The Intercultural Communication Course Blog 
Written by: Courtney White , Lauren Utecht, and Taylor Mazzie (RWU)

We had heard amazing things about the people in Ireland, how they are all so friendly and outgoing. This was proven to be true, the people in Ireland were the nicest and jolliest people we have met during our study abroad experience so far. Dublin is a very fun city, where there is action and live music at every corner! If you love beer, live music, funny people and fun little shops, Dublin is the city for you. It is filled with culture and things to do, we all agreed that Ireland is one of the most beautiful places we had ever been to. 

The food in Dublin was a creative mix between American and European food cultures. We noticed when we got to our first restaurant that the menu was really appealing to us because they served food that is similar to meals we would get in America. We also noticed that there were many Irish options to choose from, there were a lot of dishes that we had never even heard of. I think one of the biggest highlights was that water was free. In Italy we almost never get water with our meals because of its costs. We also noticed how different Irish breakfasts are from Italian breakfasts. In Ireland they have large breakfasts with many different types of foods including eggs, meat, beans, vegetables, and potatoes – where as a typical Italian breakfast is a croissant and an espresso. Experiencing these different aspects of Ireland’s food traditions helped us explore the food culture in Ireland.

During our time in Ireland, we took a full day excursion to one of the biggest attractions, the Cliffs of Moher. This trip exposed us to the western coast of Ireland, which was an amazing cultural experience as we got to see the scenic, quaint and more rural side to the country instead of the city. The cliffs were one of the most surreal views we have seen during our travels so far. We were fortunate to learn about the history of the Cliffs of Moher during our excursion and were mostly impressed that the cliffs were naturally made. The beautiful landscape of the Cliffs of Moher made us reflect on how lucky we truly are to get to travel to so many places in Europe in which each place, such as Ireland, has a unique culture and new adventure.

We only have roughly about two weeks left here in Florence, but we hope to have one more fun adventure to be as great as our trip to Dublin was!