As the program comes to an end, I realized that I was only going to have one more weekend where I could have some fun. So Thrusday, I decided to go to the casino and try my luck at some card games. Unfortunately, the casino that I picked on Google Maps didn’t have any card games and it just had slots so I played slots for half an hour. I left while I was up 5 euro so it wasn’t too bad, but as I was coming back to UCD I got off on the wrong stop (once again) and as I was walking to get a transfer bus, I saw a sign that said “Trivia 8pm on Thursdays”. I look at my phone and it’s 8:02p.m. so I say, “what the heck. Let’s try some trivia!” It was in the basement of a nearby pub and the host was really funny. We were split into different groups and I was paired with a guy named Adam. He’s from Kansas but he works in Shanghai as an English teacher. I asked him if it pays well and he said “I’m on a 2-month vacation trip touring Europe and Thailand, so you tell me”. He was a character!

But this wasn’t any old trivia night. This was a tribunal of skill, wit, and dexterity (kind of). First off, the questions were wacky, such as “what’s longer: a blue whale or 200 big macs?” Adam and I were comparing the size of big macs with our hands, and I’ve never imagined this for a trivia contest. The questions got weirder as we had to name cars from different movies, name the punchline to different jokes, and identify close-up images. Also during the course of the night, we had a paper airplane contest! We made paper airplanes, lined ourselves up one by one, and attempted to fly our airplanes the longest distance. Adam went to get a drink and when he came back and saw the shenanigans he just looked at me and I said, “Don’t ask.” My paper airplane skills are whack so mine barely finished in last place, but I was better at the word search competition. On top of all of this, there were 2 local comedians who were practicing their sets, and so we got to see their acts as well. In the end, team “Uncles With Benefits” finished 4th place so we didn’t get a prize, but it was an entertaining 2 hours, and it only cost 7 Euros!

On Friday, I went to Dicey’s which is a club in downtown Dublin. Everyone in the program talked highly about it so I wanted to check it out and see what the buzz was about. The drinks were 5 Euros for a pint which was already cheap, but I found out that if you go on Mondays they’re actually 2.50 Euros which is insane! I had 5 pints in total that night, and I ended up staying there for 7 and a half hours! I told myself that I would leave by midnight, but I was dancing the whole time and the next time I looked at my phone it was 2:30 in the morning! I decided to stay until they kicked us out which was around 3:30 am, and I got home an hour later. I don’t think I’ll go back there since I got recommendations for other clubs nearby, but I’m glad I had a fun night there!

Saturday morning, I only had 2 hours of sleep because we had to leave at 7 in the morning for our last weekend excursion of the trip. We went to the Hill of Tara which is an ancient and sacred place in the Irish tradition. It’s the site where the high kings of Ireland would go for coronation. Legend has it that when the high king would place their hands on the Stone Of Desinty (pictured above), the hills would shout. Lily (Dean Kepner’s daughter) put her hands on the Stone of Destiny but the hills didn’t shout, but maybe she should try again when she’s older!

After the Hill of Tara, we went to the Loughcrew Passage Tombs which are huge mounds on top of a hill where people buried the dead. They are some of the oldest human-made structures dating back over 7 thousand years, and they were constructed in a way that every spring or autumn equinox the entire chamber lights up and the drawings on the sides of the chambers are visible. We didn’t see anything special since it wasn’t March or September, but it was really cool to see the big mounds, and the view of Ireland from high up was really nice.

The last stop on our excursion wa the Hill of Uisneach, which is an ancient ceremonial site. While there, we saw this statue of the goddess Eriu who created Ireland according to mythology. She made a treaty with the fairies to create Ireland and she protects it. We also walked up to this hill where we could see 20 counties of Ireland, which encompasses over 2/3rds of the counties in Ireland! It’s called the middle of Ireland for a reason, and I thought that was very cool.

That’s all the fun activities I did over the weekend. I was very tired on Sunday so I took a lazy day. I did grocery shopping and I worked on assignments, but other than that I just stayed in my room.

On Monday we had the last excursion for the ENTIRE trip. It was so sad knowing that the whole program wouldn’t be together again since Brad’s leaving early, but we made the best of it. It was a 7km hike which started in the city and looped around the coast which was amazing. The hike itself was less than stellar – it was muddy because it rained the whole night, and the dense vegetation was hard to pass through. It was also a steep climb and I found myself out of breath at a few places, but I kept up with the tour guide pretty well. I’ve been told to “take a hike” lots of times in my life, so good thing I had some practice!

The second half of the hike traced the coastline and it was beautiful seeing the cays, the water, the birds gliding in the distance, and the sillhouettes of mountains and hills peeking through the foggy skyline. We were also told that W.B. Yeats grew up in this area and would walk this trail often. Honestly, this was one of the most picturesque places we visited in Ireland, and I’m glad that we got to do a variety of things in Ireland. I would’ve been upset if we didn’t go on a proper hike this whole time!

Afterwards, my friends and I went to a nearby restaurant to eat. I had a seafood chowder and onion rings, and those were the best onion rings I ever had! The batter was perfectly seasoned, and it had a strong tinge of lime which made it very savory. At first I thought there was cheese inbetween the onion rings because of how surprised I was, but I didn’t see any cheese. The seafood chowder was good, but it didn’t make an impression on me as much as the onion rings did!

That’s all the adventures for this week. I have one last “hurrah” on Thursday to explore the town because I’m going to Paris over the weekend. I already have a few ideas of places I want to go, but we’ll see what the future holds!