International Postgrad Trip to Kinsale

The first weekend after classes started the International Office set up a free trip to Kinsale for international postgrads. I decided to go since I didn't know many people...plus it was free. Can't argue with that. I actually nearly bailed on the whole thing because it was pouring when I woke up the morning of the trip, but I had told a couple of people that I'd be going, and a I knew that I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't go.

The first stop of the day was at Charles Fort. Mom and I went there last year, so it was nothing new and I spent most of my time just wandering around with my friend, Ezgi.

As I mentioned earlier, it rained that morning, so I was attempting to walk slowly and carefully down a hill, but I was not successful and fell on my butt.

And then I spent the next 20 minutes in the bathroom trying to clean my pants and purse...and dry my butt. Surprisingly, it actually worked!

When we finally went back outside, the sun had come out!

We did a bit more exploring before our bus was due to leave.

Our next (and only other) stop was Kinsale town. I have been here a few times before so I deferred to the people I was with to decide what they wanted to do, but the first order of business on everyone's mind was lunch! As we were walking around looking for a place that Ezgi knew of (she has lived in Ireland for a few years now), I caught sight of this awesome door.

For lunch I got my favorite, seafood chowder!!

Since we sat outside we had a bit of an issue with wasps. Ezgi (in the red) and Sarah (in the brown) were both terrified and would jump up and run away anytime one got near the table. After a while Ezgi started taking her fish with her because she wasn't getting time to eat.

Isn't it a cute restaurant?

Next stop was an old diner style ice cream shop! In this picture (starting from me and going clockwise) is Ezgi (Turkey), Wendy (Mexico), Melanie (Austria), Liz, (America), Caroline (Austria), and Sarah (America). Since this day I have been hanging out with all of these girls a lot and they're all great!

Our next stop was a casino type place. We went there purely to see if the slot machines still had levers that worked...and they did! Well, at least most of them did. This is Ezgi trying it out.

Me with my winnings. I paid in 1 Euro and left with 2!

The rest of the time we spent just wandering around and taking stupid pictures with the various sculptures near the harbor.

I caught site of this on our walk back to the bus area. It's an awesome garden!

We also found this thing. We don't know what it is, but it's awesome.

So those were the highlights of my lovely day in Kinsale with my new friends. Since then I have done a few more things with the girls and I might put up a highlights post just to show off what we've been doing lately.