I don't know how she did it, but my professor booked and planned this entire trip for fifteen people to Dublin and Galway with activities to do along the way. Usually, it's fourteen people including my professor, but lucky for me, my professor's sister ditched her home in Alabama to join the group in Dublin and Galway. As I have already reported back to my parents, I love her sister and wish that she tagged along on every Kenyon group trip we had gone on all year. Young, hip, and fashionable, her sister was easy to talk to and her accent brought me back to the Southern roots I have on my dad's side. But rather than gush on and on about my professor's sister, I will get on with my latest trip to Ireland.
The first day that we got to Dublin, the weather was on our side. First thing after getting off the plane (and yes, we flew on a propeller plane from Exeter to Dublin....and that right there could be a whole other blog post on its own...) and check into our hotel was take a walking tour of the city itself. And what better than to meet up with out tour guide on one of the most beautiful campus' ever: Trinity College Dublin. I know, I know, Kenyon won the award for the most beautiful campus in the world followed by Oxford, but Kenyon and Oxford better watch their back because Trinity College is pretty amazing too.
Here I am on the campus of Trinity College Dublin.
On our walking tour, we saw and learned a bunch of new things. A few people from the group had already been to Dublin before, so for them, this was all old news, but I truly loved learning more about Ireland's history and seeing all the sites firsthand.
Here I am in front of the Bank of Ireland. It is definitely one of the most beautiful banks I have ever seen. My local Bank of America next to Noah's Bagels and Jamba Juice won't ever look the same after seeing this.
And next on the tour, we saw Dublin Castle. It wasn't the prettiest castle I have seen all year while traveling, but again, it still made me feel like royalty.
Here I am outside of Dublin Castle with a friend. See what I mean about it not being as beautiful as the other castles I have blogged about in the past? I mean, there was a car park right in front of the entrance.
And after the castle, we went into another important building (I forgot what it's called) where there were giant statues of the important men of Ireland. Here I am with the biggest statue of them all:
And that is where our walking tour ended. And lucky for us, as soon as our tour was over and we had to walk back over to our hotel, the clouds decided to turn grey and of course, there was a torrential downpour. Just my luck. Bu again, not shocking considering my history with bad timing.
Eventually, the rain turned into ice balls, and the weather changed from bad to worse. With hail coming from the sky, my friends and I decided to grab a quick bite close to the hotel in order to not get hit by the ice that was dropping from the sky. So after a healthy dinner, we went to bed and woke up the next morning to a cloudy day, but luckily, without hail or rain.
Walking around the streets of Dublin, I came to a sign that read "Leprechaun Museum" with an arrow pointing to the direction in which the Museum was "located". Following the signs with my friends, we came to another sign that also read "Leprechaun Museum" pointing the exact direction in which we had come from. Confused and annoyed, we decided that the Irish were just trying to trick us into thinking there was a Leprechaun Museum by putting up signs that turned out to be pointing at each other. And it made me mad. As soon as I saw the sign for the Museum, I was intrigued and wanted to go. But after being played as a fool and thinking that the Irish just put up signs to trick tourists, I decided to settle with a picture rather than the real thing.
So after giving up all hope on the Leprechaun Museum, my friends and I decided to walk over to Trinity College Dublin and visit the Book of Kells. Although I was still a bit grumpy about there not being a Leprechaun Museum, I do have to admit that the Book of Kells did turn my mood into a pleasant one. I loved it. It was absolutely amazing to see the books preserved for so long and that they are still in tact to this very day. The library was also an amazing sight to see; it was definitely no library that I have ever been in before. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside or else you would see them on this blog post, but if in Dublin, I would recommend you go see it.
After seeing the Book of Kells, my friends and I decided that we should just walk around the streets of Dublin to get a feel for Ireland. And because I still had Leprechauns on my mind, I did not hesitate to pay one euro to take a picture with a dancing Leprechaun that we saw on the side of the street. I know it's such a stupid, touristy thing to do, but I am so glad that I did it. Dancing with a Leprechaun in Dublin...what could get much better than that?
That night, the entire group met up to go on a musical pub crawl. I was very excited to get out and go to the pub crawl until we actually got there. Not exactly what I had in mind...and not what the rest of the group had in mind either. Don't get me wrong, the music was fantastic, but after every song they played they talked for about twenty minutes informing the audience how to clap and how to keep the beat during the song. At one point during the pub crawl I looked over to see what everyone else thought about it because I was hoping that I wasn't the only one that found this crawl to be way too touristy and dapper for a group of twenty year olds. And as I looked over my shoulder, I saw two other people from the group sound asleep. Happy that I wasn't the only one to find it boring, I tapped my foot to the beat in order to keep myself from snoozing like the others. And as we were moving on to the next pub, our professor was feeling ill and told us that she would be unable to make it to the next one. So rather than continuing on with the crawl, we decided to take a little detour over to a pub called Cobblestones. And after a long walk over to the new pub, my friends and I were a little disappointed by the outcome. There weren't many people there and there was no music playing as we were told there would be. But because we were in a pub and in Dublin, I decided to be the first in ordering a Guinness. I am by all means not a beer person, and I didn't even really enjoy the Guinness all that much, but it was something that needed to be done when I was in Dublin so that now I can say that I went to Dublin and had some Guinness in a pub.
Here we all are in the pub. Note: the glass that I am holding is the empty glass of Guinness. But pay special attention to its size...half pint. I guess I didn't do the Irish any justice with a half pint, but when it comes to beer, that's more than enough. Anything else, fill up the entire pint!
The next day, we all got up and got on a train from Dublin to Galway. We had the rest of the day in Galway to ourselves; my day was filled with walking around and shopping in little boutiques.
The next morning we had to wake up early to take a bus over to a mountain to do what other than hike up to the top. Oh and to add to the fun, it was pouring rain. Now don't get me wrong, I like hiking, but not necessarily when it comes to hiking up to the tops of mountains on unstable rocks and mudslides. But because I was traveling with a group who all owned a pair of hiking boots, I was the odd one out in wearing my converse sneakers. Now, I am not the type of person to own a pair of hiking boots. I would much rather buy a cute dress or a necklace with money than buy a pair, but when I was slipping and sliding down muddy rocks, I kind of wished that I had invested in some good, old hiking boots. And if you think about it, it is kind of surprising that I don't own a pair. I am a boot girl. If you know me, than you know I love myself a good pair of boots. If it has the word boot in it, it is most likely that I own it. I have ankle boots, over the knee boots, leather boots, suede boots, moon boots, paten-leather boots, mid-calf boots, and out of all of the boots that I own, I could not come up with one pair of hiking boots. I mean, I don't go hiking a whole lot and I do like my boots to be cute, so that right there is probably why I don't own a pair of hiking boots, but while climbing the mountain of Burren, I was wishing that I too owned a pair of what my professor said "ugly, ugly, ugly, brown hiking boots that make it so you don't fall on your face on a rainy day like this." And she was right. I seriously thought that I was going to have to be airlifted off that mountain due to one wrong step and SPLAT, there goes my head. But luckily I survived and I have the honor of saying that I climbed a muddy, rocky mountain in the pouring rain while in converse. Now that right there is not done everyday. And now, with the money that I saved from NOT buying hiking boots, I can get another CUTE pair of boots to add to my collection of footwear.
And I was also in good spirits because before we had even started our hike up the mountain of Burren, I held a two week old baby lamb! I felt like Mary with her little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.
There were two little baby lambs at the farm and I was lucky enough to be standing next to the farmer when he took it out of its little nest and he placed the little baby right into my arms! So adorable. I only realized that it had been rolling in poop after I kissed the top of its head. Typical.
Here is a group photo of us climbing the mountain of Burren in some cute army pants. Thank goodness for my walking stick or else I think I really would have ended up in the hospital after sliding off a cliff.
And although it's not the most flattering picture I have ever taken, the photo below is hands down my favorite of the trip. It is so in the moment and it captures exactly what I was thinking.
What I was thinking: "What in the world am I doing on the top of a mountain in the pouring rain wearing converse and army pants and carrying a stick?!?!"
But to my liking, we didn't go down the same way we went up. In other words, I didn't have to walk down a mudslide in converse because luckily, I was directed down toward a grassy route. After we hiked up and down the mountain, we returned our camo pants (I wanted to keep them for memories sake) and got on the bus to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Now, because it was unusually windy and rainy that day, they blocked of the top of the cliffs from people to go up in taking precaution so that nobody would fall off of the side and never be seen again. And I was cool with that. I'd rather look at the cliffs from the middle than actually be falling off the side of the cliffs themselves.
Note the little sign next to me.
On our way back to our bed and breakfast, we did some touristy stops to take pictures. Here is some random castle was saw driving back to Galway.
The next day, we got up early again to do a little horseback riding! The last time I was on a horse was on a family trip to Hawaii when I was in high school, so with that being said, it was a long time ago. And the other thing about horseback riding in Europe: they use a thing called an English saddle rather than a Western saddle, what we are used to in America. In other words, there was no nob for me to hold onto while sitting up on this horse. So if my horse decided it wanted to run, I would be toast. But luckily for me, I had a nice, calm horse named Mr. Big Boy. He was great and did exactly what I told him to do so there was no need for me to even hold on to a little nob if there were one there to hold onto.
And once I was back riding, I decided to make Mr. Big Boy put a little jump in his step and trot a little. Although it was rather bouncy as the passenger, I had SO much fun riding.
New birthday gift I am putting on my wish list: a pony. If you ask me, every girl deserves to have a pony and even at the age of twenty one, it is never too late. Maybe I can talk my parents into it if I say that I would get a pony instead of a new car. It would save on gas money.
I had a wonderful time horseback riding although one girl in the group did fall off of her horse on her back. If it were me, I would have been calling an ambulance. But she was fearless and did as they say: if you fall of a horse, you get right back on. And she did. Although, she did have a pretty bad bruise from the whole ordeal, but other than that, she said she felt alright.
And because I am a big animal lover, and I especially love puppies, I met a little friend on the horse farm.
She was so cute and so friendly. And although she had pieces of horse poop stuck to the sides of her legs, I decided to treat her as my own and show her some love. It has been such a long time since I have seen Lucy, and seeing this little dog made me homesick for my little sister. But lucky for me, I will be seeing Lucy in just a little over a month!!
When it was time to leave the horse farm, I had to say goodbye to my little friend, although I did think about sneaking her into my blue tote bag. (I worked out the dimensions and she did fit!) But I realized that she had a perfect life living on a farm, although she could have used a nice, warm bath.
That night we went to the Spanish Arch Pub and watched local Irish music. It was truly amazing. But exhausted from horseback riding, my friends and I decided to leave early and get some sleep.
We woke up early the next morning to catch the ferry to the Aran Islands. After watching a film set on the Aran Islands in class, I was happy to see it in person. Although it was a very tiny town with not much to do, my friends and I managed to pass the time by taking a two mile walk to see the seal colony on one of the Aran Island beaches.
And after taking our walk and eating lunch, it was soon time to take the ferry back into the main land.
The next day, we got back on the train from Galway back to Dublin for the final weekend of the trip. Although I did love Galway and find it to be beautiful, I was excited to go back to Dublin and visit what other than the Guinness Factory. As soon as we got back into Dublin and checked into our hotel, my friend and I took a walk through the slums of Dublin to make it to the Guinness Storehouse before closing. Again, I am not a big beer drinker and actually try my best to avoid it, but it seemed that Dublin had some special effect on me that drew me close to Guinness.
And at the Guinness Factory, there was a room where they allowed people to pour their own "perfect pint". But unfortunately, the place to pour your own pint was closed when we got there. Very distraught that I would not be able to pour my own glass and get a certificate saying that I was at the Guinness Factory, I found a little man who worked there and begged him to let me and my friend quickly pour or own. I am not one for taking 'no' as an answer, and I am not one for giving up on getting my way. So after looking at my puppy-dog face, he allowed us to pour our own pint by taking us through the tutorial. And it was so fun! I learned that pouring a glass of Guinness is very different from pouring any other beer. I don't want to give away the secret, but I will tell you this: the pint that I poured for myself was the best beer I have ever tasted. I must have the magic touch.
I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but my name is written on that certificate saying that I am certified at pouring the perfect pint. Life goal = completed.
That night I was still so distraught over the fact that the Leprechaun Museum didn't exist. But thanks to one of my friends, I soon learned that although the signs were misleading, the Leprechaun Museum was no joke. (One of my friends googled it because she too wanted to visit the world of the leprechauns.)
So after a little research and a handheld map, we woke up bright and early to get a start on the leprechauns and visit the museum. And to our liking, it was real...and it was amazing. Fairies, rainbows, a giant room, a pot of gold. You name it, the museum had it. Granted, we were the only ones over five and the only kids without a parent, but still, I see no shame in going to the Leprechaun Museum at the age of twenty one.
In my opinion, the giant room was the best part of the museum. In that room, they made everything three times as big as real life in order to make you feel like the leprechaun. And to be honest, it was quite daunting to be that small in comparison to everything else. There were giant chairs that were hard to climb (granted I was wearing a dress and didn't want to flash anyone, so maybe if I had on a pair of jeans it would have been a different story), but still, the giant room was a wake up call to me. I never realized how hard leprechauns had it until now.
Here I am trying to climb to the top of this chair, but while wearing a dress, I decided to not go all out.
Here we are on a different giant chair with a giant teacup. The only way I got up there was because there was a giant side table which I used as a step stool to the chair.
Here I am trying to open giant file cabinets.
And of course, a Leprechaun Museum wouldn't be a Leprechaun Museum without socks on trees, a rainbow and a pot of gold.
Although the Leprechaun Museum was a bit cheesy, I am glad that my friend and I went because not only did we love the giant room, but we also learned the back story of the leprechaun (they are very mean) as well as the story of the Irish fairies (they are also very mean and steal babies!)
And lastly, before exiting the premises, we had to become leprechauns ourselves....
Leprechaun Museum = Success. SO GLAD IT EXISTS!
After the museum, we realized that it was our last full day in Ireland before heading back to England. We wasted no time and decided to walk around Dublin some more, eventually ending back at Trinity College Dublin.
Standing on such a beautiful campus, I decided to snap a photo, serving as the last picture of my trip to Ireland.
Although I didn't have my close friends by my side, this trip flew by and to be perfectly honest, I can't believe it's over. But in a way, I was looking forward to this trip ending because that meant that it would be closer to when I see my parents.
As I am sitting at my computer writing this blog, I am happy to report that currently, my parents are in an airplane from Los Angeles to London! I haven't seen them since Christmas, so I am so excited to have both of my parents come to visit, although I do wish that my brother (and Lucy) could come too. But fortunately for my brother, he has a job, but unfortunately, he cannot take off time to vacation with the rest of us.
Although my parents are on a plane right now, they won't be landing in London until tomorrow. Due to the time change and an eleven hour flight, their trip is a lot longer than those who travel from the east coast. But I cannot wait to see them tomorrow morning and hug them!
What they don't know is that I am coming to the airport to surprise them! I told them that the train ride from Exeter to London is too expensive and that I wouldn't be able to meet them at the airport, but that I would be there to greet them at the train station in Exeter. But in this case, the cost of a train ticket from Exeter to London is priceless if it means seeing my parents in the flesh after months of just skyping. Also, when I was trying to explain the different tube lines they would need to switch to and how to get an oyster card for the underground, it scared me that they may never make it to Exeter without my knowledge of London's public transportation. So as they got off the plane, I will be waiting for them in arrivals...the only bummer is that they come in early so I have to catch a 6 am train tomorrow morning. But so worth it.
And when my parents come, we have a lot planned. First, we are going to spend a few days in Exeter so I can show them the city where I have been living for the past year. Then we are taking a train to Bath which I cannot wait for because most of the Kenyon group has gone and said that they loved it, so I am excited that I get to do it with my parents. After Bath we are heading over to London and spending a few nights there to explore the city. And from London, we are heading to Italy and visiting Rome and Florence! The last time I was in Italy I was with my friends (2 summers ago) and I kept thinking about how much fun it would be to experience Italy with my parents by my side. And now I will! And then from Florence, my parents are going to go off to Pisa to visit the Leaning Tower, then back to London for a night before their flight back to Los Angeles. However, instead of going to Pisa with my parents, I am meeting up with some close friends and going to Greece for six days! After Greece I am going to head back to Florence for five days and travel to Venice and Pisa with my friends.
I don't get back to Exeter until May 2nd, and seeing that it is April 12th now, I am excited about how much traveling I will be doing within the next few weeks. But since I won't be back until the 2nd, it means that I won't be posting a new blog until then. But come May, expect some good stories...
As of now, Ciao.
