Ireland

When I officially signed up to study abroad in Italy, I knew that I would be making a trip to Ireland. Luckily, I found 3 other people in my program who wanted to go just as badly as me, so the night of Nov 10th Ariana, Alex, Nate and I took a Ryanair flight to Dublin.

First off, Ireland was VERY COLD. Probably the coldest place I have traveled so far in Europe (which I must admit, scared me for my upcoming trip to Sweden). In addition to the chill, during our night in Dublin the entire city was engulfed with a chilling fog. I think Ireland finally pulled me out of my California wimpiness when it comes to weather. Finally acclimated, 60 degrees feels a lot like a hot summer day. So thank you Ireland?

Our itinerary!

Thursday was a long day of traveling for us. That afternoon, after a pizza send off at River de Arno, our group boarded a train for Milan. Once in the city, we got onto ANOTHER train that took us to the suburbs of Milan to Bergamo. From there we had to get onto a shuttle that finally took us to the airport.

We ended up arriving to Dublin pretty late, but luckily the city stays pretty awake until the wee bits of the morning.

We stayed that night in a hostel right in the Temple Bar district. We were pretty exhausted so only Nate and I went exploring that night, checking out the Temple Bar neighborhood.

The next day the four of us packed our things and hopped onto a bus to Galway, a small city on the West Coast of Ireland. Supposedly Galway hosts the nicest people in the world. I believe it. It was a very quaint town, decked out with Christmas lights and markets. It is pretty small, we walked the entire center in less than an hour. We probably didn’t need a full day in Galway, but it was refreshing to slow down after our usual go-go-go of traveling.

My favorite parts of Galway were eating tarts while looking at the coastline, browsing the Christmas markets (my first of Europe), and going to Irish pubs. The pubs were such fun. Everyone was crowded inside in an effort to obtain some warmth and shelter from the rain. Everyone would talk to everyone; it was impossible to be antisocial. Irish pubs are almost like mazes: there are so many rooms that connect together; it is very fun to explore. My friends and I generally would claim a spot in some hallway or corner and talk and talk. It was quite nice.

my friends at the Christmas market

The next day we booked a day trip bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. I really enjoyed seeing the Cliffs. They were stunning. Interestingly enough, a huge part of our Florence school decided to travel to Ireland the same weekend as us. At the Cliffs we actually ran into people we knew, something that is only unusual in the study abroad world. I also met a girl on the bus from Alameda, my hometown, which was crazy! Neither of us knew each other, but how crazy is that? Half way across the world, and here we were. The bus ride leading up to the Cliffs was… long. Our tour guide was funny enough, but we spent hours winding through the countryside of Ireland to reach a random rock or underwhelming building. It was refreshing to be in the countryside, but me being a city girl was ready for some civilization.

That night I split off from our group to take a train across Ireland back to Dublin. I planned to meet up with my friend Matt, my Irish coworker back from Gap. We grew close that summer and stayed in contact since. While in Europe, I figured this was a good an opportunity as any to reconnect.

Matt lives in a suburb of Dublin where he lives with two other roommates. One is a bartender who gets off work at 5am, so I hardly saw him. The other is still a student, who grew up in Italy! (For the record he said my Italian accent was actually pretty good! But then again… I only said two sentences to him in Italian).

Sunday morning Matt and I took off to explore the city. We first had to try the Rolling Doughnut, a famous doughnut store. It was pretty good! Reminded me of Voodoo doughnuts back in Oregon. Ironically, while at the Rolling Doughnut we ran into my friends, fresh off the bus from Galway!

We all split off again, my friends to the hostel to check in and Matt and I to Trinity College. Trinity College is located in the heart of the city, but you would never realize its there from the outside. It was beautiful! The best part was seeing the Book of Kells Library. Thousands of old manuscripts lines the walls of the ancient wooden library. Since Matt is a Trinity College alum, we were able to skip the line, making the trip all the more enjoyable.

The rest of the day we wandered Dublin, making sure to try as many different kinds of food as possible. My favorite was a crepe that was garnished with lemon and powdered sugar. I have no idea why I haven’t had lemon on crepes before it was fantastic.

That afternoon, we met up once more with my friends to do the Guinness Factory Tour. The tour was surprisingly good! The company did a fantastic job about explaining their production process in unique and engaging ways. They even had a little “bartending school” where you learned how to pour a Guinness the “proper way.” For those, like me, who before this had no idea that there was a “proper way to pour Guinness, you fill the glass from the tap until it reaches the top of the Guinness logo. Then you must let it sit, until all the foam dissolves. Only then, can you top of the beer, filling it to the top. But wait! You still cannot drink it. You must wait until the foam is exactly level with the rim of the glass, and then and only then you can drink the beer. Matt’s bartending roommate told us this is all a bunch of garbage, just a fantastic marketing technique on the part of Guinness. But even so, the Irish practices this ritual religiously.

After a final dinner with Matt at the oldest tavern in Dublin, I rejoined my friends at our new hostel. We had a short night before squishing into a taxi for the airport back home.

Oh, did I mention I had a final two days after this trip? Gotta love studying abroad.