After seven and a half long weeks, we have finally reached the final few days of the Bucknell Summer in Dublin trip. And while I’m looking forward to making plans with friends back home, no summer will ever be as special to me as this summer spent in Ireland.
On Friday night I went to a small pub with my roommate Will and his dad and brother. The pub had great music and a friendly atmosphere. So friendly, that when Will’s dad asked a local Irish family the name of a song the guitarist had just played, we ended up talking to them for about forty minutes and they even tried getting Will to marry their daughter.
This weekend was our free weekend. My parents flew into Dublin on Saturday morning and we spent most of Saturday exploring the city. It was fun showing them all the pubs and restaurants that we’ve discovered over the past few weeks. By now I feel like I can confidently take people around the city and know what places to try and how to get there just based on what neighborhood it may be in.
On Sunday my parents and I explored Bray and Greystones, two coastal towns about an hour south of downtown Dublin. At work on Friday I was told that Bray was having a little fair this weekend, which I assumed would be a small fair run by local businesses. But as I stepped onto the dart to ride down and meet my parents, I was greeted by one of the most packed trains I have ever seen. Then when I got out I saw that this ‘little fair’ was really one of the biggest carnivals I had ever seen. The rickety rides and rigged games took me back to all the summers I spent working at the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach.
We then climbed to the top of the Bray cliff. The walk was a little steeper than we had anticipated but the view from the top was completely worth it. We ended the night by getting dinner at a great Indian restaurant in Greystones.
To me this was a great final weekend in Dublin. I got to spend time with family, go to my favorite places, and feel like a local. To me this is what studying abroad is all about, learning to feel like you can live in a different place with a different culture. The friends I made and the memories I forged will always be special to me. I am so glad I had this opportunity and I hope future students can take away as much from this program as I did.
