Good Irish Craic

The day my family left, I went to my last day of classes at Trinity College.

And today, I had my first exam.

In between I had just over three glorious weeks of freedom to hang out in Dublin, explore more of Ireland, and take an 8 day vacation to Italy (which you will be able to read about in my next post). Putting it in Irish slang, it was definitely good craic.

After my grandma, dad, and sister left, it was Easter weekend. To celebrate on Sunday, I went with Maggie to a service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which neither of us had been inside of yet. It is a beautiful church, but the mass itself was an experience. It had little speaking, a lot of singing, and felt almost more like a performance than an Easter mass. It had a weirdly cold tone to it. On the handed out booklet, there was even a note saying that when the choir sings it is a time for meaningful and silent reflection...not exactly inviting you to join in. Still, it was worth it to see the cathedral! Afterwords we met Connor and Michael for a nice brunch at a nearby restaurant, celebrating both the holiday and the end of classes with mimosas and french toast.

On Tuesday, Kristina and I woke up bright and early (after two hours of sleep each...) to catch a 7 AM bus for a day trip down to Waterford, Ireland. Outside of being home to the famous House of Waterford Crystal, the town actually was the first ever to be founded in Ireland, by Vikings in 914. It has a lot of important history behind it that we discovered by wandering into a few medieval museums. The highlight for me though was definitely the House of Waterford factory tour.

From my grandma and my mom, I had already been familiar with Waterford Crystal. But I had no idea how famous it really was. They make the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball, give the US President annual gifts, receive orders from the Queen of England, and produce lots of sport championship trophies. In the tour we got to see all of the different stages of the crystal, to its original shaping as seen below, to the final hand carving process. Afterwards we explored the attached store, but sadly I didn't bring enough money for the $40,000 bear sculpture.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing in Dublin, including my first official rugby game, and picnics in both St. Stephen's Green and St. Marion's Park. The next Sunday, Sarah and I went on a trip to the west coast of Ireland in county Sligo. We spent two days in the absolute middle of no where...to call a taxi you called someone's home phone, there were two restaurants within five miles, and neither cell phone service nor ATMs existed. However it was gorgeous, and we were there to go horseback riding!


We both had said we were relatively beginners, because even though I took lessons for awhile when I was younger, my horseback riding days are few and far between. And this stable was  definitely not for beginners, whatever they told us! It was a lot of fun but definitely an adventure. The terrain was often very steep and rocky, with horses that very much liked to run. Staying seated on an english style saddle (aka no horn to hold) when a horse is bouncing down a 45 degree angled slope is slightly terrifying.

On the first day we got to ride on an amazing beach, which is definitely a dream come true. I say that even though: On the way back, there was legitimately one bird on the beach. As my horse and I rode past, it took off--as birds usually do. My horse must not have seen it, because she suddenly spooked pretty badly and threw me off. Yes I actually fell for the first time off of a horse. Sarah was lucky enough to be riding behind me, and got to watch the show. I was told it was a pretty graceful fall, but my tailbone was not happy with me for a few days. The rest of the ride was comparatively uneventful, and the beach was the highlight of horseback riding for me.


Continuing the trip, I am proud and slightly shocked to say I have found my favorite place in Ireland: the small coastal town of Strandhill. It was surrounded by everything you could imagine: giant dunes, mountains, the ocean with huge waves crashing on rocks, and a calm bay with the prettiest beaches I have ever seen.

In the afternoon I hiked up the mountain shown below, Knocknarea. The way up was mostly stairs leading through a forest, and the top was fairly flat and huge. The next day I went two more hikes, taking me around the peninsula into the prettiest cove of beaches imaginable, surrounded by mountains with crystal clear water. I have never been somewhere that seemed so untouched by people, almost like it was from another time. On the way back I went over giant dunes, which were a lot of fun to slide down and gave some more great views of the bay.

Strandhill

Sarah had taken an earlier bus home to study for exams, but I planned on catching the 6:30 PM bus out of Sligo. I arrived at the station around 5:30 to be safe, and waited outside since it was so nice out. The buses have big electronic displays in front, displaying their destination. I waited for the one reading Dublin to finally pull in, and around 6:45 got concerned because they are almost always on time. I asked inside...and the lady told me it had pulled out right in front of me. I was shocked and positive that it had not happened. In the end it turned out the bus driver forgot to change his new destination display, so no one waiting outside had gotten on the bus. They told us that there was one more bus that night...at 1 AM. #strandedinsligo

I was not up for waiting 6 hours at a tiny bus station with no wifi, and looked around to see a Best Western right behind the station. Lucky enough they had an open room, and I decided the 65 euro for a bed and free breakfast was definitely worth it. I slept in a king size bed and took the noon bus the following day. Having so much free time and no responsibilites is the life of luxury, though study abroad and my bank accounts are not getting along so well!

I got home Thursday afternoon, and had that night to relax. On Friday my roommates and I all woke up around nine because we had to go pick up our tickets for that night downtown...to Trinity Ball!

Trinity Ball is an annual TCD tradition in which the school brings tons of bands and artists, usually with a few big names in the mix, to campus for a late night concert. Why is it called a ball? Because the dress code is black tie! Most of the Irish guys were wearing tuxes, and the girls wore a mix of long and short cocktail dresses. The four of us picked up our tickets, and headed to Grafton Street to find Sarah a new dress and a new pair of shoes for me. After two successes (and a personal victory for Nicole who convinced me to buy adorable 6 inch wedges to wear on cobblestone), the three of them got their hair done at a blow dry bar, while I decided to do my own (after having just spent an unexpected 65 euro...). We followed the morning up with froyo, and headed home to clean up and get ready before hosting a preparty for a bunch of our friends.

The day was so much fun, and Trinity Ball itself was enjoyable but to be honest nothing too special since we didn't know any of the artists, and it was freezing by midnight. The coolest part by far was seeing Trinity's campus, which is always clean and plastered with stay off the grass signs, turned into a giant festival ground.

Friday morning, my plans were to be in Rome Wednesday to Sunday. Saturday afternoon I was on a plane to Venice. Stay tuned for that story, as well as to hear about an amazing trip to Italy!

As always, thanks for reading!