On what was supposed to be a more calm and laid back week, I somehow managed to tire myself out just the same. From the night spent at the Irish House Party to playing Gaelic sports, I had my fair share of activities and moving around.
On Thursday, our whole group went to the Irish House Party for dinner and a show afterwards. This was definitely an experience which I did not see coming. I went into the night blindly with little knowledge of what was to come. We started the night out with a relaxing 3 course dinner. For my main dish I picked a traditional Irish beef stew which turned out to be amazing and the brownie with ice cream to follow was a great way to wrap up dinner. Someone then came into the room and brought everyone there down below the restaurant to a room that was set up for a show with a stage. They played Irish music and drew the whole crowd into the performance which was really interesting. The music was not something that I was used to but they were great at performing and overall the night was a great experience.
Saturday was our first day of the trip without a day-long excursion to somewhere else in Ireland so I was looking forward to relaxing. Although the day ended up being super fun, it was the opposite of a relaxing day. Max, Tennyson and I went golfing early in the morning at Grange Castle Golf Club just on the outskirts of Dublin. The course was super nice and well kept and it was sitting just below the base of the mountains which surround Dublin, making it beautiful. Everything there was beautiful except for my golf swing. Throughout the day I was hitting bad shots and not playing the best golf I’ve played. Although I didn’t play well, we weren’t taking it too seriously so it was a great time to go out and play with friends.
After a brutal two hour long bus ride home, we had decided to do a quick turnaround to hop on another 2 hour long bus/train to Howth. The weather was amazing so there was no reason to not spend some time at the beach. In Howth we met up with a few other friends and spent the next few hours lying on the beach and swimming in the cold atlantic ocean. On the way out of Howth we stopped and grabbed dinner and I have never had a fish and chips so good in my life. I would go back there just to get the food again.
Sunday everyone met up at the Gaelic Games Experience on the north side of Dublin. This was definitely one of the most fun single experiences we have done so far on the trip. We learned how to play Gaelic Football, handball and hurling. After brief introductions on how to play all the sports we got onto the field and tried them out. We were given small lessons on how to actually play and then we jumped into a game against one another. I got a good grasp on how to play Gaelic football but when it came to hurling, I found out for the second day in a row, I should avoid sports that involve swinging sticks to strike a ball. I missed the ball many times and struggled to get it off the ground when it came to actually participating in the game. There were very few people that were genuinely good at hurling on their first attempt which made me feel better and it also made it enjoyable to watch everybody run around a field struggling to get the ball off the ground. Although it was a tiresome experience it was the best way to round out the week.
