So much has happened since I last posted. Its been such a wonderful past couple of weeks with a lot of eventful things happening. I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands, 5 Seconds of Summer, in concert in Dublin for free with the absolute best seats in the world thanks to my friend, Sarah, whose uncle works in the music industry and happened to know their promotion manager. Not only did we go to the concert but we also had entrance to the VIP Sound Check where we were able to listen to them play a handful of songs for us and then they answered questions from the crowd. Later that week I went with my roommates to Edinburgh and it was one of the best weekends I’ve had. We walked up to Arthur’s Seat (it was a really steep and uphill hike but the view was incredible. We also went to a bar called Three Sisters where we essentially met every single person there. We had such a fun time watching rugby and football games on the screen and dancing to all the great throwbacks of the early 2000’s. It was also really funny that we met a bunch of people from Ireland and we are planning to meet up before we go back to the US to hang out with out new friends.
When we came back from Edinburgh it was officially our final week of lectures and I had so much work to do. All of my classes had their finals papers due that week so I was in the library all that week working on them. The grading system here is strange so I’m hoping my hard work paid off and I get a good grade. To celebrate classes ending, Sarah and I went to Germany and Prague.
We started our trip in Berlin. We went and saw the Berlin Wall, which was breathtaking to see. We also went to the Museum of Terror, which is about the Nazi regime, and the famous Check-Point Charlie. We channeled our inner 5 year old selves and went to the Berlin Zoo. It was so much fun to see all of the beautiful animals and neither of us had been to the zoo in a good while so it was nice to do that. Of course being in Germany we had to go to a Biergarten so we went to Prater Garten near the Berlin Wall where we had beer and German sausages (so good!). We did a bit of shopping and more sight seeing but mostly enjoying the beautiful weather (it was 70 degrees!) since Ireland is known for its rainy and cloudy days.
We then set forth to Prague. We missed our bus by 1 mere minute, its crazy how on time the German bus systems are. But it was fine because we just caught the next one. In Prague we did a walking tour of the city and got to see some amazing sights such as their astronomical clock tower which is the oldest and completely preserved clock tower in Europe. We also saw the John Lennon Wall and the old king’s castle (where their president resides in now). We went on our first organized pub crawl and met a bunch of people from Canada and Brazil. It was really fun to be in Prague and very easy to walk around.
We then went to Munich. Our hostel was right next to the bus and train stations so it was very easy for moving around from place to place. We went to the famous Hofbrauhaus Biergarten, which is the oldest beer brewery in Europe and we had giant 1 liter beers and some delicious German food. The next day we went to see the Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps. It was incredibly beautiful even in the pouring rain. We took a horse drawn carriage up to the castle and I was basically living out my princess fairy tale fantasy. We met these two girls on the train and we became friends with them and hung out together for the rest of our trip. We all went to the Dachau Concentration Camp. This was the first concentration camp that was set up 3 months after Hitler came into power. It was such an emotional visit and it was crazy how horrible the conditions of this place were and that all those people had to endure being there, it really was an experience to see the grounds and learn about everything that went on there. We then went to more biergartens and met some German guys who invited us to surprise their friend because it was his birthday and they were planning a surprise party for them. It was incredibly fun to spend time with all of them.
Now I’m back in Maynooth for a bit until I go to Madrid and then sadly go back home. Three more weeks left abroad and I’m dreading having to leave.