A Fantastic Trip to Ireland

The first week of the second part of the semester has officially started.  Today was my first day of the internship, which was interesting...but more on that later!

Last week Zach and I toured around Ireland, and it was a fabulous trip! We were expecting a rainy week, but ended up having perfect weather! It was not too cold and we didn't get a drop of rain until our last night!) 

We started off in Dublin on Tuesday night, staying only until Wednesday morning.  But we fit in a trip to the Temble Bar, where Zach broke a bar stool, we tried Guinness and heard live Irish music! Wednesday morning we walked to some of the sights like Trinity College, the Dublin Castle and other things.  It was a fun city and I would like to go back sometime when I have more time to spend there. 

Wednesday afternoon we moved on to Sligo, which was personally my favorite part of the trip (and I think Zach would agree!) There we stayed with my Mulligan relatives, Mary and Padraig, who run a bed and breakfast and the largest dairy farm in western Ireland! Wednesday night Zach and I walked around in their area, down to the ocean where there was a lovely beach and cliff walk.  The Sligo countryside is absolutely gorgeous, and exactly what I always pictured Ireland to be.  

It was great to be able to visit with the Mulligans as well.  Padraig, who is a Mulligan cousin, looks so much like my grandfather and the whole family is wonderful.  He and his wife Mary showed us such generosity and hospitality and made us right at home.   

We spent most of Thursday in Sligo as well.  Padraig showed us around the dairy farm in the morning.  They have somewhere around 600 cows and milk them all twice a day.  There were some newborn calves (3 hours old!) that we got to see and we watched the milking process for a while as well.  It was great to be on a farm, but what I loved the most was hearing Padraig talk about it.  It was clear how proud he was of the farm he had completely built up to be one of the most successful in Ireland.  In addition to showing us the farm, he drove us down to Easky, a spot on the coast that is world famous for surfing.  It was gorgeous! On the drive he also showed me the foundation for the house where my great-grandfather lived.  I loved seeing where my family is from! 


After a delicious lunch cooked by Mary, Zach and I climed Knocknarea, the mountain in Sligo that Queen Medhbh/Maeve is supposedly buried on top of.  We had seen this mountain from afar during our whole visit, and we were looking forward to the views from the top.  Seeing Queen Maeve's grave was really great, but the views were even better! We could see everything from up there! It is a flat topped mountain, so we were able to walk all around it and see Sligo from different angles.  The light kept changing as well, making each view different and more beautiful every time we looked.


Thursday night we took the bus to Galway and, once we arrived, we were too tired to see anything.  We got up with the sun (literally) on Friday though and saw Galway Cathedral, the shopping areas and got some breakfast before hopping onto a bus tour.  This tour took us all around Burren National Park, as well as the Cliffs of Moher.  We saw so much along the way- castles, Celtic crosses, small towns, megalith burial sites, and had lunch at O'Connor's pub! The Cliffs were goregous, as was the countryside we passed through to get there.

Saturday was spent in Cork, which we did not see enough of.  We did some exploring Saturday morning, but went to the Blarney Castle in the afternoon which occupied most of our time.  It was a beautiful park, with much more to see than just the Castle and the Blarney Stone.  We did climb the Castle and kiss the Stone (which was much more scary than I had expected!) but also wandered around the grounds.  Saturday night we went out to a nice and relaxing dinner for our last meal in Ireland.

And now it is back to work! Zach flew back to Boston on Sunday and class started up again on Monday.  I'm only taking one class during this phase, British Youth Culture.  It seems great.  We are learning all about how British Youth Culture developed and why it has had such an impact on this country and the rest of the world.  And you can't complain about an academic class that involves listening to and learning about the Beatles and Bowie! 


Today was the first day of my internship.  I am doing two days a week at in the organization's legal office, and the other two days in one of organization's refuges (shelter).  There is another BU student working at the legal office with me, which will be fun.  The people all seem nice and I think it will be a good experience.  I am also excited to be here in London for more than a few days! There is still so much to explore!