The journey is the destination

Instead of going somewhere tropical for our senior spring break, three of my best friends and I decided to take a road trip around Ireland. It might seem random, but we found cheap flights and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin (a holiday celebrated much more fervently in the US, but it’s the thought that counts).

We landed in Dublin at the beginning of this week and drove to the west coast to Galway, obviously listening to Ed Sheeran. Our journey continued to the Dingle Peninsula, in the rain, on roads called “corkscrew drive” with multiple warning signs of danger. Here, we traversed the breathtaking Slea Head Drive before heading to Killarney and then ending back in Dublin! Needless to say, we have spent countless hours in our very cute, but very small, red Renault Clio, have gone through lots of Dramamine, and have learned that Irish roads are incredibly narrow and dimly lit.

These drives, while have often been a bit scary, have been such a highlight of the trip. If you’ve ever been to Ireland, you can attest that it is absolutely beautiful and full of sheep-filled pastures, rolling hills, and bodies of water. It doesn’t matter how many sheep we’ve seen this week; we have freaked out every time, they are just so cute. We’ve rarely driven more than 30 minutes without stopping to take a picture, feed a baby sheep at a roadside farm, or pet the golden retriever sitting in the middle of the road, not letting us pass until we play with him. I could drive around this country for weeks.

Not only is the drive incredibly scenic, but the company is pretty awesome too. We’ve played lots of road trip games, asked each other questions, laughed too hard at jokes that weren’t really that funny, and sang lots of Taylor Swift and Mt. Joy. We’ve also learned dozens of fun facts from Madison Grajzar about things like elephants, Amelia Earhart, teacup pigs, and the difference between a bull and a cow – she has kept us learning this week! Feeling super lucky to be spending spring break in such an awesome place with even more awesome people.

If I’ve learned anything from our roadtrip this week, it’s that driving on the left side isn’t as hard as you’d think (unless it’s a one-way on the edge of a cliff), Irish gas stations have great ice cream, and the journey truly is the destination.