I havent written anything in a long time because there really hasnt been much going on recently. I have been studying for exams which I have FINALLY finished. I had my last one today. I am going to Wales tomorrow morning to visit my cousin! Hurrahz! So I will take many pictures and post about that. After that Im pretty much done maybe there will be something cool to write. I usually dont write anything if something somewhat large hasnt happened. If I go out on the town, meh. Not that interesting. So anyways sorry for the long break! I know you all are very disappointed!

Had some visitors this week...nothing clever about that

This past week I had a few visitors so I have been busy running/driving around Ireland doing fun stuff! First up was Elise and her friend Caitlin who came to Ireland from Paris. During the day they wanted to do much of the touristy things that I had done before, so I did not accompany them. I was able to show them around a few of the local pubs and took them to eat some burgers. We also went down the coast to Bray to get out of the city and hung out at the beach.

Elise, Me and Caitlin


Caitlin and I



Soon after they left my Dad came to visit. It was a pretty spontaneous trip for him which was cool, but it showed by our lack of direction the 3 days he was here. He got in the evening of the 6th and we wondered around the city and took a drive down to the southern edge of the city in his rental BMW 118i. Since its a car we dont get stateside, it was pretty cool, but other than that, its a pretty basic car.

The only small hatchback you can buy with rear wheel drive!


Right hand drive!


Manual! The transmission all cars should have...



The next morning we decided that Belfast would be a pretty cool city to check since neither of us had been there. We were wrong. While it was cool to say we'd been there, it didnt look much different than any other city. There was nothing really special about it. Over all it was pretty boring. The only redeeming feature of the city were a few cool political murals painted on the sides of a number of buildings. The murals in many cases were for either the Republicans (Catholics) or Loyalists (Protestants).

Republican mural



Loyalist Mural



Awesome Mural



We ate lunch a pretty cool pub that had been pretty much unchanged since its construction in the late 1800's. Although it had seen some action as it was located right across the street from the most bombed hotel in Europe, thanks to the IRA.

The pub where we ate lunch


Above me you can see where a bomb blast damaged the mirror in 1994


Across the street from the pub is the most bombed hotel in Europe

(the above three pictures are courtesy of my father)

The next day we got up early to travel again to Northern Ireland to go on a hike to an interesting rock formation called the Giant's Causeway. It took us a good 5 hours to drive up to the northern most coast of the island where the Causeway is located. I drove most of the way there and back. Driving on the left hand side of the road was weird at first but it was not hard to get used to after a bit. The hardest part was making sure not to straddle the lanes and judging the width of the car.

The roads were great


Before we got to the Causeway we stopped by the ruined Dunluce castle that was built in the 1200's




At one point part of the kitchen of the castle fell off into the sea



We then parked the car and began our walk along the coast to the Giant's Causeway


The rock formations at the Causeway were really pretty neat


Liquid magma formed these hexagonal shaped rocks




Other pictures

Prague!

This weekend I decided to take a trip to the Czech Republic to visit my good friend Julia who is studying in Prague. First of all I have to say that is a BEAUTIFUL city. Of all the cities Ive been in Europe, like 4, Id say this one was the coolest. The weather was magnificent. Around 20C/70F degrees which in my mind is pretty much perfect. With the exception of one day of rain, it was close to perfect. Considering the fact that the weather was pretty bad up until that weekend, I can only conclude that I own the weather. Its the only logical explanation.

The first day I got there we wondered around the city
This is a crappy picture of the Milunić and Gehry's Dancing building which is made to look like two dancers...dancing



We also checked out the Charles Bridge which has many cool statues that are actually all replicas because the originals are kept in museums to keep them from being defaced




Kanye West also filmed one of his videos on the bridge which is pretty cool. You can see the statue of the Crucifix in the video. If youre in a hurry, skip to 1:09
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fgqd80026xU


Then we went to the John Lennon wall which is the only legal place to graffiti in the city, but you wouldnt know it. There are tags and graffiti everywhere.








The architecture is beautiful



This is an artist's rendition of what communism does to a person.



The US dollar also goes farther there which is nice seeing that it is $1.60+ to the Euro. A beer can be had for $2!

Those mugs are pretty sweet too, they made me want to sing sea shanties and become a pirate.


A cool astronomical clock



A sweet cathedral


Jewish cemetery which was pelted by acid rain during the environmentally concerned communist era which caused the rough texture of the stones


Statue of Charles the IV


And an artists rendition of the statue



Over all I had a really great time. It was good to see Julia, and meet her roommates! Good times were had all around. I have to run to class soon so this will have to do!

Other random pictures