When I think of Ireland, I think of long green pastures and high hills with beautiful flowers decorating them across the way; I also think of everyone having accents and laughing with fish and chips in hand. But it was hard to believe that my image of Ireland was very similar to the real thing, everything there had a quality of freshness to the air, the buildings, and the open fields even the tap water tasted really clean almost like our bottled water. But I wasn’t just there for the scenery I was also there for International Ballet of Houston the studio that I dance with, we went there for our tour where we perform recitals for multiple cities.

I visited three different cities but my favorite was Dublin on the southern coast of Ireland about 45 minutes from Naas one of the cities where I performed. I started my visit with a hop on-hop off tour bus; the bus made all the stops at all the must sees of Dublin. From the top of the bus, I could see some the most beautiful buildings and cathedrals. They were all sky high and historical with alluring architectural features.  My group of my mom and some of dance friends went first to see Trinity College that holds the Book of Kells and Manuscripts and Archives Research Library, home to more than 20,000 collections of manuscripts and archives, dating from the 13th century BC to the present day. The exhibit showed multiple pages of the original book because they we’re not allowed to show the remade version, they also had various video about how the book was made during that time.

I also saw Dublin castle, off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex with numerous rooms filled with antique paintings hung on walls , painted on ceilings, and even on paintings on the walls. The throne of the castle was decorated the unicorn , lion, and the crown in the dead center of this magnificent chair that had it’s legs saw shorter to accommodate their shortest ruler that was too short to sit in it. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. One of last stops was St.Patrick’s Cathedral, which was founded in 1191 and is the location for a number of public national ceremonies in Ireland. The cathedral was decorated in several candles for prayers and numerous choir pews, but their more of honors for past officials for the towns or past society members for the cathedral.

I tried to experience a wide variety of authentic Irish foods, which included black pudding, blood sausage, and fish and chips. Because I’m such a picky person I didn’t like the black pudding and I couldn’t eat much of the blood sausage because it left an interesting taste in mouth. And I met some the most amazing people that I am still in touch with today, some were dancers from Irish national youth ballet but I also had to ask some people on the street for directions (which we had to a lot) and they became some very nice friends to have during the trip. I think Ireland is the perfect place to visit for vacations, with all the calm vibes and the beautiful scenery  would make some amazing memories just like I had dancing there.