Trip around Ireland

5. July 2014

I know it's a bit late but I still wanted to do a post about my trip around Ireland.

My family flew to Dublin, Wednesday, 11th. They hired a car and drove down to Cobh. My father needed a bit of time to get used to drive on the left hand side of the street but it worked out fine in the end.

My family stayed in Cobh for two days, my parents stayed in a hotel while my sister stayed with me and my host family.

This Wednesday, I saw my parents after almost 10 months again! It was a strange feeling after months of just skyping to hug them and being able to talk to them properly. Although I was really excited to see my family again, I was kind of sad because the arrival of my family also meant the end of my incredible exchange year!

After I introduced my family to my Irish family we had dinner together and afterwards we went to The Roaring Donkey, a pub with life music every Wednesday evening. I think my family was pretty tired so we didn't stay for too long, but it was a great night!

The next day, my host dad, Paddy, gave all of us a guided tour around Cobh. And even for me who stayed there for a year, it was still interesting. The weather was absolutely amazing and Cobh looked fabulous. After we walked along the sea and visited the Titanic Memorial Gardens it was time to go home and get ready to go to Midleton to visit the Jameson's Whiskey Distillery. We learnt that Irish Whiskey (yes there is an e other than in the Scottish Whisky) is distilled three times while Scottish Whisky is only distilled twice and American Whisky is distilled once. The whole visit was very interesting!! Oh, and there was another Swiss couple and they were speaking Swiss German and it was so strange to hear them talking. Because they seemed to struggle with the English, I gave them my leaflet which was in German. Just for you to know, don't swear if there are Americans around!!



In the evening we went to a nice restaurant in Glanmire and my poor mother had to drive home. I think she was pretty scared but whatever nothing happened.

Friday morning I had to say goodbye to my second family, my host niece, some other peole... Not the nicest thing and all this on Friday, 13th. Uggh!

Pretty soon we left Cobh and we were on the way to Cashel to visit the Rock of Cashel. We arrived in Cashel around 3 o'clock and decided to go to the Rock of Cashel straight away. The Rock of Cashel is an old Cathedral and extremely touristy. Since I was there before it wasn't that interesting but okay. We stayed in the Grand Palace Hotel for the night, my sister was amazed by the old fashioned rooms my parents didn't really like it but we had  a nice evening together and for the first night I got the job as my family's personal translator.

Saturday, we had to get up early because we had a lot to do and a good way to drive. From Cashel we drove back the way to the Michelstown Cave and I visited them the THIRD!! time! Because we were so early we got a tour just for the four of us. Now we drove from Mitchelstown to Killarney, which took us around an hour and a half. We had lunch in Killarney and a short walk around. After we visited Lady's view, Moll's gap, we stopped in Kenmare. This was all part of the Ring of Kerry. From Kenmare we took a tiny road to Dingle and finally arrived in Dingle at seven o'clock in the evening. This day we drove more than 5 or 6 hours I'd say. In Dingle we stayed in the Gorman's Clifftop House and if one of you is thinking about going there, it's class! The hotel is on the other side of the peninsula and the view from the hotel itself is absolutely amazing!

Lady's View

View from the Inch Beach

The view from the hotel

The next day, we stayed in Dingle and my sister and I went for a walk along the sea. We came to a beach and basically stayed there for the day. We played some volleyball and I had to go swimming to fulfil another point on my own bucket list. All in all it was a very nice day to relax and calm down a little bit. In the evening we went to Dingle for dinner and my father is still on about that restaurant where we had dinner. The Global Village Restaurant is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Dingle and they even had something different than goat's cheeese for vegetarians!!

Monday, our aim was to go to Galway but on the way we visited the Cliffs of Moher!! The weather was still beautiful and there were loads of tourists there. We stopped in Lehinch to have some lunch it was a strange feeling to go back to the place where I had been half a year ago, with different people and with no tourists. At this time of the year, it was hard to find a parking space! We got to Galway around 6 o'clock and went into the city straight away. Galway is small but it has character. My parents smuggled my sister and me into a pub and we all got a drink :) The bar was called the Skeff Bar and it was huge! There were at least five different bars in the whole building!

There was a grand piano in the hotel, so I just had to play it :)

Tuesday would be the day, when we had the biggest distance to drive. Our plan was to drive from Galway to Bushmill, a little town in Northern Ireland. I was the one who persuaded my parents to go there because I wanted to see the Giant's Causeway. So yeah my father had to drive for more than 6 hours because of me. When we arrived there was so much fog you couldn't even see the sea even though we were right next to it :/ We decided to wait for better weather and prayed we would be able to see the Giant's Causeway the next morning. After we had dinner (I didn't understand the people there at all), it cleared up and we decided to visit the Giant's Causeway at half nine in the evening. We were more or less the only people there and it was simply amazing!

I think I kind of realized I wasn't in Ireland anymore as soon as I saw this phone cabin.

The next morning it was misty again and we were lucky that we saw the Giant's Causeway the night before!

Because we were staying in a cottage, we had to go into the town to have some breakfast, and my father ordered a vegetarian Irish breakfast. How can people eat beans, eggs, and brown hash for breakfast??

Bushmill also hosts a distillery but since we saw the one in Midleton we didn't bother visiting the one there. We then drove down the scenic route to Belfast. There were pink bikes and other pink stuff all along the way because the Giro d'Italia took place there a month ago. We visited Belfast the same day, and to be fully honest now, I didn't really like it. The Titanic museum was pretty interesting but the city itself isn't that nice. What I realized as well was, people from Nothern Ireland aren't as welcoming and friendly as people from Ireland are.

Belfast

Belfast

The Titanic Museum

Thought I had to take a picture of that!

Cobh; Saddest place in Ireland

After an exhausting day, we were all glad to go to bed, although I was talking to Amy on the phone for half the night but whatever wasn't the first time I did that during this trip :P

The next day we were going to Dublin, the last day in Ireland! We did all this touristy stuff and walked through the whole city. My feet were killing me afterwards! Well, yeah the next morning we had to get up waaaay too early and go to the airport... I was thinking about snapping my ID or do something so I didn't have to go home, but ehm I thought I wouldn't be the best idea so I got onto the plane... More than two hours to Kopenhagen, waiting there for four stupid hours and then 2 more hours back to Zurich. I acutally felt like killing myself, I was exhausted and devastated. The only thing that cheered me up a bit was this poster outside my house:

It's actually still there :P

Yeah so that was my trip around Ireland, and even though I was so sad in the first place I got kind of used to my life in Switzerland again. There are still times, when I just want to roll up in my bed and cry for the whole day but it's getting less and less. Also I already booked my flight back to Ireland for the 26th of December!! One week in Ireland!! I'm trying to keep myself busy. The day after I came home I went to my friend's and sister's 18th/16th party and I had a lot of fun! I think I entertained all people in the state I was but whatever I had fun :P For my sister's birthday, our family went to Lucerne and I went hiking with my dad and started doing exercise in any form again to get fit! I went to school two afternoons so I can catch up with the stuff I missed during this year... I also got informed that I will be allowed back in my old class and year so I'm happy about that! But summer holidays still won't be fun studying :/ Although I can't wait to go back to school and hear my teachers speaking English! (I'm doing a thing were we have some subjects such as Biology, Physics, Chemistry and History in English) Two days ago, there was a hug party in Zofingen, the town next to where I live. It is an anually event and people celebrate the start of summer holidays. I actutally didn't want to drink at all, but everyone was like: "You were in Ireland for one year and you're not drinking? Didn't you learn anything there?? Your English is shit anyway but at least you should be used to drinking by now. Anyway I haven't seen you in so long so come on." I think this is enough said xD

I also got a guitar so I'm playing constantly just to distract myself and I have already blisters on my fingers :/ My sister is going to Malta now for two weeks to learn some English (or to have party every single evening?) so I will be very bored I'd say...

Those ones are pictures from the Rigi. My dad and I got up at five o'clock in the morning and started hiking at like 6 and we were up the mountain at 8 o'clock. There were no people and the view was fab!

So yeah that's it for the moment I think! As I said before I will continue the blog in English but I won't have time and persistence enough to do the German one as well.

Jana