"And I lost my heart to [a] Galway..."
This past weekend, I traveled to Ireland with three friends from the Temple group- Shannon, Andrea, and John and I fell in love. We had to leave at 1 AM between Wednesday and Thursday even though our flight was at 11AM- I just love the ALSA's (Spanish bus company) schedules. The flight from Santander, Spain to Dublin, Ireland is only two hours but there is a time difference and so we arrived at noon. We took a bus straight to our hostel because our hostel was conveniently located two minutes from the central bus station. We were able to check in early and we took much needed naps before heading to my friend who is also studying abroad this semester, Amanda's apartment. She spent the afternoon and early night showing us some parts of Dublin like St. Stephen's green (a gorgeous park in the middle of Dublin) and the shopping street. Of course we had to stop and try a few chocolates from her favorite chocolate store. Then all five of us ate at a pub near the Temple bar area. I tried traditional Irish stew with lamb and it was delicious!!! It was also very wonderful to get to spend time with someone from home.
On Friday, the four of us toured the city of Dublin by a Hop on, Hop off bus. It is a cheap and efficient way to see the city, we paid about fifteen euro and it took us all over Dublin and told us history of the city and the places it stopped along the way. You can get on and off the bus as many times as you want for two days. Our first stop was Trinity College, founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1593 on lands that her father, King Henry VIII , had taken. In the old library (aka my heaven, I almost cried at the beauty of this library, seriously shelves and shelves of the oldest books in the library and you would have to climb a ladder to reach many of the shelves), they have the Book of Kells, an elaborate copy of the Gospels in Latin. It was beautiful. Our next stop was Christ Church Cathedral followed by St. Patrick's Cathedral. Dublin has two cathedrals because St. Patrick's was built outside of the city to avoid paying the high taxes and having to follow all the rules. We also saw Dublin Castle, the Guinness Storehouse (the only real brewery left in Ireland, the rest (and there were many) have disappeared), and the Gaol. The Gaol (Jail) has a museum with lots of information on Ireland's history. During the potato famine many tried to end up in jail because jail food was considered a luxury. Friday night we mostly just hung out in our hostel, we cooked ourselves dinner in the hostel kitchen- piles (literally) of pasta. I also played mom on Friday and Saturday and made us a few sandwiches to get us through the day without spending lots of money on food.
On Saturday, we got up early and took a train to Galway. Galway is a small town so we wandered and saw the sea. I want to live there someday, it's absolutely beautiful. We saw Lynch's castle which is now a bank, St. Nicholas' church (the oldest medieval parish that is still in constant use and where Christopher Columbus visited in 1477!), Eyre Park, and the beautiful Cathedral where I lit a candle for my grandma who passed away this semester and who was very proud of her Irish heritage. I also bought a claddagh ring and we found fresh bagels (which don't exist in Spain) at this little market. When we returned to Dublin, we went to a bar in the Temple Bar Area. We called it a relatively early night but it was another perfect day.
We left at noon from Ireland. Our flight was a little delayed and they told us if we were delayed five more minutes we would have had to stay in Dublin for the night. Thankfully we didn't since we had non-refundable bus tickets from Santander to Oviedo (which takes two to two and half hours). Overall, it was an AWESOME weekend, Ireland and Spain are currently fighting for my heart. I definitely didn't want to leave Ireland even if it meant continuing to share a room with fifteen other people (our hostel was set up kind of like camp style but it was clean and great, nothing to complain about). Also in Ireland, I fit in, I looked like the people and everyone on the street didn't turn around and stare at me like everyday in Oviedo. However, it surprised me how easy it was to switch back to speaking in Spanish and the fact that I missed speaking in Spanish.
Muchos besos!
Ana
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