Ireland
Ireland, August 21-27
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Despite this not being technically apart of my FYA program, it would not have happened had I decided to go to college somewhere else so it is making an appearance in the blog.
For any unaware, FSU football's season opener game took place in Dublin against Georgia Tech in the NCAA's effort to spread the game around the world. Being that I would not be able to attend any games in Tallahassee this was a fantastic coincidence that the game would be played to close to London and conveniently the Saturday before my program was set to start.
Early August- I had already done everything necessary to make the move abroad except for two important things. I still needed to apply for my absentee ballot for the general election and I had nothing packed for London. The applying for an absentee ballot was kind of confusing because I had attempted it three separate ways online before going directly to the county clerks office to help it get sorted, so hopefully Fox News doesn't hear of that and spin the words around to make it look like somebody tried voting three times in a presidential election. I have now signed up to receive my singular ballot by mail at my study center several weeks in advance of election day.
August 21- Travel day to Ireland! We had business class seats on Aer Lingus' premier transatlantic jet which came with the added luxury of the American Airlines Flagship Lounge while we waited to board at O'Hare. On the plane drinking ages are kind of fuzzy and normally defer to the policy of the airline, so I enjoyed some complimentary champagne and started a movie.
August 22- Not sure how, but we managed to shave off about 45 minutes in the air and landed in Dublin at just over six hours. That was a good and bad thing however, good because nobody wants to be on a plane any longer than necessary, bad because it's four in the morning and we have no hotel room until check-in in the early afternoon. A cat nap in the lobby and an okay omelette at the in-hotel restaurant was enough to power me through the early afternoon. For lunch we went to the oldest pub in Dublin, The Brazen Head, for some excellent fish & chips and a great atmosphere. Finally my sister and I retired to our room where there were these two hybrid beds (in between the sizes of a full and a twin), and we crashed for a nap. After we woke we had dinner at a pub and called it a night.
August 23- The morning started and we had breakfast at a pub called Slattery's. A culture shock that blew my mind was when we got there, there were already few people drinking beer at the bar! I had a breakfast sandwich which was good and then we walked to the Christchurch Cathedral to view it and all its relics. In the crypt were the mummified corpses of a cat and a mouse, and the story is during renovations a worker found inside an organ pipe these two corpses and the church decided to put them on display in the gift shop. We then went to an FSU pep rally at the newly named Seminole Square where an estimated 8,000 FSU fans were in attendance! We ate lunch at the nearby restaurant and the rest of the day was spent meandering around town exploring the surroundings.
August 24 (Gameday)- Today was the day that created this whole trip, gameday. The morning was pretty uneventful and we just stayed at the hotel. Around noon we stepped out onto the street and in every direction you could see somebody repping the garnet & gold, all making their way to Aviva Stadium. We caught a cab to take us to college green where College Gameday was being filmed. We got there early, but even then the place was packed. However, there wasn't much to do so we just decided to find lunch. After lunch we jumped into the stream of fans all marching towards the stadium which was smack dab in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Inside the stadium we had excellent seats high up to see every bit of action on the field. The number of people in that stadium wearing FSU gear would make any casual observer think this was an FSU home game. Despite the unimpressive showing from the team to say the least, I had a blast taking part in the stadium atmosphere with the marching chiefs and fellow fans. When the game ended on the walk-off field goal by GT we made haste and got the hell out of there. the trek home kind of sucked but I didn't let it overshadow the amazing day that preceded it. We walked straight back from the stadium to the hotel and went to bed.
August 25- Today was also a very exciting day because we were going to the Guinness Storehouse. We walked through five floors of learning about Guinness including its history, its components, and how to properly taste a Guinness. On the fifth floor we got our pictures taken and then 3D printed onto the head of a Guinness. We took an elevator to the top floor of the building where I enjoyed a very scenic pint of the black stuff. Lunchtime came and we stayed there to eat. Kilmainham jail was next on our list. We took a guided tour from a very enthusiast worker at Kilmainham, and learned about how it played a large part during the Irish fight for independence before being shut down in the 1950's.
August 26- The day began early at a pickup location waiting for a charter bus to start a 10 hour excursion with three stops towards the south of the island. The first stop was at Glendalough and Wicklow National Park. Besides the history of a very old church there the park was almost a spitting image of Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana, which I've also been to multiple times. I was absolutely amazed at how similar they were. Breakfast came in the form of a toastie from a food truck within the park. Another 30 minutes on the bus led to a farm of a man who worked as a trainer for herding dogs. He explained to us how exceptional a trained border collie can be in herding hundreds of sheep at a time and gave a demonstration at the end. The third and final stop before the return trip to Dublin was a 2 hour window to explore the city of Kilkenny. In Kilkenny we ate at another famously old pub (est. 1324), and window shopped until it was time to get back on the bus. Too exhausted to do anything else I went to sleep the moment we arrived back in town.
August 27- The last full day in Ireland before I leave my family and fly off to London in the morning. A late breakfast back at the in-hotel restaurant helped kill time for our delayed trip to the Howth Peninsula due to the rain. After the rain subsided, we got a taxi to the train station to take a 30 minute DART ride to Howth. At Howth, my dad and I played golf at the scenic Deer Park Golf Course, while my mom and sister shopped and explored the little village. The golf was fantastic (I even got a par!), the rental clubs not so much. After golf we met back up with my mom and sister and had lunch at a great seafood restaurant along the water, I had fish and chips and a Rockshore Cider to wash it down. Afterwards, we took the DART back to the hotel and called it a day to prepare for an early wake up and ride to the airport.
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