rain – My Love To The Leprechauns

The One Where The Parents Visit and We Play Catch-Up

Emily Bernstein

April 17, 2017

I missed a few blog posts, and one of them was such an important one at that! I wrote a few drafts, and never finished them, but I must!!

Mom and Dad came to visit about three weeks ago and we had so much fun. I’m so glad they were able to come see me.

They started their visit here in Limerick, and visited the Blarney Stone on Thursday. Then, on Friday, we saw the Cliffs of Moher (again so beautiful) before heading to Galway – a city I’ve been wanting to see since arriving in Ireland.

Galway was very fun (or at least I thought so!), and we saw a lot of the classic, tourist areas of Galway, while also seeing the beautiful waterside and a very pretty church besides. We headed to Dublin after that and explored some of the more touristy parts of the city. We saw a really cool old jail (called the Kilmainham Gaol – which I think all three of us would highly recommend), Dad saw the Guinness Factory, and we all enjoyed the sunny day in Dublin.

In fact, it seems like Mom and Dad brought the sun with them because the whole weekend was full of sun, and of course, the day after they left, it poured rain. But all is well and good. It’s spring now, so we should be seeing more sunshine.

Of this trip, Dad has most of the photos, so pester him for them!

A week after Mom and Dad came, I headed to Amsterdam with my friend, Emily. Yeah, so don’t forget that name.

We lucked out on the time of year because we were able to see a lot of the tulips blooming! We spent a whole morning wandering the famous tulip gardens in Amsterdam and we both really enjoyed the wonderful colors and vibrant tulips.

Pro-traveler tip #3: Bring your walking shoes. Even if your super cute boots look great, make sure you can walk long distances in them first.

After the gardens, Emily and I headed to the A’Dam Lookout, a building that on the 21st floor has a 360 degree view of Amsterdam and the surrounding cities. On the very top floor, there is a swing you can get on that puts you over the city. I was terrified, but Emily had a lot of fun, and we get beautiful pictures from it!

We wandered around the city for the rest of the day before grabbing some Mexican food (I’ve found some in every city I visited!).

The next day, Emily and I started the day with the Van Gogh museum and the Amsterdam Sign.

Pro-traveler tip #4: Use public transportation. It is your friend. Even if it looks scary.

The Van Gogh museum was really cool. I knew the artist was crazy, but I had no idea just how crazy he really was. Reading about his life and seeing his artwork was very interesting.

After that, we took a canal cruise which was a very cool way to see the city we’d already wandered. Emily and I grabbed lunch, then headed to the Anne Frank House to see if we could get in (as we didn’t have pre-bought tickets).

Pro-traveler tip #5: Buy your Anne Frank tickets weeks in advance.

We waited in line for 3 hours, yes – 3 hours. We met quite a few interesting characters, including a hilarious British couple. At first, I was worried that Emily didn’t want to wait in the line so long, but we both really enjoyed the House. I’m not sure enjoy is the right word, but I don’t think either of us regretted the wait in line. The Anne Frank House is beautifully curated and the story of the Franks is told very well.

After that, we grabbed dinner (Emily enjoyed a very authentic Dutch dinner), wandered the city some more, visited an ice cream shop, and went to bed because we had an early flight home.

All in all, these two weekends were really fun and very rewarding. It’s always good to see family! 🙂

Sláinte.

Limerick Gained A Reputation For Piety, But We Knew It Was Only The Rain

Emily Bernstein

February 1, 2017

1 Comment

Note: This post is a little late. It focuses solely on this past weekend and not really on this week at all (because, really, who wants to read all about my classes again?).

This weekend was a whirlwind of waking up just after the rain stopped and then living in perpetual rainfall, traveling to and from Limerick, and lots of laughs with friends.

Most of us got a late start on Saturday morning (except Guy, who got up at 7am to go on a bus trip to the Ring of Kerry that looked so beautiful that I’m a little sad I missed it, but it was at 7am!). After we all managed to get our act together, we (Kaitlin, Kim, and I) decided to go into Limerick City to do some much needed clothes shopping (I really just needed more socks), and to explore King John’s Castle.

A few other girls (Lilly, Kendall, and Emily) joined us on our little adventure, so we got on the bus and headed into town. I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but Limerick is just so pretty.

It was cold and cloudy when we arrived, so we all hurried into a store to look around (and I got my socks). The most important part of the day is that I got tacos – yes, that’s right, tacos. While not up to California street taco standards, these tacos were definitely delicious and certainly made me homesick for good old fashioned Mexican food.

While walking towards the castle (so that we could all pretend to be princesses, obviously), it started to pour rain. The six of us decided we would wait out the rain by exploring St. Mary’s Cathedral, a beautiful church just outside the city centre.

From where the congregation would sit: the altar.

This altar is the biggest and heaviest in all of Ireland.

A gentleman working at the church showed us around, telling us about the altar, the history of the church, and who was buried where. He was so passionate about teaching us about the church, but he moved very quickly! I tried to snap a few photos to show everyone, but honestly, the pictures don’t show all the color and intricate stone carving work in some of the little crevices of the church. By the time we finished the tour, the rain had cleared up so we took our time taking photos and walking along the little cobblestone streets of Limerick.

From there, we headed to King John’s Castle. They were going to close in an hour, so we hurried through the museum part of the tour so we could be sure to make it to the part of the castle that was actually the castle. I’m sure we missed good stories of the castle being sieged and who lived there and why it stands where it does, but we wanted to climb to a high tower to see the view and take pictures. If anyone is exceedingly curious, I’d be more than happy to go back again to get you the details.

Kim and I being soldiers. Me making faces is something that I’ve always done, and will always do. Some things never change.

Kim demonstrating for all of us how to properly pour water in an old church that was reconstructed in the castle’s courtyard.

The view of the main castle from the courtyard.

The stairs we climbed to get to the top were steep and slippery from our wet shoes tracking over them. I’m not a huge fan of steep stairwells to begin with, but add in wet stone and no railings? I wasn’t a very happy camper.

But, well, the view was worth it.

Looking into the city from the castle, with the sunset in the distance.

I can only imagine the patchwork of green and farms that the view would have held hundreds of years ago when people lived in the castle and called it home. Still, it’s pretty darn beautiful. Just after the rain, too, the sky seemed to shine a little brighter on the city and the green land we could see in the distance.

From left to right: Kaitlin, me, and Kim. And yes, this was a real candid of us being beautiful princesses.

We got a quick dinner after that and then headed home to rest and get ready for the evening. Kaitlin, Kim, Guy, Ian, Lilly, and I headed back to Limerick to go to an actual Irish pub (and not one that is on campus), and while we didn’t meet another chatty Irishman, we did have loads of fun together. Even at night, Limerick is quite beautiful. The streets were wet and the streetlamps made them shine – it was the epitome of a European night that you read about/see in movies.

Sunday, we all literally did nothing. It rained (of course), and I hung out in my apartment for the whole day, did some reading for classes this week, and everyone just caught up on some much needed sleep for the week.

This post title is brought to you by Frank McCourt, the author of Angela’s Ashes. I thought it was apt considering I was mainly discussing Limerick and a lot of it had to do with the rain. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it; it’s very sad but very wonderful.

I’ll spare you the nerding out over my schoolwork again, and instead just say that I’m excited to continue classes!

Until next time!

PS: did I mention Limerick is beautiful?

PPS: Hi Dad!