by the basilisk in book 2 and during the scene in the lake in book 4. The Harry and Dumbledore molds were likely used when both characters were supposed to be dead. Perhaps the coolest/creepiest thing in the creature studio was the realistic, animatronic head of Hagrid that was remote controlled to move its lips, create facial expressions, and twist like a normal head. This animatronic version of Hagrid was placed on top of the 6'6" stunt double for Robbie Coltrain when Hagrid was standing beside other characters and had to appear enormous, yet didn't have to talk. It was actually quite convincing.

After the creature studio, we passed by the enormous Aragog and continued on to find Diagon Alley. Easily, the most interesting fixture of the alley was the moving statue of one of the twins at the Weasley Wizarding Weazes shop, but I was determined to wait until I got to the end to truly appreciate it. There were only a couple of shops at Diagon Alley, mostly because they rebuilt the set for each movie, adding and removing shops based on their necessity for the movie. Eeyops Owl Emporium was there, as well as Ollivanders, but Knockturn Alley was missing. Interesting tidbit: each of the wandboxes in Ollivanders (over 17,000) were handmade, individually labelled with different labels, and set up in the shop. That is, until the special effects team got ahold of the shop and blew it up for the 6th movie. Also, each of the wands for the cast and extras were individually serial numbered. They were given their wand at the beginning of the day, then returned them at the end of the night. That way, it was easy to find who had which wand and where they could find them to get it back.

From Diagon Alley, I moved on to easily the most amazing part of the tour: The Hogwarts Model. While it was 1:25 scale, it was still a beautiful model and so intricate that I was reverent just looking at it. As someone who typically moves like a bull in a china shop, I was extremely careful not to get anywhere near it in case I fell and tripped into it or something. Truly a work of art, it featured tiny, fiber optic lights that flickered to simulate torchlight and even had the silhouette of students moving through the halls built in.  Every year, each tiny little brick on every tower, turret and wall was handpainted to be fresh. Every little bit of the model was handcarved and so unbelievably detailed that it took my breath away. I can only imagine how much work went into creating it.

The model covered the entire grounds of Hogwarts, including the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's Hut, and some areas that weren't really covered in any of the movies. According to the information plaques around the room, the model was used for exterior shots of Hogwarts, namely when they were showing scenes of the landscape. They used real materials, such as stones from the nearby village, as often as possible when creating the model, and it was honestly the coolest thing I saw while I was there. I applaud the builders who went into creating this labor of love. They should be incredibly proud of creating Hogwarts in a way that would make J.K. Rowling proud.

Overall, my tour of the Warner Brothers London Harry Potter Studios is an event that I will never forget for the rest of my life, and something that truly made the books and movies more dear to my heart than ever. Since I was very young, about the same age as Harry when his journey began, these books have been a part of my life, and I grew up with their characters. I was extremely sad to see it all end, but at least I have this tour to remind me that Harry Potter is still alive and out there in the generations who still have yet to discover the magic of the series. And it didn't hurt that I got to have the delicious Tom Felton talk in my ear for nearly two hours. ;)

After the tour, I hopped on the bus to Central London, found my hostel, and went straight to sleep. After waking up at five the next morning and finishing my last final paper, I had another adventure through Central London, but I'll save that for next time, as this post is already ridiculously long.

As always, more pictures of my time in the studios is on Facebook!

Much love,
Brooke

Day in Dublin and THE USED!!!!

Well, I'm going to start off this post with excuses. The reason I haven't updated for nearly a month is because I haven't DONE anything for over a month. Before yesterday, St. Paddy's Day was the last time I did anything exciting. The majority of my life was literally spent in my bedroom writing essays, and will likely be again for the next week/ week and a half. For those who say that college is easy, write one of my essays. I dare you. No, I double dog dare you (*le gasp*). But everything will get more exciting after next week, because I leave for London on the 3rd of May and I have a lot of fun stuffs planned. I won't go into too much detail, so that I don't ruin the surprise. XD

Yesterday (technically two days ago because it's 2:30 AM here), I woke up after only three hours of sleep to trudge my butt to the bus stop for a three hour ride to Dublin. I got to see some of the prettiest scenery around as I looked out the window. One yard even had about 20 baby bunnies chowing down on the grass. I admit it. I AWWWWW'd at the sight of them. I think the other people on the bus thought I was a lunatic. The rest of the animals I saw were sheep. And cows. A whole freaking lot of cows. More than in Lancaster County, PA, and I thought that was impossible. 

Once I got into Dublin, it was a matter of finding my way to St. Stephen's Green, where my Viking Splash Tour bus was set to leave. After gaining my bearings in the city, I managed to get there about 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. The tour was led by a really nice guy named Pat, who led us around the city while telling us about the city's history and roaring like a Viking. They provided plastic Viking helmets for us to wear (as you can see in the bottom left of the picture), but I abstained from wearing them, as my hair (which I had to keep down to fit into the helmet) kept getting in my face with the wind blowing it around. 

We drove around Dublin for a while, passing by some interesting buildings and statues that were central to Dublin's history, including a museum full of artifacts from when the city was partially inhabited by Vikings. We also got to see town tourist sites like the statue of Molly Malone (infamous from the song), Trinity College and Oscar Wilde's birth home. Aside from the landmarks, the city is filled with beautiful architecture from several different time periods, including an entire mile of preserved Georgian homes. There were also a row of homes that were built for American occupancy during WWII. These homes were built by women and expected to last 6 weeks. They're still standing after nearly 70 years. Did I mention they were built by women? That's right. Female empowerment!

After a while, Pat took us toward a dock, where we all put on lifevests. The bus then drove straight off the dock and onto the river that flows through Dublin. While we didn't get to go very far on the water because of the levies installed to allow barges to travel through the water, we did get to see the Bord Gais Energy Theatre and some boats made of concrete. How they float, I'm not sure, but they were pretty interesting to look at. Apparently, the part of the bay we were on is used to give surfing and windboarding lessons. If it weren't so cold here, I may have signed up to take one. But since it is, the thought didn't even cross my mind.

Building inside Trinity College

Once we were done with the Viking Splash tour, I headed up Westmoreland Street to find Trinity College, where I could get in to see the famous Book of Kells, which was originally created by monks over 1200 years ago. However, once I got to the courtyard of the college, the line to get into the building were the book was held was probably over 500 people long. Rather than waste my time standing out in the rain to see the book, I headed to get something to eat and sit out the rain. Admittedly, I did stop along the way to pick up some souvenirs for my family. I'm a shopoholic like that.

A couple of hours later, I figured that I should at least try to find the building where the concert was being held. So I started walking and found myself standing outside of the Button Factory, where a line was already beginning to form four hours before the doors would even open. There I met a couple of girls from Belfast who were also waiting to see The Used. We talked for a little while, mostly about the differences between Ireland, America and Scotland (where they had just gotten back from). It was then that I found out why everyone had been so early getting to the concert hall. 

For anyone who showed up between 5:30 and 6:00, the band held a meet and greet where you could get autographs, hugs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the band. Now, understand that I've been in love with this band since around the 7th grade, so this got me really super excited. As it got closer to the time when they would let us in to meet them, Chloe and I just kept looking at each other like "THIS IS AWESOME!!!" Somehow, we managed to form a group of awesome people that were also waiting for the band to start, including Tommii.

Tommii and Chloe

 Now, Tommii was just as ridiculously excited about the concert as the rest of us, and he didn't even know about the meet and greet. Telling him will remain one of the funniest moments of my life. His excitement level went from about an 8 to a 20+. After his heart calmed down, we all started trying to pass the time by singing along to our favorite songs, naming bands we're obsessed with, listening to the band do sound checks, and looking at the time every 20 seconds. The time finally arrived when they let us in to meet the band. I didn't have my ticket yet, so I had them sign an envelope I had in my purse (lame, I know). Chloe and Tommii both got hugs from Quinn and Bert, and I was green with envy.

Jodie Has a Hitlist (Well, half of it)

After the meet and greet, they stuck us back outside to wait another hour and a half. Of course, it started raining like cats and dogs, so we were all soaked when we finally got inside. They had a coat check, but of course I don't carry cash so I couldn't check my purse or coat. I ended up stuffing my coat into my bag and leaving it on a couch with all my valuables in my pocket. Remarkably, nothing was taken. I guess everyone was too busy enjoying to concert to take the opportunity to steal. The opening band, Jodie Has a Hitlist, started playing at around 8 o'clock and the fun times started. They were good, but everyone was just too excited to see The Used.

Bert McCracken

The crowd started screaming ridiculously loud when the band finally came to the stage (myself included). The real moshing started when they played the first song "Take it Away" (one of my personal favorites). At first, Tommii tried to make sure that none of us girls got hurt. Of course, that didn't last long, and I ended up plastered to the back of another one of the guys who joined our band of misfits while we were waiting outside, Paul. We stayed that close for about three songs because neither of us could find the space to separate. 

Quinn Allman

We were like sardines in a can, and Chloe kept getting knocked back. Since we were so close to the stage, I guess that's to be expected. After the first few songs, everything calmed down a little bit. We got everyone back into the same little area and prepared to dance the night away. We kept looking at each other and screaming along with the music or just screaming in general. Thankfully, Paul made sure to watch my back so that I didn't get injured from that angle, which was a very distinct possibility with how excited/ridiculously crazy everybody was. 

Jeph Howard

Anyway, they played a couple of songs from the new album, but most of them were from the older records, which made me originally fall in love with the band. So, as we were singing, jumping and moshing, I just realized how lucky I am that I got to see my favorite band, especially since the last few months are already going to be engrained in my memory for the rest of my life. The fact that I got to meet them, and actually talk to them, after the last nine years listening to their music, is something that I will likely never again be able to replicate. I am so grateful that I got this opportunity and got to meet some really great new friends in the process. It truly was spectacular.

I actually had to leave the concert about 10 minutes before the end so that I could make my bus, but apparently they allowed to crowd to get pictures with them after the show. Chloe got pictures with Quinn and Jeff, as Bert left early to rest his voice. I am incredibly jealous, but glad that she got the opportunity she was so excited for. After getting some really poor directions from a couple of Dubliners, I finally found my way to the last bus heading to Limerick with about 30 seconds to spare. I managed to get a shower before passing out around 3 AM. I then spent all day in bed today because my feet were like "You're not putting any weight on us today, buddy." I'm just now starting to relax enough to fall asleep, so I'm going to sign off until next time, which will hopefully be May 3rd or 4th.

Until then,

Brooke

As Promised....

...but a day late. I'm finally getting around to writing up the blog post for my day in Dublin for St. Paddy's. While it was highly entertaining and just a little bit fuzzy in my mind, I don't think I will ever truly forget how interesting it was watching how much pride the Irish have on this holiday, the only real holiday set aside just to honor them. It was a beautiful thing to see.

The day started out with a bunch of us international students either waking up still drunk, slightly hung over, or (for losers like me) too early for comfort. We left the school at 7, which meant that I woke up at 5 in order to get everything packed and ready. We then all boarded the bus for Dublin, decked out in all of our greenest finery and ready to have a blast. Most of us hadn't had breakfast, so we stopped at a gas station to get some food and for a bathroom break. All in all, the trip took about 3 hours with breaks and traffic.

And this was before most people got here

They dropped us off in front of the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head. We were then instructed on how to get to O'Connell Street, where the parade was due to run, and let loose in our groups to find a spot to watch. Keep in mind that we arrived in Dublin at around 10 o'clock and the parade didn't start until 12:30, so a lot of us just headed to a pub to relax until the parade. However, the group that I hung out with headed straight to O'Connell Street in order to secure a good spot for the parade. I have never seen so much green dotting a street in my life.

Group of girls doing traditional dance

We then proceeded to wait for nearly three hours for the parade to begin, with the heavens opening up once for about five minutes to thoroughly soak all of us spectators. Stupidly, I left my coat on the bus, so I was completely freezing at this point. But the cold and the rain was quickly forgotten as the parade started. We saw all of the traditional parade elements like bands and dancers, even some from the United States. Some acts included an Irish flair, like women doing Irish dance down the street and a flock of bagpiping gentlemen decked out in kilts. There were even a couple of dogs wearing traditional togs.

However, once we got all of the more traditional stuff out of the way, it was time for the strange to begin. Apparently, they gave a lot of creative freedom to some of the art schools around Ireland to make interesting acts of their own. Each school then picked a question around which they would center their theme, such as "If the world is spinning, why don't we fall off?". The props and parade dancers ranged from beautiful, to colorful, to downright strange, but all of them were incredibly well made and very entertaining. Although, a couple of times, the members of my group all looked at each other and speculated about the parade would look if we were high.

One of my favorite acts included a girl riding a beautiful white horse. This was the gravity act, so of course she wasn't just riding the horse with a saddle. No. Instead, she chose to ride either standing on the saddle, in a handstand, or dangling off the side of the horse with one foot in the stirrup and a hand touching the ground. And this was while the horse was moving. As someone who has no sense of balance and can manage to trip walking across a flat surface, this truly astounded me. The sheer amount of courage and training that went into doing these stunts had to have required quite a few painful falls.

Another interesting float, though I completely forget the question they used as their theme, included a giant rhinocerous in a wheel chair. Thinking now, I can't even conceive of what idea would make someone go "Let's build a giant rhino! And I know! Let's make him a parapeligic!" Really strange, but very creative and entertaining. It must have required a lot of work to make a float of that size, let alone one that allowed for the head to turn to look at the crowd. All in all, it was the most interesting parade that I have ever seen, and it was due almost entirely to those art schools who astounded us all with their talent and creativity.

One bar's Irish decor

Once the parade was over, it was time for the drinking to begin. I followed the five or six people that I had been standing with at the parade to several different bars. I really had only ever met two of these people once or twice at orientation, but we seemed to get along all right if a little awkwardly. All of the bars were decorated with an Irish theme of course, and packed to capacity with people just celebrating the day that everyone in the world is Irish. Say anything you want about the Irish, but they sure know how to throw a fantastic party on such an enormous scale.


We hopped from one bar to another for hours, trying to catch a glimpse of the Ireland/England game, which ended in a highly disappointing loss of 9-30. Once the game was over, we headed to one more bar before packing it in for the night. The bar had great live music, but was so crowded that you couldn't stand in one place for more than a minute or two without someone inadvertantly molesting you. At least, I hope it was inadvertant. At least two guys got a little too touchy feely for my comfort....but anyway.

When everyone else headed to the next bar, I attempted to find where the bus would pick us up to take us back to U.L. and my warm, dry bed. However, the bus driver told us the entirely wrong place to pick up the stop, and at least 10 of us were left standing outside City Hall waiting for over an hour for the bus. When someone finally called the head of the International Society, it turns out that we were on the wrong side of the city and would have to wait for the next bus. At this point, I can't feel my legs because I'm so cold. Yet, I somehow still found myself the leader of our little herd back to O'Connell Street to catch the next bus home (probably because I had a map of the city). We finally made it to the warm bus and I was reunited with my coat. The bus filled up quickly, and we were back at the University of Limerick at around 2 AM. Overall, a long, strange, but very satisfying day in Dublin. It is perhaps one of the most memorable experiences that I will have here and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

As always, the rest of the pictures will be added to my Flickr account soon, because today is the first of the month and I have free space again!!!

Best,
Brooke

Finally Catching Up

Bunratty Castle

I've severly been neglecting this blog....but in my defense, I've written about 25 pages for different assignments in the last three weeks and had two presentations. I've kinda wanted to jump off a tall building. Oh, well. I'm going to update on my weekend trip to Bunratty Castle and the Rock of Cashel, the second half of the trip I talked about in the last post. I will also try to update on just how crazy St. Patrick's Day in Dublin was and how the last few weeks here have been later this week, since I'll be off for Easter Break!

Blacksmith's Forge in the Folk Park

Okay, well think back to Sunday, March 10th. It's a strain, I know. Especially if you were like me, and had a little bit too much to drink once or twice between now and then. Our morning started out at around 8 AM, so another early day for me. The bus took us to Bunratty Castle, which is in County Clare. It's not too far from Limerick, but the bus ride still kind of felt like it took forever. First thing off the bus, they ushered us into the Bunratty Folk Park, which was a collection of cottages that had been built to replicate the homes that the peasants would have lived in when the castle was first used. They even had authentic-looking furniture in the homes! Of course, everyone else stopped to look at these. Not me. I made a beeline right for the castle.

You can see just how narrow and twisting the stairs are.

The castle had just opened, and my tour group was the first one there. So, I had the castle all to myself. It was kind of nice not having to dodge other tourists on the narrow spiral staircases. Speaking of which, if I keep having to climb these staircases, I fully expect my thighs and calves to be completely toned by the end of the semester. At least these stairs had a metal handrail the whole way up and down. Blarney Castle's was kind of on and off. Not fun when you're squeezing two people onto those narrow stairs, but I digress.

The Dungeon. (It was railed off)

I entered the castle and headed up the stairs to find myself in the dining hall, where they still host authentic medieval banquets for the tourists. There was a man lighting candles in the hall, and he let me venture into the dungeon, where apparently they still stick two or three tourists during the banquet for "offenses" against the actor that plays the lord of the castle. I was definitely feeling a little bit claustrophobic, and I wasn't even in the main pit! The floor rushes you see at the bottom are authentic straw grown in the Folk Park to be as authentic as possible. It was seriously impressive, but still kinda chilling to think of how real prisoners must have felt.

Dining Hall, complete with antler chandelier

From the dungeon, I continued up another staircase to find the winch where they would raise and lower the drawbridge. They didn't really have the drawbridge anymore, but it was still fun to imagine. There was a door off this staircase that gave an eagle eye view of the dining hall. I imagine this view was probably either a guard position or for important guests like nobility. You can see the opening to the dungeon in the lower left corner. This was probably torture, as the prisoners could smell the food being served in the mess hall. I'm willing to bet they weren't given the same quality of food as the guests...if they were given food at all.

The High Table, complete with the Lord's chair

Directly over the dining hall was the Great Hall, where the lord of the castle would settle disputes between peasants and hold audiences with anyone who wanted to speak to him. I'm not sure if the chair they had set up in the hall was the authentic one used by the original lord, but it's highly unlikely. The room was absolutely humongous, and there were authentic tapestries from the castle on the walls, as can be seen in the picture. In one corner of the room in a window, there was an image inlaid into the stone of the wall that was from the original walls of the castle. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Parapet where I dropped my camera...

From the Great Hall, I headed up to the battlements of the castle for some landscape viewing. This is where tragedy struck. I was not looking at my feet (because I was looking at the amazing views of the countryside) and thus did not pay attention to the small trench that ran along the edge of the parapet. Thus, when my foot dropped into it, I had a minor heart attack and threw my wrist out to catch my balance. Since my camera was in my hand when my wrist struck the edge of the parapet, it bounced right out of my hand and off the side of the castle. Cue the dramatic "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" from me as I watched it fall off the edge of the 15th century castle and onto the street below. If it had landed on the grass, it might have survived. Instead, it bounced off the concrete and was completely destroyed. I had to climb the whole way down the castle and walk around the grounds to find where it hit so that I could retrieve the battery and memory card.

Slightly depressed about my camera, but overall still in a good mood, I took the rest of the pictures in this post on my cell phone, which is why they may look a little weird. After I got the remains of my camera back, I  walked back into the castle and explored some omore of the inside. There were so many different rooms that I can't explain them all, but they were all set up like the inhabitants had just left. They even had a couple of the original garderobes open (though not for use. That would be disgusting.) This is one of the guest apartment bedrooms. The bed would have been considered rather luxurious. Yes, that is a body print in the mattress. Possibly more than one.

Once I was done exploring the castle and the folk park, they shipped us off to the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel was originally the site of a large manor house, but the lord of the castle gave it and the land it rested on to the Church. They then proceeded to build a large cathedral on the property. This is one of the most beautiful locations I've been to here in Ireland just because it has fallen into ruins. For some reason, it just made everything more special. There were conservation efforts going on to maintain the integrity of the grounds and the structure so that nobody gets hurt, but I'm actually glad to have gone while the cathedral opened up to the sky.

One of my favorite pictures I've taken

When we first got there, it was ridiculously freezing and the winds were enough to blow you off the rock. Luckily, it was possible to find some measure of safety from the elements inside the ruined cathedral. And this is where my breath was taken away. The roof of the cathedral had either collapsed or been blown away, leaving the inside exposed to the elements. Now, this had ruined a lot of the paintings and details on the walls, but I feel like the amount of architecture that was exposed to natural sunlight may have been just as beautiful. Much of the cathdral looks like this, with the tops of the walls sort of crumbling.

Around the outside of the cathedral was a graveyard, with a lot of really antique gravestones marking the passing of their owners. My favorites are those with the celtic cross on top in the background of the picture. I just wish that I had noticed the hose in the bottom left so I could get it out of the picture...
This area was gated off by the conservation crew, and people were trying to get into the main cathedral to see some of the decorative elements they were restoring on the inside of Cormac's Chapel. So I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures here. Inside, however, were some really interesting artifacts from the past.

The first thing I saw when I walked into Cormac's Chapel was a tomb that had been cracked open and cleaned out, so there wasn't anything inside. It would have been interesting to see the original contents, but I guess I'm morbid like that. The sheer detailing on the outside of the tomb was so beautiful. I feel like you could spend hours tracing the intricate knotwork shown on just one side. It was really dark in this room to prevent the growth of organisms on the roof in the other room, so I was glad to catch this bit of sunlight as someone walked in. My cell phone's flash just didn't really cut it.

Once I was done exploring the rooms they were renovating, I ventured back into the cathedral to take some more pictures and try to regain feeling in my hands. Here's another view of the inside of the enormous cathedral. This particular archway is shown in more detail in the picture above, but for some reason, I just kept coming back to this section. A huge piece of the cathedral in the left tophand corner had fallen off and was laying on the ground outside. Of course, this prompted a round of people taking gag pictures of themselves "lifting" the rock. I didn't really desire a picture, but I'm sure you can find them somewhere online.

I continued my exploration of the ruins by heading back inside the reception building, where they had replicas of some of the artifacts they found while excavating the cathedral, including dragons carved into the original castle walls and some Bronze age weapons and tools. Also on display was another tomb, which I presume is also empty. The stone slab on the top is supposedly carved into the relief of the tomb's inhabitant. This sarcophogus was sitting in the back of the museum known as Victor's Hall. It was lying directly beside the original St. Patricks' Cross, which was assumably brought inside to protect it from the elements.

Replica of St. Patrick's Cross

 There was a replica cross placed outside, which is the one I got the clearest picture of. For some reason, a lot of the pictures I took with my cell phone came out really fuzzy.


Well, that was my March 10th. Hopefully, either tomorrow or Saturday I'll write about my adventures in Ireland on St. Paddy's Day. I was in Dublin for the holiday, so you can assume that there were some crazy shenanigans going on.

As always, much love from the land of the leprechauns!

Brooke