Always Moher

The day after I flew home to Dublin from Rome, I sat my first exam at Trinity. Two days later I took my second (Taking classes just to pass is an amazing thing). As I am sure I have mentioned to many of you, the organization at TCD is an absolute nightmare, and I went into these exams having no idea what to expect. As it turns out, I was in a room with 1300 other students all monitored by what they call Invigilators. It felt like taking the ACT on steroids with proctors that have cool accents, and was a little overwhelming. But I am fairly confident I passed both of them, and had just under three weeks until my third and final exam as a Trinity student, as a study abroad student, and as a junior.

The next day Erika--one of my friends from Washu currently studying in Madrid--flew into Dublin to visit! We woke up early Friday morning to go on a day tour out to the west coast of Ireland, the highlight of which was a trip to the Cliffs of Moher. Perhaps the most well known wonder in Ireland, the cliffs were absolutely breathtaking.

The bus tour had many other stops as well, including a spot used during the filming of the seventh Harry Potter movie! It was a really fun but long day, and it was great that Erika got to see more parts of Ireland than just Dublin on her stay. That night we got home around 9:30, and Claire--one of our other friends from Washu--arrived in Dublin around 10:30 from Oxford, where she is studying. Though all of us were pretty tired, we decided to push through and go to a pub. 

Precarious Rickshaw Ride

We met Markie, Maggie, Connor, and Michael at Doyle's, a pub right next to Trinity that we go to a lot. By the time we were ready to leave, all three of us were so exhausted that we didn't feel like walking the 45 minutes to my apartment. The solution: a rickshaw. Though common in Dublin, I had never taken one of these carts pulled by a random guy on a bike before. But for the 7 euro I was willing to offer, he agreed to pile us all in for a ride all the way to Donnybrook. Speeding down the streets of Dublin, legitimately merging with traffic on a rickety little cart, we eventually made it home after the exciting (and judgement-questionable) adventure.

Saturday was dedicated to showing them around Dublin, but we got unlucky and had freezing cold weather. I think there is a Dublin curse that the weather is awful only when people come to visit. We still explored for the day, seeing Trinity, the Book of Kells, Grafton Street, and so on. Having people visit is really nice because I get to see Dublin through fresh eyes each time, and the city never fails to impress me again and again. We even did the Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour which was a lot of fun!


Sunday was their last full day in Ireland, so after a lazy morning and a nice breakfast we took the bus to Howth, the small coastal town north of Dublin where I also took my family. The plan had been to go hiking, but again we were unlucky enough to have bad weather. I swear it really isn't common in Ireland! In the end we stayed in the town, wandering through a weekend market and exploring the harbors. After a weekend of late nights and cold weather, we were all worn out and decided to have a movie night. Having Claire and Erika visit really made me start looking forward to senior year.

Once Claire and Erika left, the bittersweet week of goodbyes began. While I'm in Ireland until May 20, a lot of my friends finished exams and had flights home a lot earlier than me. On Tuesday the group all went out together one last time, and we had a goodbye dinner on Wednesday. Jamie, the first to leave, flew out Thursday morning. That night, IES arranged a formal farewell dinner for all of the kids in my program, and we were treated to a nice three course meal. It kind of felt like the last supper, because Friday morning I was leaving Ireland for a five day trip. By the time I got back, Markie, Connor, and Michael would all be back in the states. Along with Maggie, the five of us went out for a final drink at pub near where we live. We kept our goodbyes short, though they were so hard, because our common place is here in Dublin. The people I met and became close with are really what made this semester so special, and though will keep in touch its hard to wrap our heads around the fact that we are leaving and it won't ever be quite the same.

I'll cover my trip to Berlin and Belgium in my next post soon, and am going to skip ahead to the day after I returned to Dublin (Wednesday May 13). Kristina finished her exams while I was gone, and was traveling to Norway, Scandinavia, and Finland for two weeks, meaning I wouldn't see her again this semester after she left on the 14th. So for our last day together, we decided to do something a little crazy and go swimming!

It was actually a really nice day out, but only about 50 degrees. Kristina has heard about a swimming spot not too far outside of Dublin called Forty-Foot, so we hopped on the train and decided to check it out. It ended up being a little spot with lots of rocks on the ocean that used to be only for men, funny enough. There is a spot perfect for jumping into the water, an adventure we were not going to pass up even though the wind was bitter. We climbed out in swim suits and shorts, and paused at the edge to think about what we were about to do.

But there was no going back, so on my count Kristina leaped in. She popped up with a loud oh my god, and without thinking I asked how the water was. With an impressive lie, she managed to get out that it was fine. So on her count, in I went!

My body had never gone into shock like it did hitting that water. It was FREEZING! It was actually hard to breathe, so we quickly swam to the way out and ran up onto the rocks. Once we got our breathe back, we couldn't stop laughing.

After warming up in the sun--after that water the shore felt so warm!--we decided to do it one more time. Jumping in was a lot harder now that we were expecting the cold, but it wasn't as bad round two. So worth it! Today was one of my favorite days in Dublin of the whole semester.


We changed back into our clothes and walked back into town, and decided to stop for ice cream. Why not after a day at the kind-of-beach?

After showering and getting ready so we were relatively presentable back at Kristina's apartment, we went to a nice Italian dinner near St. Stephen's Green. The pasta and wine actually rivaled some of what I had in Italy! We went back to her room and ignored the fact that it was late and she had an early flight, hanging out for another hour. Finally it was time for me to go, and we said goodbye for now, since we will definitely be visiting each other and keeping in touch. I'm hoping she'll come for American Thanksgiving!

Sorry for the sentimentality, but as I countdown my days left in Ireland and watch my friends slowly leave, I know it's not going to be stopping anytime soon. Look out soon for a post about my trip to Germany and Belgium!


As always, thanks for reading :)