Norah Wolff: Week 7 – Welcome to Ireland, Fam!

Titling this week’s blog as Week 7 truly puts into perspective how close we are to be finished up here! As everyone said, it went by so much quicker than I thought it would. The trip my family had for this past week felt so far away at a point in time, and just like that, they had arrived this past Thursday in Dublin. The first day I met up with them was a bit drawn out.. to say the least. I told them to meet me at a restaurant that my friends and I have come to love in the city centre. I had a meeting for my micro internship after work across town and figured it would be a good place for them to wait for me. Of course, it was fully booked on a Thursday at 6pm! In an attempt to find a new location, my sister was trying to FaceTime me. In this moment, my phone was not working at all with its 8% battery; it had no idea where I was and in turn, I had no idea where my family was. To make it better, my calls wouldn’t go through either! Thankfully, my sister was able to track my location. Once we met up, we explored the town and fell upon a restaurant I had yet to go to or heard of. We all were quite starved at this point so everything that came out was very fulfilling! We hopped around to some pubs afterwards and I went home to rest up to do a similar routine on Friday! After work on Friday, I showed them around my workplace and we stopped at Doheny and Nesbitts which is on the street across from where I work. Professor Aikey had told me they had good food and great Guinness and we were not disappointed. Both my sister and cousin had said they could taste a distinct difference from the Guinness they had drank the day prior. With conversations (and Guinness) flowing, we actually stayed here for about 4 hours after work. I would totally recommend it if anyone needed a good bite to eat and hangout at. I also got them to try Bambinos later in the night. I personally was quite upset when they told me they were out of my favorite slice, but at 10PM, most any pizza tastes good.

The next morning, we had the day trip through the Celtic Boyne Valley. Making trips to the Hill of Tara, Trim Castle, Loughcrew Passage Tomb, and Hill of Uisneach, we truly took in the beauty and history of Ireland’s countryside. I am consistently impressed with how much history this country holds and it is beautiful to be able to associate it with the land before you through these stories. Sunday was my last day with my family, so they came to check out my accommodations at UCD before we headed to Blackrock. Throughout our time here, I have found a wonderful footpath to walk to Blackrock on, so we did the 2.5 mile walk there on Sunday morning. We grabbed food at the reliable Italian restaurant, once again (I know I am a creature of habit!). After that, we took a FreeNow back to UCD to change and then their hotel as well. We explored Grafton with the intention of grabbing some souvenirs for their travels and afterwards, took some time to find a comfortable pub to spend our night in. We ended up in a fan favorite, O’Neills, with live music and reminisced on the trip! I had actually forgotten my wallet entirely that night, so after some quick goodbyes, my sister grabbed the first taxi she could and I made my way home.

Unfortunately, the rest of the week has been quite uneventful. I am pretty sure I have the flu! Lots of rest, fluids, and T.V. has been my agenda for the last three days. We are flying out to Mallorca tomorrow evening, which I have been so excited for. Fingers crossed that whatever the pharmacist gave me today works its magic! Regardless, I am happy to be sitting on a beach in the next 48 hours and can not wait to report back on the new city we are exploring this weekend!