Gailimh

Galway, a place with beautiful scenery and nice food (coz Dilla's a great cook!)
Visited lots of beautiful places. We even followed a guided tour bus to get to several places in Galway. Climbed to the top of a cliff, entered a limestone cave and had a picnic by the seaside. One thing the tour made me realised that Ireland is one rocky island. Heh somebody even said "Datang Ireland tengok batu je la.."
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nice seaside view..


cliffs of moher, very beautiful tp gayat...


cliff lagi

Corcaigh

Or more commonly known as Cork in English. This city claims to be Europe's capital of culture. Why and how they claim it I don't exactly know. You have to ask the people of Cork I guess. Cork is surrounded by hills. By that I mean most of the residential areas are on hills, but the city itself is on relatively flat ground. That meant we had to walk uphill from the city centre to get to Asma',Nadia and Husna's house.

We spent only 2 nights at Cork, and since our visit coincided with the Easter holidays, not a lot of shops were open. Luckily, the Blarney Castle was open to the public all year round. So, I had the chance to visit the castle with its famous Blarney Stone. Legend has it that a witch gave the stone to the lord of the castle. And if you kiss the stone, you'll gain the gift of eloquence. The stone is situated at the top of the castle and to get there, you have to climb a spiral staircase. The staircase was narrow and quite steep. Not suitable at all for claustrophobic and altophobic people. The view from the top of the castle, however, made the climb worthwhile. If you're wondering, I didn't kiss the stone. First, it would be a 'khurafat' (I think that's the word..too lazy to explain, plus my religious knowledge is not that good) Second, you have to actually lie down on your back before you can kiss the stone and there would be a guy helping you into position. Who would want to do that? Third, I can't differentiate the stone from the normal stone surrounding it. Sure, it's a bit shiny and smooth, but then it could be because there were several thousands,even millions of people who have kissed the stone and in that process, eroding the surface of the stone, making it smooth.
Around the castle, there were also some druidic ruins such as a druid's cave, a sacrificial altar and a witch's kitchen. There was also a set of wishing steps where if you make a wish before climbing the step, it would come true. Heh, if things were that easy, I would have been a millionaire by now :P



the famous Blarney Castle..


would my wish come true? hmmm..

Baile Atha Cliath

The city of Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland. I didn't exactly spend a lot of time touring the city centre. Rather, I spent my time around Dublin. First off was a visit to Howth, a small seaside town. Nice view of the sea. We got to see Ireland's Eye. No, it's not a giant ferris wheel like the one in London. Instead, it's a small island of the coast of Ireland. Don't know why they called it Ireland's Eye though. We had a picnic by the seaside (there's no beach, so it's not a picnic on the beach). The wind was so cold! Yat and I was just wearing a thin piece of jacket because we thought it's going to be as warm as London. What a mistake! Hahah..There was an unforgettable incident with a dog and a bus, but I won't tell it here. Only the people involved would know what happened. Hahaha..


Pic at a marina, Howth

Next, we stopped by Malahide Castle. It's quite a small one compared to most of the castles in the UK. We didn't even go inside, just took some pics around the castle. Another unforgettable incident happened. This one I'll tell. The castle is famous for its 'Lady in White' ghost (as opposed to Lady in Green ghost in our school..hahah..) Now, Nana kept mentioning about this Lady a.k.a. the penunggu of this castle. Suddenly, she heard her phone rang. What's the significance, you think? It's normal for a phone to ring, right? Wrong! Her phone never rang before. It just vibrated. When it rang, she was so surprised and freaked out a bit. Hahah. When we left the castle, her phone went back to normal i.e. it didn't ring but just vibrated when there's a call. Wasn't that a bit mysterious?



Powerscourt Garden was our next stop. We left early in the morning for this beautiful garden about 20km outside Dublin. It's such a beautiful place. I think a film was made there but I'm not sure which one. Unfortunately for us, not all the flowers are in bloom. If not, the visit would have been made more memorable. We also walked for more than an hour to the waterfall, said to be the highest in Ireland. It's really beautiful. Subhanallah. The magnificent view totally made up for the torture of walking uphill for most of the time. It's like DoE with nice clothes (I think Shila was the one who said this). And some unlucky people even got chased by a dog. Hahah..


Powerscourt gardens


Beautiful waterfall

Other places in Dublin that I visited were:

Book of Kells in Trinity College - an exhibition on old manuscripts found in Ireland. I think all of the books was about Christianity. Their library of old books is totally huge! I really want a library like that!

St. Stephen's Green Park - A park in the middle of Dublin. Almost similar to Hyde Park but a bit smaller.


The flowers are blooming..

Various people's houses around Dublin - Zazoo's, Aisyah's, Aliyya's, Nana's & Shila's. Spent a night in each of their houses except Aliyya's. I want a house like Aliyya's!


Gathering dgn stfians 9701 di Ire except asma', termasuk penyibuk Wan Aisyah ngn Yat ahaha..

Post from Ireland

I'm writing this in Nana's room in Trinity Hall, Dublin. Nice hall. Will be back in London tomorrow on the 8 am flight. I think it's going to be the same flight as the guys. Had a nice time visiting Dublin, Cork and Galway. Posts on those when I get back to London with nothing to do. I'll upload pics later too.

Sunny days..

Well, sunny days have finally arrived in London. Looks like spring is beginning. I love the fact that I don't have to wear thick coats to class anymore. But I hate the fact that the sunshine is so bright..Silau laa...heheh dasar manusia x bersyukur sungguh..My class officially ended at 3pm today. And now I'm on a five-week easter vacation. Yeay! No more lectures and classes. But still have to study because the exam's are coming....
I'll be off to Dublin on Tuesday morning and will be back on 30 March, before flying out to Barcelona on 3 April..heheh hope the trips will go smoothly. x sabarnye nak jalan2!

wake-up call at 2.29AM

Ciss celake sungguh manusie yg telah menyebabkan fire alarm berbunyi pada pukul 2.19 pagi. Aku tengah sedap2 tido skali terdengar bunyi alarm yg bising dan bingit giler. Memang nak pekak la kan rasenye. Siot2. Aku tak berpuas hati betol la nih. Dahla management tak hantar2 email explanation ape punca fire alarm tu. Haih aku rase orang yang menyebabkan alarm ni berbunyi memang dah kene sumpah banyak kali aa..

Sementare tu, happy belated birthday utk Rima & Nash. Aku tak sure le diorang bace blog ni ke tak. And happy becoming birthday utk Aida & Zuwa. Si Zuwa ni telah menghilangkan telefonnye maka takleh la aku nak mengabiskan free minutes menelefon die macam aku telepon Rima hari tu. Huh ramainye orang yang dah tua..

Final weekend

Yeay! The weekend's finally here. This is the final one till Easter hols. Can't wait for the holidays to start. Hum but before that I still have another week of classes and lectures to go.

My Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell book finally arrived yesterday. I've been waiting eagerly to read this book after reading lots of good reviews about it. But, that damn thing is so heavy and big. About 800 pages, and it's a hardback copy. This means I can't be reading while lying down on the bed. Hmm well it's supposed to be bad for your eyes anyway (reading while lying down, not reading a book :P). So looks like I'm going to spend my weekend buried in this book. Oh plus enjoying the new season of Amazing Race, which I finally got after a week. This laptop kept giving me 'delayed write error' messages. Anyone knows how to rectify this? This season got Rob & Amber from Survivor. If they manage to win, they're sure going to be one rich couple. They already have $1.5 million among them. Man, how I wish I had that much money..