Nick Devine vs. The Paddy-wagoners

Well I have returned once again to the University campus after a long week of exploring the local areas around Great Britten in general. I will be having a series of posts that will recap my adventures in both Ireland and Skye and will hopefully get some pictures up soon so people can see some of the amazing sights i have seen in the last week.

So Let’s get started with a good old fashioned trip to the Irish Isles!

Last Friday our crew, Sarah, Tabatha, and I left for Glasgow-Preswick international airport. We had figured out the night before that the airport is not actually in Glasgow (which is only a 45 minute train ride) but is an hour south of it. That was a nice little surprise so we took off and got there rather successfully in less than two hours. After passing through security, we had about 2 hours to kill in a little tiny airport that has 3 gates. Not quite the huge international airport I had in mind but it all worked out in the best. It was an Elvis themed airport though, because Elvis had stopped to fill up his plane there once, and apparently that was a huge deal for the airport and Scotland in general. This event marked the greatest day in Scottish aviation history so they celebrated the only way they knew how, build a pub around it. Elvis themed tables, pictures, chairs, bars, glasses, the works were all about the King of Rock and Roll and let me tell you it looked kind of cool.

So this flight was the first time we were heading on a Ryanair flight. Now Ryanair is the cheapest airfare anywhere in Europe, but they are notorious for not being very good flights where they cram people in and you fear for you existence. It started out where we all got in a huge line and had to give our final tickets to the blue vest wearing brigade who seemed more than happy to rip your ticket in half, 'by accident' of course. So after sanding in these lines for forever we finally got to board the plane. In order to do this we had to go outside into the stormy wet weather (this is still Scotland) and trek our way to the plane and climb the ladder in. Super sketchy. Once we got on the plane it was a total free for all for the seats. We did find three together so that was good and everyone seemed friendly. The seats and planes were nice and large and it was way better than I expected. The flight went smoothly, no big events happened and we were only in the air for 45 minutes which was a big surprise. We then got to Dublin when it was dark and made it into the airport and through customs so we could get into Ireland.

Once in Ireland we were trying to figure out how to get to the youth hostel we were staying at, nicely named Pattys Palace. We took a bus to what is considered the main street in Dublin and we hoped to walk to the hostel which did not appear to be too far away from the map we had looked at. It was not too far away but unfortunately it was pretty dark and we got turned around so it took us a good amount of time to find something that was actually really close to where we started. We made it just in time to get our keys before he locked the place up and we all headed into our room for some nice sleep. The shower room was missing a door handle, lock and wouldn't stay shut so whenever one of us wanted to shower, someone else would stand guard to make sure nothing was taken or no one walked in unsuspecting of the shower occurring.

After getting a good, but relatively short night of sleep we got up at 6:30am to get ready to go on a day tour to the Cliffs of Moher on the other side of Ireland. We get to the meeting point and waiting for us is a large coach bus that was painted green with huge letters spelling out 'Pattywagon tours' and a giant leprechaun on the side. It was quite a sight to behold. We met our driver, Shawnie, who was from Ireland and provided the bus with the humor and singing and surprises of the day. After picking up the remaining people, 50 in total, we headed out to the cliffs. We drove for 2 and a half hours before making a pit stop to see some abbeys and big statues and castles along the way. Shawnie would sing us all sorts of Irish songs; he knew all of the history as well as being a really funny guy to just talk too. He moved the tour bus around with some incredible precision to places I would not want to put my car in. Amazingly, we never hit anything or anyone going down multiple one lane roads around the twisting curves and incredible hills.

We had the perfect day to go exploring in Ireland, clear, sunny, and relatively warm. The country side was amazing but varied ranging from huge wide open fields, rolling forests hills, to barren rock covered mountain sides. I learned a lot about the country of Ireland itself as well as the language that is spoken (in places) Gaelic. I never knew that Ireland had its own language that is considered equal to English in many political circles. Shawnie would tell us about small places that speak only Gaelic and many university students would go live there in the summer to gain knowledge in the language. It is a dying langue though with fewer and fewer people being conversational in it. He did teach us to say some words but I cannot honestly remember any of them, sorry. Our first stop came at a crumbling abbey that was a beautiful place to take some pictures and see some Irish cows roaming around.

Shawnie then told us about things called Fairy Huts that are stone circles in the middle of fields that would appear there over night. There were no entrances, and the fable goes that you could only enter the hut when you heard the music coming from the inside of the circle. You were not allowed to knock down the structure because it would put a curse on your family for 5 generations to come. Shawnie then told us about a man who needed to sell his fields to move to America during the potato famine and the field was devaluing the property, so against his wife and neighbors advice he knocked down the Fairy hut and moved to America. His family name was said to be Kennedy with his decedents including the former president JFK. Believable? Maybe not but its a cool story.

So back to the actual story, we moved along and had a typical pub lunch in Ireland consisting of a beef roast as well as some potatoes, gravy, veggies, and some bread. Overall it was quite good and the pub was situated with a nice view over Galloway that was very picture perfect. After continuing our journey we passed by and stopped at a grave site of some of the vikings which consisted of a bunch of rocks stacked, sort of. It was odd to say the least. Progressing further we climbed hill after mountain after hill to finally reach the Cliffs of Moher, the whole reason we were there.

We pulled up to the cliffs and we had 2 hours to explore the cliffs for ourselves. If I had to simplify the entire experience to one work it would be Phenomenal. The sight was fantastic and the drop look spectacular in the weather as well as the way in which the waves crashed along the rocks. The cliffs look amazing and you can see for miles. We waved across the ocean to America so hopefully someone waved back. There was the designated tourist area with the pavilions and the big ledges that keep you from hurling yourself over the unforgiving cliff, as well as a cool castle to look at. Naturally we climbed over the "do not go past this sign" and went along the cliffs that were a bit more steep and one wrong step and you become a statistic, but hey, life is short right? Anyway we climbed over the barrier (along with seemingly everyone else, it was not just us) and walked along the cliffs in order to get some fantastic pictures. It was an awe inspiring experience that I will not forget for many years to come. After braving the sides on the cliffs we headed back into the visitor part where you can breathe a tad easier.


After 2 wonderful hours on the side of the Cliffs it was time to head back on the bus and head back to Dublin. We got back around 8 PM and went for a night walk around Dublin before retiring to our hostel for a well deserved night sleep. We did eat at a Supermac's which is Ireland's version of the McDonald's. It was good and cheep which is always a nice combo when you are a poor college student in a random country.

Well that is all for now, I hope to update the rest of my trip in Ireland and the Isle of Skye soon, but I should really be studying for this test I have at the end of the week. I will write soon (hopefully tonight but no promises) about the rest of my exploits in Ireland.

Until next time, this is Nick, signing off.

NIck Devine vs. The Travel Plans

So as promised this is going to be a two update week!! Yeah! This (shorter) entry will look to the future and I will be giving you a guided tour into my next couple of weeks up here. So this week is the last week of classes before the fall brake arrives.

On Friday Sarah, Tabatha, and I are headed on a plane to go to Ireland for the weekend. We are base camping in Dublin and going to the Cliffs of Mohr, Guinness Factory, and all of the local sights to see in Dublin. I am looking forward to this because it will be my first venture outside of the UK while I have been over here. We come back to Scotland on Monday and get to come back to Stirling for the day. The next day (Tuesday) we are headed into Edinburgh to go on a three day tour of northern Scotland, Loch Ness, and the Isle of Skye. I am really looking forward to this trip because it will be as far north as we are headed in Scotland, and the views are supposed to be amazing. After returning in Thursday I have a very special visitor coming up and she is staying until the 1st of November. We will be traveling to Loch Lomond while she is up, and it is the largest national park in the UK so that is something to be excited about.

Update on the Kilt, I have decided to go with a quasi-authentic kilt. The truly authentic ones, sheep's wool from Scotland and all of that is really, really expensive and frankly would not be worth it for the amount of wearing I plan to do with this. So I am headed to the middle ground with a Kilt that is 8 Yards and has a tartan with a heritage of Ireland because as far as I know, I am not Scottish. I will be getting that soon hopefully and pictures will be available soon (I Hope).

Looking into the future, we are going to Norway, France, and we hope to get to Italy while we are here as well. So if anyone knows people in these countries who would be willing to put up with a few college kids for a weekend let me know. That would be much appreciated. Well that’s all for now, any questions just add a comment or send me a message somehow.

Until next time, this is Nick, signing off.

Nick Devine vs. The Mines

Yes, I already know what you are going to say. Nick, it’s been forever since you last blogged about the epic adventures known as your life in Scotland. I would reply, yes you are absolutely right and I apologize for that. My goal has been to try to update this thing once a week and last week I dropped the ball.

Frankly last week was all about writing essays and getting school related stuff out of the way, you know the study portion of study abroad and it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I wrote a 2500 word essay for religion and am currently waist deep into another 1500 word essay for my Global Cinema class. They are not super exciting and sometimes demand way too much attention and time but I am learning a ton while I write them so it’s all worth it in the end. Being an outsider here (a.k.a. American) It is very interesting to see the way my views and beliefs stack up with people who are not like me. Often times I am called to 'speak for the American population' in seminars and it’s quite an odd experience to say the least. I really don't feel qualified to 'speak' for everyone in America or frankly even myself sometimes. That has been one 'of the hardest things here to adjust too, and the fact that fries are chips and chips are crisps, but that is a whole different topic aside. I believe it has made me more confident though, and that has helped my presentation and vocal skills when talking to other people and presentations.

So anyway, to the things you actually want to read about.

This Saturday we took a trip to St. Andrews, the home of golf and the Old Course. We took the train there at way too early o'clock and sat on a train for a good amount of time. We got to the station closest to St. Andrews and we thought, "Hey it can't be too far from here, let’s just walk there and save some cash!" Wrong move on our part. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful countryside, pleasant horses hanging out, a couple of tractors passed by and it was more or less like walking through Wisconsin this time of year. The problem lies at the point where the 2-3 miles walk turns into the 5-6 mile hike up a never ending hill of doom. That whining aside it was a pleasant walk and we did not get rained on once. We went by the Old Course, the famous one, and we got to walk along side of the fairways at some point. We wanted to do a walking tour of the area but we could not because there was a local match going on and they would not let us on. We had to stop and quit talking at one point because someone was lining up a shot on the 18th green, which they promptly missed. I snickered; inside of course because they would have hit me with their club had it been vocal.

St. Andrews is along the coast of Scotland facing east so there was a good deal of beach and rocks that were poking out into the bay. We walked along the beach for a bit and climbed some of the rocks that were there and had some fun taking pictures of the area. Next we climbed into a local pub and had a good lunch with some nice locals we met. After the wonderful soup and sandwiches we went to the ruins of the old St. Andrews castle. It was really neat and only some was left standing. We got to learn about how they tried to siege the castle by building tunnels underneath it and how the occupants of the castle tried to counter mine them and attack when they were not expecting it. We actually climbed down into a mine and it was very dark, wet, and narrow in there. Needless to say I felt like Spider man crawling around on my hands, and singing the theme song of course. We looked at where all of the dungeons and great halls as well as some of the supposed storage containers for the cities namesake, St. Andrew.

Walking uptown we went to the cathedral, which was again ruined (They can never keep anything nice in St. Andrews...) we got to tour around the cemetery and look at a lot of dead people and the stones that now represent them. Inside the cathedral museum they had all of the sarcophagi of famous people in the area with all sorts of really good carvings on them. The Tower of Rule is a huge tower that was built right next to the cathedral and acted as a lighthouse as well as being a really big tower of such. It was unfortunately closed due to unexpected electrical issues with some of the lighting. After the Cathedral we looked at some more grave sites and moved along our marry way.

We decided that we had already had too much fun in the day so we started our journey back home. As we were walking down the main street we happened to pass the world’s best ice cream shop and knowing my group we naturally had to stop. It was actually very good and I ended up getting a Blackcurrant and Raspberry milkshake that was pretty impressive I must say. After walking a bit more we had decided that we were going to take the bus to the train station rather than try to walk the 5-6 miles again. The bus driver we had was very funny and kept us laughing the whole way to the rail station. The rest of the day passed and no rain was had which meant it was a great day all around.

So that was my Saturday all in a nutshell. Now I must continue with my essay and start some econometric homework so I do not get swamped down the line with that. I will be doing another blog post sometime this weekend with some of my upcoming ventures and here is a small preview, 4 new countries, updates on kilts, and of course a lot more castles!

Until next time, this is Nick, signing off.

Nick Devine vs. The Supporters

Football fans in Scotland are nuts.

That might go for all of Europe, I am not quite sure yet, but after having went to a match and participated in the atmosphere that is a football match(Yes football, not soccer. They will tell you when you are wrong over here and let me tell you, you don't want to start that conversation with some of these people.)I can honestly say that I have never been to an event quite like that one, Where it is a huge insult to be considered a 'Fan'.

So lets back it up, Quentin Tarantino style, and lets find out what has let up to this realization.

This week has been going really well. I have been keeping up on my reading, doing presentations for Global Cinema, and trying to keep up with the demands of my Econometrics course. It keeps me pretty busy but I love doing it. The weather here is relatively predictable. At some point in the day it will rain, never fail. Sometime it rains all day, and sometimes it cycles from rain, to clouds, to sun, to clouds, to rain, ect. I have learned to bring an umbrella with me at all times because you never know when you leave class and the heavens have opened to pour on you.

Outside of classwork I have joined the gym this week and have been trying to go there quite often. I have made some friends over here with my 4 flatmates, 3 whom are Scottish and one Frenchmen, and they have helped to introduce me to a lot of other people. The odd thing about the University here is that most of these people go home on the weekends, so the big nights to hang out and do things are in the middle of the week. Some people stick around for the weekend, and they are probably the ones I know best now. I have also joined the Stirling University Choir which consists of a ton of old people as well as a few university students tossed in there. Its fun and it gives me something to do on Monday nights.

So this weekend we thought it would be a good idea to head into Glasgow, a major city in Scotland, and go see the sights and see what there is to see. We also got ticks to a Celtic match (Celtic being a football club in Glasgow). This thrilled one of my flatmates who is an avid Celtic supporter, but made another flatmate angry because he is a supporter of the cross town rivals in Glasgow, the Rangers.

So we got to Glasgow, Sarah, Tabatha, and I, and we started to walk around. We went to the Glasgow Cathedral and the necropolis behind it and it was beautiful to see. It was one of the last remaining cathedrals that was not damaged or altered in the Scottish church reformations. It was absolutely beautiful to see and the stain glass windows were amazing. We arrived early enough to be the first ones into the cathedral and it was nice and quite and really had a special feel to it. The Necropolis behind it, the cemetery, was also quite nice with more tombs then i could ever care to count. After that we went to 'The Lighthouse' which is actually not a lighthouse, but an old building in downtown Glasgow. It was a kind of museum of architecture and it had a big spiral that lead to the top and it had a fairly good view of the city of Glasgow, which was not very impressive by the way.


After that we went through the shopping center and headed to a place called Glasgow Green which is a big park along the river in Glasgow. It was nice but the overcast was getting thicker and it was looking like rain very soon. So we started our walk to the stadium and made it there after a pretty hefty walk. We arrived a tad too soon so we began to walk around the stadium and the surrounding neighborhoods. There were vendors all over the place selling scarfs, tee shirts, jerseys, pins, and flags about every 10 feet. There were some food places but not a whole ton, and the stadium outside was really quiet. Around the stadium the pubs were filled with supporters getting ready for the game.

We eventually made it into the stadium after getting something to drink and we made it up to our seats, the very top row. It was actually really nice up there because you could see everything on the field without having to try to look around poles or other things in the way. This is where the differences from other professional matches started to make themselves clear to me. The was only one big screen in the place and it did not play a very important role in the game at all. They only showed highlights of goals and the same 3 ads over and over again. There was very few people who actually got something to eat and drink at the game, most never left their seats at all. Most people did not wear jerseys or anything to symbolize their team colors except for scarves. Everyone had a green and white scarf or some combination of Celtic colors. No music played at all in stadium, all music was provided to us by the Irish Brigade, a section of the stands that sang, all the time, and had drums and would chant and cheer and jump up and down. It was exhausting just to watch them for a few minutes.


I decided to go to the bathroom before the match started because I didn't want to leave during the match instead. It was in the bathroom I saw a poster that really confused me. It said, "Fans don't win matches, supporters do!" I looked at this saying and dismissed it pretty easily as just being another 'Scottish' thing that I don't understand. As I watched the rest of the game I got to be involved in all of the animation and emotion that comes with supporting a team. When Hamilton, the team they were playing against, scored a goal in the first 4 minutes, you could literally feel the air being sucked out of the stadium for a good 10 seconds.

Then a funny thing happened, the entire crowd rallied behind Celtic and started to try to cheer them up. It was the craziest thing I have ever witnessed at a sporting event. After the ball started to roll again the crowd was 100% behind 'their boys' and gave as much encouragement as they could to try to get them back into the game. The Brigade was singing and the entire place was focused on the match. There was no time for drink or snacks to be sold in the stands, this was football time. At this moment I understood the sign in the bathroom, Fans would sit and watch the match and cheer and go home win or lose and be alright with it. Supporters would pour everything they had into the game, onto the field, and would live the game with the players. The distinction was a big one and one you can't understand until there are thousands upon thousands of people pouring their hopes and dreams into a group of 11 men on the pitch. After Celtic scored their first goal the crowd erupted and after a bad penalty the crowd erupted.

It was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life and I doubt I will see anything like it again. Celtic did end up winning 3-1 and it was a good day. I bought a scarf for my collection and I am proud to say that I supported Celtic for a day.

Until next time, this is Nick, Signing off.