My time in Dublin is flying by. Going into this trip I was worried that eight weeks in Dublin would feel too long and that it would get lonely being this far from home. But in just over a week, I’ve become great friends with the students in my apartment and the others on the program. There has never been a dull moment on this trip, and I know we’ll talk about the time our bus driver drove into a brick wall for years to come.
It may sound strange but this weekend’s trip to Kilkenny Castle and the Wicklow mountains was the first time it truly set in for me that I am in Ireland. While there is Irish culture all over the city of Dublin, my day-to-day life of waking up and commuting to my internship is like my summer at home. However, the sights from this weekend are absolutely not possible at home. Every picture I took from this excursion look like the paintings of Ireland that I see every time I visit my grandparents’ house. And on the drive from the mountains to the village of Kilkenny, we had a chance to see real Irish country farmhouses with shepherds on the side of the road herding their sheep.
My favorite moment from this trip was a nostalgic moment for me. When I was around nine years old my family took a trip to Ireland where we toured areas like Dingle and Killarney for a week before coming up to Dublin for the Notre Dame vs Navy football game. When we were in Dingle, we discovered an ice cream store called Murphys, that made their ice cream right in town. We went to Murphy’s in each town on our trip, including the one in Dublin. Right before I left my mom asked me if there were any places in Dublin I was going to try and return to from my first trip nearly 11 years ago. My inner-nine-year-old spoke up and said the one place I’d go back to was Murphy’s. When I saw Murphy’s was only a ten-minute walk from our Monday afternoon field trip, the National Museum of Ireland, I knew this was my chance to get Murphy’s again. So, with a few of my friends, we walked over to Grafton Street and got Murphy’s. I am happy to say it was just as good as I remember it being.
However, our day didn’t end there. After getting ice cream we decided to stop at a pub for a quick meal. After sitting down at the table an older Irish gentleman came over to let us know that they only had small meals and he would recommend a place for us if we wanted real pub food. We asked for his recommendation and instead of giving us the name of a restaurant he liked, he called the place and asked them to hold a table for us. He then walked us over and introduced us to the owner of the restaurant. This was by far my favorite meal and story from the trip so far.
I’m looking forward to our next trip, the weekend getaway to Galway. The west coast of Ireland is something I’ve heard great things about so I can’t wait to experience it for myself.
