Tagged with: UCD
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.
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.
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.
This weekend trip was probably the craziest of all. We spent two nights in Doolin, right next to the famous Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are famous for their stunning views and their role as the Cliffs of Insanity in my favorite movie EVER!