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Ireland is grand
We arrived in Ireland in the morning and took the bus to Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Belfast is probably one of my favourite places I've been to. The people were so friendly and the city was really interesting. I asked a man on the street if he knew how to get to our hostel and he walked us all the way there! When we got to the hostel, the owner told us to drop off our stuff in our room and not to worry about paying until we were leaving. He also took the time to recommend the best things to see on a map and told us what not to waste our money on. He even made everyone in the hostel a full breakfast in the morning!
In Belfast we went on a Black Taxi Tour of the city, where a local drives you around and shows you the murals around the city and explains the problems. I'd never really knew about the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland before, so it was incredibly interesting to learn about it while seeing the area firsthand. To this day there is still a
"peace wall" that separates the two sides of the city.
The next day we took the bus to Dublin and met up with our Irish friend Aislinn. We were so lucky that she and her friends let us stay with them in Dublin. It was great craic (irish word for fun) staying with them and having them show us the city. We did a walking tour of Dublin and saw Temple Bar, Grafton Street, Trinity College, and Saint Stephen's Green.
We also spent a day in County Wexford with Aislinn at her family's house. We went for a hike and walked along the ocean there. It was so nice to stay in a real house and have real food! I think the best part of my Easter trip was staying with my family and friends, it definitely makes traveling more enjoyable.
Two days before we left Ireland, we found out that our flight back to London was going to be cancelled because of the volcano ash cloud. We literally spent the entire next day trying to find an alternate route home. The ferries from Dublin to England were all booked so we had to take a three
hour bus to a different ferry terminal. The trip ended up consisting of a 3 hour bus ride, a 3 hour ferry to Wales, a 6 hour train ride to London arriving at 7am, 8 hours walking around London killing time, and then a 5 hour train ride back to Strasbourg. Luckily we already had the Eurostar booked from London back to France or else we wouldn't have been able to get tickets! On the ferry we met some professional Irish dancers who were on their way to Portugal for a dance show. They pointed out a famous Irish dancer who was once the lead in Riverdance and happened to be on our ferry too.
The next few weeks back in Strasbourg were spent studying for the 7 exams I had. I feel like I spent 3 weeks straight studying. I really liked the courses I was taking this semester and I feel like I've learned a lot about politics and international relations, so I'm happy regardless of the marks I get. (The fact that the marks won't affect my GPA at home doesn't hurt either...)
I also went on a 60km bike ride through some of the
villages in the Alsace region with a group of my friends. It was so incredible to ride through the little towns that look like they have hardly changed in the last 200 years. It had been a while since I had been cycling so I was quite sore the next day!
My next adventure begins on May 27th when 2 of my friends from Canada arrive in Strasbourg!
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