West of Ireland Trip

Our second big group trip was this past weekend. I can’t believe the semester is almost over. It went by so fast but when I think of all of the things I’ve done here, it makes sense that its over. I’ve written more papers this semester than any other, which is quite the challenge with all the distractions of Dublin.

The trip to the west of Ireland felt much less rushed and more relaxed than the Northern Ireland trip. We had a lot of time to just explore by ourselves rather than scheduled tourist attractions to go see. Our first stop was Galway, which is a college town a little bit bigger than Burlington. It was really nice to go see what a college town in Ireland looked like. We were free for the night in Galway and ended up going to an American bar called “Coyotes” that had karaoke, mechanical bull riding, and table dancers. So this must be what the Irish think of America. Some people in our group did karaoke and rode the bull (it was free for Americans only) but in general the place was not very fun, so we left and found a band playing at another bar.

The next day we stopped at many places on the way to the quaint town of Doolin. The most memorable place we stopped at was the Cliffs of Moher. These are a main tourist attraction in Ireland and we saw a lot of Americans there. The cliffs are 600 feet high and have a wall along the edge so that you don’t fall. Many people pass over this wall to have a look straight down to ocean but it seemed extremely dangerous to do so. The cliffs were the most picturesque attraction in Ireland; it seemed impossible to take a bad photo.


That afternoon we arrived in Doolin and checked into our homey hostel. A bunch of us decided to go to the rocky beach down the road since Doolin was a coastal town. There wasn’t much to Doolin (a lot of farms, a few pubs, some hills) but it was my favorite place I had visited in Ireland. It felt so untouched by tourists and untouched by any sort of globalization. We sat on a grassy cliff next to the ocean and watched the waves crash against the rocks. I’m going to try to convince my family to move here =).

Marble Arch Caves and Hurling Match

This past weekend was extremely busy. Some people had fieldtrips four days in a row. I had one to the Marble Arch Caves in Northern Ireland on Friday for our Environmental Earth Science class and one to the Hurling match between Dublin and Cork on Sunday.


The Marble Arch Caves were amazing. We got to walk along a path inside them while stalactites were dripping on us and all we could hear was the rushing water of the river running through the cave. It was very dark inside the cave, which made it very difficult to get any good pictures. We had about and hour-long tour through the cave where we were informed of how each aspect of the cave was formed. It felt as if I was on a different planet. I had never seen anything like it. When you see pictures of caves you think you can imagine being inside them, but it was a completely new experience.


On Sunday, we were taken to a Hurling match just outside Dublin. None of us even knew what hurling was or how it was played before we went to the game. It was fairly easy to catch on to the rules while watching it though. I have hated sports my entire life but hurling was the most interesting sport I’ve ever seen. It was like a mix of field hockey, soccer, baseball, and lacrosse. I have no doubt that any of the players could excel in any of these sports. They had to be extremely talented to play hurling. You should definitely look up some youtube videos of hurling matches online if you have never seen it before. It’s extremely fast paced and looks really dangerous. A bunch of guys holding wooden sticks all trying to swing at the same ball.

It was also quite the experience to hear all these irish guys screaming from the stands at the players. One of the really odd things I found about the game was that during halftime, all of the children in the stands would run out onto the field and get to play some hurling and talk to the players. I really hope that we can go see another match before we have to leave. Only 33 days left before I leave =( I’m going to miss Ireland so much.

Rhodes, GREECE!!!!! Part Two: Old Town, Rhodes Town and Lyndos

On one of the last few days in Rhodes we took a bus to the beautiful town of Lyndos. Lyndos is one of the major tourist locations on the Island of Rhodes, but since we went during the off-season time, there were very few tourists there with us, and no one was at the beach. Being used to Vermont weather allowed us to be able to sunbathe on the beach when it was only about 60 degrees out. There were so many huge resort hotels around that were closed, which made me very happy that we were not visiting when these places were full of tourists. It made Greece the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had. Below are a few pictures of the small, breathtaking beach we had all to ourselves in Lyndos.



We ate lunch on a rooftop traditional Greek restaurant. I can’t even explain how good all of the food was in Greece. It’s worth visiting just for that. After going to the beach and eating, we explored Lyndos some more and went into the little shops and got lost in all the small side roads. It was like being in a labyrinth. I bought far too many delicious banana, sugar and cinnamon crepes and went back to Trianta on the two hour-long bus ride very full.


Almost every day in Rhodes we would take the bus to Old Town and Rhodes town, which were right next to each other. Old Town existed inside of castle walls. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen; an entire town inside a castle. It looked very much like Lyndos in that there were many shops and alleyways to get lost in. Old Town would normally be packed in the summer, but again, we were the only ones there. On the outside of the castle was Rhodes Town, which was much more modern with fancy clothing stores and nice restaurants.

(Click on the picture below to make it larger!!! I made a panorama)


Inside of Old Town, we found one of the only restaurants open and became very friendly with the owners. The family that owned the restaurant lived right above it and had three boys. We found out that in the summer the youngest boy, who looked about eight, would play some sort of Greek instrument for all the tourists. Their father would come out and join us at our table, bringing shot glasses and a few bottles of who knows what kind of traditional Greek alcohol. He would stay and chat with us and make us take shots with him. It was an experience that you just couldn’t get in America, where everything is so strict and rushed. We would stay at this restaurant for hours just sitting at our table in the sun.

The best memory I have from this vacation is at this same restaurant. Our waitress, who only spoke very few words in English, offered to read our coffee grains. Greek coffee is a lot like espresso and when you drink it the coffee grains remain at the bottom. In order to have them read, you flip the cup over and turn it clockwise three times and let the grain drain down the sides of the cup to form patterns and images. Our waitress brought over one of the sons to translate for her, and she would read each of our cups. These were not like fortune cookie fortunes; she would elaborate for about five minutes on each one. Telling us things that would happen, all good things too. Tom told us that Greek fortunes are always good. I took videos of some of these fortunes. You could tell the woman loved reading into our futures.