Return to Dublin, Ireland

After departing Scotland we had just one day at sea before arriving in Dublin, Ireland. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog you may be thinking “wasn’t she just in Ireland?” The answer to this question is yes. Not knowing that I was going to be working on the summer voyage which includes a stop in Dublin, I booked a week-long vacation around Ireland with my sister and two friends. This trip occurred following the spring voyage and it was wonderful.

When I arrived in Dublin with Semester at Sea, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to see or do since I had just been in town and done most of the “touristy” sites. So here are two “off the beaten path” sites I visited during my recent visit to the Emerald Isle:

-Book of Kells: The Book of Kells, a 9th century illuminated manuscript, is a special exhibit at Trinity College. The Book of Kells is featured alongside the Books of Durrow and Armagh and all are beautiful. The illustrations are very ornate and amazingly detailed.

The Books are set in a museum that explains their significance and you get to see them at the end of the exhibit. Following the Books exhibit, you enter the Long Room which is Trinity’s old library. I have to say, I enjoyed the Long Room more than the Books! The exhibit was very crowded and dark and therefore hard to navigate. The Long Room was just as crowded but brighter and full of ancient books and artifacts. The ambiance was wonderful and I could have stayed there all day! I also saw an employee cleaning some of the books which was pretty neat. He was using a small vacuum to clean each book one by one but said he could not open the books unless his supervisor approved because they were so old and delicate.

Long Room at Trinity College.

Cleaning the books in the Long Room.

Long Room, Trinity College.

Long Room, Trinity College.

-Chester Beatty Library: Chester Beatty was a New Yorker who made his fortune in Colorado mining and then retired and died in Dublin. Mr. Beatty was a collector of manuscripts and ancient books so after his death, his collection was turned into a Museum. This museum is right up my alley – ornately decorated pictures and books from mostly Asia and the Middle East. Everything was beautiful and the museum was wonderfully done. They had a whole floor dedicated to manuscripts for different religions that I especially enjoyed. They had manuscript fragments of books of the Bible from 200 A.D., which completely blew my mind. How could these pieces of paper have survived for so long and then how did Chester Beatty find them?! A-Mazing.

No pictures are allowed inside the Chester Beatty Library so you'll have to check it out for yourself!

First port-of-call = LISBON!

After just a few days at sea, plus nearly 2 IPAD days, we stepped off the ship at our first port-of-call – LISBON! I was very excited to visit Lisbon and the city did not disappoint. Here are a few of the sights that I visited and recommendations for future travelers:

--Mosteiro Dos Jerónimos or St. Jeronimos Monastery: My visit to the monastery could be considered two-part: first, I visited the cathedral which is Manueline in style, which to me looks like a Portuguese version of Gothic. Nice cathedral but the second part of the visit, the monastery cloisters, was ten times better and incredibly beautiful. The stone carving is so detailed and intricate; I can’t imagine how long it took to complete!

St. Jeronimos Monastery is located in Belém, an area of Lisbon that also features the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower) and the Padráo dos Descobrimentos, which is a monument to Portuguese discoverers like Vasco da Gama.

--Alfama: Alfama is a historic region of Lisbon featuring hilly, winding cobblestone roads lined with buildings covered in ornate tile. Very picturesque. In Alfama, I visited Castelo St. Jorge or St. George’s Castle. The castle itself isn’t much to write home about and was actually built in the 1960s as a replica of the castle which stood on the grounds centuries ago. However, the view is fantastic. St. George’s is located on top of a large hill and you can see all of Lisbon from the castle grounds.

--Sample the local cuisine: The Portuguese food was great and my favorite was the pastel de nata, a custard-y egg tart. I took a good sample of the pastel de nata and deemed them all good!

Pastel de nata - Yum!

My next adventure waits in Bilbao, Spain, our second port-of-call. More coming soon.

View of Alfama, in Lisbon. 

Cloisters in St. Jeronimos Monastery.

St. Jeronimos Monastery.

St. Jeronimos Monastery.

St. Jeronimos Monastery.

Monument to Portuguese explorers.

Tower of Belem.

Tile work around Lisbon.

View of Lisbon from St. George's Castle.

View of Lisbon from St. George's Castle.

London Calling

After 112 days, 12 countries and 23,379.5 nautical miles, the ship arrived in Southampton on May 2. It was hard to believe the voyage was coming to a close and our close-knit shipboard community would scatter home to all corners of the globe. After a somewhat tearful goodbye, I disembarked the ship and got on a shuttle headed for London.

Big Ben and Parliament in London.

Disembarkation was bittersweet. It was sad to leave behind newfound SAS friends but I was also excited to return to London. I studied abroad in London in 2007 and had not returned since! Seven years is a long time to be away from a place you love and I was excited to be back in the city of fish and chips, union jacks, and “mind the gaps!”

I spent a week in London going to all my old haunts including museums, restaurants and shopping areas. I am happy to announce that I finally went on the London Eye, something I did not do when I was studying abroad in London (a $50 Ferris wheel ride was too expensive for my student budget!). In London, I also visited the V&A Museum and saw an exhibition on wedding dresses through time, the British Museum, the Portrait Gallery and sites such as Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the royal parks, Westminster and Parliament. Of course, a trip to London wouldn’t be complete without a visit to my favorite stores including Primark, Top Shop, Zara and Harrods which had an exhibit on Prada called PRADA WORLD. Very cool!

If you are one of my family members, you have probably heard the story about why I have never been to the White Cliffs of Dover. For those who don’t know, when my family came to visit me in London after I completed my 2007 study abroad experience my sister wanted to see Stonehenge instead of the White Cliffs of Dover (much to my father’s chagrin). My dad recounts the visit as the time we paid to see a pile of rocks in the middle of the English countryside and were told by the guides that “they don’t know why the rocks are there or who put them there, but we went to see it!”

View of the Cliffs on the train ride to Dover.

Well, since I had never been to the Cliffs I decided to go check them out during my recent stay in London. I took a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Dover and trekked up to the cliffs. I can confidently say that the Cliffs and Stonehenge are equally as exciting. The cliffs are a beautiful, chalky-white color which look very nice when the sun shines but at the end of the day, they are cliffs. J Dover is a quaint seaside town and I visited the Dover Castle as well as explored the downtown area. It was a nice day trip out of the city.

View of the Cliffs and Dover Castle.

After a week in London, I was off to Dublin to meet my sister Cady and two friends Kacey and Caitlin for a week-long excursion around Ireland. More on Ireland in the next blog.

View of Parliament and the River Thames from the London Eye.

London Eye along the Thames.

View of Parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye.

Big Ben & Westminster Abbey seen from the London Eye.

View of the London Eye.

White Cliffs of Dover.

View from the top of Dover Castle.

Downtown Dover with a view of the Castle.

One rainy day in Mauritius

Eating breakfast is paradise, before the rain began!

After leaving India, we spent 6 days at sea before arriving in Port Louis, Mauritius, for our one day port-of-call. Mauritius is a small, beautiful island located off the western coast of Madagascar and serves Semester at Sea as not only a place for us to stretch our legs but also a good place to refuel and restock.

Mauritius is a beautiful island with many natural sites to take in and explore. Unfortunately, about one hour after we arrived it started raining. I’m not talking a light mist; it rained cats and dogs all day long! The streets were flooding and the locals said this is the most rain they’ve received in months!

I’m sorry to say that because of the rain and our very short stay, I don’t have much to report from Mauritius. I had planned to go to the beach but decided that wasn’t necessary because I was soaked after just a few minutes outside. Instead I went to lunch with a few of my fellow staff members from the ship and did a little shopping. After picking up some snacks, I went back to the ship to escape the rain.

Mauritius, maybe I’ll try again to see you in your shining glory. Until then…

Port Louis, Mauritius

Our drumming and dance welcome to Mauritius.

Mauritius, former home of the Dodo bird. They are now extinct.

Welcome to Mauritius!