Short trip to Ireland: Dublin, Galway & Mullingar

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After a 24 hour trip with a stop in Abu Dhabi and after having watched a few movies and documentaries I arrived In Dublin. I had booked a hostel for a few days; the "Times Hostel" in Camden Place. It was OK, but a lot more expensive as to what I had gotten used to in South Africa the previous months.

Customs went by fast and when I got out of the airport I managed to find a bus that would take me close to the hostel. I didn't really have much idea of where to get off, but fortunately a couple of Kiwi tourists were sitting next to me and had a map. I had to walk about 10 minutes to the hostel after getting off the bus, so my calculations weren't that bad.

After settling in the hostel, I went out for a walk and to get my bearings in the city. The city is perfect for walking around. I don't think it's worth taking the Hop On, Hop Off buses here. At the most, a bicycle.



The city was founded originally as a Viking settlement during the 9th Century. After the Norman invasion from Wales in 1169 it became "the Kingdom of Dublin".

The city has walls and buildings that date at least 800 years back. As an example, there are city walls from the year 1275 in the Viking/Medieval area. Not far from there is the "Brazen Head Inn", Dublin's oldest established pub (1198).

The city combines these old buildings with other areas of modern architecture, making it a great place to wander around. In general the city is not that big and 3 days are enough to cover the most interesting areas on foot, including a few museums and other specific places. I'll get to that later on this post. A good walk is also along either bank of the "River Liffey" that goes through the center of the city.



The main area for pubs and nightlife in general is "Temple Bar". When I was told about it, I thought it was a bar itself. Even though there is a bar called that, "Temple Bar" is also the name of a street and the general area of where the pubs and bars are concentrated.

A lot of then places have their own home brewed beer and live music every night of the week. That's something worth mentioning I think; no matter what day, the bars and pubs are always open.

I spent the first two days just walking around and going to a few pubs at night.



On Saturday there was a big Gaelic Football match. This is the most popular sport in Ireland (and it was an important match if I remember correctly). Consequently, all the hostels had been booked out for the weekend. All of them.

So I was left with two choices: get a ridiculously expensive price for a hotel (considering I was on a budget) or go somewhere else for the weekend. I tried to get someone to host me at the "Last minute hosting requests" in Couchsurfing, but I got a positive response after I had already left Dublin.

After searching online for places to visit (that were not too far from Dublin), going to Galway seemed like a good idea.

I got on a bus and after a quiet 2 hour-or-so ride I was in Dublin. The hostel I stayed in was the "Sleeepzone", which I think was quite good.



Galway is a small fishing town with a lively city center full of pubs and full of life. As it's also a university town, it's got a vibrant nightlife 7 days a week. In my room in the hostel I met an Aussie guy, Tom and an American girl, Emily with whom I hanged around. The first night I went with Tom to check out a few pubs. It was alright, but we had an early night.



On Sunday I went with Tom to visit Oranmore Castle. There are a few old castles and fortifications around Galway and this one seemed to be the closest and easiest to visit (buses are not that frequent and I didn't want to take any tours).

Getting to Oranmore was easy, but when we got to the castle we realized it was closed (it only opens during certain times of the year and at the hostel they didn't mention this). We got a few photos outside of the place and then decided to just go back to Galway, because there wasn't really much else to see in Oranmore.



The rest of the day I walked around the town. There's an area that's good to visit which is where The Corrib River meets the sea. There're a few green areas, a nice coastline and an island with a lighthouse (the island is now connected to land by a bridge). There's also a nice row of houses in the northern bank of the river along "The Long Walk", which has remnants of old city walls at its starting point.

At night I went out with Tom and Emily. We went to several pubs and ended up in a club until about 2 or 3am.



After the two days in Galway I went back to Dublin. But before getting there I stopped for a night in Mullingar. This one is a small town and my interest in stopping here was to see if there was any way to get information concerning a great-great grandfather of mine (Richard Ashton) who immigrated to Argentina in the late 1800's, along with over 30,000 Irish during that century. The grandfather of my grandmother on my mother's side. What my grandmother wanted to know was if there were any of Richard's family's descendants left in Ireland.



Richard Ashton was originally from a smaller town nearby called Ballymore. Unfortunately there was no local transportation available to go there (I needed a car), so I had to search for information in Mullingar. I booked a hotel for a night (there were no hostels that I found online). The hotel was the "Austin Friar". It was a "luxury" spending a night in a 3 star hotel and it was awesome getting a night of good sleep after more than a week in hostels. I paid extra to do a late check out the next day.



I arrived in Mullingar in the afternoon. To be honest, if I didn't have had to go there for this specific purpose, it's not a place a think is worth visiting. It's just a small town. Although the walk along the "Royal Canal" is nice.

My first stop was the Cathedral. There they told me that I would have to contact the Priest in charge of the Parish of Ballymore to see of they had any records of Richard Ashton there.

The other place I went to visit was the public library. There are records there, but I didn't find anything concerning Richard Ashton. I did however get a list of over 50 websites where I can search for information.

I left the library just as they were closing it. After 5pm the town was pretty empty. I took a few hours to walk around and take some photos.



In the evening I went to a pub to get something to eat (while watching football matches) and then back to the hotel where I had an excellent night of sleep.

I also had an excellent brunch and a check out at 2pm. Just in time to get the bus back to Dublin.



The remaining days in Dublin I stayed at the "Generator Hostel". One of the best hostels I've stayed in, considering it's massive. The area where it's located is also really nice: "Smithfield". There was a coffee shop in front of the hostel to which I went to a few times.



The last days I did a lot of walking and visited a few places I hadn't still: the Guinness Storehouse in St. James' Gate and a few museums I wanted to visit.

I visited first the National Museum (Collins Barracks) which has a good display of Irish military history including all conflicts in which Irish forces have been involved in and also the internal conflicts, which gives the visitor a good general insight of part of Irish history.



Then I went to the Guinness Storehouse. I think it's a must do in this city. It's impossible to walk around and not see Guinness propaganda all over the city. The Guinness Brewery was founded in 1759 by Arthur Guinness. He was so influential that up to this day there's a special day to celebrate him: Arthur's Day.



But the highlight of the visits that I did (and this place was recommended to me by several people) was the Kilmainhaim Gaol. This prison is an important part of Irish history and the tours done here are really excellent. It was the place I learned the most out of in my stay in Dublin. The tours are about 1 1/2 hours. This is the one place I would recommend people to go to if they had a day to visit Dublin. It gives a good idea of contemporary Irish history.



The last two nights in Dublin I met with Couchsurfers. The first one I got in touch with a Brazilian guy who's been living there for about 5 years, Cleber. We had some beers in a pub and then met with some of his friends in another place. In the group of people that I met were two guides that did walking city tours in Edinburgh (María from Spain and Ben from Scotland). Edinburgh was my next destination.



The other night I met with an American Couchsurfer, Jerry. A 61 year old banker who was traveling on business and he had already been about 6 times to Dublin. We had a great conversation that went on for several beers. After that, back to the hostel, as I had an early flight to Scotland.



That night at the hostel I decided not to sleep (so I wouldn't miss the taxi that was picking me up at 4am) and stayed up in the reception of the hostel passing time away online. While I was online I got a skype call from my brother and his girlfriend and so it was a good time to catch up. And then off to the airport to get on a plane to Edinburgh.

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Comments

[Andres]

saludos desde Lonquen
Hola Dani, interesante parada. Que pena que no encontraste nada de Richard Ashton, habria sido super interesante saber algo de ese lado de la familia. Por acá todo bieny sin novedad. Este fin de semana nos quedamos tranquilos en Lonquen. Te mandamos un fuerte abrazo Andres

[Maire]

Galway
I think Galway has the missguided reputation as being popular for stag parties in Ireland. From my holiday there last year there were loads of families holidaying there and there is so much to see and do in the surrounding areas. Roundstone, Connemara, the Gaeltacht Irish speaking areas and Spiddal are also worth visiting.

[Jk Williams]

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