The Power of the Tower & To See the Sea

Most creative entry title ever.

First of all, I'll write a little bit about Monasterboice, as I promised... gosh, more than one month ago!? I have a very busy life here. Sometimes it's too busy, actually.

Anyway, we live quite close to the graveyard where the round tower and the high crosses are. I was taken there at the first weekend I spent here, and since that, I've visited it at least two more times. I took some photos every time but most of them are very bad. Yeah, I still need a new camera, but I must save money for other things :/

Here it is. It's about 35m tall (according to wikipedia, hahaha), the cap is missing, but apart from that it's complete and in quite good condition.

And this is one of the high crosses. Each little carving shows a scene from the Bible, though most of them are hardly visible because the weather and some stupid visitors ruined them.

Drogheda is about 10 minutes drive from our house, and it's quite a nice town. The only thing I really miss is a local drama group or drama workshops/courses or whatever. There are a few amateur groups, but they all start rehearsing around September, so there's nothing to do here during the summer. Apart from this I love living here, the area is nice, everything is close, and these old country roads are just perfect for a new driver!

Along with the medieval stuff, my other obsession is the sea. I've seen a few different beaches so far, and I took endless photos. Unfortunately we live close to the eastern coast, which means I don't really have an opportunity to watch a sunset at the beach, but I'm planning to drive out one morning to see the sunrise.

Crabs at the beach beside Coast Road, Co. Louth. These guys are actually dead, but they look as if they were fighting.

The above pictures were taken in Howth, Co. Dublin. The town is popular because of the seals living there, but unfortunately I didn't see any of them when I was there. The harbour was kind of amazing, though.

And these are from today. I'm alone in the house because the family travelled to Sligo to visit some relatives, so I drove to Skerries. I guess it was the most beautiful beach I've seen so far, and the weather was also lovely, so I had a very nice day today :)

Life Goes On

Gosh, so many things have changed since the last time I wrote here. I don't even know where to start, but okay, let's do it the simple way.

I moved to Drogheda.

I don't really want to go into details; it just didn't work. I don't think it was either my or my host family's fault. I had a great time in Letterkenny, and that's all what matters. I finished the drama course, and our performance was gorgeous, I really, really enjoyed it, and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do the course. It was a bit tough, though, because I moved the day after the performance (yay for travelling with hangover - of course we had had a few drinks at night after the show).

On my last Monday before I moved, I went to visit Derry again, and this time it was a lot nicer trip than before. I bought a few things - I wanted to get a new pair of shoes for spring, and I ended up buying everything but shoes... But at least I finally found Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth in a bookshop! I wanted to buy this book for a while but never saw it in Letterkenny. Now I have it!

Also, I went to Free Derry Corner.

Unfortunately, the museum was not open, so I couldn't look around there, but I saw a few murals around, and wow, they are fabulous.

I really need to get a new camera. Really.

Next time I'll write about my first impressions of Drogheda and County Louth. I have a lot to say. I live in Monasterboice, so we have a round tower!

Derry - Armagh - Monaghan

I got 4 days off from 13 to 16 of March, but unfortunately I had to work on Patrick's Day, so I thought I deserved a little treat before that. Guess what this treat was: a trip to Northern Ireland!

First of all, I have to say that it's very difficult to plan a trip either in the republic or in Northern Ireland if you don't own a car. The island has quite a poor bus service. I mean, it's confusing and very difficult to understand, and wherever I want to travel, it's 90% sure that I have to change at least once. I thought that Hungary had the most terrible bus service in the world, but no, it's nothing compared to this.

My other big problem was the accomodation. Originally, I planned to spend all four days away from home, but I couldn't book the room for the whole time, so I ended up staying in the Charlemont Arms Hotel in Armagh for only one night.

So, here is what I did: I left Letterkenny on Sunday morning and travelled to Derry, where I had more than an hour to look around. After that, I took a bus to Armagh, had about 2 and a half hours before checking in to the hotel. I spent the night there and the following day I checked out at 12pm, then in the afternoon, I went to Monaghan, then back to Letterkenny.

Derry

I arrived to Derry very early on Sunday, it was extremely quiet as all of the stores were closed. But the bus station was right next to the city walls, and it's a very nice area with a wonderful view on the whole city.

The Guildhall is right next to the bus station. It looks amazing; I really need a better camera for beautiful buildings such as this.

I took this photo on the Peace Bridge, a footbridge close to the Guildhall.

View from the city walls.

I also wanted to go to Free Derry Corner, which was nearby, too, but I happened to choose the wrong road, and by the time I realised this and got back to the bus station, it was already too late, so in the end I wasn't able to see any murals :( Fortunately tomorrow I'll have another chance to go to Derry, and I'll definitely bring a map with me this time!

Armagh

My first day in Armagh was more or less the same as Derry, because I got there around noon on Sunday. In Ireland, shops are usually closed on Sunday, and if they're not, they only open at about 1pm.
Armagh is a small but very lovely city. Actually, it's rather a town, they only call it a city because it has two cathedrals. Also, there are several small churches, and every hour, you can hear dozens of bells dinging.
I went to listen to the Holy Mass in the evening at the Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral.

The building looks wonderful from the outside and from the inside as well, I really loved the carving of St Patrick on the altar. I couldn't take a photo of it, unfortunately.

Another church. I don't really know what its name is, but it looks gorgeous.

The Armagh County Museum was closed on Sunday, but I had enough time to visit it on Monday, and it was worth it. It's a small museum, but very interesting, and the staff is friendly, I had a long conversation with a guy about the life of George William Russell and the possibilities to learn acting in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Armagh has quite a small shopping mall with one hypermarket in the city centre, but I think it's more than enough. There are plenty of other shops on the main streets. I bought some stuff such as a new shoulder bag, an umbrella (gosh, I'd been in Ireland for almost two months and I didn't have an umbrella up until now!) and a pair of sunglasses. I also wanted to buy shoes, but I already had lots of bags with me and didn't really want to bring too many things.

A pretty Celtic cross. I think I'm in love with those things, I always keep looking for them around churches or old graveyards.

"Sorry about your wall." Seems that Armagh people have a weird sense of humour :D

My hotel room. Quite neat and comfortable, isn't it? Anyway, hotel staff was very friendly and lovely; the lady at the reception suggested me places to visit and talked a little bit about the history of the city while I was having my breakfast.

Monaghan
I spent a bit more than one hour in Monaghan on my way back from Armagh to Letterkenny. It's a nice little town, about half the size of Armagh, I think.

The Diamond, decorated for Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Church of Ireland. I wanted to see St Macartan's Cathedral, too, but it was quite far away from the bus station, and I didn't have enough time to walk there.

I think this was Dublin Street, but I'm not quite sure. Anyways, it looks lovely.

An Grianán

Right after I arrived, I took a look at the website of An Grianán Theatre to see if they have a drama club for amateurs. I found no such thing, but saw that they start a 6 week drama course this week. It seemed interesting, but the advertisement said that places would be "strictly limited", so I thought I wouldn't really have a chance with my level of English and my foreign accent, not to mention my lack of acting experience. But still, I thought that even if I'd be turned down, at least I might be able to make some friends. So I went to the induction class on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun; it wasn't really about acting, but we played many funny games and did some exercises, too. I met nice and friendly people :) It was worth it. At the end of the class, the leader said that we'd get an e-mail about the results.

I got mine today in the morning, saying that they offer me a place on the course!

So, wow! I'd never imagined I would get involved with acting in Letterkenny just two weeks after my arrival. It seems that I'm actually not that bad at acting. I can't wait going to today's lesson~

First Walk

Last week I was dropped in the town centre of Letterkenny, and had some time to look around and go wherever I wanted. So I walked all around the town and discovered most of the shops.

My first stop was St. Eunan's Cathedral.

It's huge and amazing! Unfortunately I couldn't go inside because I got there right after the Holy Mass started, but even the outside is wonderful, I really love that rose window. They have a Mass in Irish Gaelic every month, and I think I'll go to the next one even though I'm sure I won't understand a word :D

There's a small square in front of the cathedral with a big Celtic cross. 

This was actually the first Celtic cross I've ever seen in my life. A few days later I saw another one when we drove through Ramelton. So I think I'll see plenty of them later, when I'll travel around the country.

I've already found the most dangerous place of the whole town: the second-hand bookshop. It's pretty cheap and has a wide choice of books and DVDs. I even found interesting stuff in Irish Gaelic, so I won't get near that shop again until I can save some money. Anyway, they also buy books, so if I'll have something I don't need anymore, I know where to sell it.

Some days later, when I had another walk around the house, I accidentally found the lake of Grendel's mother :D

She even has her own private toilette (left side behind the lake; barely visible, but it's still there).

And the next photos were taken just about ten minutes' walk from home. Impressive. I wish I had a better digital camera...

Typical Irish landscape with lazy sheep. The purple, green and blue sheep of Minecraft are actually real - you probably can't see it in the last picture, but people do paint their sheep different colours so that they can recognise them when using a common pasture land.

A Report

So, now that I have a little time, I'll just try to make a more or less proper report on the things that happened on the first few days I spent in Ireland.

I arrived at Dublin on Tuesday, where I was picked up by Pauline, then we went forward to Letterkenny.

This was the very first Irish Gaelic sign I saw at the airport. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a better photo, those lights were always in the way :/

It was pitch dark when we arrived, so I barely saw anything when we got home, but next morning, when I woke up and looked out of the window, this is what I found:

And I can stare at this all day long when I'm taking the kids to school. Irish countryside is just lovely! I can't wait to discover more of it, and everybody keeps saying that it'll be much more beautiful when spring comes.

And the sheep; they're going to be my favourite ever :D

I also had my first driving lesson today (I already have my full driving license, but I'm not at all a confident driver, especially because here we drive on the left), which is a bit exhausting as the instructor has the local Donegal accent, a difficult one to understand (I really mean it - when he says my name, it sounds somewhat like "Kitty"). It's hard to concentrate on driving and understanding the guy at the same time. Luckily I already have some experience with Northern Irish Ulster English, which is quite similar to this one, but still, I think it'll take time to get used to it.

Oh, yeah, that's typical of me - starting to write about my driving lesson and ending up speculating about different accents.

Anyway, Letterkenny looks gorgeous. It's not as big as I expected, but we have everything, like theatre, lots of shops, library, cinema, leisure centre and all. I'll definitely love it once I discover the best places to go.

Oh, and the children. All of them are cute, I can't even tell which one I like the most. I'll spend the most time with Michael, the youngest one as he still doesn't go to school, but I really do love the other two as well. They're very neat and obedient, I haven't had any problem with them. Well, so far. I was told that they might test me in a few weeks when they get more used to me.

I also have my daily reading exercise every night - did you know that reading bedtime stories to chilren can help you a lot to improve your pronunciation even after a few days? And what's more, being forced by three noisy kids to listen to the same movie soundtrack CD every morning makes you learn all the lyrics by heart whether you want it or not. This will come in handy for sure when I'll go to the local drama club.

Irish Gaelic Texts Everywhere

That is the first thing I remember from Dublin. And the cars parking on the seaside.

I'll write more once I pull myself together, but I'd been on the way all day long, and I just urgently need a sleep.

But today, today is the day I first set my foot into Ireland. And into Northern Ireland. Okay, setting foot into Northern Ireland didn't literally happen, but still, I've seen the lights of Omagh, and Armagh, and many other beautiful towns.

Katie Goes to Letterkenny

Actually, Katie goes to Dublin first, because there's no direct flight to Letterkenny. Poor Katie. Hahaha.

(And I think I've already mentioned this earlier.)

Nevertheless, I leave this neat room of mine tomorrow early morning with two suitcases and one handbag containing my whole life. Oh, I just wish the last part was true. I spent weeks, literally, WEEKS trying to collect all my important things and put them into the suitcases, but it was a vain attempt, I just had to accept the fact that I can't take everything I wanted with me. I really feel sorry for my precious books, I even have to leave Tolkien's Beowulf behind, oh god, because it's too heavy... But one day I'll return and fill a huge suitcase with my books! And I'll travel by bus, because Eurolines doesn't have a weight limit.

Also, my make up equipment... I hadn't used make up in the first, like, 22 years of my life, but after that, I kind of became more girlish, and now I realise that I have lots of make up things, and I had to select only a few of them to take with me. Of course it's not such a big thing, they are pretty cheap things and I can always rebuy them later, but still, I got used to some brands I might not find in Ireland. The worst was my contact lens solution. I have yearly lens and they'll expire next November, and I use a Hungarian brand of solution that I surely can't buy in Ireland. So I have to take 3 bottles of it with me, and they're quite heavy.

Into the West

I'm happy to inform you that I passed my final exam on Monday, so now I (almost officially) have a diploma! I'm still exhausted because I arrived home yesterday night after 2.5 hours of travelling, I slept until 10am today but still feel so tired I could sleep until next morning. Too bad I have tons of things to do today, and I'll even go to the theatre in the evening (or maybe I'll just skip that and ask my mom to go instead of me, I don't know).

But hey, I'll set off into the west in 13 days!

Míorúilt

Dear All,

If you ever want to experience a real miracle, go and start learning Irish Gaelic. I mean it.

When I began to learn it two years ago at the university as an optional course, my teacher started the first lesson with quite a weird statement: Irish Gaelic is spoken by ridiculously few people as a first language, and instead of it, English is used in almost every household in Ireland, yet if you're a foreigner and have even the most basic knowledge of Irish, and you move to Ireland, there you will be incredibly popular.

Actually, back then I didn't really know if I should have taken it literally or not, but it wasn't important. I started that course just because I'm fond of languages in general. I'd never tried learning any Celtic languages before, and Irish seemed to be such an exotic and interesting one that I just couldn't miss this opportunity to study it for free from a professional teacher. And that was all for a while.

For several reasons, I've been intending to relocate to an English-speaking area after finishing my university studies. My main goal is to get rid of my Hungarian accent and pick up a local one as some years later I'd like to have a job related to talking in English, and right now I'm not very good at that. During my years at the university, I got interested in Irish culture and history, partly thanks to the language course I mentioned above, and partly because of other courses and Irish movies we watched in class (not to mention the fact that some of my favourite actors are Irish, either from Northern Ireland or from the republic). So I decided to give it a try and look for a job in the Irish Republic. A few years ago when I needed a job in Spain, I was recommended an online database for au pairs. In the end, I spent some months in Madrid as an au pair, which I absolutely enjoyed. So I registered again to the same website and tried to look for an Irish host family this time.

When I sought a Spanish job, I wrote hundreds of applications (I think, literally), yet I didn't get any positive replies for many weeks. I don't remember exactly, but I think it took about 3 months to actually find a family and arrange the journey. In general, the number of registered au pairs is around 3 or 4 times more than the number of job opportunities, so most of the au pairs do not even find a job. One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn't be lucky this time - Ireland is a much more popular place than Spain, so families would probably not even notice me among all those candidates. Nonetheless, I filled up my profile, where I also mentioned that I have a very basic level of Irish Gaelic. And what followed was just amazing.

In less than a month, I got tons of applications from Irish families. I didn't even need to browse family profiles and contact people myself - I was contacted several times from all around the country: Dublin, Galway, Cork, Donegal, etc. I couldn't even decide which family to choose! Some of them mentioned it's great that I speak a little bit of Irish because it's a compulsory subject in primary schools in Ireland, so I can help the children with their homework and practise the language with them, too. Others wrote that it's nice to see that some foreigners are this passionate about Irish Gaelic, because it's slowly but surely heading towards extinction. I've never felt so popular in my life. I was swamped with positive feedback: it is worth learning Irish Gaelic, and my teacher was right about it. So all I can say is that I'm really grateful for being given this opportunity.

Now it seems that in the beginning of February, I'll fly to Letterkenny, Co. Donegal (more precisely, I'll fly to Dublin and will be picked up by car at the airport), and I'll spend 6 or 7 months there with a very lovely family of five. But right before that I need to survive a state exam, so wish me good luck!