Ireland is the place to be today!
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| Kilarney, Ireland |
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| This is what all of Kilarney looked like. Fairy tale. |
I couldn't help think though what it would be like to be in Ireland now. I've been there before and it's so much fun to get wrapped up in their friendly, hard to depict accents. It's a really cool place to be. It's fashioned around drinking and music. Two wonderful things! I've been there twice with 2 very different experiences. Once when I was studying abroad with a very good mix of international students and once with Zach at Christmas time. :)
Favorite memories in Ireland with my study abroad crew.
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| Lise, Marina, Me, Selia, Javier, Aline, Sandra outside of our hostel |
We stayed at a hostel and shared a room between us. We cooked a delicious meal at the hostel in the shared kitchen and had a feast among us. What makes it so fun is the kitchen is full with people from all over the world who have the same interests and want to get to meet people, so striking up an interesting conversation and learning about another country is very simple.
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| Our dinner at the hostel. These are some amazing friends! We had a blast together! |
2. Kilarney Castles
We rented bikes and rode to Kilarney National Park- in the freezing cold. It was gorgeous. On the way, we passed castles nestled behind the gorgeous landscape. It just accented the beauty of the countryside. It was a favorite because it was so peaceful, serene, and indescribable. We stopped in the park at castles to just take in their beauty. It's not rare to find castles in Europe (they're everywhere) but here, it took on a different feeling because of the untouched scene around it. We climbed up on one of the castles for a group photo shot. :)
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| Me riding up to the gorgeous castle--is this real? |
3. The Bike Incident
As I said, we were riding our bikes around on this cold day, so we were bundled up. I was wearing a white winter coat. It's Ireland, so it rains. We were leaving the castle heading downhill. Sandra decided she was going to go as fast as she could down the hill. (She's the one on the last stair of the castle in the picture above). I looked at that and agreed. Challenge accepted. So, I sped up in an effort to pass her. I got nervous though with the wet pavement and slammed on my brakes. Bad choice. I flipped my bike and landed in a big puddle of mud with my bike on top of me. My white coat was now spotted brown. I couldn't do anything but laugh. All my friends crowded around worried that I was really hurt, but immediately burst into laughter when they could tell I was A OK! :)
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| Huddling up preparing for our bike ride on a cold day. |
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| Our group on our bike ride |
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| The bike spill |
Javier was a smart man getting himself into a trip with 6 girls. We sure had a blast with him. One of my favorite memories was the Guiness Experience. We toured tbe brewery which was fun to go through, but the most fun we had was in the shop. We were like kids. We tried on everything, and took pictures with everything we could in there. I'm sure the employees were hoping we would find our way our of there quick. Javier, rather than rolling his eyes at girls being silly girls, joined in on the fun and was goofy with us! It was a few hours of play time that we spent in the shop laughing and running around. They are the best group of people to travel with.
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| Javi and his ladddiiieeesss |
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| One lucky bird |
We all are coffee addicts. Works good in our traveling adventures together because we find cute little places to stop and enjoy. This is one of my favorite parts of any trip abroad. I LOVE finding coffee houses or little delis or bakeries and going to sit and watch the people, feel the atmosphere, listen to the sounds, take in the culture. I love it. We found an adorable coffee shop and sat for a long time having great conversation. Amongst topics is the difference in the cultures we come from, the politics of our countries, our travels, school and Hogeschool Zeeland (where we attended...errrr...when we attended) :) Studying abroad allowed me the opportunity to make some really great friends who I still stay in contact with. Anyways, it was fun to deepen our friendship and our understanding of eachother while enjoying a delicious pick me up at the same time.
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| Aline and I enjoying our coffee break |
My final favorite memory from the trip was sleeping in the airport. We decided that for our last night, we wouldn't book a hotel because we booked the flight that left Dublin at 6:00 AM, so being there an hour-two early, we decided we would just go party through the night and then sleep for a short time at the airport. That's exactly what we did. The day was spent in Cork, Ireland. We rode the bus back to Dublin with all of our luggage and didn't think about a few things. A. The bars a bit tight in Ireland. B. Could it be possible that they wouldn't want us to come in with a lot of luggage?
We went into the first bar and realized that as small as it was, it would be impossible to bring our luggage in. So bar #2. They weren't thrilled that we showed up that way, but didn/'t turn us away. This was actually a great bar too because they were playing the ole traditional Irish Music. We had a blast talking to locals and singing along to their funny songs. All of us decided to head to the airport to sleep except Sandra and Javi. When we got there, it was freezing cold but we were exhausted so we curled up close and set our luggage around us and tried to snooze on the cold, cold floor. We had a free "lullaby singer" too, as apparently another group of students had the same idea, only they clearly partied a lot harder then we did. They got a hold of the ticket counter's speaker system and continuously sang "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.." At first, it was hilarious. By the 9th go around, we were annoyed and wanting to sleep. Where was the airport security ps?
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| Javi and Sandra came back and thought it was hilarious that we were curled up. |
1. The Irish Pub Crawl- in the rain
A definite favorite experience from anywhere I've gone. Zach and I decided we wanted to embrace the culture, which is drinking and music. Too favorites. So we started at a pub with a good ol' Irish beer and listened to the first couple songs. The musicians would explain briefly their instruments and where the song came from. Most of the Irish songs are centered around drinking, sex, or funny experiences. So, the explanations were quite humourous. We left that pub with the musicians and throughout the night wandered the streets of Dublin to 4 different pubs, each pretty different from eachother. And at each stop hearing a few new songs. It was even more fun because it started pouring rain and the wind was very strong, so we had our umbrella, that by the end of the pub crawl was turned inside out with broken spokes. We had a blast trying to sing along to their jigs.
I did do this on my first trip here, but we had a much different experience. We really enjoyed learning how they made the beer and going through the whole tour. At the end we were up in their sky bar that was 360 degrees that had views stretching out across Dublin. It was gorgeous and the beer was very yummy! We spent the late afternoon up their looking at the city and relishing the tasty beer (that we now know how it was made).
3. The pub
Zach and I found a pub on our first night there that we went into and saw that it was dark wood decor, with huge plush chairs, and fireplaces. It was fairly loud with many conversations going on but yet intimate enough that we could have a conversation ourselves. Zach tried some of the local food here, including a soup that was carrot puree. Delicious though it sounded a bit odd. The experience was enhanced by, of course, the Irish music playing in the background.
The rest of our trip was just as wonderful. We did the sightseeing and toured castles and jumped on the hop on hop off bus. But these were the things that stuck out the most!
So, lift your (green) beer and CHEERS to another great St. Patty's Day!
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