Tagged with: Study Abroad
The hardest part: Leaving Ireland. Even though we stayed in Northern Ireland for a few days after, it's a whole different world from the rest of Ireland. Leaving Dublin meant saying goodbye to the bank, everyone I'd met there, UCD and everyone I'd met there, and most horribly of all, leaving Sara. My best friend arrived in that last day and we took him out to a pub in Dublin. The next morning we had an amazing breakfast, and then headed up North for a whole new adventure.
Our one last hurrah in Dublin was a Dublin Bay cruise. The cruise started just a couple blocks down and across the Liffey from where I worked. And I never even knew it was there all summer! On this glorious cruise, I was fortunate enough to meet the real life doppelganger of my cousin, Tyler. He knew enough English to communicate with us, but there was a lot of "huh?!"s and "I have no idea what you mean"s.
My favorite weekend trip was, by far, my trip to Cork with Sara. All of our other excursions had been decently planned out, with at least a general idea of what we wanted to do. But this time, Sara and I just went with it. We got ourselves some bus tickets, survived the creepy kid who looks like he fell asleep on the toilet, and headed south to explore.
On the same weekend that we revisited Wicklow, we took a day trip to check out Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced kill-main-ham jail). It was freaking awesome. I wanted to spend way more time in there than the short tour allows. I would totally suggest anyone visiting go. It's not too far from the city centre. Oh, and the lack of Sara in these photos is because she ditched us for Scotland!
Next on the agenda was the fun part: horseback riding! Somehow I ended up with the most stubborn horse: Panda. So we spent a lot of time chatting with one of the employees in the back and having stern discussions. Unfortunately a lot of the time we were going pretty fast so there was no way I could take pictures of the incredible views. But I did get the chance to snap a few!
Next up on our day tour was Loughcrew (loff-crew) and the Hill of Tara. Loughcrew is essentially a smaller Newgrange. Both are monolithic tombs positioned to let the light in only on certain solstices. I found a stone that fit my butt perfectly. We decided that this must mean that some kind of ancient prophecy was fulfilled when I visited.
Occasionally, on the weekends, we would have time to go out on excursions. One weekend, we went on an abbreviated tour of the Boyne Valley. On the drive, we made a brief stop at an abbey. Bective Abbey was without a doubt one of my top three most favorite places I visited in Ireland. I could've spent an entire day there. In one of the pictures below, you can see what used to be a carved portrait. Now it looks like a smiley face! And the photo below that is of a claustrophobically narrow staircase that has almost completely fallen apart.
As a second part to our trip to Glendalough, we visited the fancy Russborough (pronounced russ-burrow) house. Although the to die for libraries and secret doors were awesome, I fell in love with the ornate ceilings. It's just not something you really see anymore. After our tour of the house, we saw the grounds. A deceivingly small hedge maze kept us occupied for a while, and then we got to the best part: the sheep herder! He showed us how it all works, and then I GOT TO HOLD A BABY! Definitely on the list of highlights of my life so far. We ended the trip with a *fabulous* picture with our bus driver, D.
One of the college trips we went on was a group venture to Dublinia, a museum about old Dublin. As interesting as it was, the mannequins were CREEPY. Just take a gander at the pictures below and you'll understand. They even had digital talking faces in some of them. You'll also find a stunning image of Sara wearing chainmail. What a babe! It took about 4 people to life it off of her after.
One of my favorite trips was our day trip to Glendalough (pronounced Glenda-lock). It was originally a sanctuary, and you could really feel the peace of the place. Everything was so lush and calm. And as someone who loves old cemeteries with so much history, this was the perfect place to be.