I am just home from my fall break and although it was exhausting, it was definitely the most exciting 10 days of my life! I cannot possibly write about all I saw and did in one post, so I have decided to break it up by country.
SO! Country number one-- Ireland!!
We left Florence on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Dublin early in the evening. We went out to dinner at a pub recommended to us by a friend of a friend, and afterward a few of us headed out to the Temple Bar area to take in some craic. Being back in Dublin after only having been there two years prior was great, as all the sights, sounds, and good pubs were still fresh in my memory. Additionally, the first hint of English as the primary language we got was one of the most refreshing moments of the trip! 'twas great fun!
In the morning, we headed out early to take in the sights. We opted to use the hop-on-hop-off bus tour that offered discounts to many landmarks and was an easy way to see the whole city. It was great to be able to see some different things than I had seen the last time I was in Dublin, such as the National gallery and inside Christ's Church. Very neat!
Of course a necessary stop on the tour was the Guinness storehouse, which was conveniently celebrating its 250th year and as such offered a special tasting of the anniversary brew! It was delicious and definately something that I am glad I got to experience before the end of the year! The view from the gravity bar was as breathtaking as I had remembered, and apparently sometime between March 2008 and now my tastebuds have changed so that I actually enjoyed my free pint of Guinness. As a way to commemorate our great day in Dublin, we each snuck our glass out of the gravity bar to keep as a momento. How rebellious!
That night we headed out again to Temple Bar to celebrate a friend's 20th birthday. You know you're in Ireland when the whole pub is lead in a version of happy birthday by the live performer of the evening. So much fun! We definately enjoyed ourselves that evening and although we had to get up early the next morning to catch our bus to Galway, we made the most of our time in Dublin's fair city (cue music.)
As I said, we were up early the next morning to catch the bus to Galway, which I for one was very excited to see because of the high concentration of Stonehill students studying there. After we checked into our B+B in Galway (So cute, with the nicest owners, even if it was a little out of the way) we met up with my friend Ben from Stonehill. We all went out for a late full Irish breakfast and afterward he showed us around the town and explained somethings that we never would have known otherwise.
For example, the swans in Galway bay are said to be the souls of fishermen lost at sea trying to get home-- Who knew?! We had a great afternoon walking around town and checking out the cute shops and the like. We even ran into a few other stonehill kids on the street, which was really nice. It was great to catch up with people, even it it was only for a few minutes!
That evening was a different story, as finding a place to eat was slightly more difficult than expected. We ended up at the only restaurant in town that could fit us, the Quay's bar (although I had been warned against it by my darling brother) and were unpleasantly surprised to see that the only thing on the menu under 20 euro was soup. Needless to say, our waitress was none too pleased to bring 7 bowls of soup to the table.... Whoops! :-)
Despite that minor setback, we still had a great time. After dinner a few of the Stonehill kids went out to a pub, the hole in the wall, and caught up on everything. It was great to be able to talk about school with people who a) knew what we were talking about and b) didn't get frustrated that all we talk about is Stonehill. Great time.
Unfortunately the evening was cut short by the fact that we had yet ANOTHER early morning ahead of us, but luckily it was one of our last of the trip. We were sad to say goodbye to the Emerald Isle and the English language, but excited to head to BARCELONA!
Coming soon will be a post on Spain as well as some additional photos of Ireland. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures in Galway because of the rain and my obsessive compulsive overprotectiveness of my camera, but I will be stealing photos from friends shortly, so check back!
Ciao!
Liz
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