Ireland Bucket List

Only one more week until I leave! Everything is finally coming together. You’ll remember in my last post, I was quite angry and stressed out about my visa. However, the Toronto SWAP office was fantastic and they couriered it straight to my house on the other side of the country. Once I pick up my visa for China tomorrow, I’m going to feel a whole lot better about my trip!

I’ve been thinking about what I absolutely need to do in Ireland while I’m there. Being a tourist in places often means that you miss out on some really cool places that the locals know about, but living somewhere sometimes means that you miss out on touristy stuff that you want to see. So I’ve created a list of things I need to do or see before I leave Ireland. This is by no means comprehensive, just something I came up with while looking through travel guides and trip adviser.

• Kiss the Blarney Stone (but not actually kiss it because it’s supposed to be extremely dirty)
• Guiness Brewery (obviously. Hoping to save this one for when/if my dad visits)
• Cliffs of Moher (um. Harry Potter was filmed here. Duh)
• Blarney Castle
• Giant’s Causeway
• Trinity College
• Newgrange

If anyone has suggestions of must-see places in Ireland, please let me know!

On Bypassing the Travel Agency

There is only one month until I am on my way to Ireland, and I’ve already encountered several issues that I’d like to share with other aspiring Swappers.

First, issues with the process of getting my visa. On my way to Ireland, I am stopping over in China to meet my best friend. The Chinese government requires tourists to have a tourist visa, even if they’re only spending a week there. I dropped my visa application for Ireland off at the travel agency’s office on September 7, thinking that it was probably the more important one to get, seeing as I won’t be able to work without it. Somehow, my visa only reached the Irish consulate on September 17. What my travel agent didn’t tell me is that they have to send it to the SWAP office, who then sends it to the embassy. Upon calling the Irish embassy, they indicated that they were unable to give me any information about where my visa was because I applied through SWAP. Basically, I don’t know if I will have my passport back in time to get myself a visa to China, which is pretty disappointing.

Secondly, I don’t have a lot of faith or trust in the travel agency. Maybe it’s because I’ve travelled on my own so often without the help of an agent. When I first signed up for SWAP, the travel agent e-mailed me the cost of my insurance. I was completely unprepared for the $700 + I was going to have to pay. When I inquired further, she explained that I could get a much cheaper plan, which is the one I need for my trip anyway. I wasn’t impressed with her attempts to ‘upsell’, and I’m glad I thoroughly read the SWAP documents and caught this.

People, it’s relatively simple to apply for visas on your own and get your own insurance. I’ve done it numerous times and bypassed all of this ridiculous bureaucracy that I’ve experienced so far. Same goes for booking flights. I’m kind of wishing I decided to book everything myself now after this experience, and I think I’ll definitely do that in the future. The number of trips I’ve planned for myself and my friends makes me feel like I’m actually more experienced than my travel agent.

On the plus side, I did get a hold of the SWAP office, and the lady there was very helpful. She said she would e-mail the Irish embassy for me and see if they can rush my visa at all, and if not they would courier it back for me as soon as they got it back. So bypassing the travel agency is really helpful!

It’s all about how comfortable you are planning things on your own and going through all these processes yourself. If you’re new to travelling, you might feel better using the travel agency. But if you live far away from the Embassy, and are applying for more than one visa, make sure you send your stuff in more than a month and a half ahead of time, like I did. As for myself, this is an experience I won’t forget, and next time I’ll be bypassing the travel agency and planning on my own.

Only one more month to go!

Taking the Plunge

Ok folks. This is it. I have decided to finally take the plunge. Before you all get excited and start planning for a wedding – no I am NOT getting married. (Sorry Grandma Short, you’ll have to look for great grandchildren elsewhere!) What I have decided to do is, in my humble opinion, much more exciting than getting married. I am going to pick up and leave. I am going to explore the world before school once again takes over my life. I am going to IRELAND!

So, for those of you who know me well, you know I constantly talk about travel. You’ve heard me plan hundreds of trips that I never go on (which include itineraries and price breakdowns). You’ve listened to me complain about wanting to be somewhere else, while trying your hardest to understand what’s so wrong with Canada. You’re probably sitting there right now, wondering if I’m actually, finally, going to follow through on this trip. I am here to tell you that the answer is yes.

2012 was a year of travel and travel plans for me. I spent a week in New York participating in the Model United Nations, 3 months in Vietnam on an amazing internship, a week in Peru visiting the most amazing places, and in January 2013, I spent a month in Prague learning how to teach English. Coming back from Prague, I thought that I was ready to settle down in Canada and work. How wrong I was. Within months of finding a job, I was unhappy. Not only were all my friends either on the other side of the country, or the other side of the world, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the cheapest way to get out of Canada.

I came across the SWAP Program years ago, and have finally decided to use it to make myself happy. It’s a cheap way to get me out of Canada, and it means I (hopefully) won’t have to dip too much into my law school savings because I’ll have the opportunity to work.

As many of you know, I was just as prepared to do all of this back in January of 2013. I had signed up to teach english in Prague, a contract that was supposed to continue until this September. As you can see, I am writing this in August and in Canada, so obviously that didn’t work out. A combination of events forced me to move back home, and I’ve spent the last 6 months living in my parents’ basement. Again. Not a very dignified position to find myself in after living all the way across the country for the previous 5 years.

Anyway, I am determined to make sure that the issues that forced me to leave Prague won’t rear their ugly heads once again and ruin my plans in Ireland. First, I’ve made a crazy budget, that I will be sticking to. I will have substantially more money going to Ireland than I had going to Prague. Secondly, I have no ties to Canada, aside from my family. The majority of my good friends are travelling as well, and there is thankfully no boy in the picture. And finally, I have known that this is something I’ve wanted to do for ages.

Back to those of you who don’t think I’m going to follow through. I’m here to tell you that I sent in my application a few hours ago, and have received confirmation! I now get to go through the process of getting my visa for Ireland, booking flights, and freaking out about actually finding jobs.

But I’m ready this time around. I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I’m not going to make the same ones again. I hope you’ll all follow me through my adventures.

– Ally