Advertisement
Published: July 28th 2008
Travel Mates
YAY! My awesome travel mates, Jessica and Hayley. Here we are on a bridge over the Liffey RiverAs soon as we arrived in London and got the program schedule, everyone quickly scanned the packet to see when our free weekends were. Turns out we had three full free weekends, right in a row, all in July. Groups formed, maps were looked at, hostels were booked, plane and train tickets were purchased.
My flat mates Jessica, Hayley and I decided to spend our first free weekend in Dublin, Ireland. I had never been before and was really keen on setting forth to explore some more new territory. Prior to this trip, the most Irish experience I'd ever had was going to see Irish punk bands (Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, etc etc etc) in high school. While fun, definitely not a real culturally Irish event.
Our flight left ridiculously early on a Friday morning, so we got to the airport by 5am. I'm finally getting a handle on this whole packing light business and was miraculously able to pack three days worth of stuff in my brown shoulder bag. Hold your applause. Our Ryanair flight was slightly delayed, but luckily we had crazy techno music and foul-mouthed Irish folks sitting behind us for entertainment. Once at the airport,
Abbey Court
Our super cute hostel we quickly figured out which bus to take to get to the city (the giant green double-decker one) and we were off! First stop: breakfast, where upon noticing a group of backpackers in matching Northfaces Hayley proclaimed "I tend to be drawn to clans." That became our motto for the weekend. After nourishing ourselves, we set out to find our hostel, Abbey Court. The hostel was right along the Liffey River and in a great part of the city. We dropped our stuff off and began our very long and touristy day. We crossed over the river and walked through Temple Bar, a great section of town full of bars, restaurants and shops. We HAD to stop at Urban Outfitters, as any fashionable American would, just to take a peek. Passed by a great second-hand record shop, which was right next to this music venue called The Button Factory (sound familiar? Knitting Factory, perhaps?). The side of the venue had a Wall of Fame with large photos of famous Irish based bands and musicians... mainly U2 of course. We meandered through the city some more until we came across the entrance to Dublin Castle, where we stopped and took a
Wall of Fame
Hazzah for U2! guided tour. It looked so out of place, we just passed by a huge bank and BOOM. Castle. Random. It wasn't a particularly impressive castle from the outside, but the inside was very extravagant. The tour included some basic history of Ireland as well, which I always enjoy when I'm in a new place. We were famished after the tour/gift shop, so we grabbed a quick bite of deep-fried deliciousness at a pub before continuing through Dublin. Eventually, we came across St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful. My intelligent quote of the day: "Wow, it's so Gothic." Yes, I know. Brilliant observation haha. Anyways, it was an architectural wonder. Really something magnificent to look at. The high, arching ceilings were extraordinary and so perfected. My favorite part of any cathedral is the organ, but this one wasn't as powerful as I was expecting. Jonathan Swift was buried there, so I got to pay my respects to another one of my favorite English dead guys. Pressed on until we bumped into Grafton Street, Dublin's major shopping area. I never really thought of Ireland as being one of the major European fashion capitals, so this took me by surprise. Resisted the
urge to buy anything, and then continued on towards Trinity College. Unfortunately, the library where the Book of Kells is located was closed when we got there, so we didn't get to see that. But we did have a nice stroll through the beautiful college campus. It still looks and feels so old. NYU is just so modern and un-campusy that going to a REAL college campus is always a treat for me. We passed by the statue of Molly Malone as we retraced our footsteps back to the hostel. We were in a 12 person room with bunk-beds galore. Rested and changed, then went back out to Temple Bar for a traditional Irish meal. I was surprisingly able to find vegetarian Irish food, which turned out to be super good! Stopped at a gelateria to gear up for... pub time. We randomly picked this place called the Oliver St. John Gogerty and it turned out to be awesome! Packed bar with bad American bar tunes downstairs, but upstairs was a live Irish band (and another bar). We drank Irish drinks and talked to Irish people and danced to Irish music until we were convinced that we all were 100%
Dublin Castle II
Magnificent hallway in the castle Irish. The one bummer about Temple Bar is that it is super touristy, so probably about half of the people there were Irish impostors like us. Oh well, we had fun anyways. We had no problem falling asleep in our super soft hostel mattresses, and I dreamed of green and Damien Rice that night.
Day 2: Woke up semi-early and got ourselves to the bus station to take a trip out to the Irish countryside - Wicklow, Glendalough and Avoca. I'm not a big fan of bus tours, but we were thought it would be nice to get out to the country to see what the rest of rural Ireland looked like, so I didn't mind too much. Especially when we met our tour guide, Mary. What a character she was. An older Irish woman of maybe 60 or so, Mary was a mischievous little devil. She told us stories over the loudspeaker as we drove out of Dublin, and all of them involved killing someone or getting your husband lost in the national park if he got on your nerves too often. Her laugh was this insane cackle that echoed throughout the double decker bus. She was downstairs,
St. Patrick's Cathedral
The facade was being renovated and was covered with scaffolding, but here is a nice shot of the rest of it! and we were sitting upstairs, and even up there you could hear that nutso laugh come up through the floor. We LOVED Mary and are convinced that she is the direct descendant of a leprechaun. Anyways, so the Irish countryside is absolutely spectacular. I have never seen so many different shades of green in my life. There was an even wider variety of green in Ireland than there was in the rain forests of Costa Rica. We drove through Wicklow National Park, which had many man-made and natural lakes (all stunning), and quite a few glacial valleys where new vegetation was trying to grow. We made our first stop atop a mountain in Wicklow and got out to snap a few photos. The problem was that it was 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside and raining. The rain of course was turning into ice. And we were dressed in July clothing. The three of us came, saw, and conquered the Wicklow mountain faster than you can say "hypothermia." Too bad, because it really was lovely. The bus then took us to Glendalough, specifically to the ruins of an ancient monestary that dates back to the 6th century. Parts of it were rebuilt
St. Patrick's Cathedral II
Blurry, cause I'm not a good photographer, but I loved the arches. in 1214, but a lot of the original stone and graves remain from the original site. Incredible. We found some great walking paths near a small stream and explored the ruins. The last stop here was in a quaint village called Avoca. It was a small town nestled into a beautiful valley, with tons of sheep farmers and open space. Ate lunch at this cute cafe that had amazing food from locally grown produce. I had a vegan tomato soup and the best wheat and grain bread I've ever tasted. SO GOOD. Avoca is known for its wool weaving mill that has been in use for over 300 years. We went to the mill and saw the weavers at work using the traditional machinery. They were spinning dyed wool of the most vibrant colors. At one point I felt like I was looking at a series of painted spider webs, with the wool going every which way across the workspace in the mill. After the mill, we walked 10 minutes into the town and saw a wedding taking place at an old church. All of the cars in the parking lot were European and expensive, and the bride and wedding
St. Patrick's Cathedral III
Jessica's feet on the lovely tiled floor guests were clad in the most stunning couture ensembles. There was something wonderful about seeing such a high profile, classy wedding in this very modest, small Irish town. The drive back to Dublin followed a different route along the Irish Sea, just as the sun was getting lower in the sky. We napped at the hostel and befriended one of the girls in our room. She joined us for dinner at an Irish restaurant down the street, where I once again nabbed great vegetarian Irish cuisine. I had my first Irish Coffee, which was good at first but then not-so-good after a few sips. I was a little disappointed. The four of us walked through Temple Bar and made appearances at a few different pubs throughout the evening. We met some interesting people - a clan of hats and high socks, a student from Australia with awesome shoes, two boys from Wales who teased me for being short, and members of a French rugby team. We enjoyed Rugby's company until our bodies ached with the need for sleep.
Day 3: Sadly, this was the last day of our all-too-brief stay in Dublin. Woke up early-ish, checked out of the
hostel and grabbed some breakfast before heading over to the tourism center to make our plan for the day. One of the things we all wanted to do was to pay homage to the great Bono, so we walked along the Liffey to the Clarance Hotel, the hotel that Bono himself owns. We wanted to make a reservation for lunch, but it was wayyyy out of our price range so we had to pass. We then walked, and walked, and walked some more until we found the one thing that Jessica and I had been waiting for all weekend... The Guinness Factory Storehouse. Glorious, glorious Guinness. It turned out to be really fun and a very interesting factory. We learned all about the history of stout in Ireland and saw how Guinness was made. They had a few free tastings along the way, which of course is a bonus. Hayley actually has a severe gluten allergy, and one of the first rooms of the storehouse was this giant room of, well, pure barley. Jessica and I were both like "HAYLEY, STAY AWAY!!!!" and even though she didn't touch it or some near it, she still got a bit of an
Molly Malone
Statue of Molly Malone, near Grafton Street allergic reaction. Luckily she was feeling fine and wanted to keep going with the tour, despite me and Jessica trying to find the nearest exit. At the very top of the factory is this place called the Gravity Bar, which is a circular observatory and Guinness bar. We enjoyed a tall, cold Guinness and took in the great views of Dublin that this bar offered. It it actually the highest observatory in Dublin, so if you ever visit Dublin go to the Guinness Factory for the view even if you don't drink stout. We decided after the factory that we really wanted to have a Bono moment, so we ended up having afternoon tea at the Clarance. It was great! I just had Earl Grey and an assortment of cookies, but it was really nice and we felt a bit posh for an hour. Unfortunately, after that we had to make our way back to the bus stop and onto a plane.
My favorite thing about Dublin was the front doors. Many of the front doors to people's homes and such were painted in very bold, bright colors, with great door knobs that were just awesome to look at.
I'm sure there is some story or interesting tidbit about the doors, but I unfortunately didn't find that out. I'll read up on that later. I also loved that all of the signs were in both English and Gaelic. I didn't even realize people still spoke Gaelic, so that was neat to see.
I had a wonderful time in Dublin and I really enjoyed seeing the Irish countryside. One thing to be prepared for if you go to Dublin is price. It is very expensive, especially meals. In London, I've been able to score great dinners for under 5 pounds ($10 US). In Dublin, our meals averaged 10 Euro (roughly $15 US). While this isn't SUPER expensive, it definitely adds up. And that doesn't include drinks or dessert. That gets expensive too. Come with a full wallet and an open mind, and hopefully you'll leave happy like I did =).
As we exited the bus, Mary said to us very enthusiastically, "Slauncha!" which means "to good health" in Gaelic. I think I'll end for today on that note.
Slauncha!
xo Leah
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0531s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
