At the beginning of the semester, I joined both the International Society and Outdoor Pursuits Club. Well, one of the biggest events for the OPC is a weekend hiking trip to Glendalough in County Wicklow (more toward the eastern coast of Ireland, just south of Dublin).
About 120 of us (both Irish and International students) loaded buses for a 3 hour ride that turned into a 5 hour ride because our drivers couldn't figure things out. Meanwhile, I got carsick on the bus (this becomes a reoccurring theme throughout the semester). It felt like we were driving HOURS through the wilderness but finally arrived late that night. It was pitch black and pouring down rain outside. We trekked to our hostel that ended up being overtaken by our group.
The next day we hiked through the Wicklow Mountains National Park. It was quite a hike, but it was a gorgeous day and we saw the sun for the first time in months. When we stopped for lunch we were actually able to take off our jackets and sweatshirts! The view was breathtaking from the top.
We got back to our hostel after being gone for a full 6-7 hours. That night our entire crew made a big spaghetti dinner that fed all 120 of us. Then we had a big dance/karaoke party and ended the night at one of the local pubs.
The next morning we went on another smaller hike around the area and then headed back home. It was a great weekend and we met a lot of really fun people. We got a taste for how truly crazy the Irish are during karaoke (a notion that has only been confirmed throughout the rest of my time here).
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