Day 42 in Europe - Dublin, Ireland Revisited

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Day 42 in Europe – Dublin, Ireland Revisited - Jan 23rd 2013:

With my Very last day in Europe in one of my Favorite places, there was only one way that I knew how to end my Adventure, and that was for the last time, go on one more Walking Adventure with absolutely no destination and just find myself stumbling over Amazing places off the beaten path. And that is exactly what happened.

So I decided to venture to a part of town that I never went to before. I walked and walked and found myself not even on my Dublin Map after awhile. Let me look at my phone pictures to remind me where I went so I can write about it…

Okay, sweet. So after venturing for awhile I found myself stumbling into Merrion Square Park, and if you know how much I like wondering around inside Parks, you know I went inside. It was pretty cool, with a lot of trees and plants and cool paths leading to cooler places. It was here that I found a Statue with a huge column that caught my eye. There were a lot of really cool quotes written on the column so I started taking Pictures. I was intrigued by them randomly written there. Some quotes where, “Most people are other people,” “No gentleman looks out of the window,” and “…That little tent of Blue, which Prisoners call the Sky.” I then turned around and there was a life sized Statue of Oscar Wilde sitting on a large Rock. I then realized that all the quotes that I was so intrigued by were actual quotes from Oscar Wilde! I then saw a sign pointing to across the street, so I followed it. It then turned out that I was standing in front of the Actual House that Oscar Wilde grew up in! It was quite an Amazing thing to just randomly stumble upon without knowing – my favorite part about my Walking Adventures. It was quite the experience to both see the place that Oscar Wilde grew up in, and earlier his Grave in Paris, another thing to come full circle on my Adventure. So I took some pictures in front of it and continued on with no destination.

During my walk I saw a Gigantic Truck Pulling about 100 Kegs of Guinness that they were putting into a random Pub in the middle of nowhere, totally non-Touristy Area. Is that enough Kegs of Guinness? Of course not! Lol. It was quite cool walking around and not seeing a single Tourist in sight. I continued walking and found an interesting Point of Interest after awhile that seemed quite pedestrian, but thought it interesting to go to. I randomly stumbled into something called ‘The National Print Museum.’ It was located in between the Geological Survey of Ireland and the Labor Court, lol. Walk into this Medieval looking Courtyard with cool Buildings and walked into the National Print Museum. It had a bunch of the very first Printing Presses ever made, and like everywhere else on my Museum travels, there were no pictures aloud, but I’m Chris Johnstone so I was able to snap a few without getting caught, lol.

I then walked through some Irish Residential areas, seeing nothing but locals coming back from work and going into their nice little houses. I really like just wondering around into the areas where the locals are at, experiencing Dublin in a light that most tourists don’t experience. I then stumbled upon the gigantic Aviva Stadium, where they have all their huge sporting events and large concerts. Outside of the Stadium was a field that was fenced off and you couldn’t see in, but I heard a lot of yelling and sports noises and was able to find a spot to look into the field and just watch for a while. That is where I saw my very first Rugby Game in Person! Rugby is Intense! It was cool to see local teams playing a match in person; it was really cool to finally see a game. The Blue Shirted team was killing the Striped Shirted team. I then continued my walk farther and farther away.

I continued farther off the beaten path, and just saw a plaque engraved in Brick that just say, “COLLEGE.” Thinking that was totally Awesome, I took a picture and continued past the sign. That is where I stumbled into Marian College. I absolutely love roaming around College Campuses, especially if I could go into the buildings and possibly sit in a class, so I went in. There were pretty cool old looking buildings in the school and made my way further into the small campus. Not too long did I realize that people were giving me kind of strange looks, and noticed that it was a Catholic School with Uniforms. Since I was the only one around without one, I immediately felt out of place and stared out, so I left before I possibly got in trouble for entering a place where I probably shouldn’t be and walked out.

I then decided I was going waaaay too far off the Map, I had absolutely no idea where I was. So I decided to head back into the direction of where everything was on the Map. Right as I was turning into that direction I could have sworn I saw the ocean, but there was no way I could have been that far away from my Hostel. I then swore I smelled that salty-air smell, so I decided to continue farther away to see if what I suspected was indeed true, heading back into town could wait.

After quite a bit of more walking, to my surprise, was correct in my inquires! I was at Dublin Bay!!! I actually walked to the very East Coast of Ireland! This is where I saw something that I never think I will ever see again, it was simply Amazing. To my Surprise, I was overlooking a gigantic Bay, probably Miles and Miles long as it’s wide, with Absolutely no water in it at all! The Bay had no water!!! For miles all I could see was sand – the most sand I have ever seen in my entire life! It was like looking into a vast desert. The sand had wavy designs in it like it might look like on the bottom of an ocean, with tons of sea shells that I picked up and put in my bag. My curiosities got me, so I decided to walking into the Waterless Bay and see how far I could go. After about 20 minutes of walking, and after probably about 2 miles into the sand, I soon gave up on the idea of finding where the sandy Bay ended and where the Ocean started. I probably could have walked for hours before reaching the end of the Bay. I probably would have tried, but it was starting to get dark and didn’t want to get lost here in the dark, so unfortunately I started to make by way back onto shore. If you would have seen my location on Google maps, it would have shown me standing in the middle of a Large area of Water!!! Lol. Pretty Amazing.

I then remembered that I still have yet to Drink at O’neill’s, and don’t want to miss my chance again, so I headed back in that direction. Long story short, it took my at least 2 hours to walk back to the area where O’Neill’s was located, which was still another 40 minutes outside of where my Hostel was located. I saw a lot of other cool sites along the way on my walk, including more parks, some Awesome Poop Signs, kids playing a strange game, a small Apartment Complex where it looked like the entire community hung all their massive amounts of clothes in the center on wires, and a book store, (which if you know I’m totally intrigued by bookstores for some reason, and bought a old looking Irish book as well as Gulliver’s Travels, which I found fitting since the Author of it was from Dublin).

This is where I got to where I’ve been waiting to drink at for over a month; I was finally at O’Neill’s! This Pub is Awesome, 3 stores, tons of rooms and more rooms and hidden corners to drink at and tons of bars on every floor. This is where I finally Had my Guinness there, for which I would then steal the Guinness Glass as a Souvenir!

I then decided to call it an early night to not miss my plane for the next day, as I have seen so much over my last 42 Days that I was absolutely content for not going out any later, as I did everything I’ve wanted to do and more. That is where I was greeted by my 4 New Hostel Roommates, 4 girls from London. It was an Amazing Goodbye present from Europe, as for the next hour they would go take showers to get ready to go out for the night, then come back into the room with only their towels and changed right in front of me! Well, it wasn’t as good as it sounds, as their back was towards me and changed like they do in Water Polo with their towels still on, but it was pretty cool!

After they left I got ready for bed and it was probably the saddest I’ve ever been, lying there alone, realizing that tomorrow morning I was leaving this wonderful place to go back to school and home. I haven’t felt so down as I did in a long time. I never want to leave but at the same time, it will be cool to see friends and Family again.

It will be cool to be back home, but I can’t believe my Amazing Adventure has come to an end.

-Chris

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Photos

Waaay down you can spot a Ship after the waterless Dublin Bay!
I have up on trying to find where the Bay ended and the Ocean began