My travels to other European countries have begun, and unfortunately my camera decided to stop working right before leaving for Ireland. No worries, I’ll have the memories forever, and a camera in the future! Anyways, Ireland was an amazing country! My friend Anny has a friend in Galway so we decided to go across the water for a weekend. It was a great decision.

We arrived in Dublin on Friday night. Since we only had a few hours, we decided to grab some dinner at a pub. Ireland has had the best food that I have eaten in the last 2 months, but more about that later. After dinner, we grabbed our bus to Galway. I thought England was rainy and chilly, but it has nothing on Ireland!

Saturday we had an 8 hour tour of Galway and the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were like nothing I have ever experienced. We got to hike for an hour and a half. They are some 700 feet about the water — so high you couldn’t even hear the waves crashing against the rocks below us. We tried to find the cave where a scene of Harry Potter was filmed, but we gave up on that and instead decided to be tourists, taking pictures for every 5 steps we walked.

The nightlife in Galway was a blast. People of all ages in Ireland know how to dance and have a good time at the pubs! We got an experience at all types of pubs. The first was a college pub which was really cheap and had a small dance floor with fantastic dance music. Everything from throwbacks of “Stacy’s Mom” to newer songs like “Trombones.” After that we figured it was time to go to one of the well-known pubs of Galway – the Quay’s. It was packed with people of all ages dancing. I had to laugh because one older gentleman was dancing on the balcony over the dance floor. He was enjoying life! Our final pub was a traditional Irish pub complete with a live band and some Irish step dancing. I have reached the conclusion I really enjoy Irish music.

Back to that delicious food I mentioned. My mouth is watering just thinking about different meals. Guinness Stew is a very traditional dish in Ireland, and I really liked it. It is a sweet, somewhat thick stew with meat in it. There was also a lovely vegetable lasagna that was so fantastic I came very close to licking the plate. To top it off, we had chocolate Bailey’s cheesecake with homemade cream. The cream was really interesting. I thought it was something like ice cream, but it was not as thick or sweet. I really don’t even have anything to compare it with.

Ireland was a blast! I would recommend it to anyone who comes to Europe, even if it is just for the weekend. There is so much to venture out and do, and so many great tunes to make you feel Irish for a day!

Location: United Kingdom