This week, we took our first long-weekend trip of the program, to the West Coast of Ireland. It felt more like a traditional vacation than our time in Dublin has been, packed with activities every day to try to see all of the most important spots in the area and discovering great food across the city of Galway where we stayed, as opposed to the more normal-life schedule of Dublin with internships and class meetings and the need to minimize expenses as much as possible, meaning not going out as much. Being able to sightsee and visit all of these beautiful, historic landmarks was so much fun and I’m glad we had enough time on the West Coast to see everything that we did.
Our first stop on the trip was to the Cliffs of Moher, which runs across the water for a good stretch of the coastline and looks out on the Aran Islands (more on them later). Hiking across the hills and looking out on the cliffs was such a great way to start our trip since it was a clear example of my favorite part of this trip: the nature. I really appreciated just seeing and existing in the cliffs and mountains and rivers that are a part of Ireland’s beautiful environment, and those landscapes were in no shortage at the Cliffs of Moher!
After the events of each day, we returned to Galway, a city that was fantastic to explore. Even though we only had a few days there, I feel like I got to know the city and see multiple different aspects of it. From leisurely walks with no particular goal to finding amazing restaurants and seeing live traditional Irish music in a pub, there was plenty of new experiences to discover. The highlight of Galway for me was probably The King’s Head, which is a pub where we stopped for dinner. The food was unbelievable, especially the slaw that came as a side with my meal that was so flavorful, I’m still thinking about it. I’m really glad to have made the most of my evenings and seen what the city had to offer.
The highlight of the weekend was our day on Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands just off the coast of the mainland. We rented bikes for the day and set off to see some of the major sightseeing hotspots that we had been informed of. Along the way, we made stops to pet a horse, feed goats, and walk down to the ocean over the rocky seafront. By the time we started going to the last spot we wanted to see, the Wormhole, we were running out of time before the ferry back to the mainland left. We needed to get off of our bikes and walk the last stretch to the Wormhole, but someone coming back warned us that it was at least a 20 minute walk, meaning we would have been cutting it pretty close. A few of us decided to hurry there and see it quickly before going back. It was a decently far trek, especially over the rocky terrain and with my legs that had spent all day biking, but we made it with enough time that we could definitely make it back in time. It was one of the most fun and exhilarating experiences that I’ve had so far and I’m so glad we hustled out to see one last landmark before leaving, even though the ride back was super difficult after pushing the pace on foot.
