Christmas In Ireland

Okay this is a little late, but since being home and trying to get back into my daily routine at WMU, I have had a lot going on. Besides that I want to talk about my last week in Ireland. It was unforgettable and it was all because of the amazing people that were with me for my last few days of adventuring.

To start it off, in my previous blog post, I talked about how my mom, dad and two sisters were coming to "pick me up" from Ireland and how we were all going to have a family vacation while spending Christmas there. Well I am going to tell you all about our family vacation.

To truly start from the beginning, I had one last final to take to then be finished with all assignments and classes at University College Dublin (UCD) and that was on Friday December 21. That particular day was the last day of finals all together so it was nice to be able to get it over with and have the ability to spend Christmas not worrying about classes. Now did you know that UCD is one of the only schools in Ireland to have their final exams before Christmas break? Almost all the other major colleges in Ireland allow their students to have break, then take exams leading into the second semester. It is quite bizarre, but I was so thankful that UCD had exams before break so I could relax and not have to worry about how I was going to take my finals, especially since I would be back in America when other students would be taking their exams. Anyways, with my family's flight getting in that same Friday morning at around 5:30 or so, it worked out that they just went straight from getting their bags and the rental car, to then go straight to the Guiness tour they booked instead of trying to rush and get to campus to see me before my exam since it was at 9 a.m. Of course now my family is very persistent so I received a phone call from my dad while I was getting ready at around 7:30 a.m. I answered it with confusion, but all he said was can you let us in? I was so confused, but then after processing what he said, I ran down the two flights of stairs to my apartment lobby and finally saw my family after just four short months. It was an amazing surprise, so after bringing them up to my apartment, showing them my room and everything else, we packed up my bags into the car and I checked out of my dorm at UCD. Due to it being around 8 a.m., we were all pretty hungry so we headed towards my exam hall and we stopped to get some breakfast. We ended up going to the Herbert Hotel which was actually the hotel mom and I stayed at while mom was dropping me off in Ireland in September. We all had breakfast, talked for a bit, and then once it hit 8:40, I walked to my exam hall. It was just across the street from the hotel so that worked out nicely. Once I left the hotel, my family then made their way to their 9:30 a.m. tour with the Guinness Factory.

I took my exam pretty quickly, then ordered a taxi to go meet my family at Guinness. Once arriving to Guinness, I asked the people working there if I could go up to the gift shop just to meet my family, but because you needed a ticket, I obviously couldn't go. One of the guards started talking to me and she asked me where I was from and why I was in Ireland. I told her that I studied at UCD and now my family is here, well actually upstairs at the time, "picking me up". Once she found out I went to UCD, she grabbed the other security guard. The other security guard was obsessed with UCD and praises it so much that when he found out I went to school there and loved it, he let me go past and go meet up with my family upstairs. I took the elevator up to the observation deck, but as I was going up the flights of stairs, my entire family was coming down. It was funny because since the elevator doors were glass, I waved to them as I was going up. I of course got back down, we stayed and looked in the gift shop for a bit, and then we left and made it back to the car. Since they finished their tour and I checked out of my dorm, there was nothing left for us to do besides make our 4 hour drive to Kenmare, Ireland.

Kenmare is the adorable little town we stayed in for the entire rest of our trip. The reason why we chose this small southern town is because, years ago, my mom and grandma were in Kenmare and my mom loved it so much, that she thought we should spend Christmas there because it is such an adorable little town where everyone knows everyone. Let me tell you, she was right. The town was absolutely adorable and it was just the perfect vacation because of the town.

So once arriving into Kenmare, we drove to our little cottage that we rented and unloaded the car. It was such cute place and the best part about it, was the owner decorated a bit to make it feel more homey plus she put up some Christmas decorations, and that to me especially made me happy. The entire house was so cute. The rooms were adorable, as well as the bathrooms were nice, and there were these gorgeous windows where you could see my mountains and the views were just breathtaking early in the morning. It was truly an amazing house and we were so excited to get to live in it for 7 days.

After we stopped admiring the cottage and unloaded the car, we walked around the little town and stopped for some dinner. We ate at this little pub called P.F. McCarthy's. We then ate our food and because of how tired everyone was, we walked back to the house, settled in more and we all went to bed pretty early. Now on Saturday, it was technically our family's first full day in Ireland and our all first full day in Kenmare. We decided that we were going to explore Kenmare and get to know the little town. We woke up early-ish and went directly to a cute little coffee shop called Maison Gourmet. We walked around more, went to different shops where I got a new pair of boots and then we went to get some food and a drink at this bar called Thady Quills. The bar tender wasn't the nicest so once we finished our drink we decided to get lunch somewhere else. We ended up going to this other pub called Foley's. Mom and I both got burgers that kind of looked and tasted like meat loaf, so that was unfortunate, but we enjoyed our time there and I think everyone else enjoyed their meal. We then went to a clothing store called Weaver's where Kaelyn bought some stuff as well as I think so did mom and dad. We then walked to the Kenmare pier which the views were so pretty, even at night. Now after the pier, we started our own pub crawl. We started at this pub called Wander Inn. We stayed there for about 2 hours and it was a fun time. We listened to live music, we met these very drunk Irish men who were flirting with Kaelyn and calling the entire table gorgeous, while also being oblivious to the fact that my dad was there. It was a fun time, not going to lie. After that bar, we made our way back to P.F. McCarthy's for more rounds. We stayed there for a bit then went to get some food at this sort of fast food place called Roma's. I was so hungry and so was everyone else, but I just really wanted fries so I was quite determined you could say. There is a funny story that goes along with this night and about fries, so ask my family and they will tell you. Spoiler alert, it's about an intoxicated Taylor. Anyways, we then went back to Thady Quills where mom and I were very tired so we walked back to the house earlier than Erin, Kaelyn and Dad. Mom and I got ready for bed, which then dad scared me because he actually got home about 5 minutes after mom and I did, but then we went to bed. Erin and Kaelyn got home later which is another funny story, but then we were all in bed by like 2:30 a.m.

Sunday was a fun day. Sunday morning, we all woke up, reminisced on the night before, got ready and went to noon mass and then went to go venture out for the day. We were on our way to the Cliffs of Kerry and Portmagee so it was about an hour to an hour and a half ride, but while we were driving, we saw this little divot in the road so we decided to get out and see what it was. We walked down this muddy slope and saw the water. We walked on a part of the land that was shown only because it was low tide, but with the low tide, the ocean, the fog and the trees surrounding us, it was amazing. The view was just crazy. So after our little adventure, we got back in the car and continued our drive. We were all hungry so we stopped in the town called Sneem and got some food at this little diner called Village Kitchen. Now at this little diner, I got hot chocolate because of course and with how many marshmallows were on this drink, it was crazy, and plus the drink was so creamy and delicious that it has left an imprint in my brain. Okay I'm done talking about hot chocolate. So to continue on, after lunch, we continued our drive again. We then arrived at the Cliffs of Kerry. Because of how foggy and rainy it was out, there was absolutely no one else there so it was nice to have the view all to ourselves. Because of the fog though, the view wasn't as pretty as it could have been on a sunny day plus we weren't able to see Valentia Island which is the island just off the coast of the Cliffs of Kerry and that is where Jedi Island is. Anyways, we walked all the way to both tops of the cliffs and still was taken aback by the views. Once we left the cliffs, even though it was only around 6/6:30 p.m., we all decided that we should just go back to our cottage because the weather was so crappy. Once the bumpy, yet fun, car ride was over with, we arrived back in Kenmare, but we arrived to a surprise.

Alright so to go more in depth with the surprise that was waiting for us upon our arrival back to Kenmare. Spoiler alert, it was not a fun surprise. So we got back to our cottage and Erin took the house keys so she could go inside and go to the bathroom, now as she is entering the house, she told us that she heard a weird sound. She opened up the door to see part of the house flooded. So what happened was their water tank was older and the seam burst on the back of it. Of course each of us started freaking out because we thought it was our fault. We were concerned that someone left the sink or bathtub running, but we then realized that it was no one's fault. Now because it was on the second floor, and with no one turning off the water, it just kept flowing. What we saw though was water gushing out of the electrical sockets as well as water gushing out of the smoke detector on the ceiling under the bathroom as well as the walls were wet and some light switches were even starting to mold. It was a very interesting sight, but so I tried going to help my dad by telling him what was wrong with the other room so as I was doing that, of course only me, I slipped on the water fell on my right hip and knee. So for those of you that know how crappy my legs are, you can imagine how I felt. I have to say though that during the fall I was laughing because what was going through my brain was "of course it was me", but then once I stood up and put pressure on that leg, the laughing went away. To take the subject away from me though, we all packed up our stuff faster than we ever have in our entire lives so we packed up the car and the owner of the house found us somewhere else to stay, still in Kenmare and walking distance to town, but just on the opposite side of town. The new house was more modern and kind of hotel like, but we were just happy we were all safe. We played some card games and just had fun the rest of that night. That night day we grabbed the rest of our stuff from the old cottage and grabbed some things we new we were going to need, including the small fake Christmas tree that was there because of course there are priorities. Monday morning we all woke up and decided to drive the Ring of Beara. The Ring of Beara was said to be an even prettier view than the Cliffs of Kerry and it is less touristy, so we decided to do it. Kaelyn wasn't feeling too good that day, so she stayed back. Erin, mom, dad and I continued on with the road trip. We found this place called the Pulleen Loop which ended up being this cave. Erin and I walked down into the cave and it was such a beautiful view. It reminded me of in stories where mermaids would lure in sailors to their death. Something funny though was in the cave, Erin fell and her phone fell in between some rocks and into the water. She luckily found it, but then as we are exiting the cave, I fell and this one for both of us left huge bumps and bruises. After the cave, we met up with mom and dad on top of the cave by the cliffs and the view was gorgeous as per usual. Of course though while walking back down the cliff, I fell again, as did Erin, twice, and then my mom fell and lost balance once too. Dad didn't fall if that doesn't surprise anyone. So after seeing the Loop, we continued our drive. We found a family cemetery called Kilcatherine Church Cemetery. Almost everyone buried there was related so it was cool to see the older generation's burial sites as well as recent people's sites. After that we got some late breakfast in a cafe called Cindy's Cafe. We then drove back to Kenmare and we were all so tired that mom, dad and I took a nap. Kaelyn and Erin went out to a few pubs while we were sleeping, but we met up with them and continued on drinking and eating. Since it was Christmas Eve though, a lot of things were closes, but we met up at Thady Quills again, got a drink then went to a pub called the Horseshoe. We ate dinner there which almost everyone got King Prawns and they were delicious, but I got chicken stir fry and it was the best stir fry I've ever had. I loved it so much. So after that we started walking home. We stopped at their little park on the walk home and to see the sleigh, reindeer and the trees lit up was so cute. It was a really good Christmas Eve night.

Tuesday was a fun day as well. Now with it being Christmas Day, we woke up, ate some breakfast and I gave everyone their presents. I think everyone really liked what I got them so it made me very happy. After presents we then got ready for noon mass. We walked to church, participated in mass and then walked back to the house. Now since I wasn't home for Thanksgiving, mom went all out and we had a Thanksgiving meal for Christmas dinner. It ended up working out well because in Ireland, their traditional Irish Christmas meal is a turkey anyway so that was cool. We ate around 3 or 4 or so. The meal was absolutely delicious so we were all stuffed full for a while. We changed out of our church clothes and played some cards games. Once it got later on in the night, we ate some pie and then played more games. We laughed, told stories and had a great time. We watched a show called Mrs. Brown's Boys which was annoyingly funny, but after that we all went to bed. I have to say it was a really fun Christmas night.

Now it is Wednesday and it is really hitting me that I only have a few more days left in this amazing country. To finish the trip out with a bang, we finished our driving adventures. Wednesday morning, we woke up early and drove to Cork because that is where Blarney Castle is and the family wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone. Before we went to the castle, we were all pretty hungry so we tried finding somewhere open to eat. The only unfortunate part was the day after Christmas Day is St. Stephen's Day so almost everything was closed. We were able to go to the Blarney Hotel just for some coffee, tea and bread which was nice. After that we went to the castle. Dad, Erin and Kaelyn were able to kiss the stone, and I was able to kiss it for a second time. Mom didn't want to kiss it since she has already kissed it twice, but we then walked through the entire castle before the stone, then after the stone we stopped the cafe, got something warm to drink then admired the beautiful grounds. As we walked through the grounds, we saw the witch stone, the rock close which I was the only one who could stand up straight in it and then the jungle we saw too. I was able to hide in the area for hermets and I scared Erin by grabbing her foot. It was quite funny, not going to lie. After Blarney we walked to Blarney Wollen Mills, but they were closed. We then didn't stay in Cork because everything was closed so we just drove to Kilarney straight away. Almost as soon as getting there, we stopped for food because it was around noon and we were starving. We went to a pub called Danny Mann and we ate some lunch. After that, we walked around and went into some shops. The same thing was in Kilarney though, everything was closed. A few stores were open though so we went into Quills where we stayed for a bit and each of us got another Irish sweater which didn't surprise me one bit. My mom really wanted to go to Kilarney Wollen Mills, but it wasn't a store, it was just a tour of different things so we decided against it. We then went into a few different stores, bought some stuff then we left and made our way back to Kenmare. We dropped our stuff off at the house and went back out to some pubs. We went to Thady Quills first, then P.F. McCarthy's and then the Horseshoe. We were all hungry again though so mom and I went back to Roma's to get pizzas for all of us. We ate them then mom, dad and I went back to the house because all of our bodies were hurting so Erin and Kaelyn stayed out.

Thursday morning we woke up and drove to the Dingle Peninsula, which was absolutely breathtaking. Within about an hour or so we stopped at a cafe called Sammy's cafe which was in Inch, Ireland. The cafe was right on the beach and there were some people surfing, so we all decided to walk down to the beach and admire the view. I really wanted to go into the water, so Erin and I decided we would both go. Don't get me wrong the water was freezing, to the point of when you're in your feet would go numb, but I loved being in the ocean. The sun was beautiful beyond the mountains and I loved the view of the ocean. It was by far one of my favorite views that we had seen on that particular trip that I was with my family. After the beach we continued on the Dingle Peninsula to reach the actual town of Dingle. On our way we stopped at a lot of little nooks in the road. We saw gorgeous out stretched land as well as Conor's Pass which is an area just outside of Dingle that we found. It is one of the highest areas in Dingle so that was super cool to see. After our sight seeing we went to the town of Dingle. We strolled around for a bit and went in some stores, decided that we wanted to do a Dingle Distillery tour, but later on in the day because at that point in time, we really wanted to go get some food. We went to a place called Murphy's Pub which was really good. After that we walked around more and made our way to the Dingle Distillery. We were able to taste their whiskey and either their vodka or gin, but each of us got one or the other so we all shared and were able to taste both. We learned all about the distillation process so that was super cool to see. After that we made our way back to our car and drove to the Shire pub. It was a pub in Kilarney that was made after the Lord of the Rings. We waited for a bit, but then got a table and ate some food. The food wasn't that good, but the atmosphere was pretty cool and with a place like that it didn't really surprise me. We were all pretty full and tired after that so we drove back to Kenmare since we were leaving early the next morning. Of course on the ride back, we drove through Kilarney National Forest and because of how dark it was, it felt very haunted so we were all just ready to be back in our rooms and beds for the night.

Friday morning was the day we were driving back to Dublin, so to me I was very excited to be back in the city I called home for four months. During the entire trip to Kenmare, I loved being in that town and venturing out to different towns, but I missed Dublin a lot more than I was expecting. Anyways, we woke up early, finished getting all packed up, loaded up the car, went to Weaver's the store from the first day so I could get the sweater I have been eyeing down that entire week, then we drove back to Dublin. We only stopped once to get gas and to go to the bathroom, so we ended up getting to Dublin right on the 4 hour mark. We drove straight to the hotel, checked in, dropped off our bags, then walked to the Jameson Factory since we booked a tour for it. The walk was about 45 minutes and it was around 55 minutes until our tour started so we weren't necessarily walking fast, but we were not leisurely walking either. We got to Jameson right on time so that was nice, and then we learned about the distillation process for Jameson. It was pretty similar to the Dingle Distillery process, but there were some differences. It was still a pretty cool factory since that was where the Jameson factory originally started. After the tour we were able to get a free drink included in our tour so we all got our drink and enjoyed the rest of being in the factory. We then walked across the River Liffy and went to the Brazen Head pub. Erin really wanted to go since there is a bar in our home town called Brazen Head plus it is the oldest bar in Dublin. It was cool to go again and actually sit down this time, since when mom and I went months ago, it was so crowded we couldn't sit, but after that we got a cab and went back to Grafton Street. We were planning on going to this place called Bunsen's that I really liked, but the wait was too long so we started walking towards the Temple Bar district where we found a bar called the Old Storehouse. We all really enjoyed our meal and we met some cool people who sat next to us, so all in all it was a good dinner. After dinner, we started our last night bar crawl. We started at a bar called Bad Ass where Kaelyn's best friend Kasia met up with us because she was in Dublin visiting her friend who lived there. We then went to Temple Bar and stayed there for a bit. We went to another bar, but it was way too hot in there so we left. We wanted to go back to the hotel so mom, dad, Erin and I walked back. Kaelyn stayed out with her friends which was nice for her to enjoy Dublin with them too. Mom, dad, Erin and I went to the hotel bar for a bit, but then went back to our rooms to go to bed. Kaelyn got back probably a half hour after we got back upstairs so Erin and I were still awake when she got back to the room. We then all went to bed.

Saturday. Now what a busy day. We all woke up around 6/6:30 a.m. so we could leave the hotel and get to the airport with enough time to go through Ireland customs and USA Pre-clearance. We got to the airport, weighed our bags, put some stuff of mine and dad's in other's bags, but once we were all good with weight, we dropped them off and made our way to the Are Lingus lounge. We stayed there for about an hour and a half. We ate some food and drank some drinks and then went through customs and pre-clearnace. Once through there, we waited at our terminal until we were called to board the plane. We then boarded the plane and for the plane ride, I watched some movies, listened to some music and wrote my last journal entry into my travel journal. It was a bittersweet moment to put my last sticky pictures into it as well as write my last ever travel journal entry. I paced it out pretty good because I only had one page out of the entire journal that I didn't use.

So pretty much you could say that I am very excited to look back and read this journal when I'm older to remember all the amazing things that I did and experienced while abroad. As well as remember the girl I became and grew into and to always live life to the fullest. I know that so many people that study abroad would always say "oh my gosh, study abroad changed my life. I'm an entirely different person, blah blah blah." Well I knew that I would enjoy my time studying abroad, but I didn't really realize how much I did love it and how much it did change me until I got home. Study abroad really did change my life, because you want to know what it did? It made me a more confident person. I still am not fully confident, but now I know how I should be treated, I know how to try and make the most of all that life has to offer and I know that no matter what, I love myself. I loved my experience while being abroad and I strongly recommend it to anyone that is on the fence about it. Go out and experience the world and find yourself in the process. It is worth it, I promise.