Student Bloggers

Thanks to the lovely perk of being a part of the Arcadia program I got to go on some fantastic trips around Ireland! So here is a brief-ish summary of my trips with Arcadia.

The first trip was the day trip with fellow Arcadia students at UL to Bunratty Castle and the Cliffs of Moher. Our group was small, only 5 of us, but lots of fun. We got to spend the day with our support officer who is always so sweet and great to talk to! We took our mini bus to Bunratty Castle where we got to explore the castle and the replica town surrounding it. The castle itself was reconstructed from its ruins to replicate the original. Inside there were a couple of small holes in the walls. One was for the women who weren’t allowed in the great hall so they could watch and the others were for guards to spy and listen on the conversations of the guests to catch any clues for attacks on the castle. I guess that was what gave meaning to the phrase the walls have ears! The town reminded me of the pioneer village I used to go to on school fieldtrips as a kid. The workers were all dressed in medieval clothing and assigned certain jobs that might have been done back when the castle was developed.

After a couple hours exploring Bunratty, we left to the Cliffs of Moher. I had been to the Cliffs once before and remembered it being quite windy. That has not changed! It was so windy the entire time but the view was still incredible! Fun fact: the cliffs have been in films such as Harry Potter and The Princess Bride!!! We ended up walking all around the cliffs and then went inside the interactive center until it was time to leave.

A couple weeks later it was time to go to Belfast for the weekend. The UL students left early in the morning and later joined the bus with the Cork students. I was so happy to be reunited with the good friends I had made during Arcadia Orientation again! The trip took about 5 hours to get into Belfast, and we were exhausted, even though all we had done on the bus was sleep. We stopped at the hotel where we were able to settle into our rooms and meet Arcadia students from the other Irish universities. The first day, my friends from Cork and I explored the city a little bit before attending a presentation on the Belfast murals. It was really cool to see the murals beforehand and learning about what they meant later in the presentation.

The second day was my favorite, we got to go to the Giant’s Causeway! There we explored the interesting rock formations and heard about the giant that once roamed the land.

Since coming to Ireland, I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with unusually great weather. The air was a little cold but the sun was shining making for a perfect day to explore by the water. In fact, I think every trip I have been on so far, it hasn’t rained. So thank you Ireland, I knew you loved me!!

On our last day, we did a bus tour of the city which included seeing the murals, the area where the Titanic was made and the studio where Game of Thrones is filmed! Then it was time to go home. I was a little sad to leave my friends from Cork again but appreciated that we had such a nice weekend together!