My time in Ireland was spent during my spring break as a student at the University of Aberdeen. On April 8th, my family and I arrived early in the morning at Gatwick airport to catch our flight to Dublin. We were so early that I tried boarding the Air Lingus flight that was an hour before my scheduled flight. The security lady scanned my boarding pass three times and a red light appeared. The message on her screen said that the flight was not available but she still let me in the gate. It turned out that this was not the correct flight. It is pretty scary that she still let me into the gate even though I was not on that flight. I finally got on the correct flight and landed in Dublin within an hour. We had a pickup at the airport and arrived at one of the nicest hotels that I have ever stayed in- the Westin- in city center Dublin. For some reason, our room had been upgraded. There was so much space in the room and I had an actual bed to sleep in as opposed to the tiny cot given to me in London.

 

The Westin is right in the center of Dublin so after settling in, we headed to the city streets to explore. There was not much that I wanted to see in Dublin. Honestly, I found the city quite boring. There was not much to do or see if you do not like Guinness Beer or pub culture. We went to the Dublin Castle which was pretty cool to see. We also walked through Trinity College and I had hopes of seeing the Book of Kells but I did not want to pay the entrance fee. The weather was rainy and quite miserable. We had dinner at an American diner where I had some chicken tenders. We then went back to the hotel to regroup and then headed back out to explore more. This second part of the day consisted of seeing all the churches in Dublin. I would say that the churches in Dublin was what impressed me most about the city. St. Patrick's church is gorgeous and quite large. After visiting the churches, we went back to the hotel to sleep.

Dublin Castle

 

The next morning, I had an amazing breakfast at the Westin. I ordered waffles and they were so tasty. The buffet breakfast really filled me up for the travel day ahead of us. We checked out of the Westin and had transport to Enterprise where we picked up our rental car. We had a four-five hour drive ahead of us. We drove to County Kerry where we stayed with my mom's pen pal. My mom has been writing to this pen pal for over 40 years. The pen pal kept inviting my mom to come visit her. Now that I am studying in the UK, this was a perfect opportunity for her to visit me and her pen pal. Driving in Ireland means driving on the left side of the road. With my dad behind the wheel, we ran into no problems surprisingly. Once we got out of the crazy Dublin streets, it was smooth sailing from there. As we got closer to the pen pal's house, the roads turned into tiny, narrow country roads. This was quite interesting to witness how cars maneuver these roads.

 

We received a warm welcome from my mom's pen pal. Her house is really beautiful and they had seven sheep in their backyard. For some reason, my family was fascinated with these sheep. Outside of the house windows are pure green stretches of land. Thousands of sheep roam the hills. The environment is tranquil and beautiful. After settling in, my mom's pen pal took us to Annascaul Lake. This lake is one of those hidden beauties. There was no one but us at this lake. The scenery was breathtaking. It was nice to have a bit of a hike after sitting in the car the entire day. Back at the house, we had roast beef for dinner and then I went straight to bed.

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The next morning, we had quite a late start to the day. Around 11:00, we went for a drive around the Dingle Peninsula. There are several viewpoints to stop at to capture great pictures of the coastline. Before coming to Ireland, I had researched "The most beautiful places in Ireland." A location in the Dingle Peninsula was one of the top results and I was determined to find it. After driving around for an hour, I still had not found it. My dad suggested to check Google Earth. I found it: Dunquin Harbour. This was the most beautiful view in Ireland that I experienced. My mom's pen pal did not even know about this viewpoint. We stopped in Dingle for lunch and explored a bit of the town. There is a beautiful church and even a University. I am curious to see how many students attend this Uni. These towns in County Kerry are tiny. Our last stop was Minard castle, which is really tucked away in the peninsula. After a day of exploring the peninsula, we headed home and ended the day with a homemade chicken tender dinner.

 

The next morning, we said goodbye to my mom's pen pal and her family. We commenced on our 2.5 hour drive to Dromroland Castle. The drive was fine except for one mishap. The GPS messed up and my dad had to do a quick turn down a one-way road. The locals made sure to tell us to turn around. We soon arrived at Dromroland Castle. The castle is beautiful and I could not believe that we would be staying here for two nights. Our room was not ready yet so I had some green tea in the cocktail bar for an hour. We soon received news that our room was ready and were escorted to our room. It turned out that we were double upgraded to a state suite. I felt as though I was living in luxury. I had my own bed and it was huge and comfortable. After enjoying the room, we drove to Ennis which is a small town just 15 minutes away from the castle. We went to Tesco to get some groceries and then to Penney's (Ireland's version of Primark) to pick up some clothes for my dad. We ate dinner in this complex. When entering the car park, a lady told us how the parking tickets worked and even gave us her cart. I was quite surprised how friendly Irish people were. After dinner, we drove back to the castle where I went to the steam room and my parents went to the pool.

Dromroland Castle

 

Our last day at Dromroland castle consisted of a wonderful breakfast and a visit to the Cliffs of Moher. Unfortunately, the weather was not that great to view the cliffs (foggy, not sunny, and many clouds). The Cliffs of Moher were definitely cool to see. I wish that I could have explored them more. Departing the cliffs, we headed back to Dromroland, rested, and then went to Quin Abbey. This is an abandoned friary and was really cool to explore. There was no entrance fee. We could just walk through the ruins. What I found interesting was that many of the gravestones were quite recent. Some were from 2017. We found a place to eat dinner nearby and then went back to Dromroland. We then walked around the beautiful castle grounds. The castle is surrounded by a golf course, gardens, a lake, and a Lilly pond. It was nice to be so excluded from the rest of Ireland. I felt as though we had our own private island.

 

Sadly, we had to leave the castle. We completed a three hour car ride to Dublin, dropped our rental car off at Enterprise, and were taken to our hotel, The Fitz William (also quite central in Dublin, just off of Grafton Street). I had my own room in this hotel, however this was surely not as nice as the castle. After unpacking a bit, we walked around Stephens Park which was just outside of our hotel. We shopped on Grafton Street and went the American way and ate dinner at TGIF. We were a bit tired so we spent the rest of the day in our rooms. There was nothing else that we wanted to see or do in Dublin.

 

I woke up early the next morning, had breakfast, and said goodbye to my parents. I had to catch my flight to Istanbul, where I would meet up with my friends. My parents would be flying home later that afternoon. Overall, I had a wonderful time with my family in Ireland. It was wonderful to stay with my mom's pen pal to experience how true Irish people live. I found the Irish people to be quite friendly which was very refreshing. I learned that I never want to drive in Ireland. I would like to explore Killarney in the future but otherwise, I feel satisfied with what I did and saw in Ireland.