Jun 14, 2019 - Hop on/Hop Off in Dublin

Today we took the Hop on hop off bus. It turned out not to be very efficient for us, as our first stop was at the Kilmainham Jail, which turned out to be an excellent tour that put all the pieces of the civil war between north and south Ireland into perspective and gave it a real human picture highlighting the religious differences that led to the war. From there, we backtracked, by foot, (since the bus only goes in one direction) to Dublin Castle and then to St Patricks Cathedral. We stopped for a pizza lunch and finally got back on the...

Jun 13, 2019 - Doolin to Galway to Dublin

Visit to the 16th Century castle, Dunghuaire Castle at the quaint fishing village of Kinvara – the gateway to Ireland’s Culture Capital, Galway. Galway is renowned for its pleasures. We also did a fantastic food tour while learning the history of Galway. We took an afternoon bus from Galway to Dublin on the GoBus service. I slept most of the way. I’m trying to fight off my cough!

Jun 12, 2019 - Cliffs of Moher

From today’s itinerary sheet: Cliffs of Moher & Lahinch Leave Dingle via the dramatic Conor Pass with dramatic drops, encroaching cliffs at every turn. Cross the River Shannon by ferry to leave the South West behind. We enter county Clare now, home to the spectacular Cliffs of Moher and the Burren National Park. Today we will explore the cliffs by foot and let the fresh air and dramatic coastline embrace us! Spend the evening in the most welcoming and colorful village of Doolin and had a pub dinner with live Irish music and adult...

Jun 11, 2019 - Hiking, playing with sheep and more

Started day with a hike up Mount Brandon with 360 degree panoramic views of Dingle Bay and Castlegregory. Then we went on a breathtaking trip along the Slea Head Drive and stopped off to have a lesson in shepherding after a visit to the Dingle Whiskey Distillery. Day ended with seeing a beautiful rainbow even though we had no rain today! Approaching the longest day of the year and it is 10:10 pm and still light outside with sunrise at 5:19 am tomorrow.

Jun 11, 2019 - Dublin, again

11 Jun – Tuesday This morning we head back to Dublin, we are at the bus for 9am departure. Suzanne drops us off, and while we are waiting we see Noelle from the chocolate shop. She is such a crack up. She is taking the bus to Cork to get supplies for her drama group. We are in Cork just before 10am, and Tony tells Cynthea that there is no point hurrying, the bus (to Dublin) would have just left. As we are taking our gear into the bus station, Cynthea tells Tony there is the bus, we could have caught it. But it is the bus back to Kinsale,...

Jun 10, 2019 - Ring of Kerry, Killarney National Park and Dingle

Highlights of today included The Ring of Kerry after we departed Kinsale and journeyed towards the Ring of Kerry. Our first stop is the beautiful heritage town of Kenmare. Discover many hidden gems on the Ring of Kerry: Molls Gap, Torc Waterfall and Killarney National Park. We went to Muckross House, a beautiful estate with garden from 1843 that was visited by Queen Victoria. After taking in some of the fantastic views on the Ring of Kerry travel to Inch to soak up the Atlantic Ocean. Waves and we will took a dip (feet only) at Inch Beach....

Jun 9, 2019 - Dublin, Cashel, Blarney Stone and Kinsale

Best way to describe today is straight from day 1 of our tour description: Depart Dublin in the morning and travel west to the magical South West. Visit the medieval round tower, chapel, cathedral and castle steeped in 1000 years of history at
The Rock of Cashel. Travel south to one of Europe’s most vibrant counties, Cork. Begin your Cork experience with a kiss of the Blarney Stone and hope for an eternal gift of eloquence. Finish this jam-packed day with a night in West Cork’s stunning harbour town of Kinsale. Only slight mishap was that...

Jun 7, 2019 - Kinsale

07 Jun – Friday The hostel staff called the bus company for us, to see when would be a good time to try and catch the bus to Cork. They were not that helpful, mainly because they did not want to say if they had plenty of seats in case they all sold out in the meantime. We had to walk up and take our chances at the bus stop. We needed to be on the 2pm bus at the latest, but we would try for the 1pm one first. There was another at 1.30pm as well, so surely we would get on one of those. We checked out after breakfast and stored our packs...

Jun 5, 2019 - Dublin

05 June – Wednesday We fly out at 17.45, so we check out after breakfast, store our bags and head off to the beach, not that we can swim, too much faffing around with wet gear. Mind you, once we get there we wish we had bothered. We waded out as far as we could without getting clothes too wet, and then went and sat on the rocks while wee fish nibbled at our feet. We were amazed that they were happy to come so close to us. We grab a couple of souvenirs for Suzanne – seahorses of course. We take the bus to the airport, €10 again. We repack...

Mar 8, 2019 - Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth: March 8

This was another fieldtrip for another one of my Irish Cultural classes. The three places we went were ancient burial sites built thousands of years ago. The first place we went was Newgrange which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is this burial site with a big white wall around it made of quartz stone. When the monument was built there is no way that would have happened and the stones would have most likely been like a carpet around the entire thing. There are kerb stones around the whole monument and some are carved and decorated. It...

Mar 6, 2019 - Yungblud Concert!!!!!!!!

A few weeks ago, Halsey, my favorite artist started putting it out on social media that she had worked on a song with someone and it was going to come out. The song is called “11 Minutes” and when it came out I obviously listened to it a million times. The song was written by Yungblud, who I had never heard of, and featured Halsey and Travis Barker (who was the drummer for Blink 182). The song tells the modern day tragedy about a couple who were high school sweethearts, broke up, but after years apart they finally realize that they are...

Feb 8, 2019 - Galway!!

From February 8-10 me and my friends traveled to Galway, Ireland! It's crazy that we can travel from one side of the country to the other in only a couple of hours. We traveled by train and after we accidentally got off on the wrong stop, we finally made it to Galway! Traveling with nine people is pretty challenging but it was also very fun. It was myself and my friends Aubrie, Nick, Leopold, Riley, Kaylee, Alex, Ally, and Rose. The first night, we just hung out and found this really cool pub called "The Kings Head." The walls were all...