My Final Week in Ireland

I officially made it to my final week in Ireland, so I knew I had to pack everything in that I could. Even though I’ve been in this country for over three months, there were still so many things that I wanted to do and see, but one semester would not be enough for everything. However, I still had some final essays to write for some of my classes. 

On my final Saturday here, three of my friends and I finally made our way to Dingle by two trains and one bus. It was not easy, but we were there about 5 ½ hours later, and I was able to get a good amount of my homework done. Dingle is a small town on the west coast of the country with some of the best scenic views. We got to walk around and enjoy ice cream because it was sunny and decently warm out, which is quite unusual. We then went on a boat tour and learned some history about the area and enjoy more views. The next day, we went on a walk outside the town and just kept passing farms and lots of widespread land. We stopped when we saw lots of sheep and lambs, and just admired them for a little while, and then a man drove by in his truck and stopped when he saw us looking at the sheep. He then told us that he had lambs in the back of his truck that we could hold, so we said yes. We ended up holding a lamb that was just born earlier that morning who was very sweet and was clearly just learning how to make noise. After he left, we saw dozens and dozens of more sheep, but also saw lots of cows that were very sweet as well. I really enjoyed all the animals in Dingle and was sad to go, but the journey back to Dublin was beautiful, especially at sunset. 

The next day, I woke up very early to do a guided tour throughout Northern Ireland, which was very exciting. I had gone to Belfast my second weekend abroad, but I did completely different things on this day. The tour bus took a large group of people to Giants Causeway, a really cool tourist site in the northern coast of the island. It was formed from a volcano, but it is formed in a satisfying way that makes it almost look manmade. We then went to the Dark Hedges, a street made popular from Game of Thrones, although I have never seen the show. The man living on the property built trees along the road a couple hundred years ago, and the area is now another place that tourists love to visit. Our final big stop for the day was the Titanic Exhibition in Belfast, something I was sad to miss out on when I first went to Belfast. The ship was built in this city, so it was really interesting and informational seeing all that the museum had, including models of rooms that were on the ship.  

The rest of the week I wanted to go to some new places, but I also wanted to go back to some of my favorite places one final time. This meant I was spending lots of money and buying lots of souvenirs, but I knew I had to end this semester in a great way because I will miss it dearly.