On March 15th I left Florence for a 9 day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland. It was FANTASTIC! It was gorgeous, fun, interesting, and altogether great trip.
I went with 33 students from GIF and with two of my co-workers, Shelley and Linda. I had never been to Dublin before, and my only previous trip to Northern Ireland had been about twenty years ago for a wedding. We had a pretty packed schedule, but I even managed to squeeze in a visit with a friend from junior high school and meet her gorgeous new baby and her husband in Dublin. And in Belfast I got to catch up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins!
Traveling there and back was a bit of a hassle, as we needed to be there early Friday morning to meet the students (they fly out on their own for trips like these - so that they can find a flight that matches their schedule and budget). So, Thursday morning we took a train to Pisa and then a flight to London. We spent the night at a Heathrow hotel in order to catch an (very) early morning flight to Dublin. Thursday night all we did was have dinner in the hotel and then go to bed, but dinner was surprisingly good. On our Friday morning flight from London to Dublin the average age of the passengers couldn't have been more than 21 or 22 - lots and lots of young people heading over for St. Patrick's Day. In fact, at passport control in Dublin Shelley got stuck behind a high school marching band from Georgia who were going to be in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade the next day.
We were in Dublin from Friday to Tuesday, and we stayed at All Hallows College in North Dublin. This is a catholic college that has a conference center on campus, in which we stayed. It was a gorgeous campus and we had really nice rooms. We were actually only there for sleeping as we had packed days, but it was a great place to stay.
I went with 33 students from GIF and with two of my co-workers, Shelley and Linda. I had never been to Dublin before, and my only previous trip to Northern Ireland had been about twenty years ago for a wedding. We had a pretty packed schedule, but I even managed to squeeze in a visit with a friend from junior high school and meet her gorgeous new baby and her husband in Dublin. And in Belfast I got to catch up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins!
Traveling there and back was a bit of a hassle, as we needed to be there early Friday morning to meet the students (they fly out on their own for trips like these - so that they can find a flight that matches their schedule and budget). So, Thursday morning we took a train to Pisa and then a flight to London. We spent the night at a Heathrow hotel in order to catch an (very) early morning flight to Dublin. Thursday night all we did was have dinner in the hotel and then go to bed, but dinner was surprisingly good. On our Friday morning flight from London to Dublin the average age of the passengers couldn't have been more than 21 or 22 - lots and lots of young people heading over for St. Patrick's Day. In fact, at passport control in Dublin Shelley got stuck behind a high school marching band from Georgia who were going to be in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade the next day.
We were in Dublin from Friday to Tuesday, and we stayed at All Hallows College in North Dublin. This is a catholic college that has a conference center on campus, in which we stayed. It was a gorgeous campus and we had really nice rooms. We were actually only there for sleeping as we had packed days, but it was a great place to stay.
All Hallows College
After getting the students settled in (and dealing with a minor first aid situation) Shelley, Linda and I went into the city center. We all went into Eason's (bookstore) and spent too many hours (and too much money) in there. It was great :) I left Shelley and Linda then and met up with my friend Tara who lives in Dublin. It was so nice to catch up with her and to meet her new husband and daughter! I was in bed that night early though, as it had been two long days and we had early starts the next few days. Saturday was our first activity day of the trip, and in the morning we did a bus tour that was supposed to be of Dublin, but we ended up changing that because of road closures for the parade. We did a tour instead to Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary), which is a charming seaside down just outside of Dublin.
We got dropped off downtown after the tour with the rest of the afternoon free. Shelley, Linda and I went into Easons again so that we could watch the parade from their windows. We had a nice little lunch while waiting and then got to watch little bits of the parade through the windows (better than being on the street, where it was super crowded and where it rained for the only day of our trip). Unfortunately, I had to leave a little early to go back to All Hallows because my pump had run out of insulin that morning and I forgot to bring more with me on the tour. But, then, since I was already back outside of the center, I just hung out on the high street near the college and I got my hair cut. Not super exciting, except that I hadn't had that done since before moving to Italy, and it was nice to do it somewhere where the hairdresser spoke English and I could explain what I wanted! That night we had dinner in a little Thai restaurant with some of the students (including one student who was in Florence with us in the Fall and is now studying at Trinity College, Dublin). I didn't go wild and crazy for the holiday, but that was ok with me (and our students more than made up for me!)
Not our specific bus, but what it looked like :)
We had booked our tours through a tour company called PaddyWagon Tours and we had the same bus and guide for all six days there. This was great because we had a terrific, knowledgeable guide, and we were able to build rapport with him over the week. They're a really good tour company, offering public and private tours. Their buses are giant and very ostentatious, which the students found fun!
On Sunday we went to the Cliffs of Moher with a couple of little stops along the way. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the cliffs were absolutely gorgeous! Our guide said that he had been there the week before and it was so foggy people couldn't even see the cliffs - actually, in the visitor's center they have an exhibit with photos and videos of the cliffs for this specific reason. It was absolutely stunning, and we had a nice time walking around and taking lots of photos. Even the drive there and back through the countryside was gorgeous! Everything was so green! We didn't make it back until around 8pm, and we walked to a pub and a group of us had a lovely little dinner.
Monday was our trip to Cork and to the Blarney Castle. I didn't know a whole lot about Blarney Castle other than knowing that there was a stone there to kiss. In actuality the place is a whole lot more than that, and I would say that, for me, the real highlight were the grounds.
There were so many little gardens and everything was just starting to bloom and there were flowers, colors and trees everywhere. The line to kiss the stone was so long that if we had waited in it the only thing we would have seen would have been the backs of the people in front of us (it was about a 90-100 minute wait) so instead we didn't kiss the stone but wandered the gardens (no gift of eloquence for me . . . maybe next time). It was so nice seeing so much green after the winter in Italy, so it was a great afternoon for me.
We then stopped in Cork for a late lunch and a wander through the city. I really liked Cork; it had a great city feel without being too big. There was a street fair going on, and we all got delicious food from a variety of vendors. I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Boots (walgreen equivalent) to pick up some essentials I can't get in Italy - very happy about that :)
This is already too long of a post, so I'll write about the second part (our time in Belfast) in a separate post to come soon.
Lovely to read, and can imagine how much you enjoyed the scenery, just beautiful!
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