Tag: iPhone photos

Summer snaps – day forty five

Two posts in one day? Well, aren’t you lucky!

We celebrated our two year engagementiversary (that’s a word now, get used to it) by eating dinner at a local Irish pub, since we got engaged in Ireland! We’ve decided that going to an Irish pub will be our new August 6th tradition.

We went to the Dublin Pub in the Oregon District in Dayton (one more restaurant off of our list!) and loved it! Ben drank a Guinness, I drank Jameson & ginger. Ben got a super spicy chicken sandwich, and I had the bangers and mash. The taste of the dish brought me right back to eating dinner with friends at pubs in Dublin two years ago. We will definitely be back before next year and can’t wait to try more of their delicious pub fare!

Solo travel day: Bray & Greystones

Ever since I started thinking about what I was going to do this summer, I knew that wherever I ended up, I wanted to do a little solo traveling for the first time. I’ve traveled by plane on my own to and from college, but I’ve never traveled on my own to a place where I don’t know anyone. I’ve always had someone waiting for me at the end of the trip. I wanted to experience more independence than ever this summer by traveling to a place where I have no connections.

I didn’t end up with the time (or money, really) to spend a whole weekend away, or even one night in a different city, so I chose to go on a day trip within County Dublin. The actual city centre that I’ve been spending most of my time in is pretty tiny compared to the rest of the county! There’s a lot to see, and it’s not too difficult to get around the area. So I planned to take the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) on Saturday morning out to Bray (and maybe Dun Laoghaire and maybe wherever else looked interesting from the train) for the day!

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On Saturday morning I woke up a little later than I planned, which is probably just what my body really needed. I took my time, since I had no one to meet, ate a good breakfast, packed up my purse and made sure my camera was charged up, and headed on my way to the nearest DART station. It was unfortunately a very overcast day that looked as if it could turn to rain at any second, so I made sure to bring a raincoat and a plastic bag to cover my semi-waterproof camera bag if needed. The Lansdowne Road station was about a 15-20 minute walk away from my apartment, and is right next to the stunning, glass-covered Aviva Stadium, where they play rugby. Apparently, it’s shaped like a giant rugby ball! (Is that the right term? Can you tell I know nothing about rugby?)

Selfie before heading out
Aviva Stadium

I topped up my newly purchased LEAP card (like a SmarTrip card in DC or a Charlie Card in Boston) at the station, and went through the (open, but I paid) faregates. The station was pretty empty when I got there! That always makes me a little bit nervous, but it was an open air station, and soon a few families came onto the platform as well. I had no idea what side of the tracks to stand on because the signage was a little confusing, so I ended up standing on the wrong side of the tracks, and watched the train I had aimed to take pass me by! The next train wasn’t coming for another 25 minutes – that reminded me a little of being at home on the DC Metro!

After I awkwardly made my way over to the right side of the tracks, I waited another 20 minutes or so, and finally the right train came by. Getting on was a little confusing, because you have to press a button on the door to open it once the train is fully stopped. I kind of stood there expecting the doors to open automatically, until I looked at the other people around me easily getting on the train, and I followed suit. The DART trains look a little old from the outside, but on the inside, they are clean, spacious, and have very comfortable seats. Remembering a recommendation from my boss to sit on the left side of the train for the best views, I found a seat, and the train started to move.

The sun started to shine and the clouds parted the minute the train pulled out of the station – no exaggeration! I took that as a good sign for the rest of the day. I definitely didn’t mind the view from the train. We passed gorgeous beaches, green grassy fields, and even went through tunnels in the hills. I felt like such a silly tourist taking photos out the window with my phone through the entire ride, but I couldn’t resist! I wanted to get off at every stop and explore, but knew I wouldn’t have the time for that. I had read about the Bray Cliff Walk from a guide book, and settled on taking the train to its second to last stop to check it out. At 11:39 on the dot, I stepped off the train in Bray, found a tourist map to get my bearings, and started exploring!

Bray Station

But wait, there’s more!

A little update – with photos!

What would a blog post be without a ton of photos?

I’ve been taking quick snapshots almost every day I’ve been here – of things that catch my eye in the city, of cafes I’m starting to love, of my lunch, a latte, or just anything I think would be worth sharing with those I love back home. I have been uploading them in big chunks to Facebook, but am realizing that there’s a lot of my time here in Dublin that hasn’t yet been recorded on my blog! Instead of slowly back-tracking and writing blog posts on things that happened two weeks ago, I’m just going to do a serious photo-dump, complete with lots of captions. Be warned, the photos were all taken with my iPhone, so they’re not great quality. Hopefully it will give you (whoever you are) a bit of an idea of what my month in Dublin has been like so far!

One thing that I had been really looking forward to trying out was the Dublin Unitarian Church. Here are some pictures from my first visit:

At the Dublin Unitarian Church on a Sunday morning
This is read aloud by the whole congregation during each service
Such a beautiful church
They have the same hymn books as we do at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington!

Following the Sunday morning church visit, I did a little tourist-ing at the Old Jameson Distillery, and ate lunch in St. Stephen’s Green.

Tour around the Old Jameson Distillery – so fun!
Yum
Lunch in St. Stephen’s Green!
St. Stephen’s Green

But wait, there’s more!

First week of my internship, complete!

Well!

I started my internship this Tuesday, and finished up my first week this evening! It’s been a whirlwind of a week, with a lot of learning about how the organization is run and meeting tons of new people (many of whom are named Siobhan), but I’m really enjoying the experience so far!

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I asked one of the receptionists to take a photo for my blog! My head is unfortunately blocking the cool part of the logo.

I’m interning at the Dublin Well Woman Centre, which provides reproductive health services at three clinics across Dublin. The services can range from simple pap smears to more serious things like crisis pregnancy counseling, all of which are incredibly important. I will be doing work with Well Woman’s website content, social media platforms (just Facebook right now – maybe a blog soon!) and governance/best practice. I still have a TON to learn and spent most of this week doing research to see how other organizations are run and present themselves, which is really interesting to see. I think Well Woman has room to improve, and I feel so lucky that they’re willing to let me try to help!

But wait, there’s more!

The first few days in Dublin

It has been quite a whirlwind of a trip so far, even though it’s just been a few days since I nervously boarded that flight to Dublin!

So close, yet so far from business class…
Plane selfie
Celebratory Jameson&ginger (with the hopes that it would help me sleep)

After a long, semi-sleepless flight, I arrived at the Dublin airport on Saturday morning, and got through customs with no problems and got my checked bag right away. There was another girl from Global Experiences on my flight, which was awesome. I would have been stressed if I had to get to the apartments alone! A few other girls from GE met up with us at the airport, and we excitedly found ourselves taxis to take us to our home for the next 8 weeks! It was nice to have lots of people from Global Experiences at the Lad Lane Apartments to greet us and help with our luggage. Luckily, there’s a small elevator in the building, so it wasn’t too much of a struggle to get up to the top floor, where I met my roommate and began to get settled in, one jet lagged step at a time.

Our location coordinator, Peter, invited the few of us that had arrived on a walk in the area by our apartment. We’re in a nice area with a few other residential buildings, a lot of small offices, and plenty of places to eat and go grocery shopping. It was nice to move around after sitting for such a long time! Our weary group went out for lunch, and all headed back to the apartments to either nap or just relax and decompress.

But wait, there’s more!