Ich Liebe Berlin
Twenty years after its post-war rebirth, Berlin is a beautiful and effortlessly cool city. I could list so many things that a visitor to Berlin absolutely has to do, but it would be the size of this paper. Picking out a handful, I would recommend visiting the Berlin Wall, the Nuremberg Gate, the Potsdamer Platz, [...]
A visit to the gates of hell
If I live a hundred years I will never forget the horrors of the Auschwitz death camp. I saw the cramped, sparse wooden sheds, originally designed to store horses, but that prisoners slept in. I saw the cattle containers that were used to transfer millions of Jews to their death. I saw the barbed wire, [...]
Hungry for Hungary?
Budapest was formed in 1873 by the unification of the two cities Buda on the west bank and Pest on the east side of the river Danube. To describe these two sections of the city in a way that is easily understandable to the average Irish tourist, Buda could be equated with the south side [...]
City of history and grandeur
Over the Christmas holidays, Conor Manning explored what Edinburgh has to offer. In recent times many Irish people travelling to Edinburgh have come away feeling disappointed with their stay. Edinburgh is home to Murrayfield and lately Irish fans haven’t come away from that venue with smiles on their faces. However many more Irish people have [...]
The city of golden spires
Conor McKenna discovers the delights of Prague, a city famous for the best beer and noted for its examples of Gothic art and architecture. The capital of the Czech Republic has been a popular destination for Western Europeans since the Velvet Revolution and the end of Moscow rule. I embarked on a four [...]
A survival guide for the international student
International students Greta Hughes and Manon Rubiella share their wisdom with new arrivals to UCD As a non-Irish student it can be a challenge at first to figure out how things work, where to go, what not to do and what the hell people are saying. But fear not, we are here to offer some [...]
Having a sweet time in Sweden
“The public transport around the city is safe, clean and efficient” “Stockholm has a vibrant nightlife which is a highlight of any visit” “Eating out in Sweden can be expensive, but if you shop around, you will be heavily rewarded.” The Scandinavian nations are characterised by breathtaking landscape, diverse population and extreme climatic conditions, including [...]
City that never sleeps
Entering JFK airport can be extremely overwhelming and stressful, especially if you were born in the back arse of nowhere. It felt like a new beginning, a new reality. I had dreamt of bourbon-washed pavements, latte-sipping cultural connoisseurs who spoke of ambitions and premonitions over background sounds of George Gershwin, and slow paced improvisational jazz. [...]
College Down Under
Rory Quinn gives an account of college life in Melbourne. Why study your 3rd year at UCD when you could be doing it pretty much anywhere else in the world? That was the question I asked myself when I first heard about all the exchange opportunities UCD has to offer. I had always wanted to [...]
Aoife Nannery gives us a glimpse of her year in Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin
Berlin does not possess the cohesive, harmonising beauty of other capitals. It’s not poised like London, polished like New York, or showy like Prague. The architecture jars sharply, with ugly, smutty apartment blocks hulking over medieval churches, and chunky yellow-Lego trains chugging under antique bridges. Anything that has been destroyed, or removed, or simply disintegrated [...]