La famille Golden

Melissa - Student

I am from the Netherlands and flew to Cork airport where they (Golden Family) picked me up early in the morning. I went there in May 2024 for one week (from Sunday to Sunday) and worked in the 'Ring of Kerry hotel' for 5 days. This was my first time traveling alone to another country and staying somewhere alone. I had the best experience: they were really nice, helpful, caring, and fun. During the two-hour trip from the airport to their home, there was beautiful nature to see and Mary could tell a lot of great stories about some things we saw. A change for me was the environment and the roads. Firstly because I am used to driving on the right side of the road. The roads in Ireland we drove were way more bumpy than I was used to, with holes and way more turns on the road. I don't live in a really big town, but it was still a change, Cahersiveen was even smaller, but felt really wholesome. The houses look really different, more colorful and a completely different style. The town was more rural and loads of nature. During the week (mostly in the weekend) we explored the surroundings and even the chocolate factory once. You could try the national dishes, but no problem if you rather had something else instead. During my stay there was an au pair who I could do fun trips with as well. She was really sweet and knew things about the town as well. I had a work placement in the hotel, which was just a five-minute walk away. The hotel was really great. The people were really nice and I was able to do multiple different jobs (setting tables, serve dishes, cleaning and clearing tables, pour in drinks, run an errand, and more). Most of the time it was not difficult for me to understand the people, except if a person would talk Irish (which rarely happened). I started at 9:00 and ended my days between 15:00 and 15:30 and could have a nice break in between with a delicious lunch, which was provided by the hotel. Afterwards, there was plenty of time to go explore the town and environment.