This spring break, a few friends and I travelled to Dublin, Ireland! I thought that, while I’m missing Trinity College and live music, I should write about my most memorable experiences from my trip.
My favorite thing that we did was walk around aimlessly and explore the city with little to no agenda. Our daily regimen was as follows: find a place for brunch, go to one planned attraction, continue exploring until it was time for dinner, and then finish the day with drinks and live music. We easily became familiar with the city and stumbled upon some places that we otherwise wouldn’t have. One of these areas was St. Stephen’s green. This is actually a very popular place in the city, but we hadn’t done too much research on it before visiting. On our third day, my friend Melina and I walked around poking into little shops and cafes, and then stumbled upon the most beautiful park that we hadn’t even planned to visit. It was the perfect escape from the city, and it completely transformed our day. Big, beautiful trees adorned the space, as well as water fountains, swans, ducks, and the most gorgeous flowers. I could have spent hours in there, but we had much more walking to do!
One of my other favorite experiences was actually travelling outside of Dublin, and visiting Galway. One of my friends has family who lives there, and after we spent a few hours in the city center, they brought us to the countryside. It was absolutely beautiful, and such a special escape from the busy city. Something that I noticed about Dublin and Galway is that both city centers are quite small, and sometimes, can feel repetitive. However, travelling outside of these main areas is so rewarding. In the western countryside we were greeted by horses, cows, sheep, and goats. The coastal waters welcomed us, and, since we were visiting and coming from a dark, Bostonian winter, the greenery took our breath away. This experience was also so rewarding because of how personalized it was. We were able to meet my friend’s kind and welcoming extended family, and we were introduced to their hearty background and family history. Typically, generations upon generations stay in the countryside, and their history is rich and everpresent. This experience was so tender, and something that I couldn’t ever forget.
Finally, I can’t talk about our trip to Dublin without talking about the food that we ate and brought home with us. Every day we tried a new place for both brunch and dinner, and everything was incredible. From eating a full traditional Irish breakfast, American french toast, and eggs benedict, to drinking locally brewed cider and Guinness at the storehouse, we practically ate and drank our way through the city. We didn’t cook a single meal for ourselves, which, in retrospect, was not a very good financial decision, but a very exciting one at that.
What was truly special to us, though, was the plethora of Cadbury chocolate that was in every single convenient store. We have Cadbury chocolate in the states, but surely not as much as other countries abroad. It is a British chocolate company, after all. Crunchies, wispas, twirls, flakes, chocolate creme eggs, and biscoff eggs were all packed carefully in our carry-ons. Upon leaving Ireland, we had to pass through USA preclearance at the airport. The employee asked if I had any food to declare. She was looking for fruits or nuts, which I definitely didn’t have. I, slightly embarrassed, replied, “Well… I just have a lot of Cadbury chocolate. Like, a lot.” She gave a chuckle, and let me through just fine.
So, those are the most memorable parts of my spring break! We truly had a great time in Dublin, and I’m hoping to visit other parts of Ireland in the future. If that happens while I’m still at Emmanuel, I’ll be sure to write another article detailing the highlights!
