The Ring of Kerry

The other Sunday me and some friends went on a trip around the Ring of Kerry. Kerry and Dingle are really breathtaking areas, and in a perfect world we would have our own car and entire weekend to explore, but we made the best of it and went for the day (which would be better than just not going!)


The views were incredible, so so gorgeous. I guess Dingle is supposed to be even more amazing so if I ever come back to Ireland I will have to go there.  We had really great sunny weather and just enjoyed an awesome day. I even got to hold a little baby lamb!

Then this Friday we had UCD ball, which is this outdoor music festival type thing, similar to how back home we have "Fall Fest" and "Spring Fest" the main difference being in Ireland they have beer tents... it was quite the cultural experience.Lets just say I knew it was going to be a good time when we passed people on our way TO the ball at 4 pm who were already receiving services from the ambulance for having too good of a time.

Rome!!!

What an amazing weekend. Rome during Easter was a crazy whirlwind, and I loved every second of it. Some highlights: Botanical Gardens, Gelato, Pizza, Pasta, Wine, the Colleseum, Nero's Palace, Trestevre area, Gelato, The Vatican Museums, The Sistine Chapel!!, the Trevi Fountain, Gelato, people watching on the Spanish Steps, the nightlife. Pizza.

It was just such a great weekend, it was amazing to walk places from BC! Ahhh. So cool. We ate a lot, and Katie and I made friends with these girls Marisa, Kelly, and Carly who are all from downstate NY and studying abroad in Cork (parallel lives!) so we had a great weekend together.

At Easter mass we were in the SIXTH ROW. So if you look at pictures of the thousands of people gathered, we are right in front. So awesome!

St. Paddy's Day!

St. Patrick's Day was great craic!

Cliffs Of Moher (revisited)

Earlier in my adventures I went to Galway and to the Cliffs of Moher. While the trip overall was amazing, unfortunately the Cliffs of Moher were so foggy that I could barely see five feet in front of me let alone bask in the natural beauty.  Katie really wanted to see them while she was in Ireland, so after our long touristy day in Dubin we decided to do some last minute booking of the tour.  Of course since every tourist ever was in Dublin that weekend for St. Patty's day and we waited until 11 pm the night before we wanted to go on the tour, we had to be creative in our booking, but thanks to google and multiple tabs open on chrome we were able to plan the trip, and bright and early the next morning we were off!


We woke up, and took a 6:20 am bus into city center, where we then hopped on a city link bus that took us straight to Galway.  We passed out right away and slept the bus ride, arriving in Galway a little after 9.  Katie couldn't believe it that in less than 3 hours we travelled from the east coast to the west coast of Ireland. We got a coffee and woke up a little bit before hopping on our Galway Tour Company bus.  


Our bus driver was this little old man named Desmonde who was a tour professional, he has been with the company for over 18 years and I think he said he has taken over 250,000 people on his tour. He was very funny and slightly pervy in an endearing way. For example he let us out at this secluded woods path area over looking some farm land which was really cool, and told us to look out for leprechauns and fairies which were known to hide in the area, and that they climb up your pants. Well, he actually hid a leprechaun in a tree and when some girls were taking a picture he tickled their leg, and they screamed and he burst out laughing. Oh Desmonde.  The tour was great, but at some points I was nervous because it was cloudy/rainy the entire time.


We saw a castle, some rock formation thing, and very very cute little lambs and calfs running around the fields and just general gorgeous Ireland countryside.  It was exciting going with Katie because she hadn't seen any of it yet so it was like I was seeing it all for the first time too.  Then we took a break for lunch, and the sun came out in full force.  We went to the Cliffs of Moher, and oh. my. goodness. it was so breathtaking.  Words really cannot describe what it was like in person.


After marveling at the Cliffs, we started driving back towards Galway, where we stopped at the Burren, which is a rocky place, and we were able to walk out onto the rocks which kind of form a "mini cliffs" and it was really pretty to be so close to the ocean and have the greenery and the rocky cliffs around.


Then we took the bus back to Dublin, where we met up with Chelsey and Alexis. We had an early night though, as Katie had to fly away back to America at 4 am (yikes!).  It was such a great day and I am so happy that my best friend was able to experience it with me :)