Christmas Holidays 2009: Dublin

Thats it! The title of the blog told you this post is about my Christmas holidays after the hectic exams..
First stop: Dublin (18th to 21st December 2009)

~18th Dec 2009
It took me 2 and half hours of journey from Galway to Dublin and I arrived at the right time because it as snowing.. My first snow!! =) Hosanna met me at the city centre and after leaving my luggage at her place, we went for Chinese lumch buffet (9.90 euros eat-all-you-can*). After lunch, we decided to go to the Christmas Carnival bt I stopped at a salon because it was offering haircut for 9 euros which was really cheap. I popped in and trimmed my fringes for Christmas. We then walked towards the Christmas Carnival where there were lots of Chirstmas goodies and kiddies' rides. We spent almost one hour at the carnival when Jed texted me that he and Alvin had arrived. Hosanna went back first while I went to Avalon Hostel to meet both the guys. We then went for dinner together at McDonalds since its the cheapest fast food available.. =) The night was spent roaming around Grafton Street and St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre with Alvin snapping pictures all along the way.

night view of Dublin

~19th December 2009
The day started of with Jed, Alvin and I strolling along St. Stephen's Green. We were lucky to be able to see swans swimming in the lake despite the cold winter weather.. Then, we headed off to Chirst Church Cathedral, which is the oldest church in Ireland, dated back to 1030. The church looks nice and really old but it wasnt as nice as St. Finbarr's Cathedral in Cork. They have a mini museum where all the church treasures are well kept underground and that was the most fascinating part of the church. Next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral but we didn't enter the church because the entrance fee was a bit pricey.. But we did take lots of beautiful pictures at St. Patrick's Square. We then met up with Gladys and Nigel for lunch at Supermac's. After lunch, Gladys brought us to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) which was my dream college once upon a time.. The college wasn't big compared to other universities but the Harry Potter ambience is enough to keep everyone feel like they are part of TCD..=) TCD also houses the Book of Kells, the oldest manuscripts in the world.. Last stop of the day was Dublin Castle, which houses the government offices at the moment. We each paid 2 euros for the guided tour around the castle and I was quite shocked because Blarney Castle charged 8 euros. However, the castle is not really a castle since the original one was burnt down and the one we see today is the restored castle.. Dinner was at Hosanna's house where Nigel prepared a splendid meal for all of us..

St Stephen's Green

Trinity College Dublin (TCD)

~20th December 2009
Nigel and I went to the Carmelite Church while Jed and Alvin went to Chirst Chruch for services. We the meet up for lunch and later to Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate. The tour around the storehouse was nice and I got to pour my own pint of Guinness but i couldnt' finish even half of it.. 3 hours were spent at the storehouse and since its a Sunday, most shops closed early. Nigel went for a movie with his friends while Jed, Alvin and I hanged around in Hosanna's place since its our last night in Dublin..

I poured my own pint of Guinness

with the Magical Irish Leprechaun

p/s: full album can be viewed on Facebook..

Connemara..

15th December 2009.. the official date of freedom after 2 gruellling weeks of battle against exams and I was glad that it ended with a not-so-tough Anatomy paper.. Swee San was in Galway since Sunday but I couldnt meet her earlier.. Hence, I decided to make up for it by bringing her to NUIG and also Connemara which is part of county Galway... After a host tour around NUIG, I brought Swee San and her friends to my house for a short visit while I called up the tourist agency to pick us up from my house.. *the best way to save taxi fares* At around 1030am, we were on our way to Connemara, where I met the other Malaysian girls as well.. It then became kind of a Malaysian trip because there are 13 Malaysians including us on the bus!!

view of Salthill

The view along the way was describable only in ONE word - MAGICAL.. It was really awesome and the tour guide told us that the views will be different every season, green in summer, brown in winter, orange in autumn and probably yellow in spring.. We made a few stops in Maam Valley where the most scenic landscapes of Connemara are situated, Scriob Waterfall, Ros a'Mhil and the famous Kylemore Abbey.. By the way, if anyone fo you have read about the Irish Potato Famine, I have seen ruins of these villages along the way to Connemara and it saddened me how they have nothing to eat during the famine..

ruins of the famine villages

Kylemora Abbey was once known as Kylemore Castle and it dated back to 1800 and it has a beautiful love story behind it.. Ta daa.. Story telling time ^ ^ Mitchell Henry built the castle in the 19th century for his wife, Margaret and their kids. However, Margaret passed away due to fever two years later and Mitchell never remarried. Years later, Mitchell moved out of the castle since he felt that it was incomplete without his belove wife.. *how romantic*

Kylemore Castle

After 2 hours of tour around Kylemore Castle and the Gothic Cathedral, we hopped on the bus and went back to Galway.. On our way, we saw lots of sheep painted with multi colours on their wool.. According to the bus driver, the owners let their sheep roam all over the valley and foe identification purposes, they paint their sheep with different colour.. Sheep are cute but they arent friendly, unlike the Connemara ponies.. The ponies are so friendly that they dont mind me stroking their soft fur.. =)

sheep around the valleys

Exams..

Its my first exam as a medical student in NUIG! And what more can I say except that exams are infinitely torturing.. Enough with memorising every single detail about muscles and drugs nerves but I just couldnt identify them during Spot Test.. =( Anyway, I passed and just cross my fingers that I will do better in my final which is next week.. I'm so gonna work on Biochem and Anatomy!!

International Students' Dinner

Its the annual International Students' Dinner with the Dean of School of Medicine and since it was my first time attending it, I was quite excited. I got dressed up by 7pm and at about 730 pm, LZ, Adrian and I walked to Westwood Hotel. We were quite late but luckily, some students were late too.. Dinner was served and I chose baked salmon as my main course. It was good but I couldn't take much since I'm not really hungry. Rest of the time was spent talking to friends, taking pictures and meeting new people. It was also a nice approach to get to know my lecturers better and my Professionalism lecturer, Gloria was really outstanding since she wore a Punjabi suit... It was really a fantastic night, minus the fact that I was having flu that nite.. ^ ^

Esther and I posing for a pciture.. *especially for dear Hossie*

pretty Malaysian girls... =)




With Fabio and Peter Dockery, two excellent Anatomy lecturers...

with Michelle..

Siaw Jing & I *Sibu peeps*

p/s: I really enjoyed myself a lot~

Holidays in Cork

Date: 23rd October 2009 to 26th October 2009

Venue: Cork, Ireland
Event: My first holiday outside Galway =)

23rd October 2009
~ Anatomy Spot Test ended at 5.30pm and the bus to Cork was at 6.30pm!! I met Bryan and since he's from Cork, I followed him to his house where he got his bag and we called a cab.. Phew! We got to get there on time.. The journey to Cork took 3 hours 40 mins which I don't enjoy any second of it! Coz I'm hungry, hot and feel like vomitting all the time! Anyway, Bryan texted me when we were about to reach Cork City and it was like heaven when we walked down the bus and arrived in St.Patrick's Quay.. My first impression of Cork: It's really pretty!! Bryan then took a cab back home while I waited for Emmanuel and Vinitha at the Quay. Thats when I met these two drunk men along the Quay and thinking that I couldnt speak English, they started to speak foul languages to me. Ta daa.... Vinitha called me and I spoke English perfectly and they were startled! I felt like laughing that time. They then walked away while I walked over to Merchants' Quay to meet Vini and Emm.. We walked back to Castlewhite which is their apartment.. After dinner, I slept like a pig because I was too tired after the gruelling journey!

24th October 2009
~ woke up at 9am but I didn't wake Vini up since she's still sleeping soundly.

My first stop: St.Finbarr's Cathedral. I followed the direction given in the map and managed to find this breathtaking cathedral. Everything in there is totally magnificent! And here's where all the great things happened! I met a lady from Texas and she helped me to take some pictures. Before she left, she gave me a souvenir from Texas =) I got myself a replica of the cathedral at the souvenirs shop.

St. Finbarr's Cathedral

2nd stop: Cork English Market. I met two NUIG girls along the way and we went to the market together. It's not that big, comparing to Sibu Central Market. XD But I'm fascinated by the stuffs they sold there. The berries, their 'unique' dragon fruit, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I saw a stall selling some hot and nice pies and I couldnt resist myself from getting a mushroom and cheese pie for 2.50 euro.. *its delicious*

The mushroom pie that I had..

3rd stop: St.Patrick's Street. Walked along the street and I was really lucky enough to stumble upon Jazz bands which were performing in conjunction with the Jazz Festival. They were really superb! Bought some souvenirs from Failte Ireland shop too and it cost me 10 euro!! I then went to Crawford Art Gallery for a tour.

Jazz band along the street

It was dinner at Gaya's house at night. There, I met lots of new friends and after dinner, we decided to go out to town and settle ourselves in a pub for the Jazz Festival..

25th October 2009
~ Vini and I set off for the famous Blarney Castle. It took us only 20 minutes to reach the castle by bus.. We paid 8 euros each at the entrance and acted like kids, squealing here and there, fascinated by the awesome scenery. We are clicking our cameras all along the way to the castle. 20 minutes were used ofr us to reach the top of the Castle. *believe me, it was not an easy feat for those who have weak hearts* By the way, I kept on telling Vini that the castle is discriminating people who are horizontally challenged since there's a guy in front of me, who kept on knocked his butt onto the walls of the castle.. Anyway, back to the top of the castle. The view from the top is nothing but just amazing, really amazing and seriously amazing. BREATHTAKING! And the wind is blowing extremely strong that my camera pouch was blown off.. =( After coming down from the Catsle, we strolled along the Rock Close and came across the Fairy Glade, which is the only tree with red leaves among the greenies. Rest of the time was spent in Rock Close, capturing the precious moments.. We went back to the city at around 3pm and surprisingly, Vini still had the energy to follow me around the city. We went looking for the famous Shandon Bells at St.Anne's Church. It was said that whoever rings the bell will have their wishes came true. Dinner was at Silk Thai Restaurant where we had tom yam, and both of us slept like babies that night...

Blarney Castle behind me..

View from the top of Blarney Castle.. *breathtaking*

We felt like we were on top of the world.. ^ ^

Fairy Glade...

26th October 2009

~Last day in Cork was terrible! It was raining the whole morning and it was the Bank Holiday, which means that shops are only open at 12pm. Anyway, I did get to visit University College Cork (UCC) and had lunch at Istanbul Burgers.. I took the bus back to Galway at 2pm and this time, I remembered to take pills to prevent car sickness.. ~.~

St.Patrick's Quay

p/s: Cork, I will be back !!

Mid Autumn Festival in Galway

I know, I really know that it's a bit late to post this up now since the Mid Autmun Festival had already past 1 weeks plus.. But I still want to write about it here.. Here we go.. It was four days before the Mid Autumn Festival when Siaw Jing text-ed me and invited me for dinner at his house to celebrate Mid Autmun Festival.. I was really thrilled since I thought that I'll be celebrating it alone this year..

On the exact day, there's Raya open house at Corrib Park and I promised I will go at about 3pm but I didn't. Hey, I didn't mean to break my words but Lim Zhi told me about the Mid Autumn Party at the College Bar and it really attracted me. Hence, in the windy afternoon, the two of us walked to the College Bar and found out that it was a PRIVATE party.. But we did get into the party and realised that it was organised by the China Society. There were lots of China people there, both old and young, eating mooncakes and chatting. Anywhere, Lim Zhi and I left after having a slice of mooncake each since we don't really know anyone there..

Anywhere, the main point of this post is about the dinner at Siaw Jing's house in Chantella. Lim Zhi and I went over with Yuen Yiing and Mei Ching. I got to know Siaw Jing's housemates; Chen Rong and Depti from Singapore. Expect the unexpected, the dinner was popiah and we wrapped them ourselves. Hey, its really a cool idea for dinner and I had two popiahs!

The highlight of the dinner was playing lanterns. We had 4 /5 lanterns and we lighted them outside the road. However, its was to chilly that we decided to get into the house after taking pictures.. XD

My frens and I with our lanterns..

It was karaoke session after that.. Cheers to Chen Rong and Siaw Jing for having a massive collection of Chinese songs which are all my favourite.. They can really sing too and I mean really good.. Tea session and mooncake sampling was on like any usual mooncake festival gathering..

Mooncakes all the way from Singapore..

Everything ended at 12am and the hosts walked us back to Corrib Park..

P/s: The moon was extremely round this year...

Fun Stuffs in NUIG

My life in NUIG is not all about eating medicine text books everyday.. My days here can still be counted using my fingers but it has already start to spell out the word FUN! First week is orientation week, 2nd week is the week where classes start and 3rd week is Socs Week with lots of fun stuffs..*anticipating the Halloween Night this end of oct* hehe..

First time trying rock climbing

up, Up UP, I go!

I tried lots of new cool stuffs here but the best part is I get to join the Art Soc. Hey, I can still paint after leaving my art classes for more than 2 years.. *clap clap* They have lots of cool activities such as Chalk Walk and Face Painting. Chalk Walk is a fund raising activity where everyone gets to scribble and destroy the clean pathway outside the James Hardiman Library! I missed the Face Painting since I'm in Anatomy Lab.. *sad* I heard that it was so much fun and everyone have their faces painted as Spidey, Hello Kitty and Superman..

Painting the wall of Art Soc *spot me in black shirt*

My group painted it for Alive! *i painted the flowers*

And unbelivable, but do believe it.. I'm joining the DanSoc which is the dance society in NUIG. I'm enrolling for Intermediate Hip Hop class. Hehe.. It's all about joining in the fun and who cares whether your movements ressemble a robot.. I'm thinking of learning the Traditonal Irish Dance if its not clashing with my timetable..

DanceSoc

I signed up for quite a lot of Socs but I'm still waiting for their emails.. Marine Soc promised dolphin trip in October but there's no emails yet.. I'm still considering wheter I should go for Kayaking Club since I can sense the fun in it.. Hopefully its not clashing with my timetable..

The Kayaking Club having their trainings in Corrib River

Anyway, hopefully this is just the beginning of my FUN in NUIG and it will goes on for the rest of my 5 years here.. *cheers*

First few days in Galway, Ireland

Finally.. after 13 hours of flight to Amsterdam, 6 hours of waiting at the Schipold Airport, 1 and a half hours of flight to Dublin, 3 hours of train ride to Galway.. I have finally arrived in Galway!! *clap clap*

At first I thought that Galway is a super duper rural town but I have to eat my words. Galway is indeed a beautiful medieval city... I can see birds and doggies every corner.. All kinds of flowers, roses, lavenders. etc stand beautifully in almost everyone's garden.. The people here are really super duper truper friendly. Everywhere I go, people will smile and greet you. Opposite of my house there's a small patch of green grass and an elderly man came there every evening to feed the stray cats. Note that he fed them with real kitty food not just any scrap of food. This is so far the best point of Ireland as compared to Holland. Well, when I was in Amsterdam, the people at the airport including the air stewardess are not really friendly which was so frustrating.. *grr grr*

One of the magnificent views of Galway

Irish love plants on their houses

Anyway, National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) is not that big as comparing it to other big universities but its enough to get me lost on my first week. We have Subway, Smokey's Cafe, Rush Cafe and College Bar in the uni.. XD

Orientation was fun. I tried lots of new stuffs.. I did rock climbing, surfing, archery, snowboarding which were totally fun.. The Students' Union organised a speed dating which I thought of going but I was too shy.. Hahahahahaha.. *innoncent face* Anyway, they have it twice a year.. I might be joining the Freshers' Disco Nite next week at the College Bar. I think I'll meet new friends there..

As for my class, there are 140++ of us. So far, talked to some of them. My first Irish fren is a guy, Craig who is very friendly and chatty. *Pau didn't believe me his name is Craig*

National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)

As for the food here, I haven't really have proper meals. Rushing here and there for orientation and buying stuffs, I just eat whatever I can grab on, be it an energy bar or a green apple..

Galway Cathedral

Another church along the riverbank

food.. food.. gluttony food

It was a nice Sunday night when John suggested for a dinner to celebrate my graduation. Eventually, TGI Friday's was lingering on my mind. We then came up with the idea of going to a Japanese restaurant in SS15, Subang Jaya. There are 3 popular Japanese restaurants there, namely Razuken and Ryu Men Tei and Tomoe. As I have been to the later twos, we decided to give Razuken a shot.

We arrived there at around 7.30 pm and there's no vacant seat for us! ( This shows how popular Razuken is) Jane and I browsed through the menu, deciding on what to order first for starters.. The pics in the menu look rather appetizing and mesmerizing to my eyes.. We then settled for a table for 3 on the 1st floor..

We ordered sushi for starter, two Bento sets and a set of Garlic rice. The starter was Spider Maki which I think was awesome. It comes with four slices of normal sized sushis with soft shell crabs stuffed in it. The crabs give a certain crunchiness to the sushis and I dare say it's one of the best sushis I have ever tried... (The taste is still lingering on my taste buds) XD



The tasty Spider Maki

Next on the course are our main menu..
My set was sort of roasted eel placed on a bowl of nice Japanese traditional rice.. It was a huge portion as the set comes with the normal seafood tofu, a bowl of soup with crabs and a plate of fresh frutis. The soup taste nice but it will be better if they served it steaming hot.. The crab in the soup is so tenderly soft that I can just bite them into half without much difficulty..


My main course of roasted eel

John's set was similar to mine but his main course was chicken teppayanki topped on Japanese rice. The chicken was blended with seaweed and fried egg which I think was a wonderful combination. ( at least it doesnt taste like any other fried chicken)


Chicken teppayanki set


The total bill comes to RM 108 which I think was reasonable as our tummies were perfectly filled.. *wink*

p/s: for those who want to give it a try, do make your reservations as I believe you don't want to end up waiting like me..

Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant
13, Jalan SS 15/5A
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (+603) 5880 4717