For the past few semesters I have been saying I want to study abroad. However, life happens, as usual, and I never got the chance. Now, as my senior year is slowly creeping in, I decided it was now or never. Time to hit the pause button on life and do what I have been wanting to do before another few years pass me by and I have real obligations holding me back. So, for the first half of the summer I worked my butt off, and when I realized I had enough saved up I took the plunge. The hardest part was buying the first ticket. After that, it was basically day by day deciding where to go next.
Since leaving the U.S, there are a few things I have learned about me, myself and Ireland.
1.Traveling is a lot less fabulous than people make it out to be.
Lugging around a backpack, luggage, wandering around lost, long flights, lack of sleep and makeup from yesterday is not that cute. By the time you actually get anywhere you probably look like you just had a one night stand and are doing the walk of shame to the next country.
2. Check your diet at the door.
You will either die of starvation or give in and eat whatever you can get your hands on in the airport. Luckily, Dublin Airport is beautiful and has delicious, somewhat healthy and fresh options to choose from.
3. Ireland is very considerate of everyone.
Not only do they have great airport food, the airport in general is pretty comforting. It is quiet and calm. Pretty easy to navigate. For women, they even have showers and straighteners in the bathrooms. (For free). Yes that is right, for free. They ask why you came to visit, and seem to actually care about your response.
4. Most People in Ireland are genuinely good people.
They are respectful, friendly, and level headed. Maybe it's all the Guinness, but compared to any New York/New Jersey Airports, Dublin feels like travel heaven. At one point, a bus actually pulled over as they saw me running to catch it. Shocked that I didn't get the middle finger and then the inevitable speeding up like they do back at home, I thanked them several times.
5. You can indeed survive without a phone.
There's this ancient thing people used to do called "asking for directions." It's a very strange concept where you go up to another human being, (they usually look like us, and are in the flesh, not on a screen) and you have a conversation via voice (not text). Getting from the airport to our Air BNB would have been extremely difficult without this helpful thing called talking, considering no wifi meant no google maps.
6. If you feel more confident and don't want to converse with other humans, you can use this other tool they call a "map." You can get one on a real piece of paper, sometimes they even have them for free.
7. You learn new things about yourself.
For example, I actually enjoy Guinness, and that's saying a lot considering I usually hate most beers.
8. You can get the best of both worlds.
Typical city-esq style of Dublin with dimly lit pubs and loads of music or the breath taking views of the countryside. The cliffs of Moher are something that I simply will not ever be able to get out of my mind. Not only because of their beauty, but because this was the day I learned apparently I am afraid of heights. However, some fears are worth being conquered because you really can get some amazing experiences out of them.
9. It is OK to ask for help.
I left the country for the first time ever, thinking I was not going to do all the touristy stuff. Once I learned that no matter how much I read or researched about where I was going, once I was there I still barley knew anything. This is when I forced myself to get on one of those embarrassing tour busses we so often curse in New York for their nuisances. After, I had a pretty good idea as to where I was, where everything else was and even a little history about Ireland.
10. Serendipity is pretty sweet.
There were days when I had no plans at all, and that's when I ended up doing some of my most favorite and memorable things from Ireland. Once the ball got rolling, hopping from country to country without my type-a itinerary only seemed better from there on out.
