Brandon W - Dublin, Ireland - Fall 2014

My experience thus far in Ireland has been amazing to say the least. Before I made it to Ireland however, I did take a week long "vacation" in Palermo, Sicily. Palermo was a beautiful city with tons of history and old buildings. I actually went to one of the squares where there were buildings that had been bombed from world war 2. Pretty amazing to see. There was definitely some obstacles to overcome during my week in Palermo. I assumed that being the biggest city in Sicily there would have to be a fair amount of people that would be able to speak English. This was a very poor assumption on my part. I actually only met maybe 3 people in an entire week that were able to speak fluent English, everybody else didn't know the slightest bit of English. But I go through it.

The past month in Dublin has been great. The city is nice and small which makes it easy for navigating around on foot. The first week here I did the touristy thing and got a picture in the historic "Temple Bar". That whole area is really nice and fun to go to but the drink prices are outrageous! Speaking of prices, everything here is so expensive! This is probably the biggest downside to being over here, and the exchange rate isn't in our favor either. Budgeting will be key in the next few months.

I had the opportunity to make it down to cork last weekend with the whole nursing gang. We made a trip to Fota, which is an animal wildlife sanctuary, and had the chance to pet some kangaroos and see the cheetahs chase down their dinner! Really neat. I also made it to Blarney castle, kissed the blarney stone, and of course had to go to the Jameson distillery. It happened to be my birthday when we went to the distillery and the bartender gave me a free shot of "Middleton" whiskey (about a $200 bottle) which is only made right there in the town of Middleton and cannot be purchased anywhere outside of Ireland. Let me tell you, it was the best shot of whiskey I have ever tasted.

Traveling to Budapest Hungary in three weeks with Tommy, and then planning on a trip to London in the future.