Today we awoke to another amazing, traditional Irish breakfast prepared by Mr. Slevin at the Clarence House which consisted of potato scones, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, an assortment of toast , muffins, and of course let’s not forget the tea! I had a conversation this morning with Mr. Slevin in regards to the Catholics and Protestants since I was deciding which mass to attend. Apparently, the color green represents the Catholics, orange represents the Protestants and white represents peace. After an extended conversation, I ultimately decided to attend both churches. I attended St Columb’s first with one of the professors which was a Protestant service and St Eugene’s afterwards which was a Catholic mass. There were only minor differences that I could determine. I was surprised that both of them recited the same readings from the bible which were noted on the pamphlets we received, such slight differences in religion that could create so much controversy. Also, singing prayers were in both services. Afterwards, we had lunch at a restaurant called Flaming Jack’s. The food was absolutely delicious! Salmon is quite popular here with chips, so the majority of our group ordered the same dish. Mr. Slevin then took several members of our group on a tour of Derry and we drove to a town that was only about 20 minutes away right on the border of the Republic of Ireland in the South and Northern Ireland which is part of the UK in the north. There were signs that indicated the monetary unit had changed from Pounds to Euros at gas stations. It was peculiar for two countries to be so close yet so far apart.

We visited a fort called Grianan of Aileach that had been standing since 300 BC! We couldn’t believe it. Apparently, soldiers would stand behind the walls with the spheres to attack any enemies when it was initially created and poke their spheres through the holes in the walls so the enemy would not expect it.

After taking a few photos, we visited a few lakes. The view was absolutely spectacular! Ireland is one of the most beautiful countries and I would recommend anyone to visit it. Thank you St Petersburg College for giving us this opportunity of a lifetime!