As sad as it was to leave Dublin this morning, we all packed up and started the long journey for Killarney this morning. We made two stops along the way- Clonmacnoise and Clarney castle. These were both two beautiful, scenic places of Ireland to visit. Clonmacnoise is located along the Shannon River in Galway. It’s an old beautiful monastery that was built for religious worship. It’s tall, cylinder shaped domes are indicators for monasteries. Although this place is gorgeous and was built in a desolate area in Ireland, it was often pillaged by vikings in the past. The beautiful mountains and green lands surrounding this place allows you to feel how it probably was back when monks were using the place. Clonmacnoise was built in its current location due to the scenery around it, and it was very beautiful. The weather was warmer today than it has been. One thing we haven’t mentioned is that it is COLD here. We often are bundled in three layers of clothing and are still cold. Today, however, had a nice ray of sun continuously shining, making this the perfect day for sight seeing.

The Clarney castle was also a beautiful place to visit, however I cannot agree that it was as beautiful as Clonmacnoise. The castle was under construction, therefore certain parts were cut off of the tour. But Ireland’s beauty around the hill of the castle was breath taking, with mountains and green lands in every direction.

Tomorrow we will be taking a scenic route on foot around mountains and get a first hand glance at Ireland’s beauty by becoming a part of it for a day. I cannot wait.

Clonmacnoise

On the bus tour

After a total of about 13 hours traveling we made it to Dublin! The local time here when we arrived was approximately 9am while back at home it was 3am. Needless to say, by the time we got off of the plane, we were all exhausted. However, too much to see in such a short time so we jumped right into our city tour, leaving most of the group with less than 2-3 hours of sleep to run on. Wooo. Coffee was my first mandatory stop. Just to warn y’all, I got about 2 hours and am writing this particular blog on sleep deprivation so please bear with me.

From what we’ve seen of Dublin though, it is gorgeous here! One thing that makes this place so unique is how the city almost crams a lot of activity into small areas. It doesn’t sound so nice when you hear it like that,

but when you walk into coffee shops and local stores, it just makes the place super homey. The numerous coffee shops here also have some of the best lattes and espresso drinks on this earth!

One thing I also love about Dublin is the lively activity within the city. I always believed Ireland to be a very laid back place, so to see how the streets are packed and all the people walking around and riding their bikes was pretty surprising to see.
Well, I’m going to go get some sleep before dinner tonight. As our main tour for the day, we rode on these two story buses called “hop on, hop offs” that were touristy buses that took you to the main areas of the city like the Guinness factory, Jameston factory, and the Trinity college. Considering our sleep deprivation though, we are going to save those spots for tomorrow. We just rode on the tops of the buses where the roof was cut, giving us a pretty cool experience of just seeing the place. We did go visit the Church of Christ Cathedral today though! It was probably the most beautiful church I have ever seen.

It was very large with carved stone walls and inside there was a man playing the organ. A crypt also laid below the church which we were able to tour- kinda creepy but also pretty neat.

So … tomorrow we leave Ireland for home. While at first the time seemed to linger on, the last few days have sped up and soon the Emerald Isle will only be remembered in photographs – literal and mental.

The last two days have been full of history and museums as students explored St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church, the National Museum and Kilmainham Gaol. Of these, the latter certainly made an impression as our spirited tour guide filled our time there with vivid details and short stories about the people who had been housed and executed within those walls.

Many students also did their own exploration of Dublin during their free time and besides meticulously picking out the best souvenirs and other trinkets, some visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Writers Museum. A couple of eager theatre-goers were wowed by the production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at the Gate Theatre.

It is clear by reading the student journals that everyone had a really good time on this study tour. Some embraced every moment, others adjusted to travelling with a group, and others rose to the occasion of being away from everything familiar. What can be said for sure is that we were all determined to enjoy ourselves … and we did!

We arrived in Dublin in the warmest weather we have seen the whole trip. This made for a great walking tour of the city, where students got the chance to become acclamated to the layout: O’Connell Street, the River Liffy, Trinity College, St. Stephen’s Green and of course, Grafton Street. We had one major stop at the General Post Office – best known as the site of the Easter Rising of 1916. The students will have a couple of free afternoons before we leave on Thursday when they can explore some of the many well known sites in this bustling city.

Students at Trinity College in Dublin

While some students were relieved to be back in a major city, full of people and traffic – even for a Sunday – others were noticeably stunned, given the vast contrast to the realtively sleepy towns we had been in recently. But this morning they were all ready to go. First stop – Trinity College library, which houses the Book of Kells and the Long Room. Many students loved the smell of the old books and were amazed by the display of such ancient writings.

Then it was off to the National gallery just down the street, where we viewed works by not only Irish artists such as Jack Yeats, but also saw pieces by other renowned European artists including Renoir and Kahlo. The Harry Clarke exhibit of illustrations for Hans Christian Andersen was as delightful as the design of the stained glass windows we had seen in Dingle.

This afternoon many students took off to tour the Guinness and Jamieson factories. After all, how could one come to Dublin and not do that?

We set out on Sunday morning from Kilkenny – bound for Dublin – the most anticipated stop on the study tour. But there was one special stop along the way – Glendalough. Those of us who had been there before hoped for great weather, which provides the best backdrop for the monastic site and natural environment at this special location in the the heart of the Wicklow mountains.

Although a little fatigued, students were blown away by this place. Sure, they had seen ruins of castles and monasteries throughout the trip, but the imposing round tower at this site made it different. The nature buffs in the group were wowed by the long walking trail under the trees, which provided some shade from the sun. While there were many other visitors to Glendalough that day, student sat in small groups along the edge of the lake to enjoy their picnic lunch.