Scenery, school, international partying, politics, & the WWE
Northern Ireland is a place that will always be special to me. I had some of the best months of my life there from January-May of 2010 while studying at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. It was my first long-term travel experience and I actually never wanted to leave. Between all the friendships, non-stop party, beautiful country, and chances to jet around Europe, I was having the time of my life.
Reading back over my daily accounts from those months, well... there was a lot of drinking. I mean, you would think that it would be hard to condense 4 months into a single post, but once I cut out the endless nights out, this might actually turn out to be a pretty compact entry. I did make it to see some gorgeous sights, and I spent a few weeks in Belfast again the following December, and those are all places worth writing about.
Coleraine
I could not have chosen a better place to spend my semester. The Honors College at Kent State had programs in Northern Ireland or Leicester, England, and I wisely chose Ireland as it happened to be the next top place on my list to visit in Europe.
I also chose the absolute best campus. Ulster has a few throughout Northern Ireland, but the only two with classes that would translate back to my fields of study at home were Coleraine and Jordanstown. I had heard that Jordanstown was more for commuters, and so I chose Coleraine.
It's at the very top of the country, an hour or so north from Belfast. The campus atmosphere was so communal, there were so many other international students there, and also plenty of Irish people living at uni. There were a few different types of accommodation, some more like houses, some like apartments, and some townhouses. Cranagh was an apartment-style building where I was stuck for the first week in a temporary room while they finished getting my actual place ready. I didn't like it. There was a hallway full of rooms, each with their own bathroom, and one common room with couches and a kitchen. It just felt too much like a hostel or dorm, and I was happy when I was moved to one of the townhomes, Errigal.
Errigal was great. The downstairs had our kitchen and living room, bathroom, and one or two bedrooms, and there was an upstairs with the rest of the bedrooms and another bathroom.
It felt far more personal, like an actual flat with your friends. I had two Spanish roommates, one French girl, and two Americans, one of whom ended up being my very good friend Leah.
Leah and Lauren were my two absolute best friends while away. Leah is from Memphis, and we are probably not two people you would picture as good friends. She was a sorority cheerleader, and I'm, well, the opposite of that, but I loved her. Lauren is from North Carolina, and we met during the first week at a party and clicked right off the bat. She's outspoken and hilarious and can party with the best of them. We did just about everything together as a trio and they were my support system in Ireland.
The Irish Tricycle
The campus itself was not all that large, and it was less than a ten minute walk to get to the furthest building, which also housed the Student Union (aka the bar). There were campus gardens out back as well which were so pretty. I mean, we had a waterfall practically in our backyard.
There was a weekly bus that ran from campus to the Tesco grocery store in Coleraine. It wasn't a difficult walk to town either if you had decent weather. Coleraine was cute, small, and easily walkable for shopping and errands.
The Nightlife
Literally every single night was a party. Mondays were nights out at the Student Union, where they sometimes held theme parties. This was obviously packed with students, there was a dance floor and cheap alcohol, and you could just walk to and from your student housing.
Headed to the Union beach party.
Tuesdays were Anchor nights. Anchor was a cool Irish bar in Portstewart with wooden furnishing, karaoke nights, and a small but very fun separate club upstairs called Aura. If you wanted a change, you could even run across the street to Shenanigans or another club called Havana.
Havana
Anchor upstairs
Wednesdays were the big nightclub night out at Kelly's in Portrush. This is the image in my mind of what a nightclub should be. There are five different sections, all of which play different music. There's the large, high-ceilinged room with house music called Lush, my personal favorite, the Synk next to that with an LED ceiling which played more Top 40 type music, another club near the back with sometimes cool classic songs, an upstairs area that I only ever visited during the off-season when everything else was closed, and a more traditional pub near the back. There was also a huge outdoor smoking area covered by a tarp that had its own bars along with all that. Aw, Kelly's.
Thursdays were a special Internationals night out to a very traditional pub in Portrush called Springhill. It was a great pub. They played Irish music on Thursdays and had £1 beers (Harp and Corona!). It was all wooden inside and they had a cute little back patio smoking area that was all fenced in and had a roofed platform with benches. Aside from the crazy turnout of the Coleraine campus International population once a week, it was mostly old Irish men drinking there. Plus they brought out sandwiches at midnight! It was just the best.
After the pubs or clubs, sometimes we'd continue drinking at one of the Irish houses (6017!) in Knocklayde, the townhouses across from Errigal. There was Sing Star, a Superbowl party, a Royal Rumble viewing, and always, ALWAYS beer pong.
During the weekends, a lot of the Irish students went home, so it was always packed with International parties. We partied hard. It was primarily Spanish, French, and American students, but we had plenty of other nationalities mixed in including Greek, German, Hong Kong, and Turkish. We'd throw our own theme nights like the white-dress party, international dinner night, and international alcohol drink night (I made porch crawlers). It was a crazy group of awesome people. We were a tight-knit community and I have great memories with all of them.
The Study Abroad Experience
I can't urge students enough to go spend time studying in another country. Aside from experiencing a new culture and meeting friends from all over the world, if nothing else, it should make you a lot more appreciative of our own school system.
I hated the UK way of university. It just made no sense whatsoever to me. They only have three years of college, or "uni", on average, and their classes are set in stone by their course. Unlike in the US where you can choose electives or do things in whatever order you like, in the UK, you are on an inflexible path to your degree.
This was confusing when people asked me what I was studying, because I was actually taking three random courses that would translate back to my fields of study in America. There was History of Hollywood Cinema and Genders, Sexualities, & Film which would both count towards general LER arts requirements for me, and then Festivals & Cultural Tourism which would go towards my Tourism Management minor.
You'll attend lectures in each course once or twice a week, and there are only three assignments that count towards your entire grade. In each course, I gave a team presentation (except for in Hollywood Cinema), wrote a long essay, and had a final exam. Actually, the Cinema course was my favorite, because we had one lecture a week and then a movie screening later where we just showed up to the lecture hall and watched old films. In place of an exam, we wrote one-page reviews of each movie that we'd seen.
I hated the Genders, Sexualities, & Film course. It was awful. It was run by this horrible, pretentious British guy who did not like Americans (he specifically said near the beginning that Americans never know how to write papers correctly). He tore apart my team presentation with another girl in front of the class, gave me an almost failing grade on my essay which I had thought was fine because he said that I didn't answer the question, and then I decided to skip his exam in favor of going to Nottingham and he assigned me two 2000 word essays instead, only one of which I finished. I was going to do the other one back home, but it turned out none of the books I needed were at the library, and I truly couldn't be bothered. It's the only class I have ever failed in my life (I graduated with a 3.84 GPA, so it's not like this is the norm for me), but all of our classes just transferred back to Kent as pass/fail and so thankfully this one just disappeared off my record altogether.
Speaking of essays, this is what I despised most about UK classes. There was no given textbook for the course and no real guidelines about what to write. You would get a choice of topics, all about one sentence long, and that was all you had to go off of. There might be suggested books, but it was up to you to go to the library yourself and do all the research at home. It wasn't based off of notes from class or anything. More of the work in the UK is centered around your own independent study rather than anything useful learned in the lectures. As a result, I did not often feel a pressing need to attend these lectures.
Here's me taking a smoke break during exam week while everyone else is enjoying a pizza party. I hope my extreme level of stress after having done nothing all semester is properly radiating through my face.
All in all, it was a relief to go back to what I consider to be much superior and far more enjoyable classes back home.
Northern Ireland Politics
One thing to be aware of when you visit Northern Ireland is that the tensions between Protestants and Catholics aren't entirely gone. Obviously I'm not Irish and am no expert on the history, but I'll try to summarize what I picked up from my own time there.
First of all, despite the defining terms being "Protestant" and "Catholic", it has absolutely nothing to do with actual religious beliefs and everything to do with political views. Protestants are unionists. They want to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Catholics are nationalists. They believe that Northern Ireland should rejoin with the Republic of Ireland to become one Irish country again separate from the UK.
In the early 1900s (following the Easter Rising of 1916), Ireland fought a war for independence from Britain (understandable). Finally in 1921, an agreement was reached between the two which allowed the 26 mostly Catholic counties of the South to become an independent Ireland. However, the six counties of the North that were mostly Protestant would remain a part of the United Kingdom. That area, known as Ulster, remains in the UK today.
Of course, not everybody was happy with this. Plenty of Irish people want their entire country back, which is, again, understandable, but there has been a history of violence to achieve this. You likely know of the IRA and the Troubles of the late 60s all the way through the 90s in which there was widespread violence throughout Northern Ireland between the two opposing sides.
In the late 90s, finally an agreement was reached, the Good Friday Agreement, which helped define the government of Northern Ireland and that it would remain a part of the UK until the majority of people voted otherwise.
This is my understanding of everything anyway (backed by the Internet), so I hope I've correctly explained it. Most of the violence has passed, but you can still see signs of the division today. For instance, I learned that East and West Belfast each represent opposite political sides. I went shopping at an Irish souvenir shop and was told to hide the bag when I ventured into East Belfast, because that's the Protestant area. I was told that you can tell which side someone is on by the way they say the letter H. There is a clear argument over the name of one city up north referred to as Derry by Catholics and Londonderry by Protestants. If you go on Google Maps, you will see that both names are actually listed. I knew Catholics who stayed in their house on July 12th (Orangemen's Day), because that's the day of Protestant celebration with parades and fires in the streets. I also remember multiple drunk arguments breaking out between Irish university students over being referred to as "Irish" instead of "Northern Irish."
And while the violence may have mostly died down, I still remember reading about a cop being killed by a car bomb a year or so after my studies there ended. In fact, I knew of a cop up north but was told by his friend that I couldn't tell anyone his profession (which I never heard the guy publicize himself and never would have guessed) because it would make him a target. So despite the fact that the worst days are over, it's important to know this history and watch for signs of the division while you're visiting.
So now that your social studies lesson is over, let's talk about the sights of the north!
Belfast
Thinking back on my first visit to Belfast with Lauren, it's hilarious how overexcited we were to be in the city. Obviously this was one of our first big trips away from home, and we were really psyched to visit the capital, even if this is not generally a top destination on travel lists.
I like Belfast. It has a nice city hall building which used to have the Belfast Wheel next to it. Of course we paid £5 for the 15 minute ride, because we were in Belfast and so amped up about everything.
At Christmas, there is a continental market in front of city hall. It's got great international food stands, cute souvenir shops, and a packed full beer tent in the middle of it all selling hot Rekorderlig Winter Fruits cider. Totally worth a visit. It really felt like the holidays.
There's also Victoria Square, a sort of outdoor/indoor shopping mall (it has open sides at either end but walls and a roof all down the length) with an awesome steel grid for a ceiling with a light covered dome in the center.
From Belfast, it isn't a long drive to get to Carrickfergus Castle with furnished rooms and pretty views from the battlements.
Also while you are in the city, I have two dining recommendations. Gourmet Burger does gigantic, amazing burgers (vegetarian included of course), and you MUST go to Maggie Mays for literally the best Ulster Fry you will find including potato bread, beans, pancake, hash browns, veggie sausage, mushrooms, eggs, and soda bread (or you can get your non-vegetarian option if that's how you choose to live your life). In fact, while I'm on the topic of food, you can find a small chain called The Streat in various locations and they do awesome sandwiches. We had one on campus and I ate there frequently.
WWE in Belfast
Before I wrap up Belfast, I need to mention one of the greatest nights of my life that took place there (also about to out myself on my blog as a major wrestling fan). I went down to Belfast one evening for the WWE house show. For non-fans, a house show is an untelevised event where no major storylines progress, but there are matches put on by some of the superstars and it's cheaper than a Raw or pay-per-view event.
Well, the guy I was with at the time booked us into the HIlton as the best surprise ever... the Hilton is the hotel where the wrestlers were staying. I absolutely freaked out. We arrived just as they were all coming out to board their tour bus and I saw Sheamus, Kofi, Christian, Miz, Batista, and more up close. I even got a picture with Evan Bourne and was literally shaking handing him a pen for an autograph. I am a horribly embarrassing person when meeting celebrities. Like completely have no cool whatsoever.
Well, the house show was fun. I went with a few friends and had a few pints of Guinness. I kept running out of our seats to the standing area and being told by security to go sit back down. The arena was pretty empty, so we were in close up seats as it was, but there was plenty of space on the floor right near the ring.
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and got ready to head to the club, and as the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opened in slow motion (I swear that's how it happened) and Randy Orton was standing right there in front of me. I almost had a heart attack and died. I was absolutely speechless until finally the guy I was with told Orton that he'd had a great show, and I just faintly echoed, "It was a really great show." Then Randy Orton looked right at me, nodded, and said "Thanks." I can't believe I didn't pass out.
But that's not all! Upon returning from the club at 2 AM, we headed to the hotel bar, and there were all of the wrestlers just sitting at a table together having drinks and doing shots. I chose a stalker-worthy table facing directly at them so I could be a total creep, and my night only went up from there. I struck up a conversation with Ted Dibiase Jr. while he passed by our table, chatted with Kelly Kelly in the bathroom, saw Mark Henry try to throw down with some poor dude who asked for his autograph, and best of all, got my photo with Randy Orton! Despite the fact that I'd had about twenty drinks by this point, I still couldn't talk to him. My boyfriend had to tell him that I wanted a photo and was a huge fan, and I could only repeat, "Yeah, I'm a huge fan."
Later on, a guy from merchandising came over to chat for ages. He made a joke about Orton while he was on his way past, and so Randy Orton came back over and stood literally two feet in front of me talking about how talented he was at certain, um... sexual activities... then turned back around as he was walking away to smile at me just as I was practically falling out of my seat with my hand over my chest. (Just let me be shallow for a minute. Have you seen his body?!)
The night ended with Ted Dibiase Jr. joining us for hours to chat and buying us rounds, trying to get the bar to stay open for us past close, and I gave him a hug goodnight at the end and went to sleep thinking my whole night must have been some kind of insane fantasy.
Drinking buddy Dibiase.
Derry
As I mentioned earlier, the contentiously-named city of Derry is a point of debate between Protestants and Catholics. I only went to visit for a short day trip, but it's an interesting place to see.
It is one of the only walled cities left completely intact, which is impressive since the walls were built in the 1600s. They form a walkway around the city, and unfortunately for the sake of this blog, I happened to drop my camera on one of these walls while visiting, shattering the display and breaking the lens, which prevented me from taking many photos. You can, however, see many impressive murals in Derry which depict the political divisions of Northern Ireland.
Carrick-a-Rede
One of my favorite spots in Northern Ireland is the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge just near Ballintoy.
It's a very pretty rope bridge connecting the mainland to a small, grassy island over the water. I just think it perfectly sums up the scenery of Ireland.
The Jungle
For a fun day trip, there is a place in Magherafelt called The Jungle. I went with a large group of Irish friends during my Christmas break visit for an awesome day of zorbing and paintball. It was my first time for both, actually, although zorbing was the activity I was really excited about.
There are these big plastic balls which you and one other person will be strapped into on either side, and then they push the ball down a long hill and you go spinning, flipping, and bouncing the whole way down like an extreme carnival ride. All I could do was laugh the whole way. It's a blast.
Paintballing I was not so psyched about, but parts of it were enjoyable. I liked our camo jumpsuits, and the games were entertaining. We'd be split into teams throughout various courses to capture the flag. One course in a wooded area was particularly fun, especially as we'd have a medic on each team who could revive the other players if they'd been shot. The final course was in a "graveyard" with a barn in the middle. One team started out in the barn guarding the coffin inside, while the other team had to make it across the graveyard to retrieve a stake, get inside the barn, and stick it in the coffin. That was great because no matter which side you were on, you could play sniper from the windows of the barn or from behind one of the cardboard graves.
However, I did get hit in the head with a paintball at one point, and dragging around a heavy gun and struggling to see through fog-covered goggles was not my favorite, so I'm iffy on the whole paintball thing in general.
Afterwards, we all chilled out in the on-site hot tub with a few cases of beer enjoying the winter nighttime air. It was a successfully fun day out and a good idea for a group activity.
Castlerock
Not far from Coleraine, you can visit Castlerock, home of the Mussenden Temple and some pretty awesome ruins of an old manor.
There is a beach below the cliffs, sheep wandering around the fields, and the whole thing is extremely beautiful.
Portrush
As briefly mentioned in my section on nightlife, Portrush is a seaside town near Coleraine.
I personally prefer it to Portstewart. It has some nice places to eat (I highly recommend the Wine Bar for food) gorgeous views, and even a little beachside amusement park called Barry's. One of my favorite days out during my semester here was spent riding the rides and playing the games at Barry's followed by chilling out on the beach on a warm Irish day (aka 60ish degrees and sunny).
Giant's Causeway
Ending with the most famous sight of them all, Giant's Causeway is the top must-see attraction in Northern Ireland. The legend is that the causeway was built by a giant. This was an Irish giant who was meant to fight a Scottish giant, so the causeway was created for them to meet (note that the English are not involved in this fight, presumably because they have no giants). The cool thing is that there are similar basalt columns across the sea in Scotland where their giant would supposedly be coming from.
Giant's Causeway is a World Heritage Site and is comprised of around 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. It's so unique and I've really never seen another place like it. Some of the columns rise up into hills, while others are at sea level. We went on a foggy day which made it all a little bit mystical looking.
In conclusion, I love Northern Ireland. In fact, I prefer it to the south, but then, I do have a personal attachment to it. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect place to spend a semester and met some of the most memorable people. One day I'll go back for a fry-up at Maggie Mays, a walk along Giant's Causeway, and some Springhill £1 beers, but until then, I can only try to convince anyone else to take a trip to this awesome area of the world. The craic is mighty!