Ireland: Dublin & Howth

This past weekend was the first time I left Spain during my exchange. Although I've done a bit of traveling, until this point it has only been to Spanish cities (of which I loved every second!)

My weekend trip was to Ireland with just me and the boys! They actually left for Edinburgh on Wednesday and then flew to Dublin on Friday. However, since I had classes on Thursday, I chose to meet up with them in Dublin on Saturday. This gave me all Friday in Barcelona to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having! For the first time I was able to lay out on the beach in a bathing suit. The sun was much needed because I almost blinded myself with my pale legs as soon as I took my pants off! They haven't seen sunlight in a very long time! On Saturday morning I prepared to leave the beautiful weather for my first journey outside of Spain.

I made it to Dublin in the early evening and was greeted with much different weather than Barcelona. In fact as soon as I got off the airport bus in the city center, it began pouring and hailing. Never before have I been more thankful for packing an umbrella in my bag! It was an adventure trying to read a map and find my hostel while still holding my umbrella up. For those who know how coordinated I am, it was even funnier to watch. I finally made it to the hostel mostly still dry and met up with the boys. That night I got to experience the awesome bar life in Dublin. We went to the Temple Bar area that is known for its strip of bars and lively people. The first one we went to was called Farrington's and it had amazing live music! The guy had a beautiful voice and even played some songs that we knew including Sweet Caroline and Jason Mraz's I'm Yours (of course I was sold as soon as he started singing that one!)

The next day we toured around Dublin and got to walk around St. Stephen's Green and visit the Guinness Storehouse. St. Stephen's Green reminded me how little grass we have here in Barcelona and the Guinness Storehouse showed me how yummy Guinness actually is! In Ireland it actually tastes very smooth and light and goes down much easier than one would expect of a dark beer. Naturally, a pint of Guinness was my drink of choice when we went out. Another delicious discovery in Ireland was Bulmer's pear cider. I never had it before, but it practically tasted just like apple juice!

On our last day in Dublin, we decided to venture outside of the city and visit the fishing town of Howth that is about 25 minutes away. It was absolutely gorgeous and we were lucky to have good weather while we were there. After walking around the marina, we decided to do the cliff walk that literally was along the side of a cliff next to the ocean. Walking along the small path that was only feet from the edge of a cliff was so surreal and so amazing. I have never done anything like that before and it has convinced me that I will return to Ireland one day to visit more of the beautiful country side.

Well I must get back to school work. These next two weeks will actually be pretty busy because just after that I will be traveling for our 10 day spring break! Should be very exciting... until next time!