Ireland - Maynooth, Dublin
Original Post: September 26, 2018
What is life but one grand adventure?
Our first few days in Ireland were spent wandering around the campus, the town of Maynooth and the city of Dublin.
North Campus - where we lived - holds student apartments, many of the class buildings, food outlets and a sports complex. South Campus - a short 10 minute walk away - holds the library in the heart of campus; the international office which offers student information related to on-campus services, visas and more; a chapel and beautiful covered walkway leading to a serene garden cemetery.
As Ireland’s only university town, Maynooth holds a lot of history. Right in town next to a coffee shop is Maynooth Castle, founded in the late 12th century. We stumbled upon the castle while roaming around town, and realized that we could walk through it at no cost. Inside there was a timeline of the history of the Kildare FitzGerald’s, one of the most powerful families who resided in Ireland. There were stairs leading to the top of the castle and an outdoor area with beautiful views of the outskirts of town.
Orientation for international students - us - began on September 19. We were able to tour the campus and get a better idea of where our classes would be when they started the following Monday. Our tour guide was a full-time student at Maynooth, and happened to be from Michigan!
Later in the day, the university held a welcome reception on South Campus, where they offered food and drinks for new students. A woman who worked in the international office informed UD students that she had packages for us - to our surprise, our home college had given us a meal plan for Maynooth University food outlets and a Leap Card for public transportation.
We suddenly became a bit less broke!
After orientation ended the following day, we decided to take the train into Dublin - with the train station only a 15 minute walk from our campus, it was an easy decision. 40 minutes and 15 miles of countryside and small Irish towns later, we were in the city of Dublin.
We had dinner at a local restaurant and walked on the bridge over the River Liffey to the south bank of the city that holds the famous Temple Bar, along with other shops and restaurants. Walking the streets of the city, we found a variety of cuisine options including Japanese, Indian, Mediterranean and vegan-based restaurants that looked inviting - who said Ireland only has meat and potatoes?
Making our way back to the train station was tiring after a long day, but the experience of going to Dublin for the first time was well worth it.