Ireland - Dublin

This post is a reflection of the experience I had during my exchange in Dublin (2nd September - 18th December). It was an amazing stay in this peaceful and scenic city.

My exchange university was University College Dublin (UCD) and it is the most beautiful campus I have ever been to. It is located a little far from Dublin's city center, about a 20 minute bus ride. The entire campus is very clean and peaceful. I lived in Merville Residence, where it was literally a 5 minute walk to Quinn's Business School. Below are some of the photos I took of my hostel on the first day I arrived (2nd Sept).

Yes the room is a little small, but really cozy due to its powerful heater. 

The campus has two beautiful lakes and some really awesome facilities. There are two auditorium-size gyms for students, at least 5 football fields (too many to count), two indoor sports halls, and several beautiful residents for students (just a little ex!).

Due to some peer influences, I bought a second-hand bicycle on my second week there. It did not result in much cost savings eventually but it was really worth it. As I did not really know other people in UCD and was skipping lectures most of the times, I had plenty of free time everyday (when I wasn't travelling). I would use some of these free times to cycle around outside the campus. Here are some of the scenery I took during some of my rides.

Beautiful city isn't it

Random cycling routes behind campus, look at the view

Dublin city center is a happening place, like most Europe countries capitals. I did not go there very often as it is a 30 minute cycle from school (20 minute bus ride). The city center has absolutely everything you need. Fast food, Chinese restaurants, pubs, river, cheap apparel shops, you name it. 

Spire of Dublin, marks the city center

Speaking of cycling, it is one of the things I missed most about my stay in Dublin. During my long bike rides, I often took the opportunity to listen to some music, reflect, and relax my soul (although exchange is already very relaxed). I cycled to several great landmarks during my stay. The photos below are Dublin Castle and Phoenix Park.

One interesting festival I managed to experience during my stay was Halloween. Halloween is held on last day of October every year (I think). Due to my budget, I only spent 11 euros on a cheap vampire cape. With the help of some make-up and the cape, I thought I looked quite like a vampire. Instead of calling it Halloween, it was essentially clubbing in Halloween costumes. The pub culture of Dublin is way too strong and everything evolves around it.

4 months fly by real fast, guess that I can't be playing forever. Reflecting on my stay here, I would really have to say that Irish people are really friendly people. Although I did not manage to make any close Irish friends, it was a wonderful experience interacting with them through projects and school trips. Exchange is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am glad that I have the privilege to spend it in Dublin.

Germany - Frankfurt

One finally stopover at Frankfurt before flying back to Singapore. When we checked out from Kaixin's hostel and reached Frankfurt, the sky was already dark. After checking-in to our hotel, we made our way to the city center for a final dinner in Europe. The shopping streets were brightly lit with Christmas decorations and the atmosphere was really nice. Snow was the only thing that was lacking for a perfect Christmas.

We managed to find one promising German restaurant and had Pork Knuckle and Mussels. After dinner, we strolled around at the main Christmas Market which was really beautiful. The night ended with a final stroll along the river.

This concludes my 4 months trip to Europe. I am really thankful for the privilege go on an exchange and broaden my horizon. I have gone to eight different countries over this 4 months in the order of this sequence: Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, UK, Belgium, Greece, Austria. Here's my bucket list for the future: Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Budapest, Turkey, Netherlands, Morocco, Egypt.

Germany - Cologne

Finally exams has ended and it's time for Christmas! Flew to Mainheim to put luggage and set off with Kaixin to Cologne the next day. Totally underestimated the cold and I only realized I was under-dressed upon reaching Cologne.

First thing to see upon exiting the train station was the Cologne Cathedral. This Cathedral is the third biggest in Europe behind the Cathedrals in Barcelona and Milan.

We then had a quick lunch and took train to Cologne South to check-in to our accommodation. Due to minimal sleep the previous two nights and fatigue from exams, we decided to take a late afternoon nap and woke up two hours later at 6 pm. Hungry bellies led us to Neumarkrt, one of the main Christmas Markets for dinner. We had fried fish, grilled salmon, steak burger, grilled mushrooms, hot wine, and one lousy waffle. The night ended with really cold and windy stroll along the bridge to take pictures of the Cathedral from the other side of the bank.

Day 2 - Woke up at noon and we took train to a nearby city called Konigswinter to see a beautiful castle. Sadly the castle was closed for maintenance but we at least managed to see some really beautiful scenery.

It was even colder there than Cologne and I was really freezing while waiting for the train back. We were starving when we were back at Cologne and ate at some Peking Duck restaurant. Ordered Peking duck but it turned out to be roast duck like what we eat in Singapore instead of the true Peking duck.

Scotland - Edinburgh

Day trip to Edinburgh is a no-brainer as one does not simply spend 3 days in Glasgow. It was only a 50 minute train ride over and I was immediately greeted with a great sunny weather. Edinburgh's architectures are out of this world, every street along the old town is worth capturing on camera.

First official stop is the Edinburgh Castle. Despite having been to so many palaces and castles in Europe, this castle has completed exceeded my expectation and once again I was overwhelmed. Was previously told by my friend not to enter as the ticket was really pricey: ~15 pounds. Upon reaching the entrance, the security told me it's free to enter, what??! and I quickly ran in before he changed his mind. After Googling I found out that it is St Andrew's Day (30th November) which is the only day of the year the Castle allows free admission! How lucky am I?!

Met up with Tung Lin and he brought me to a nice Scottish restaurant. One of the dish we ordered was Scottish specialty which is made up of animal intestines, but it turned out to be soso.

I climbed up the Calton Hill in the afternoon and caught a perfect view of the New Town, really chilling. In the late afternoon, I randomly roamed about the Christmas Market and Old Town before travelling back to Glasgow.

I guess I covered around 60% of the main attractions. Edinburgh has quite a lot to see and I believe that 2 or 3 days will be ideal for one to fully explore the city.

Scotland - Glasgow

Last trip before my exam starts. Planned for a 3 day 2 night trip to Glasgow but didn't really think that Glasgow has enough to occupy me for 3 days, so I believed that I would probably venture to somewhere else on day 2.

Day 1 - Arrived at Glasgow at 11am, cloudy weather. First stop, city center and University of Strathclyde. This university was my first choice for exchange thus I really want to see how it would have been for me there. It turned out to be a disappointment as the campus is kind of old and unappealing, and a few builds are under reconstruction. Headed to Riverside Museum and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in the afternoon and I was more or less done with Glasgow?!

It was already dark at 4pm and I travelled back to my hostel for checking in. My mum's ex-classmate came to fetch me at night for a great Asian buffet dinner.

Day 2 - Edinburgh

Day 3 - Woke up almost missing the buffet breakfast. Headed straight to University of Glasgow, which has one of the nicest architectures I have seen among universities.

It started to drizzle as I made my way to the Botanic Garden in the afternoon. Felt a bit bored there and left after a quick walk. It was only 3pm and I realized that I had nowhere else to go and I aimlessly roamed about in the city center. In the end, I left for the airport early and camped almost 3 hours there for my plane...

A day-trip is totally sufficient for Glasgow in my opinion. The next time I'm in Scotland, I will definitely go to Isle of Skye.

Northern Ireland - Giant's Causeway

Signed up for another day tour to Northern Ireland, this time the main destination is Giant's Causeway. Giant's Causeway is located at the Northeast coast of Northern Ireland facing Scotland and the Atlantic Ocean.

First time in exchange that I was required to wake up before 7 am, as the bus leaves Dublin City Center at 7 sharp. Cycling along empty streets at 6+ in the morning really made you wonder if you are the only person out of bed. As I reached the meeting point, I was surprised many people signed up for this trip despite the cold weather nearing winter.

The tour bus by-passed Belfast City and arrived at our first stop: Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. This famous rope bridge is said very scary when crossing as cautioned by our tour guide. Upon reaching, I was completely underwhelmed by the size of the bridge and to be honest, there was close to no fear when crossing.

After a disappointing lunch (Irish Beef Stew that tasted as plain as water), the bus brought us over to our main attraction of the day: Giant's Causeway. From where the bus was parked, we had to walk about half an hour to the attraction and I was glad that I chose the longer route with more climbing. The coastal scenery from high up the hill said it all.

Giant's Causeway is a really amazing wonder of nature, with interlocking rock columns said to be the result of volcanic eruption millions of years ago.

In the late afternoon, the bus brought us back to Belfast City and we were given 20 minutes at the Titanic Museum for photos, followed by an hour at Belfast City. This time I had at least sufficient time to roam about the main landmarks and buildings around the city center, as well as take a sneak peak at the Christmas Market. The tour ended with a quick visit to peace walls before bringing us back to Dublin. Pretty worthwhile trip as I only paid 35 euros for it.

Austria - Salzburg

Another day trip. One of the rather epic day of travel as we couldn't find the bus station and ended up missing our 9am bus to Salzburg. Lady luck was still on our side and we managed to find another bus company there with a 11.30am bus.

As I reflect upon this incident, I was pretty glad that I didn't panic or feel unlucky at that moment we missed the bus. I used to have all those feelings when bad things happen but now a lot less. Experiences in recent years have thought me not to expect 'everything to go right' and enjoy the imperfections in life.

Reached Salzburg at 1.30pm and we decided not to buy the Salzburg Card as Museums close at 5pm. Had a chilling walk to the river and the city center where most of the attractions are. The Hohensalzburg Fortress was no doubt the best attraction to enter given our limited time there and the views from the top of the Fortress say everything.

Salzburg is a chilling city in Austria with a lot of 'Old Town' architectures, definitely a worthwhile day trip.

Germany - Fussen

Took a 2 hours train from Munich to Fussen in the morning for a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Fussen is a town in Southern Germany that is only 5km from the Germany/Austria border. Upon reaching Fussen, we took a bus that brought us to the foot of the mountain where the Castle is situated.

We took another bus there to go up to the top of the mountain. From there, we were able to find the the hanging bridge which gave us a perfect view of the castle covered with mist.

We then made our way into the castle with the audio guide tour, which turned out to be pretty disappointing. The descend down to the foot of the mountain was special as we paid to ride a horse carriage. There is actually another castle there called the Hohenschwangau Castle which is also very beautiful but it's completely overwhelmed by Neuschwanstein Castle so not many people visitors, a bit poor thing.

When we were back at Fussen, there was almost 2 hours to the next train to Munich, so we explored the cozy town of Fussen, which was not bad either.

Germany - Munich

Flew from Dublin to Munich and reached at 7.30pm. Kaixin waited for me at the arrival hall and we ate pork knuckles for dinner at the airport. It was a drizzling first night in Munich, with rather deserted streets as shops mostly closed at 8pm.

Day 2 - Rainy day again. First stop of the day was Deutsches Museum, supposedly world's largest museum of science and technology. The airplane and ship galleries are indeed overwhelming but most of the other galleries are too complicated for any non-engineering students to understand. Joined Sandeman for city tour in the afternoon, which lasted for 3 hours.

Signed up for the Beer Challenge at night and it turned out to be the worst blunder ever. We were expecting an experienced tour guide to teach us Bavarian beer culture but it turned out to be just a pub crawl. Some girl who can hardly speak English brought us to a few bars which we sat down to order and drink beer, what?! What a waste of time (to Germans, walking around to drink is pure enjoyment)

Day 3 - Fussen, Germany

Day 4 - Salzburg, Austria

Day 5 - Woke up tired but excited about our trip to Dachau Concentration Camp. To be honest, before the exchange, I wasn't particularly interested in historical sites but my interest grew tremendously after seeing more and more stuff in Europe.

Reached the camp at 10:30am and paid 3 euros per person for the 2.5 hours guided tour. It was no question the most well-spent 3 euros since I came Europe. The entire tour was more than amazing to say the least. The sufferings and tortures faced by the prisoners back then simply make u cringe, and make you appreciate peace and being born this era so much more. We have been so privileged to live in the 21st century.

In the evening, we visited BMW Welt and took a brief glimpse of the Olympic Park, before heading back to city center for the long-awaited famous Pork Knuckle.

It was a slight disappointment that we didn't get to visit Munich during Oktoberfest (mainly due to our limited budget). I was glad that I still made my way to Munich as it has so much to offer, and a lot of fantastic day-trip opportunities to nearby cities.

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Northern Ireland - Belfast

Booked a day trip with Paddywagon to Belfast on Sunday. For those who didn't know, Northern Ireland is part of United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales). The tour started at 9am and we took a 2.5 hours ride which brought us to Belfast City Center.

The first activity was my long awaited Black Taxi Tour. Black Taxi Tour in Belfast is a political tour that takes you to the conflict zone between the Protestant and Catholic community and allows you to see first hand the years of tension that exists even until today. The whole tour was absolutely an eye opener and lasted almost 2 hours.

When we were back at Belfast city center, there were only 10 minutes left before we were supposed to leave for the Titanic Experience. Took 5 minutes walking around the city center and taking some pictures and used the remaining time to grab some food from Burger King.

Our Titanic tour began at 2pm and we spent 2 hours inside the Titanic Museum. It was an enriching experience as well, especially for those who have interest in ships. One new knowledge I learnt was that Titanic actually sailed from Queenstown, Ireland to New York, instead of from London to New York which I had thought for years.

It is really amazing to step into a community with political problems for the first time. Northern Ireland people are actually really friendly and fantastic people but decades of tension simply prevented the two sides from trusting each other and living in harmony. It is great to hear that the current education system is steering the younger generation towards the right direction.

Ireland - Kerry

Signed up for a 3 day 2 night trip to County Kerry with ESN over the weekend. The bus ride of 4 hours was torturous as expected. After surviving long traffic jams, we finally reached our hostel at Killarney at 6pm and settled down. Pub Crawl began at 8:30pm and we hanged out in several pubs before going into a night club for some dance and rock music. To be honest, pub crawl was seriously boring, but the club was quite fun since we were given the entire dancing hall to ourselves.

Day 2 - Began the day with Ring of Kerry tour. The entire trip was confusing as the tour guide was mumbling throughout and we could hardly hear what he was saying and unsure where we were exactly. The bus brought us to Killarney National Park in the afternoon where the lake and green is really spectacular. We also headed to Torc Waterfall where one of the US dude fell into the water when trying to climb the slippery rocks.

Night activity was clubbing again and it wasn't free so some of us didn't feel like going. We hanged out a bit at the pub outside the club and later strolled around town of Killarney before heading back to our hostel. Glad that it's daylight saving that night so we get to sleep an extra hour.

Day 3 - Last tour of the trip was to Rock of Cashel, which is along our way back to Dublin. There was a guide explaining to us the significance of the Cashel during war times but I could hardly understand as usual. After the visit, we strolled along the peaceful town of Cashel to have lunch before continuing our bus ride back to Dublin.

It was a fun weekend getaway which I got to know a lot of friends and living in hostel is definitely the best way for communal interactions.

Greece - Athens

Arrived at Athens at midnight after an 8 hour ferry ride on the Mediterranean Sea. We were amazed by how near our accommodation was to the attractions and central metro station, barely 100m away.

Day 1 - Slept until noon (as usual), and headed to Plaka for some day time shopping. We visited Acropolis later in the afternoon, followed by New Acropolis Museum and Temple of Zeus.

At night, we strolled around Plaka again and discovered some crowded shopping districts full of locals. From the picture you can actual see the Acropolis, pretty good place to be at night.

Favorite photo of Athens, over-seeing night Acropolis

Day 2 - We were dead tired by now as it was day 10 of our trip. Spent the afternoon in National Archaeological Museum and Panathenaic Stadium, where the first International Olympic Games was held.

Day 3 - Good things have to come to an end I guess and it's time to return to Dublin.

Experienced the most happening day on planes, and here's the story: My first flight to Copenhagen was delayed by 2 hours due to technical issues, causing me to miss my connecting flight to Dublin. The airline compensated me with alternate flights that bring me from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, then to Dublin. Fine. Then, the flight to Frankfurt got delayed by half an hour due to AC malfunction. When I arrived at Frankfurt, the connecting flight was about to fly in 10 minutes. I ran all the way from arrival to the gate, and guess what? Everyone was sitting around as the plane has yet fill its engine. Arrived at Dublin at 11:30pm instead of 6pm. No complains since exchange students are never in a rush to go back school. But I would never take anymore flights with the-airline-that-shall-not-be-named.