Our last week was spent in Dingle Peninsula. After all the travelling the last week, we were all glad to settle down a bit and not live out of our backpacks. We spent the final week in amazing beauty where we worked on our writing pieces.
Heading to the Dingle peninsula. It only takes about 3-4 hours to drive the width of Ireland!
Arriving in the dingle peninsula, I soon found it is the most beautiful place I have ever been. We stayed in large townhome apartments, complete with kitchens, washing machines, and backyards with about 3 of us staying in each town home.
While we were in Dingle, we each concentrated on our individual writing assignment for the trip and were taught in individual groups by the professors depending on if we chose poetry, fiction or non-fiction. After studying each of these throughout the trip, I decided upon nonfiction. We discussed our writing progress with our group everyday and were also assigned short stories to read. We were given quizzes for the short stories at the kitchen table in the mornings, and had "class" where we discussed Irish authors and what we had read.
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A ten minute walk from our apartments, led us to the shops and pubs in Dingle. Most of them had signs written in Gaelic.
This sweet little restaurant is where we had our goodbye supper at the end of the week
Several afternoons in Dingle were spent driving around and seeing the amazing views
The winding roads were on the edge of the cliff. Breathtakingly beautiful, but nerve-racking if we had to share the road with another car...
White specks of sheep in almost every field.
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Since there were several birthdays, we had a little birthday party in the professors' townhome.
If you remember from my first entry, we were also assigned to read several novels throughout the trip. Along with these books, in Dingle we spent each evening as an entire class at the professors' apartment going through the play "The Cripple of Inishmaan" by Martin McDonagh. The story is set on one of the Aran Islands in 1934.
Phoebe's "cripple Billy" face
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A random dog in the neighborhood tried to go with us...
Again on the cliff road, there is a stream running right through the middle of it
The view of the road from the other side. The white posts are on the edges of the road.
One day we decided to do some reading and writing on the beach!
Our location on the map
Olivia accidentally bought the wrong book... she bought "The Butcher's Boy" instead of "The Butcher Boy."
After the beach, these brave ones hiked a mountain
Some of us went to see the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life
We hiked along this steep cliff
On the edge
Our fearless Professors
It's hard to tell, but we were at the edge of a steep cliff that was breathtaking and thrilling
We got to see old monastery ruins; with ancient languages written on stones and the history there... it was amazing.
Our cramped back seat
Guinness at a grave
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On our walk back from the shops to our apartments..
A glimpse at our town home..
And a (disgusting) friend we found while we were eating our breakfast and writing outside one morning..
We wrapped up the play, did our last quizzes, and frolicked around for our last times. We bought wool sweaters, and were all very sad to be leaving. The trip just didn't seem to be long enough.
Our goodbye meal
Our last morning in Ireland, around 4:30 am or some other awful hour of the day. In Ireland, the sun set after 10 pm and rose around 4 am.
A tired drive to Shannon Airport
The last precious views
As we were leaving, we got to see the Aran islands, which we had visited, from the sky.
This eight hour flight was a little easier to get through with music, movies, and TV shows to entertain us
This trip was absolutely amazing. From beginning to finish, every single day was filled with adventure that we all wanted to soak in. It went by so fast, yet I saw and experienced more in those three weeks than I could have ever imagined. I also loved being able to read my favorite writers, learn about new authors, and write in the most inspiring place. I am thankful for this experience and I plan on DEFINITELY going back one day. And lucky for me, I now know all the best spots.
