Being Halfway and Northern Ireland

Hello from Dublin! The past few weeks have gone flying by, I am halfway through with my program. Even though it has only been about three weeks, I feel like I have been here much longer. Between meeting new friends, taking classes, and exploring the city, it seems like I have packed in months’ worth of experiences into a small amount of time.

This past weekend IES Abroad sponsored a field trip to Northern Ireland. This was truly a unique opportunity to visit historically and culturally significant sites without having to do the planning. In Belfast, we visited the Peace Wall and got to leave our own messages of hope and peace. It was really uplifting and inspiring to read what other people had written particularly with the political climate we live in today. We also got to spend a few hours exploring the Giants Causeway which has been a bucket list location for me. I walked around with my friend Emily who is scared of heights so we did the cliff hike holding hands, which was more comical than anything. We stayed in a beach town called Portrush. For a beach town it was too cold to be at the beach, and I don’t think anyone has gotten tan there in years, but it was a super cute town to explore for a few nights.

For my roommate, the best part of the trip was visiting Game of Thrones filming locations, but for me, this was just a fun walk around a castle as I have not seen the show. For me, the best part of the trip was being able to meet people on my program who I might not have talked to before. Meeting new people has probably been the best part of this program so far. At home I usually stick to the same group of people, but this trip has really shown me that it is really easy to make new friends, and how sometimes it is the person you least expect to be friends with that you end up doing the most with.

Although it was lovely to get out of the city and to see more of the country side, it was wonderful to come back to Dublin. I have truly fallen in love with the city. My favorite time of day is sunset because the whole sky turns pink. This is the best time to walk around, and I often go for long walks to get ice cream when it is sunset. Dublin is a super fun city to be in, there is always something going on. This weekend I have plans to go see the musical Once. Last week in Iveagh Gardens there was taste of Dublin. Even though I missed it, this last weekend was Dublin Pride, which I heard was super fun. There are always live music somewhere. Despite having been here for three weeks, and feeling like I know my way around the city fairly well, I still feel like I have so much more to do and see. I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring!