Loving Ireland: Living My Heritage

Hello there mates!                                                   Thursday July 18 - Sunday July 21

So this last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to go to Dublin for 4 days over the long weekend.  Myself and 15 of my classmates stayed in a hostel in the Temple Bar district of Dublin.  The Temple Bar area was such a cool environment.  It was full of really cool pubs with live Irish music everywhere.  I had such a good time listening to the authentic Irish music at the pubs and now have a new favorite song called Wild Rover.  I can't wait to share my new music when I get home!  On Friday morning we all took a day trip to visit the Cliffs of Moher on the western coast of Ireland.  What a beautiful trip!  The cliffs and coastline were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  The western coast of Ireland was like going back in time.  The countryside, farming, and small cottages were so quant and cute.  We went through Limerick, Galloway, and a small fishing district on our trip as well.  It was such a pretty day trip to take around Ireland.  It really makes you fall in love with the land there.  On Saturday a large group of us decided to go sea kayaking in the Dublin Bay located in the Irish Sea.  I absolutely loved kayaking in the ocean and paddling through the waves.  We got to paddle out to a small island that had an old abandoned stone church on it.  Outside this church there was a stone that had a cross carved into it that dated back to the 7^th century.  On our paddle back we passed seals and tons of jellyfish in the water.  People picked up these jellyfish and threw them at each other because they didn’t sting.  Our adventure sea kayaking was such a great experience for us as a group.  We ended our trip in Ireland with a group pub-crawl Saturday night.  We got to stop and spend some time at the bar P.S. I Love You was filmed at!  It was a great night!  Sunday afternoon we went and toured the Guinness factory in Dublin.  It was really interesting to see the history of this beer and how it shaped the Irish culture.  I absolutely loved my time in Ireland.  Dublin was much more relaxed than London and was a nice change of pace for the weekend.  And of course I loved the countryside of Ireland and felt so at home there. 

I am now down to my last week in London.  My time over here has flown by so fast!  I don’t think I am ready to leave such an amazing city and country!  I am thankful to have got to experience all of the wonderful things I have done while here.  Stayed tuned for a wrap up of my last week here soon.