KALEIGH TAKEOVER: IRELAND
Kaleigh, Nancy’s daughter, TAKES US TO IRELAND
Traveling to Europe for the first time was exciting, fun, daunting, thrilling, and crazy. So many emotions!
Traveling to Europe for the first time in the middle of a global pandemic, after graduating from college and quitting your job? Even more emotions swirling around.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to go to Europe. I saw friends and family vacationing there and loving it. The culture intrigued me, and just imagining the countless breathtaking sights all around the continent amazed me. I knew I had to see them in person and freeze those moments by capturing them with my camera.
When the opportunity presented itself in the fall of 2021, I had to take it. I had always been waiting for the “perfect time.” But, while going through these past two years finishing college, I have come to realize that there is never a perfect time, and that if you want to do something you should just… do it.
The pandemic had taken so much away from me:
My summer internship in London
My lacrosse season (Literally… our season ended and playoffs were forfeited because too many players were contact-traced. We had played our last game and didn’t even know it.)
Living with my college friends for our senior year (many stayed home and finished school remotely)
And that’s just a few. As a 22-year-old post-grad trying to figure out my life during the fall of 2021, it wasn’t a simple task, since I still had no clue what I wanted to do career-wise, or where I wanted to live, and how I would afford it.
Luckily for me, I grinded all summer working at my hometown retail job and saved a good amount of money to move out. I also found a part-time social media marketing job. But, I was still far from having my life together.
So, when my friend, Becca reached out to me at the end of September 2021, asking if I wanted to leave in a few weeks to go on a two-month Europe trip, I immediately said yes and started planning. The two of us would travel together for the entire adventure, while several of our friends would join us throughout.
October 20, 2021
Becca, Maddy, and I getting ready to board for the adventure of a lifetime!
We planned out our journey through 10 countries over two months: Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Greece & Portugal. Now as we say, we were ~balling on a budget~ so we had to find the cheapest way to get to each of these places and find living arrangements that weren’t too expensive, but that also weren’t too sketchy.
We ended up buying a one-way ticket to Ireland and flying out a few weeks later (the day before my 23rd birthday) having only planned the first half of the trip. Can you believe the only suitcase I brought was a medium one that could pass as a carry-on?
I was so excited to finally get the chance to see all the beautiful and historic sights that I had been hearing about and seeing in pictures my whole life, and I was eager to capture some of the memories as well. But, along with these emotions of excitement and joy came the fears of draining my bank account and the trip falling apart due to Covid restrictions.
Country #1: Ireland
Becca, Maddy, and I flew to Dublin and spent a few days there, then a few days in Galway. I was able to experiment with photography of castles, cliffs, and cows! It was a great start to the trip, and I felt like a local with my red hair and Guinness in hand.
Visiting the Cliffs of Moher was an out-of-body experience for me, since I have always dreamed of standing there overlooking the beautiful sea with the Aran Islands off in the distance.
To make it even better, there were cow farms everywhere and I got to hang out with my favorite animal. all. day. long.
The three of us took an eight-hour bus tour with the sweetest local tour guide. It was even more special, since it was his last bus ride and tour before his retirement. He joked about us being from Boston and it was such a special experience to hear all his stories and his perspective on this beautiful country.
Another cool place that we visited was the Guinness factory. On our way there, we hopped on an open top tour bus that gave us a quick, but thorough, tour of the city of Dublin.
Sidebar: I almost felt like I was back in Boston, since there are a lot of similarities between Dublin and Boston. Galway, on the other hand, was definitely more quaint and gave off fewer “big city vibes.”
While we were in Galway, we learned about the origins of the Claddagh ring and went to the original store, along with visiting a couple of woolen goods stores, where we each purchased a hand-woven Irish sweater.
Back to the Guinness factory… it went far above and beyond any of our expectations with seven floors of amazing artifacts, history, videos, photos, interactive activities, food, and of course… beer!
We even walked over to Temple Bar after the long day to grab a bite and another beer.
The next day, we continued our tour of fun and visited the Dublin Castle, along with Trinity College to see The Book of Kells and meet up with one of my old lacrosse friends who was currently living in Dublin. It was not only great to catch up with an old friend, but the Library of Trinity College, where she brought us to see The Book of Kells was absolutely stunning.
All in all, Ireland was the perfect way to start our trip… the views, the history, the cows, and so many memories. And, of course, the Irish philosophy: why worry?
