Fratzy's Footprints

My last adventure: The Dungarvan Garda Sation. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am a criminal justice major so during my time here, I got to experience some aspects of Ireland's criminal justice system. During class today, instead of staying in the classroom, we got to tour the local garda station and go watch some cases in their city court afterwards. I personally felt it was a better way to spend out morning rather than being stuck in a classroom for two hours. The station was really cool and very different from a police station in America. The station here only has five police officers, five. Do you know how little that is? When we walked into the first "office" area, there was one officer that was in charge of answering the phones, watching security cameras, inputting data into the computers, AND handle any prisoners that may come in. That is 4 jobs that ONE person has to do. In America, there is someone handling each other those jobs, sometimes, even two officer...

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Clancy's Kitchen sing live at the theater in Dungarvan. Clancy's Kitchen is a family that preforms songs, stories, and tunes of The Clancy Brothers household. The members of the band had a childhood full of singing, music, and storytelling that filled their hearts and ears every day. The decided to share their tradition with the world and preform these songs and stories for visitors far and wide. Although I was not familiar with most of the songs, it was still so cool to listen to them preform and hear the audience sing along. Everyone in their just seemed so comfortable and relaxed listening to Clancy's Kitchen preform and I definitely felt myself getting more into the entire scene. People were clapping and stomping along with the beat, and more than a few times did I join in. I did not really know what to expect when I first sat down but I can confidently say it was a very enjoyable night. Everyone there was ...

I came to Ireland via study abroad through my university and although these blogs make it seem like I am not exactly doing the "study" part, I can assure you I still learning quite a bit here. In my most recent adventure, I went to Cork, Ireland and got to tour the Cork City Gaol - which was a prison used back in 1824. This may not seem interesting to many people, but as a criminal justice major, this was a very cool field trip.  The city of Cork has transformed this old prison into an interactive museum that allows people to walk to halls of this old building and listen to the stories of old prisoners who spent part of their lives behind the walls of this gaol. I haven't been to many prisons - 2 before this one. One was another out-of-commission one while the other was a male prison in Albion, PA. I got to study there with inmates for a semester, such a cool experience. ANYWAY, this prison was the first one I went to with audio guides and wax figures, and I honestly real...

This was my absolute most favorite thing I did in Amsterdam; I got the incredible opportunity to see the Van Gogh Musuem. Now, if you have read my National Art Gallery blog you know I am a sucker for a good art museum AND that my all-time favorite artist is Van Gogh. So being in Amsterdam and going to this museum was honestly like Christmas for me. All I need to do now is go to New York and visit the Met so I can see the Stary Night and I can die happy. I honestly had the most wonderful time there, if I lived closer it would be somewhere I would try or work or at least go too once a week. After seeing this man's work all I can say is that he is a creative genius. His use of colors and showcasing his induvial brush strokes are absolutely gorgeous, there is not really any other way to describe it. The progression of his works was so cool to see. His earliest works was when he was 27 and he continued painting until he was 37. So, over the course of 10 years, he had 900 paintings, and ...

After a wonderful weekend in London, I realized my travel itch wasn't completely satisfied so the following weekend I took a trip down to the Netherlands and got to experience the beautiful city of Amsterdam! I was there for 2 days, and it wasn't nearly enough time to see everything, but we packed as much as I humanly could into both days. One of the activities I did was visit the floating flower markets and oh my gosh they were beautiful. It was a long row of boats filled to the brim with flowers, seeds, and knick-knacks. All the flowers were in full bloom and completely surrounded you. There were flowers covering every surface of the boat, even the celling! The smell was the best part. The sweet scent of fresh flowers filled your nose in the best way. I think flowers are one of the prettiest things on earth. I love how unique they all are, the different shapes, sizes, color, and smell of them all - they are just gorgeous. The only bad thing about going was the self-restraint...

The Second stop during our museum day in London was the National Art Gallery. Now, I have the biggest soft spot for art galleries and art itself. I WISH I had the ability to paint masterpieces like these individuals but unfortunately for me, I struggle drawing stick figures. So, to make up for my lack of talent, I like going to galleries and seeing how artists use theirs and seeing their wonderful creations. My all-time favorite painter is Vincient Van Gogh, I love his medium and the use of individual strokes and colors in his paintings. Lucky for me there was a few of his pieces on display here so I finally got to see his work in real life. The whole gallery was gorgeous, I wish I could've stared at each painting for hours. There were so many different artists on display and all types of paintings. There were landscapes, self-portraits, flowers, cities, people, places, and so much more. I personally love nature, so I was always drawn to paintings that incorporate that within their...

After some fun times in Ireland, I was able to take a trip to its neighboring country, the United Kingdom - specifically London. While I was there, I saw some gorgeous architecture and all the famous tourist spots. We lucked out on the weather because it was beautiful both days we were there. Our second day in London was call 'Musuem Day' since we visited 3 different ones. The main focus of this blog is the National British Museum, as you can see by the title. One of the best parts of this place was that tickets are free. So, you get to experience all of this cool history without spending any money. Unless you go to the gift shop, then you spend money. This was one of the coolest museums I have ever been too. There was legitimately so much history packed in every corner of this building it is insane how much stuff they have. Being from America, I learned all about the British Empire and how they had power of most of the world for a very long time. So being able to see historica...

I took a little trip to London this past weekend and I saw and did a lot of amazing things, and I do promise to blog about those experiences, there is one place that we visited that isn't on any "must visit" tourists lists but still made my top 3 stops.  This place, which I highly recommend EVERYONE goes too if they are in London, it an ice cream shop called Creams. This place has one the biggest selections of ice cream and treats I've ever seen. We quite literally spent an hour trying to decide what we wanted. They had creeps, waffles, sundaes, milkshakes, slushies, and warm cookie dough. They even had Easter themes specials. Again, took us an hour to pick out one thing. However, that wasn't our only problem. Our first issue was dinner. We were hungry and needed food, but we were scared that we would fill up on dinner and not have room for ice cream. So, after debating on where to eat we decided that since the risk of filling up on dinner was too great, we would ...

This might have been the most architecturally beautiful churches I have ever seen. There is so much intricate detail on this building I know I didn't even come close to seeing it all. The entire church is massive and as you walk around the building, you can see gravestones littering the gassy patches. When you first walk up to the front doors, there are three spires that contribute to the vertical appearance of the cathedral and follows along in typical gothic architecture style. The carvings and sculptures really make this place spectacular though. There are detailed biblical figures, saints, and scenes from religious stories, and they are all breathtaking to behold. The inside of the cathedral is equally as gorgeous. There are stained-glass windows, intricate woodwork, and the most magnificent marble alter I've ever seen. The inside decor was strongly influences by a mix medieval and Victorian styles.  Along with its obvious beauty, it has a rich history of its intertwining f...

Usually in these blogs, I take a place I visited and related it back to a famous Irish poem by finding one that I feel best fits my experience. However, when I visited the Waterford Medieval Museum, it was done for me! As I was walking through the exhibits, I came across this dark room filled with small lights on the celling making it look like a night sky full of stars. Once your eyes adjust to the sudden light chance, you are met with seven beautiful hand-crafted garments. On display are 15th century cloth-of-gold vestments, which are one of Ireland's finest medieval treasures.  The amount of detail in these robes is absolutely unbelievable, I mean my jaw was on the floor at every single one. You could honestly spend hours in that one room and not get bord. The intense attention to detail, the hand stitched designs - every single thread used had meaning to the story the craftsman was trying to relay. Now how does Yeats come into play? Well, when I finally left the exhibit, I turn...