Welcome to a vlog short briefly detailing my weekend trip to Ireland!
This was my very first solo trip, in organization and voyage, so when I arrived back in the airport on Sunday morning for my plane ride back to Valencia I had an overwhelming sense of pride. I organized and booked my airfare and tour on that Wednesday and left Valencia on Friday morning. I had been talking about traveling but had spent my first month simply working through adjusting to life and work in Valencia. The realization that I only had two months left hit me and catalyzed my sudden and gleeful trip to Ireland.
I spent Friday in my beachhouse AirBnB completing Business Finance homework and taking my midterm exam. If you know anything about me, you will understand why that was such a big deal. I would never have let myself travel anywhere or have weekend plans when I still had schoolwork due, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Saturday began bright and early with a rushed but pleasant taxi ride to my tour bus stop in Dublin’s city center.
Stop 1 was the Moher Cliffs. Eight-year-old me screamed and twirled on the inside, then gave a heartfelt and teary thank you to 21-year-old me for making one of my oldest and most special dreams come true. Stop 2 was The Atlantic Way which allowed for my mountain goat side to frollic and possibly look a bit deranged. Stop 3 revealed the treasures of Galway City’s Latin Quarter.
We arrived back in Dublin and I felt something I have never felt before. I was alone in a strange city all alone, no one that I needed to report to, nowhere I needed to be, nothing holding me or corraling me. I took a leisurely stroll around Liffey River and across O’Connell Bridge. I took my time at an adorable tapas restaurant, bought some souvenirs for myself and a sweet girl in one of my Sunday school classes who wants to visit Ireland one day, and then stepped into The Wiley Fox pub. A pub is a place of community and connection in Ireland and that is exactly what I found there. Before I knew it, I was sitting with a friendly group and we eventually marveled at how naturally I had integrated into their friend group of six years or longer.
Ireland became a comfort and another home to me that night. And Sunday morning, I was off back to Valencia.