Spring Break Part 2: Ireland

Spring Break Part 2: Ireland

Jordan and I on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.
Jordan and I on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.

After enjoying Paris and London stop #3 on our spring break journey was County Mayo, Ireland.

My Uncle Eugene put us in the care of his sisters for the weekend, which couldn’t have been more perfect. Deirdre picked us up from the airport then drove us over to Westport, a really lovely little town with some cute shops and of course friendly Irishfolk. She pointed us in the direction of a good Irish restaurant before she went back to work. Jordan and I both had some of the best vegetable soup and brown bread ever before wandering around town. Pretty much as soon as we landed we noticed how much kinder the Irish people we met were than any other place we’d been thus far. We had some pretty long conversations about our travels with a few shopkeepers and even ended up meeting someone from Chicago. The world can be a pretty small place sometimes. Sharon, my uncle’s youngest sister, met us at 4:30 for a little adventure to the coast.

Westport actually runs right into the bay, so our drive on the way to the beach was beautiful. The beach we stopped at is right at the base of Croagh Patrick, a mountain with a church on top that is often visited by pilgrims. You can’t make up something as picturesque as this scene. We only stuck our fingers in the Atlantic and walked up a little hill to the 1st statue of St. Patrick–even with the sun shining it wasn’t an ideal sun-bathing or mountain climbing kind of day.

That morning Sharon drove us all the way out to Galway so that we could get on a tour bus that would take us to the Cliffs of Moher. We made a few stops along the way, including the Ailwee Caves and some other cliffs that weren’t swamped with tourists. We couldn’t have had better weather that afternoon, the sun was shining and the wind was calm. Jordan and I took a seat right on the edge and took it all in. The pictures I took can in no way do the views justice. We spent quite awhile walking around the edge just in awe of these magnificent Cliffs.

Jordan and the Cliffs of Moher.

 

Getting out of bed on Saturday morning was pretty painful because I wanted nothing more than to have that bed shipped right over to Rome, but our tour guide Deirdre had to keep us on schedule! We spent the morning visiting family and shortly after 1 we boarded the train to Dublin.

The 3 hour trainride to Dublin passed quickly and when we arrived we took one train to another that brought us out to Killbarack where our AirBnB was for the weekend. We ended up at a pub in Howth that evening, where we enjoyed another round of pub food and some Gaellic football.

We spent all of Sunday exploring as much of Dublin as we could in a day. Our first stop was a visit to the beautiful campus of Trinity College, followed by hot chocolate, and a tour of Dublin Castle. Our next stop was St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is similar to the gothic style of Notre Dame. We spent the rest of our afternoon in museums. We enjoyed our last round of pub food–which we certainly had our fill of over break, but one last shepard’s pie didn’t hurt.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

 

Monday morning we flew out of Dublin at 6 AM, which brought our spring break to a bitter sweet end. This was by far my favorite trip of the semester, but travelling for 10 days straight kind of wears you out, so my bunk bed back at the JFRC wasn’t an unwelcome sight afterall.

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