Student Bloggers
Coastal Towns Visit
Date
July 15, 2017
By Nathaniel Burola, STEM summer Research - Dublin
Hey, guys! Here is another blog post detailing our fabulous adventures of exploring some of the coastal towns in the Dublin area such as Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire. In order to get to these locations, we had to take the 46A bus with our leap cards, and wait around 30 minutes while various people stopped off and on. Finally, we got to Dún Laoghaire, and I have to say that for a small coastal town, it sure was nice and cozy to spend most of the afternoon there. The view was spectacular with a nice view of the surrounding sea and rock formations with a sharp breeze! Lots of people chose to directly swim in the sea by taking off their clothes at a historical site and entering the water via a stone ramp which was interesting to note. From what I felt of the water, it certainly was cold, however, I guess the Irish people have a natural immunity towards it after all.
My favorite part of the afternoon excursion was just sitting down and admiring the ocean view from a park that was right next to a scrapyard. It sounds very strange I know, however, there was no noise or smell coming from the scrapyard probably in part due to the intense wind that was whipping through my hair at the time. It was nice to sit down and reflect on the various trips and adventures that I have done so far in Ireland. At the same time, it also made me realize how much little time is left in our short two month research program. Hard to believe that already it is the middle of July and we will leave very soon. Ireland has been a fabulous place to visit both for academic and vacation purposes. I will always be amazed at how much the Irish people take their ocean views for granted considering how I am just an outsider to the country.
Nathaniel is a student at California Lutheran University and is blogging from his summer abroad on the STEM Summer Research - Dublin program, in Dublin, Ireland.