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About Lizzie's blog

Name: Lizzie  

Home University: San Diego State University

School Abroad: National University of Ireland, Galway

Growing up with parents who love to travel, I was raised to be an independent spirit. After high school, I moved 8 hours away from home in northern California to attend San Diego State University. I am studying Hospitality and Tourism Management with an emphasis in Hotel Operations. With a combined love of people and travel, I hope to work in hotels all over the world.

Currently, I am studying abroad through Academic Programs International in Galway, Ireland and soaking up the hospitable nature of the Irish. While living in Galway, I am hoping to pursue as many of my passions as possible including: taking photos, traveling, writing, singing karaoke, and meeting new people. I hope you enjoy following my journey! 

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scotland: a bumpy, unpredictable yet extraordinary journey!

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Home » Lizzie's Ireland Blog » scotland: a bumpy, unpredictable yet extraordinary journey!

Lizzie's Ireland Blog

Lizzie's Ireland Blog

scotland: a bumpy, unpredictable yet extraordinary journey!

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2-23-2011 2:18 PM
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there is so much to see, to do, and to explore in ireland. so far i have visited the cliffs of moher, the aran islands, the small town of sneem, the town kenmare, and connemara. i cannot rave enough about how much i adore this emerald isle. but you know what is amazing about studying abroad in europe? you are so close to so many other amazing countries.

in the beginning of the month, two of my roommates and i ventured to scotland.

unfortunately, the luck of the irish did not join us. rachel, lauren, and i were suppose to go to scotland on thursday, feb 3. well aer lingus is going through a wee bit of turmoil right now and they canceled our 2pm flight thursday afternoon bumping us to a 4pm flight. but, dublin’s wind and rain said no, and we were left in dublin for the night. but we managed to have a pretty fun time in the airport regardless of our delays.

however, major props to aer lingus. they took amazing care of us. we got a free night at a hotel in dublin and 22 euros each to spend at the hotel restaurant.

we did finally make it into edinburgh, scotland on friday around 3pm. however, the rain and wind were still outrageous. since being in europe, i am certain that was the worst rain i’ve experienced. we manuvered our way to our hostel, high street hostel, to find out that since we didn’t show on thursday night, we could only stay for one night. this now meant saturday night we would need to find new accomodations. the woman working was less than friendly so i was fine with not staying there for the second night.

luckily saturday was much much nicer. it was still chilly out, but it didn’t rain. we woke up relatively early, 9ish, and left our first hostel in search of a new one. we were in such awe of the town and buildings that we spent at least an hour wandering and taking photos.

we eventually found a great hostel, budget backpackers. i would absolutely recommend staying here if you ever find yourself in edinburgh. the staff was friendly and everything smelled and looked a thousand times cleaner than at our first hostel.

for the remainder of the day we pretty much tottered around the city. edinburgh is absolutely amazing and very compact. i believe we walked around nearly the entire city center. we also took a bus tour which was great. the bus took us to places and sites we wouldn’t have known about. i highly recommend taking bus tours regardless of what city you are in. i’ve taken them in london, dublin, even the san diego zoo and now edinburgh and they are always one of my favorite parts of exploring.

the night life was much different in edinburgh. we tried out a few scottish bars but they were mostly filled with an older crowd. i have to admit that we ended up spending the majority of both nights in an irish pub– we just can’t escape the magic that is ireland.

all in all, i had a great time on the trip. we ran into many annoyances but managed to laugh them all off. and sunday we returned absolutely exhausted but so happy to be back in our lil town galway.

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