Luck of the Irish

Hello again! For the past almost two weeks, everyone at the Center has been on Spring Break! We’ve all been very excited for this break, and we’ve all been traveling to so many different places. For me, the place that I have always wanted to visit is Ireland. I am part Irish, and I wanted to spend a good amount of time there, more than just a weekend.

To start the break, four of us travelled to Dublin. We visited Dublin Castle, Dublin Gardens, Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Guinness Storehouse, just to name a few things. None of us really knew much about Irish history, so having a tour of Dublin Castle was very educational, because we got to learn a lot about Irish history. The most interesting things had to do with the 1916 Easter uprisings, which  led to the eventual independence of Ireland a few years later.

The next day, the other three went on a Cliffs of Moher bus tour, but I went on a bus tour to Belfast and Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Giant’s Causeway was definitely my favorite part of the entire trip. The causeway is made of up hexagon-shaped volcanic rocks coming up out of the ocean. Some are a few inches big, while others are several feet tall. It was so much fun to climb over all of them and look out over the view of the sea and the rocks. I could even see the coast of Scotland from the causeway.

After another night in Dublin, I split off from the group and travelled to Galway on the western coast of Ireland. Galway is a very small town, and is most famous for the Claddagh friendship ring and the “Galway Girl” Irish folk song. I enjoyed walking around the small town and popping into pubs to hear the live Irish music. My hostel was right in the center of the city, so I was within walking distance of everything.

I travelled on two bus tours while I was in Galway. The first was a Cliffs of Moher and the Burren tour. Unfortunately, the rain and fog were so thick, and the wind was so strong, that I could barely see ten feet in front of me, and the Cliffs were not visible. However, I did enjoy seeing the Burren, which is the rocky landscape that covers the area. Our tour guide told us that the Burren has the same landscape as that of the moon, so that was interesting to see. I also got to get out and see Dunguaire Castle, which is iconic in that region of Ireland.

The second tour I took was of a northwest part of Ireland called Connemara. We stopped at Kylemore Abbey, which is a castle right on the edge of a lake in the mountains of Ireland. It was a gorgeous day (besides being cold and windy) and I got to walk around the grounds and explore the gardens. We also stopped and saw the Killary Fjord, which is 16 miles long, Loughs Mask and Nafooey, and the town of Cong, where they filmed the movie “The Quiet Man” starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. I got to see the mountainous parts of Ireland on this tour, and it was absolutely gorgeous.

I had a fantastic time in Ireland, and have had a great time staying at home in Cambridge for the rest of break and hanging out with people here. Up next is my week with my mom, who is visiting from the US!