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.