Ireland you beauty.

I had hoped to post about my exchange before publishing this one about my travels around Ireland but at the moment, I'm finding it very hard to put my thoughts into words. It's actually so difficult to write about exchange and to describe it in a way that's both descriptive and succinct. I'm not even sure if it's possible for me to. So I guess it looks like this might be my final Europe post unless for some odd reason the words finally come to me. 

Cliffs of Moher tour

During orientation week, my friends and I joined the International Students Society and bought tickets for a weekend trip to Galway and Cliffs of Moher. Unluckily enough, Myky and I had compulsory Friday pracs which was when the bus left for the trip so we decided to go on a day tour to the cliffs instead. The best way to describe Ireland's weather is "wet and windy" and this trip proved just that. It was actually so cold that Myky's phone turned itself off for most of the day and the rain was so sharp that it felt like it was cutting my face. I couldn't even bring myself to leave the bus whenever we made short stops along the way for photos!! The tour bus took us to Limerick, Cliffs of Moher, Galway and other random stops along the way before returning back to Dublin.

Wind: 1, Diem: 0

Achill Island trip 

Another trip that we bought tickets to was the Achill Island trip which took place during the first weekend of April. It was something that I was looking forward to for pretty much the entire semester since it was a bit more active. We spent the Friday climbing Croagh Patrick which was sickkkk. It got to a point where it was pretty vertical and the entire path was just loose rocks. Seriously so scary though cause the rocks kept slipping and at one point I fell and was sliding on my bum down the path. We spent that night in Westport, County Mayo and the next day, we hired bikes and cycled from Westport to Achill Island. Although super tiring, I felt amazing at the end and was actually surprised that I made it out alive. So funny though cause Tiff and Amy ended up calling a taxi and had to wait two hours for one to come that was big enough for them and their bikes. The trip was also really trying since it was raining on and off for the entire day and at one point we were riding through sleet and the ice kept cutting my hand!! 

Wicklow

Towards the end of the semester, Flora, one of Mel's friends from Canada, came to Ireland to visit her and travel around for a bit. We took her to Wicklow which is a small town just outside of Dublin for a day to explore since we'd never been either. The beautiful thing about Ireland is that it's so small that you can literally drive from one side of the country to the other in three or so hours. One of my dreams is to go on a road trip around Ireland with someone I love and just rock up to a random hostel or inn hoping that they have a spare bed for the night, and to not plan anything, and see where the day takes us. 

One of my favourite trips ever was at the very end of the semester, which officially ended on the 22nd of May. One of the saddest moments was packing everything up and checking out of my room. Luckily for me, my friend Catherine had a summer course and so got to stay in her room past the 22nd. So Mel and I decided to dump our luggage at her place and take a trip to Killarney, Cork and Dingle before heading back to Dublin and leave for the last leg of our trip. 

On the morning of the 22nd, the two of us boarded a bus to Killarney. We actually partly planned our trip around Murphy's Ice Cream, which is super famous around Ireland. There are four stores, including one in Dublin, one in Killarney and two in Dingle where it originated, and we ended up visiting all four. Getting Murphy's was one of our favourite things to do in the city so I guess it was a good way to end our time in Ireland. 

After checking into our hostel in Killarney, we rented bikes and rode around Killarney National Park and through paddocks. It was actually so relaxing and peaceful and made me appreciate Ireland's beauty so much more. One of the "must-dos" in Killarney is to go on a tour of the Ring of Kerry, which we did the next day. We ended up meeting an Australian couple who were on a three month trip around Europe and I'm actually still friends with them on facebook now. 

Killarney

The next morning, we headed out to Dingle, the home of Murphy's ice cream!!!!! Dingle was super quaint and was sooooo colourful and cute. It's a seaside town and so the entire place was full of seafood and literally every second person was holding a Murphy's ice cream cup/cone. The town was so small that we literally walked around the entire place within a few hours. 

Dingle

After leaving Dingle, the two of us headed straight for Cork and arrived in the late afternoon. We checked into our hostel and headed straight out to take a short trip to Cobh which is another colourful, seaside town where we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. One thing I found really strange about Ireland is that in Dublin there was hardly any Asian food but for some reason, all the little towns, where there were literally no asians at all, had heaps of Asian restaurants. The next day, we checked out of our hostel and headed for Blarney castle just outside of Cork before returning back to Cork to catch our bus back to Dublin. Although the entire trip was a short five days, we managed to see so much. 

Cork 

The night we got back from Cork, I headed out pretty much straight away to see The Last Shadow Puppets play at Olympia Theatre. Although I didn't get to meet Alex Turner, I was about a metre away from him and it was amazing. He's actually so beautiful. The downside was that I had to be up super early the next morning to leave for our Giant's Causeway tour which took us around Northern Ireland. It was the final trip we took within Ireland. The couple of days after that were spent going to the Ireland vs Netherlands football game and final catch ups with everyone who was still hanging around Dublin. Those days were super sad though cause 90% of our friends left when UCD accommodation ended on the 22nd May.  

Giant's Causeway tour 

At this point, I highly doubt that I'll end up posting the exchange post. I feel super sad that I can't since it was quite a significant period in my life but I guess I'm just not ready to share it yet. Although I'm quite an introspective person, I still have trouble articulating my feelings when I'm not 100% certain about them and right now, my feelings about my exchange aren't 100% obvious to me. I do have a lot of good memories from my exchange though but I'm just going to keep them with me.