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Friday morning we had a nice early wakeup call at 4 am. Luckily the great thing about London is that the sun was already up and so our walk to the bus stop at 4:30 was nice and bright. We caught the bus over by our school and took an hour and a half bus ride to the London Stansted, the airport. We got checked in, got through security and got to our gate. Shortly after we got to the gate we began boarding. One more RyanAir flight to add to my list. Always makes me a little anxious. I like how you can sit wherever you want, so we could all just clump together in an area. I sat with Emily and Russell and we had a great time telling horror stories of flights and talking about crashes that got us in the best mood for takeoff. The flight went smoothly and we arrived on time so we got to hear the trumpets play and announcement about RyanAir being number one with greatest amount of on time arrivals. People did clap, but more out of the shear excitement of being in Dublin. We then made our way into the city
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Breathtaking viewsvia bus and walked to our hostel. Our hostel was pretty nice. We had a 10 person room and there were 9 of us so we ended up just having one random roommate. After getting situated and freshened up we set out for our adventure around Dublin. We found a fun little pub type restaurant, The Purty Kitchen, to have lunch at. It was a really good lunch. This is also where we found the leprechaun catcher to help us find the leprechauns.
I went to Ireland with a group of 8 other people; Jenna, Tyler, Emily, Russell, Elizabeth, Jayme, Lauren and Liz. We found that nine people was a large group to be going from place to place together so we ended up splitting off from each other.
Emily, Jenna, Russell, Tyler and I ended up going to the castle after lunch and walking around there. On our way we found a gelato store and just had to stop. Who can turn down delicious looking gelato? Once we got to the castle we walked around the grounds. It is crazy how it is set up. It is just plopped straight in the city, so there are no
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Me at that cliffs real grounds around it. There are car parks around and buildings on all sides. The chapel area was really pretty, very detailed stained glass and large decorated ceilings. From the castle we took off for the Guinness Storehouse. Along the way we passed a few cathedrals so we stopped in to see what they were like. It is crazy how many cathedrals are so close together and so intricate. Eventually we made it to the Storehouse and got some great pictures outside. My favorite part about asking someone, a stranger, to take a picture is when someone else will come up and be like “can I take it for you so you can all be together?” It always makes the situation awkward and funny.
The Guinness Storehouse was huge. When you walk in it is a little overwhelming. It is seven floors high and goes all around. We started off learning about how the beer is made and the ingredients that go into it. Water, barley, hops and yeast are the four natural ingredients that make the highest quality of Guinness. I listened to a talk on the whole process and how it is worked through the process to
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Breaking the rules make each barrel of beer. It takes a total of 10 days to ferment the beer. There was a tasting room where we got a little glass of Guinness and they taught us how to smell and taste the beer using all five of our senses. From there we went to the advertising floor and learned all about their advertisements and tactics they used. It was interesting to see the evolution from the beginning to where Guinness is at now. Then we got to pour the “Perfect Pint.” This is where we got to actually poor our own pint from the tap. There was a guy who taught us the process and then let us give it a try. I got to pour my pint and even got a certificate. There were some amazing views from the top of the Storehouse of the whole city so we were able to just sit and enjoy those for a little bit. After the factory we walked back to the hostel and put stuff together to head out for dinner. We decided that we had seen most of Dublin so we wanted to get out to the Cliffs of Moher. So we talked
to the front desk and found a tour we could go with and got booked for that. Out we went in search of dinner. We walked down in Temple Bar area and found this restaurant/bar place that had some good deals on meals. Towards the end of dinner a live band started playing so it was fun to have a little flavor of local culture. After dinner we wandered around a little and then headed back to the hostel to get some sleep before getting up early again to go on our day trip.
Saturday we woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for our big adventure around Ireland. We rode in a van with our tour guide Caroline. She is a local that grew up in the west side of Ireland and now teaches Boston University students who study abroad at the University of Dublin and then does the tours on the weekends. She was probably just a few years older than us. She was such a character and so entertaining. She really was very knowledgeable about Ireland and its history so I felt like I learned a lot from her as well. We started by
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Beautiful views heading west across the country. We were working our way to the west coast near the cliffs. Our first stop was the tour guide’s family farm. The farm is at the base of a mountain. Once we arrived we went on our “gentle guided walk” up the mountain. The beginning began as an adventure, through the first gate we were roaming with the cows and became very up close and personal. As we made our way up, we had amazing views of the country side. At the top we were able to see out to the water and still had all the country homes down below. The tour guide of the hike had a real sense of humor and told us some interesting stories. After descending back down to the ground we headed back inside the farm house. Back in the house we got our free slice of apple pie. They weren’t kidding when they said it was delicious homemade apple pie. We tried to get some secrets out of how to make it, but all we got was that they added cloves. An interesting ingredient, but the pie was ‘melt in your mouth’ good. After pie we headed to
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a boat in the water below the cliffs the Cliffs of Moher. The drive was not that bad - we had fun listening to Caroline tell us stories. At the cliffs we parked the van and then started the walk around the cliffs. It was a breath-taking view. The cliffs reminded me a lot of the pancake rocks in New Zealand, but on a bigger scale. They didn’t look exactly like the stacked pancakes, but it was similar. The cliffs were very, VERY high. It took me a second to get my bearings to walk around and explore more. You get to a point where there is a sign that says “DO NOT PASS,” but everyone does, so why wouldn’t I? Feeling adventurous we headed farther out the cliffs to get more views. The group had quite a fun time getting fun pictures and pushing the limits. Time flew by, because we quickly realized we had to be on the bus. Hurrying back down the path we got back to the bus just in time. On the drive back we took the coastal route and went all along the beaches and water. It was all so beautiful. I became memorized by the blue water with rolling mountains on
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a dangerous fall the other side. The country is so lush and green. We stopped along the way for a quick break at a beach. It was a white sand beach, first one I have been to since being overseas. It was a beautiful day, so it made it so relaxing to just sit down and enjoy the scenery and weather. We were all exhausted from the busy day and early mornings that the rest of the ride home we all relaxed and tried to get a little nap in. When we got back to the hostel we put all our stuff down, and headed to get dinner. We walked over to Temple Bar area and all got quick food at different places. After eating we walked around the area for a little before going back to the hostel. At the hostel we packed up all our stuff and got ready for bed and another early morning.
Sunday morning we had an airport shuttle ready for us at 4:30 am. It was yet another early morning flight. After we arrived at the airport we just relaxed and waited for our flight to board. The flight was just over an hour, but only
felt like 30 minutes. Everyone was sleeping and trying to rest up. Our group: Jenna, Tyler, Russell, Emily and I were on one bus while the other girls had a different bus to catch. So we caught our bus from the airport into the city. From there we caught the tube back to our flat and went up to get rest and take it easy. I worked on my laundry and getting everything unpacked when we got back. Then I got a two hour nap to catch up on my lack of sleep. Jenna and I ended up cooking dinner for Tyler and Russell. It was our first real “home cooked” meal in quite a while. After dinner we didn’t want to use the internet at the flat, so Russell, Jenna and I went to McDonalds to use the internet there. It was yet another great weekend - and one more week is down. Wow, time is flying.
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