Ireland

Part of the program is a 6 day trip to Ireland during the last week of our spring break. We spent the first half on the east coast in Dublin and the second half in the west coast in Galway. When our director said we were taking a ferry over I did not expect the giant ship we took with tables and a restaurant and a little theater section. I guess I didn't realize how many people travel between Ireland and Wales. Unlike Cardiff, there were few arranged tours in Dublin. However, our director gave us a couple walking tours, pointing out different parts such as the Liffey River; Oscar Wilde Memorial, a famous Victorian writer; and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Otherwise we were on our own. We checked out some museums and art galleries, and a group of us attended a Catholic service on Easter. Dublin was OK, it just kind of felt like another big city to me. The only time I really felt I was in Ireland there was when we listened to the Irish bands playing in the pubs. That is quite an experience itself. The pub is literally full of people and pretty much impossible to move around in, and the music varies from folk songs to classic rock.

After a couple of days in Dublin, we packed up and headed to Galway. This was a very different experience from Dublin. It is the fifth largest city in Ireland but still only 1/7 the population of Dublin. Galway is home to the Claddagh ring. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it is a ring with two hands holding a heart with a crown on top, representing friendship, love, and loyalty. Before I came here I didn't know that different positions for the ring meant different relationship statuses. When on the right ring finger, it means single if the heart points toward the fingertip and taken if pointed inward. When on the left hand it means engaged or married. Our director gave us short walking tour of Galway, too, and on this tour we visited the Galway Cathedral. This one doesn't have the same Gothic architecture like most of the others, the inside is mostly marble. What is interesting about this cathedral is that right next to a mosaic of Jesus Christ is a smaller one of John F Kennedy. He was the first US president to visit Ireland and first Irish Catholic president so the Irish have great respect for JFK.

During our time in Galway, we visited the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. We took a ferry, this one more like what I had expected the first time, to the largest of the Aran Islands and biked around it all day long. I haven't rode a bike in a ridiculously long time so I didn't like the biking at all. It took away from enjoying the amazing views because I was too busy trying not to accidentally swerve into on coming traffic. We did get off the bikes for a little bit though to see the cliffs (top left). They were incredible! You have to lay on your stomach for safety but you can go right up the edge and look over. They drop straight into the ocean. We had fun there taking pictures and looking over the edge. The Cliffs of Moher (right) which we saw the following day were even more impressive because they are twice as tall, the highest being about 700 ft. Most of the cliffs are fenced off because it is Ireland's most visited attraction, but a group of us took a little dirt path that lead to an open spot. We took more pictures of us on the edge and loaded the bus to head back to Galway. That night a group of us walked over to the bay and watched the sunset (bottom left), making a perfect last night to out trip in Ireland.