I can't believe my time here has flown by so fast... Five months feels like five days. It has been really hard for me to realize that when I leave for the states I won't be coming back for school in the fall. In such a short time, Ireland has felt like a second home to me and one that I definitely don't want to leave. I decided to tack on two more weeks at the end of my semester so that my friend and my sister could come visit me and we could explore Ireland and London. Our last few days before our flight home were spent in the wonderful city of Dublin staying with family friends of ours. For a little background information, Matt and Tess Dodd are the most welcoming friendly Irish people I have ever met. Matt, his son, and their Irish soccer team came and stayed with my family when my mom was pregnant with me in 1996 so that the Irish team could play in a soccer tournament in Cincinnati alongside American teams. I grew up hearing the stories about all the fun they had while they stayed with us and I was excited to finally be able to meet them and spend time with them! They graciously opened their home to the three of us and offered to take us around Dublin. After spending 3 days with them, I truly felt Irish; we attended a birthday party for Tess's sister (they sure know how to throw a party), heard Matt sing at a First Communion (SO COOL because in '96 when he visited he sang on the steps of City Hall downtown and was presented with a key to Cincinnati), and learned more than I thought possible about Dublin. I know that I will forever look back on these days and cherish them in my heart. But, here are some photos of all the fun things we did in Dublin! Slainte! I didn't take as many photos as I usually do because I was too busy living in the moment and experiencing my last few days in this beautiful country. But, I do have to discuss how AWESOME the Guinness storehouse tour is. We were incredibly lucky and received free tickets from the Dodd's to go on the tour but I still would have paid for a ticket. It takes quite a while to get through but it is definitely worth it to take it slow and read all the little tidbits they have available. I may be quite biased because Guinness is my favorite beer but learning about the brewing process from start to finish is a really fun time especially when it is such an iconic beer. The Sky Bar at the top of the storehouse is also a must-see because the view of Dublin is uncanny and worth going all the way to the top!
As I'm still trying to come to terms with leaving and what my study abroad really meant to me, I may write one more post saying good-bye to this second home of mine but currently if I try to decipher how I feel I just get really sad so with that I'll just say thanks a million, Ireland for the best craic of my life!
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I love food. Like really love it. My family endearingly calls me 'garbage disposal' because I eat anything and everything in sight. So, naturally I had to write a post on my top 10 favorite places to eat in Cork (most are in the city but one is in Kinsale because as I mentioned in http://savannahgulick.weebly.com/study-abroad-blog/kinsale the cafe in Kinsale is worth a visit as well!). Without further ado, here are the top 10:
As you can tell from the title or if you've been following my journey, this is my second visit to Blarney. It was quite the contrast seeing Blarney in January when it was still cold and seeing it in the spring with all the flowers in bloom. This post will be rather short considering there's no need to discuss everything twice in regards to what to see and do in Blarney's Grouds. I love this place and even though it is kind of pricey to visit it is definitely worth a long visit since there is SO much to see. In both my trips, I never saw half the trails on the grounds. The mansion is one of my favorite buildings though and the walk to it was filled with beautiful flowers.
Similar to my top 10 places to eat in Cork, here is a list of the top places to visit in County Cork! A majority are in Cork City itself but a few lie a few km outside the city.
The next day I wasn't feeling too well so I stayed in to sleep while my friends hiked to the top of a nearby hill. I'm so glad I did because I was able to take myself out The Elephant House for breakfast and read (have I mentioned I'm a complete bookworm??) For those who don't know, this place is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and this gave the spot a special place in my heart. Harry Potter was the first book I learned how to read. As a side note, my eldest brother was also a bookworm and I admired him so much I just wanted to learn how to read like he did so I begged my mom to teach me to read and by 1st grade I conquered Harry Potter. Albeit my mom still had to help me with names like McGonagall and Voldemort but the story stuck with me and since then I've loved every part of the Wizarding World. To see how many share this love with me was truly incredible, as you can see below in the slideshow the bathroom walls are lined with quotes and admirations for the book series. It was a perfect start to the day! And from that moment on I completely head-over-heels fell in love with the town of Edinburgh. (Later on, we would explore more Harry Potter scenes/inspirations like in the picture below we saw Tom Riddle's Gravestone!!)
There's so much to see and do in Edinburgh that I wish we had more than a day to explore the city but alas as my mother always tells me "if you do everything right now, what do you have to look forward to?" so I have exploring this favorite city of mine more in-depth awaiting me in the future.
Northern Ireland. The first place to really leave me confused on how I felt after visiting. It's incredibly hard for me to put into words how I feel about Northern Ireland; the cities and countryside are absolutely breathtaking but it was so surreal to hear about its tragic history and walk in the steps of where people were murdered. But first, I'll discuss how I ended up on this weekend trip in the first place. Irish Experience Tours is a tour group run for students (same company I went to Dingle with) & the Northern Ireland weekend is one of their most popular 3-day weekend trips. As a side note, I am a HUGE Game of Thrones fan and a majority of the scenes in the beginning seasons were filmed in Northern Ireland. This is what the tour advertised heavily so naturally me and my fellow GoT friends decided to go on the trip. Originally our first stop was to be Belfast but a change in itinerary and an 8 hour bus ride instead of 6 we arrived in Derry. Derry is an incredible city but with a really horrible past. When I was born the conflict between the Irish and the English was still occurring and it was very dangerous to visit. Nowadays, the conflict is gone but the tragic events remain. We had a brilliant tour guide who absolutely loved his city and gave us a heartfelt tour of the areas where the war really raged. Below in the slideshow are photos of Derry's City Hall and the mural walk in Bogside where Bloody Sunday and other devastating events occurred. The murals were painted to reflect peace in the area where many died including a 14-year-old girl (Murals Pt. 4) who got caught in the crossfire walking home from school. I can't say why or exactly 'put a finger on it' but something about Derry and its history didn't sit well with me. I just couldn't imagine that only 20 years ago terrible events were occurring yet here I was walking through there without having known anything about it. I feel better now that I'm informed but still it was a feeling I never had experienced before. The rest of our time the next day would be spent on the bus until we arrived in Belfast later that night. Here was when we would be able to see all the Game of Thrones scenes!!! We would also see a UNESCO World Heritage Site which I was excited about. The first place we stopped was at the castle pictured below and was used in the show but with heavy CGI and we couldn't go any closer than this due to time constraints. Our next stop was at Giant's Causeway. This was the UNESCO site and it was SPECTACULAR. Truly breathtaking, even the long walk down to it was incredible. Below the first photo is of me, my roommate Liv, and Hunter and the 2nd is of the Causeway (it was a wee bit windy the day we went, haha). There is a really cool Irish folk tale that explains how the causeway came to be & it involves an Irish favorite, Finn MacCool. The next two photos are of Game of Thrones scenes but were taken from two different locations on my trip. The first is where Renly Baratheon's camp is held and where he dies but is now a car park for the famous Carrick-a-Rede bridge (more on that later). There is a sign located at the front of this location explaining the scene in-depth with images from it. The second photo is of Ballintoy Harbor aka the Iron Islands. The very last photo is the infamous Dark Hedges (King's Road in the show). It was so cool being able to walk through the exact scene and it is very easy to picture yourself in Westerns. Back to the spot where the camp was located the bridge is a famous rope bridge where you can see an incredible view of the coastline once you cross it. Below is the bridge as Liv is crossing it. She made me take a video of us crossing on the way back over so everyone could see how far below the ocean was; I don't usually get scared by heights but this was terrifying trying to cross with only one holding onto the rickety bridge and the other occupied with not trying to drop my phone. It was definitely worth the wait and a place I highly recommend visiting. After our all-day adventures around the countryside of Northern Ireland, we made it to Belfast late in the evening. We had the evening to ourselves once we settled into the hostel. Both of the hostels we stayed at this weekend were very interesting... The first that we stayed at in Derry had triple bunks LOL. I will forever remember Liv running and diving into the middle bunk because that was the only way to get into it. However, the hostel was very nice and well-kept so there is no complaints over than that. The hostel in Belfast was much larger and had an incredible common room, kitchen area, and social areas. But, the downside was that we had to sleep in a 20 PERSON dorm room; that was a new experience especially considering that in this day and age everyone has electronics that need plugged in at night but there were only 6 outlets total for all 20 of us!!! We made due and a few friends and I decided to check out the night life in Northern Ireland and visit the famous Filthy McNastys! The pub is massive and we had such a grand time; we even made it into the Belfast Night Life section of the Belfast newspaper! Before we headed to the Titanic Museum, we went on a tour of Belfast and learned about its history with the rebellions and the English. Belfast was also impacted during the troubled times and nowadays a peace wall exists in various parts of the city where the wall separating the Catholics and Protestants once stood. This whole trip has been incredibly exciting but also incredibly moving as we learned so much about how much suffering people endured here less than 2 decades ago. Below are photos of the peace wall. For those who don't know, Belfast is the place where the Titanic was built and thus they have an exhibition focusing on the building of the gigantic ship. The museum is built on the ground where the liner was built and once inside you get a fantastic view of the harbor where it was docked and set sail on its maiden voyage. There is another exhibition in Cobh- I visited this one when my sister came over later on- which is smaller and focuses more on the Irish who boarded as well as the rest of the passengers since Cobh is the last place it docked before hitting the iceberg. It took nearly 2 hours to explore the entire museum in Belfast and it was spectacular! I learned so much about the Titanic and there is even a ride inside! If you made it this far in the blog post, thanks! I know I blabbed for a long time; I saw A LOT in one weekend. I'll end with a photo of Belfast City Hall before we departed for Cork!
THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF!! Just kidding but I had to quote the famous song from the Lizzie McGuire movie since my first weekend trip to continental Europe was to Rome! Roma, Roma, Roma, what a beautiful place filled with everything my heart desires aka pizza, pasta, and wine. My roommate, Taylor, and I decided to venture to Rome after finding flights that were only 35 euro each way. It was my first time traveling to a country where I didn't know the language; I speak Spanish pretty fluently so Ecuador and Costa Rica were easy as was Brazil because Portuguese is so similar to Spanish. Italian on the other hand was completely foreign to me and trying to find our bus into the city was a hard task. We made it though and arrived to our hostel where we relaxed because we had to take the 1 am bus from Cork to Dublin in order to catch our 6 am flight; to say we were exhausted would be an understatement. After relaxing, we decided to venture out into the city for the first time. WOW, Rome is truly beautiful and the history is just everywhere! Our first evening was spent walking to the Trevi Fountain and just wander. If I have a decent amount of time in one place, I like to simply wander around a city and get a feel for it. I learned quickly that Rome definitely was going to test my traveling skills... this was Taylor's first time to a new country besides Ireland and she relied on me for a lot which is perfectly fine (I love being in charge) but it was way different than following around a tour guide or a high school teacher. Don't get me wrong I love Rome but looking back I have never been cat called or felt as unsafe walking at night as I did in Rome. It could be just the different cultures but it was astounding. The architecture is unparalleled as is the food. It truly lived up to my expectations and even surpassed them. I can't even describe how incredible it was walking through the Colosseum and the rest of the ancient Roman buildings. There was so much to see in just a few days! I think we ended up walking close to 25 miles... My feet hurt so badly by the time we left for Ireland I could hardly waddle through the Dublin airport. I (stupidly) decided to wear my new Birks on Sunday and naturally it poured on us as we tried to navigate our way to Vatican City. My feet were sliced open where the wet leather cut into them after walking so many miles. My roommates called them my Jesus scars getting them on my pilgrimage (I grew up very Catholic as did my roommates so it was quite comical). Above are the Spanish Steps which were one of the last things we saw before heading back to the hostel for the night. On Sunday morning before heading to the Spanish steps, we walked to Vatican City to see the Pope give mass at the cathedral. It was incredible; I mean a true once in the lifetime experience. I didn't understand any of it except the greeting because it was all in Latin. I can't wait to go back to Italy and explore more of the cities and the countryside!
After finally adjusting to the new time change, I had to make my way back to the states for my brother's wedding. When I was in Toronto, the guard at Customs told me I was a great sibling for flying home and back to Europe in one weekend (you're welcome, Alex). Even though I harassed him, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. This was going to be the last time in a long time before I could see either of my brothers again. Both of my brothers are pilots in the Air Force so it is always a rare occasion when my whole family is able to be together all at once but it was really special this time because Alex was deploying soon after the wedding. I flew into CVG (my home airport) so I was able to see my doggies!!!! But the next morning we departed to St. Louis where the wedding was going to take place. The rehearsal went by very quickly and then it was off to the dinner portion; the dinner was held at a BBQ joint and it was SO good. Naturally, jet lag had me up at 6 am the next day but it didn't matter because soon my sister and I had to get ready! It was great fun watching my soon to be new sister get ready for her big day and I had a blast being able to spend time with my sister again. The ceremony was over in 20 minutes... One thing about that brother in particular is he does not waste time doing anything so naturally his ceremony would be the shortest ceremony in the history of wedding ceremonies. Photos followed and instead of going on the bus with the rest of the bridal party my sister and I went back to the hotel with our parents since we couldn't really participate in the fun of the party bus (quite odd going from being legal to not being legal to drink). The reception was a blast and filled with so many friends and memories. Sadly after breakfast the next day I had to catch my flights back to Ireland. I was exhausted by the time I got back to Cork but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
The Ring of Kerry is one of the most well-known tourist routes in Ireland and included in my USAC experience was a weekend tour of the Kerry countryside. I was so excited for this trip because the views were supposedly gorgeous and EVERYTHING was already paid for - including food which if anyone knows me they know how much I love to eat!!! The tour left on Friday morning and we wouldn't return to Cork until Sunday night. Our first stop on the tour was Crag Cave located in County Kerry. The cave is made entirely out of limestone and was first explored in 1981 by a diver who dove through a sump and discovered the large caverns underneath. For some reason this discovery fascinated me because I couldn't imagine diving blindly into dark waters with no notion of what was on the other side (if anything was) but he resurfaced meters away in a pool which is shown below inside the giant cavern. Luckily for us they built an entrance so we didn't have to dive underwater to enter the cave; the tour was very informational and we learned a great deal about limestone and many of the caverns are named after characters from J.R.R Tolkien's book "The Middle Earth"!!! The pool the diver surfaced in! We then left the cave and continued onto the hotel we would be staying at for the rest of the weekend. The hotel was amazing and it was centrally located in the middle of the Ring of Kerry so we wouldn't have another long bus ride until we left to go back to UCC. Dinner at the hotel was incredible; I had the most amazing fish and cheesecake. Since the trip I was on was a heritage student trip our entertainment for the first night was to have a local singer come to the hotel so we could learn traditional Irish songs and learn the history behind them. Our next day was jam packed with places to visit! The morning started off with the Skellig Ring tour which included stops at Valentia Island, Geoghan Mount & Fogher Cliffs, Skellig experience center, and the Valentia lifeboat. Along the way we learned about each place we were visiting and when we stopped at the Skellig experience center we had a fantastic view of Skellig Michel (incredible historic monastery and place where most recent Star Wars was filmed!). In the background of the photo below, the pointed, larger island is Skellig Michel. Sadly because we weren't there during the summer we couldn't take a boat out to the island but one day I hope to return and visit the island since I have heard amazing things about it. Even during the summer its really hard to reach the island because it requires perfect conditions in order to land a boat along the jagged coastline of the island so that visitors can walk up to the monastery. After all of our morning adventures, we headed back to the town where our hotel was to visit O'Connell Memorial Church, Cahergal Stone Fort, and Ballycarberry Castle. The fort was awesome because we could climb to the top and walk around the walls but then I went with my group and held a little baby lamb named Joe (highlight of my weekend). Since this weekend was a heritage weekend trip geared for students, the organizers planned heritage events for us like learning traditional Irish songs. Tonight's events included learning how to Irish dance and play Gaelic football. Irish dancing is way more tiring than I thought but my friend, Hunter, made it a little easier on me since she was my partner and she has Irish danced competitively since she was a little girl. Gaelic football was very interesting and I still have no idea how to play it because the rules are so different. But, it is still a very fascinating sport to watch and so unique in its history and heritage. For the last event of the night before bedtime, we had a trivia night and my group WON!!! We won coasters made from Valencia Stone which are beautifully made from the stone that used to be mined at the Valencia mine nearby Cahersiveen. At this point I would like to acknowledge that I know I am an adult when winning coasters is the prize for trivia lol. On our last day before heading back to Cork we drove the rest of the Ring of Kerry! Needless to say the views were beautiful and every place we stopped was filled with history and beauty (as much of Ireland is). The slideshow below shows some of the places we stopped along the way. Even in the cold and damp, this weekend was fabulous and I can't wait for more of my upcoming adventures! Dingle.. Yes, Dingle. My entire family gave me a funny look on FaceTime when I told them where I was going (my family is clearly very mature) but that look soon changed after I showed them photos of this incredibly colorful harbor town and the beautiful drive that awaited once we arrived. Due to the great weather in Ireland (shocking, I know) there was a discounted trip to Dingle run through Irish Experience Tours who cater tours to college students. Me, two of my roommates, and the girls we went to Blarney with all ventured to the Atlantic Coast for a day. Our first stop was at Ross Castle in Killarney where we looked out onto a lake and could climb around the castle. The next stop was at Inch Beach! I loved stopping at this beach even though it was a tad chilly hearing the waves crash and being able to touch the ocean made it memorable. Next Stop = Dingle!! Dingle was absolutely incredible; sadly, many of the places around town were shut down since we were traveling during off season but having the places to just our tour definitely made up for that. We stopped in town to get some snacks for the drive to the Wild Atlantic Way but on our way home we would stop back in town to explore more. We could not have asked for better weather. After stopping in the town we continued on our way until me made it to the Sleigh Head stop where we hiked a cliff to get to the view seen in the picture above and at the bottom of the cliff was the beach pictured in the first image. I could not get enough of the view. Honestly, I probably took close to 200 photos on my camera and almost as many on my phone. At this point, I was starting to think people just made up that Ireland is always dreary and rainy because I had really yet to experience any of that at all. Albeit, the weather was a bit windy but other than that it was a perfect day trip. We made a few more stops along the way; one was at a place where we could see Clachan ("beehive") huts that have been around since before the 8th century. Finally, we made it back to Dingle and while my friends explored the shops or ate I wandered around and took photos of the town. I absolutely love taking photos of architecture and the colorful buildings in Ireland are one of my favorites. They are just such a juxtaposition with the old European architecture of the churches and other buildings in the same town; I truly love it. There is also a dolphin who lives in the harbor of Dingle and so we learned a little about him and saw his statue but sadly never got to see him :/ Seeing the sunset on the harbor was a perfect ending to another perfect day in Ireland! |
AuthorThe rambling thoughts of a millennial's adventures abroad Archives
May 2017
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