Lucas's Visit to Ireland!

Hey everybody!

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. Life got pretty uneventful for awhile between school and projects and such. We had our first group project due on Thursday and a History paper is due this Wednesday. In the next 2 weeks we will leave for Scotland and Paris while trying to keep up with final projects so the end of this journeys looks like it's going to be eventful! We are also going to London and a Band Perry Concert for Sam's birthday week so we have a lot to look forward to.

This weekend, Lucas came to visit! We packed as much as we could into 4 days and had an absolutely fantastic time. On Thursday, I met Lucas at the airport and, after I finally found him, we headed back to show him UCD before checking out Dublin. We went to see the Old Jameson Distillery first and Lucas tried the "Jameson Premium Whiskey Tasting" which was really neat as those are only products that can be bought directly from the Jameson store. Needless to say, he was really excited :) Then we walked over to the Guinness Storehouse. We wandered through and ended up at the top floor which is a clear glass room with a 360 degree view of Dublin. It was a spectacular view and we each enjoyed a Guinness. After that, we met Sam for a traditional Irish dinner at the Brazen Head pub before heading home to get some sleep before our trip to Galway.

On Friday, Lucas and I got up super early and caught a tour bus to Galway. We traveled all through the Burren region and saw major landmarks such as Poulnabrone and The "Doorty" Cross. Then we headed to the main event; The Cliffs of Moher! (I actually got to see them this time!!) The weather was perfect and we spent 2 hours wandering on both sides of the Cliffs taking pictures and watching crazy people lean as far out as they could to look down. We kept a safe distance from the edge haha

On Saturday, we took off even earlier to cross the border into Northern Ireland. We passed by Belfast and then went all along the beautiful coast line on our way to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The sun actually came out while we were there and we got some beautiful pictures. Then we went to the Giant's Causeway. It was really windy when we started down but it quickly started to downpour and we got soaked! Lucas and I took a few pictures and then headed back to have a hot lunch. We got to spend an hour in Belfast on our way back to Dublin and we had fun wandering the city. We had Sam meet us at a cool place for dinner in Temple Bar that we happened upon and we all enjoyed listening to music, having good Irish food, and a few pints :)

Sunday was a relaxing day. We went to mass, had a really nice brunch off of Grafton Street, and headed home to chill and catch up on some work. We went to Temple Bar with Sam for dinner but we left so late that most pubs had stopped serving food so we ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe haha but they had really good burgers so we weren't going to complain :)

This morning, we had some difficulties figuring out how to get Lucas to the airport because the Dublin marathon was going through the road into campus and today is a bank holiday. We eventually called him a cab and he got off and is on his way home. We had a really fun weekend and I'm sooo happy he came to visit :)

Sam's parents get in on Wednesday and we all head to Scotland on Sunday so sometime next week we will try to update you all before we head to Paris!

Thanks for reading!
Miss and love you all,

~Emily and Sam

County Cork and then some!

Hello! Hope everyone is well.
This past weekend Emily and I went on another International Students Society trip, this time to County Cork. Friday we went to Cahir Castle in County Tipperary. It is one of the largest castles in Ireland and is, classically, surrounded by a moat.

We were able to explore that for a little and then we headed on to Blarney Castle. We explored the beautiful grounds of the castle and made our way to the top to kiss the Blarney Stone. It was an interesting experience that we would like to not repeat considering we had to be upside down over a long drop in order to kiss the stone.

Me kissing the stone

Emily kissing the stone (not our best angles)

After that lovely experience we headed to Cork City and had a delicious Italian food for dinner and some delicious wine with our friends Claire and Kendra. After dinner we went to a pub and hung out and watched a soccer game.

Saturday we headed to Bantry House and Gardens. Bantry House is an estate still owned by the descendants of the Earls of Bantry. It is right on the water with beautiful woods around the back of the house giving a nice view from each room in the house.

We then went to Clonakilty where we were taken to see a model railway village which was not too interesting, but we went with it for 5 minutes. After the railway village we headed back to Cork City where we again decided on Italian food and wine for dinner (a great choice).

Sunday we left Cork City and went to Cobh, a small coastal town where the Titanic made its final stop before heading across the Atlantic. We went on a little Titanic experience tour and learned about what it would have been like to be the different classes of passengers on the ship. Cobh also had a beautiful cathedral on a hill overlooking the city and we explored that as well. 

After Cobh we went to the town of Kilkenny and Kilkenny Castle. 

We then headed back to Dublin where we passed out after our busy weekend. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Sam and Emily

County Wicklow

Hello!
Yesterday (Saturday) Emily and I went on a bus tour to County Wicklow, considered the "Garden of Ireland" only about an hour drive from Dublin. We first drove to the small seaside Dublin suburb of Bray and walked around and took in some lovely ocean views.

We then headed further into Co. Wicklow to Powerscourt House and Gardens where we walked around the 47 acres of beautiful gardens and soaked in the sun. Powerscourt Gardens consists of an Italian Garden, a Japanese Garden, a Walled Garden, as well as two ponds and a pet cemetery. We walked around the entire place and then enjoyed lunch on a terrace overlooking the gardens.

After the Gardens we got back on the bus and headed deeper into the mountains to the monastic settlement of Glendalough. There we learned a little about the monks and people that used to live there, but we mainly took in the mountain scenery and also walked down to one of the two lakes in the area. It was a beautiful day and all of the mountains, hills, and trees reminded us of being back on the west coast of the U.S.

Emily and I were ecstatic we had such lovely weather and were able to spend, what was probably the last sunny and warm day we'll have, outside. 

Hope everyone is well and is still enjoying the blog! We will be in southern Ireland this weekend so next post will most likely be on Monday :)

Thanks for reading,

Sam and Emily