A warm welcome to everyone, who wants to read this blog! I hope you will enjoy it and it will help you in your decision for your semester abroad!
Today I want to introduce you to Ireland my abroad country. Now we have been in Dublin for about two months and we have seen a lot of the city and the landscape of Ireland. Fortunately, we have free time at the weekend to discover the Island.
In the following text I will show you nice pictures and impressions about my second home Ireland.
First of all I present you the nice city of Dublin and the wonderful, big and colorful Saint Stephen´s Green Park. It is placed in the centrum of Dublin close to the mall and different stores. There are many families and friends, who enjoy their free time on the meadow of the park. You can go through the park or you can sit on a bench enjoying the nature. Especially, the flowers are really colorful and impressive. The fact that there is such a green place in the town, hidden by the stressfull citylife, surprised me. The quiet place invites many people.
Furthermore, there are some special landscapes, which my friends and I visited. These locations are called Glendalough,Wicklow Mountains, Aran Island and Howth.
Travelling to Howth takes one hour from Dublin with the train. Howth has a nice hike path along the coast. It is like a village with a lot of nice restaurants and cafes. If you want to eat fresh fish, I would recommend you the restaurants at the harbor. We made a lovely boat trip around a little island in front of the coast of Howth. There we saw a lot of seagulls and the beautiful landscape of the island.
Aran Island is at the west coast of Ireland. There are beautiful cliffs and you can have a far view over the pacific. Sometimes the weather is so windy and murky that you can´t see the sea. But luckily we had good weather! If you want to feel free and take some great pictures, you have to travel to Aran Island! Especially, when you like the sea and big waves this is the right place for you.
Glendalough has a wonderful lake with great mountains around. The landscape inspires a lot of tourists to hike through the forest and on the mountains. The cooperation between the lake, forest and mountains are present a special view for taking pictures and awesome memories.
Moreover there is a nice river in Dublin. The smaller river is close to the Griffith College. You can have a good run while enjoying a nice view on the water. The water is really clear because you can see the bottom of the river. A lot of swans live on this river. That’s why this place spreads a romantic feeling, as well.
The other river is in the centrum of Dublin and is called Liffey. There are a lot of old and wonderful bridges, which have a cute design. This river is much bigger than the small river next to Griffith College. The Liffey opens in the Atlantic Ocean. So you can follow the river till Dublin´s Harbor. In the night there is a special view on the river. The light of the lanterns reflects in the water.
On the trip through the Nationalpark in the Wicklow Mountains we saw the famous bridge from the movie “PS: I love you”. We drove with a tourist bus organisation and the trip costs one day. The busdriver made a lot of stops that we had the opportunity to take nice pictures. You can see in the movie that the nature is really typical Irish and romantic.
The bridge is the place, where the main characters of the movie met for the first time. Especially, in the summer all flowers have the purple color as in the movie. Wherever you have a look over the landscape, it is so wide and open that you could feel the freedom of the nature. The Wicklow Mountains are roughly 500 meters high. If you stand on the mountain you will have a beautiful view over the amazing landscape of Wicklow. On the highest point the Wicklow Mountains are 925 meters high.
Finally, I want to give you some impressions of the nightlife in Dublin.
There are many opportunities for people going out and having an unforgettable night.
In “Lillie Bordello” we had a special motto night with the topic “Great Gatsby”. So we wore fashionable dresses from this period of time. Following there are some pictures of the event. The location was nice and suitable decorated in a 20’s way. The decoration consists of red carpets, wonderful chandelier and ornate mirrors. It was an awesome experience.
Another great option is visiting the district “Temple Bar”. There are different pubs and clubs compromised on a small area. The most famous bar is the Temple Bar itself. There you can find live music on a little stage. This place is a must see in Dublin, due to this you could meet a lot of Irish people and international tourists. The people are always friendly and outgoing.
The “Fitz-Simons” is a big pub and club with three different floors and a comfortable roof top terrace. The main stage is much bigger than in “Temple Bar” and you can meet friendly people all around. Especially, the traditional Irish folk music is awesome! The musicians will be changed every night; thereby every night will be different and special.
Sometimes they combine the traditional music with charts and modern songs. That’s why this place is for each kind of generation. If you don’t like live music, “Fitz-Simons” offers in the first floor charts music played by DJ’s and in the basement you can find a club with house music and techno.
Now there is just one month left before we are going home to Germany for Christmas. To summarize our experiences and the life in Dublin, we made a good choice with this country and city. The atmosphere is really familiar and nice.
We are happy to have the opportunity to experience a semester abroad at the Griffith College in Dublin!
I hope you will like my texts and pictures. Thanks for reading!
Many greetings from Ireland!
