By: Cloey Powless and Emma Taylor
Last year, a group of students were offered the trip of a lifetime. The students jumped at the opportunity because most had never traveled out of the country before and were always interested in traveling. The students left for Ireland and Scotland in July.

Addison Eade, Mallory Thomason, Sydney Hatcher, Reese Bayler, Vivian Duquaine, Chloe McGee, Olivia Luzadder, and Cali Wilson received the opportunity to go on the Scotland/Ireland trip because there was an advertisement from a Clay City teacher that invited Juniors and Seniors from Flora to travel to Scotland and Ireland. Everyone raised money for this trip independently. The trip cost $4,000 plus spending money.

Cool and crisp is the year-round feel in Scotland and Ireland. Unlike the weather in the United States, Scotland and Ireland have no humidity even though it is warm. “As we stepped off the plane, the temperature in the air was cool and crisp. With the shining sun and sea breeze, we felt no humid air” Eade and Thomason said.

One famous Scottish dish these students tried was Haggis. Haggis is a savory pudding containing sheep’s pluck, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach. A more appealing dish was the ice cream in Scotland and Ireland; it’s different from ice cream in the United States. Many of the students said the ice cream was very fresh and so so creamy.

While in Ireland, the students visited the Leprechaun Museum and the Titanic Museum. “We went to the Leprechaun Museum as a large group and got to learn some Irish mythology,” said Duquaine.

While in Scotland, the sights the students enjoyed the most were the Highlands and Castles in Scotland.

“I most enjoyed seeing sites that exist only in countries that have been around for centuries,” Hatcher said.

The students would recommend this trip because it is a once-in-a-lifetime trip that you can go on. Many of the students said it was the most fun they have ever had.