As my time in Ireland comes to an end, I am trying to squeeze
in everything that I really wanted to do. The hardest thing has been to
find traditional music to go to. I have tried several times, only to
have something happen (the musician didn’t show up, show was cancelled,
etc.). But I was determined—and finally found a pub with traditional
music in Dublin. It was recommended by locals and had a really cool
atmosphere. One of the failed attempts at finding local music was in Kilkenny. I went dancing with a friend I made there, but it was so weird! The music they were playing were musical soundtracks to movies like Grease, and a bunch of older music. Everything else was pretty much the same as going out in the states. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for dancing to musical soundtracks in clubs, but I tried my best. It was a lot of fun seeing all the Irish guys and some tourists doing jigs to a bunch of really random songs. Also, Grease is incredibly popular here and people wear the Pink Lady jackets everywhere.
During the day, I have been spending my time hiking around. The most frustrating part of timing a hike is the weather- cold in the morning and evening, warm in the afternoon, but almost always cloudy. Then there are the random spurts of rain lasting anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. On Sunday, there were clear skies so I dropped everything and went and did one of the hikes I had planned. I really wanted to get some photos with more than just grey skies. I decided to go to Howth and do one of the cliff trails. It seemed that lots of people had the same idea as me. The train was packed and the first section of the cliff trails was crowded.
The further out I went the less crowded it got. At one point, the
trail was deserted. About a mile in I figured out I accidentally picked up
a local walking trail and had to go back and
try to find the right path. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult to find.
On the hike, I noticed that my after-sun gel had busted in my backpack.
But really, it wouldn’t be a normal day if something didn’t go wrong. At
least it was easily cleaned. At the end of the hike, I missed that
there was a side trail leading to the one place I really wanted to go-
Aideen’s grave. I tried to find the trail several times where the map
showed it, but somehow missed it. It wasn’t until I was back in Dublin
that I realized it was on a separate trail and that I missed the trail
head by less than half a mile. Drats.
After doing about 16 miles on Sunday, I took Monday easy. Slept in,
had a late breakfast and worked on homework / research. Woke myself up
to a Little Mix play list. They are seriously my spirit animals. It’s
always a good day if I start off with their music. Today I slept
in and then went walking in the afternoon. I made my way out to Dalkey
and followed a trail along the shore connecting several of the towns
along the coast. Tomorrow I will make my way to Spain to begin my
adventures there.--
Follow Claire on her travels to Germany at https://nutzedentagdot.wordpress.com
Read more about studying German with the University of Arkansas
