Emilia Lucas Week 5: Baaa-fast and Derry-oke

We kicked off our fifth week in Dublin very patriotically, with the Fourth of July. My coworkers, all fascinated by the first American they have worked with, greeted me with wishes of a happy fourth, and I was even let off of work a half hour early to start my celebration! It was sad to not spend the Fourth of July in the good old U.S. of A., but we kept spirits high playing Bruce Springsteen and cooking up some hot dogs before heading out for a fun night! It’s safe to say that being away from our home on the Fourth did not stop us from celebrating.

Saturday morning we headed to the bus, our spirits still high from the night before! We stopped at the Titanic Belfast Museum, something I’ve been looking forward to this whole trip! This trip was one of the more enjoyable ones out of the historical trips we’ve taken in my opinion, especially because I could relate my previous knowledge to what I was seeing and reading in the museum. Upon arrival in Belfast, Kiki, Lucie and I went for a short walk around the town nearby, stopping for some gelato and at a second hand store. We went for dinner at a beautiful restaurant on Saturday night and enjoyed the new city scenery!

My favorite parts of the weekend trip were the locations we visited on Sunday. I was so excited for the Carrick-a-Rede trip we took that morning and was encouraging myself during the bus ride to not be afraid of the height. The bridge actually ended up being shorter and easier to cross than I thought! We enjoyed our view of the teal waters below and kept moving on to the Giant’s Causeway. I, myself, am a bit of a geology fanatic, so my favorite parts of this trip were hearing about how these unique formations came to be and, of course, the tale of the Giant himself! In Derry we also enjoyed ourselves exploring the new area. Unfortunately it was impossible to find somewhere still serving dinner, but we found some classic Irish pubs–one with live music and one where WE could be the live music! That night, I checked an item off my bucket list for this trip, which was to sing karaoke! Lucie, Kiki, and I serenaded the small crowd with a lovely rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and I might be biased, but I think we absolutely killed it.

We happily slept in on Monday and the attended the Derry Walking Tour, which led to the museum all about Bloody Sunday. I very much enjoyed this visit because I had previously done a project in school relating U2’s song ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ to the actual event, so I had some previous knowledge about it. By Monday night, we were very excited to return to Dublin.