A Weekend in Ireland

Submitted by Samantha Minatti on the 2017 spring semester program in Barcelona, Spain…

The other week me and two of my friends traveled to Ireland for the weekend. We flew Ryanair for the first time. I was a bit nervous because I had heard that they were very strict about bags. They didn’t even check our bags, but there was a two hour delay on our flight and it was a bit bumpy. Later on the trip, several of the locals we met at Ireland joked about how they would “never ride Ryanair again.” I think that considering the price difference I would definitely ride it again and I’ve already booked two other flights with them.

We arrived pretty late at night and took a cab to our AirbNb. The AirbNb we were staying at was a bedroom in a women’s house. There were three of us for one bed, but we made it work. I think that we all agreed that we prefer the AirbNb to the hostel because we had our own space and more privacy.

We were up early the next day for a bus trip we had booked to see the Cliffs of Moher. We got on the bus at 7:15 am and didn’t arrive at the cliffs till about noon. We slept a lot of the drive, but looking outside was absolutely breathtaking as we got into the countryside. It was a cloudy day, but the cliffs still looked absolutely incredible. My roommates went this past weekend with clear skies and said they were actually tearing up it was so incredible. I would 100% say that it is worth the long trip out there.

 

 

 

 

On the way back, we stopped in a really cute town called Doolan and got an incredible lunch. I got cod, which I had never tried before and it was really good. We also stopped by the water where in the summer they have boat tours that bring you out to see the cliffs from the water. The waves were too unsafe this time of year to go out. On the drive back we went down through Galway. Looking out the window was really beautiful since the scenery rapidly changed. There was so much farmland and natural rock sculptures at every corner.

The next day our plan was to explore Dublin. We were surprised by how walk-able the city was. It didn’t take us more than 20 minutes to get from one side to the other and see all the places we wanted. We ended up going to a lot of really great restaurants, a few parks, a castle and the prison. That night, we met up with one of my friends from home and got dinner and they took us to some of the local places they went out to with live music. The live music was one of my favorite parts about Dublin. The people were definitely the most friendly of all the cites I’ve been to so far.