Advertisement
HOORAY!
Showing our excitement about going to Dublin
Back in March I went on Spanish Spring Break, also known as Semana Santa as it surrounds Easter. That's right, I got 10 glorious days off for Easter and just how lucky was I? Only so much that St. Patrick's Day should fall on the first Monday of this vacation and Ireland is only a two hour plane ride away. That annnnd some of my family came to celebrate these holidays with me. Happy happy happy spring break to me.
I met up with my brother Esteban, sister Maria, and brother in law Blaine in the heart of Dublin once Nikki & I had made it through the long line at the airport, a bus ride, and a long stroll with all of our luggage. It was a beautiful moment, I felt almost at home. I was very excited to have my family with me. After a brief pause to let one another rest (as they'd just gotten there that morning) we met up again and explored our St. Stephen's Green
I find this mildly ironic and humorous 'home' for the next 4.5 days. It was quite cold and somewhat rainy, what was to be expected of Dublin, but it was very green and the movement and mount of people around made it very lively. We grabbed an early dinner in Temple Bar (a well known area full of pubs and restaurants) and then called it an early night as my siblings were still growing accustomed to the time change. I met up with Nikki and company (her cousin, best friend, her cousin's best friend, and sister) to scavenge around for a good pub to try some Guinness and other Irish brews and begin our St. Patrick's celebration. We ended up at THE Temple Bar (the actual pub) and immersed ourselves into the buzz of everything going on.
The next day, my family & I took a 'Wild Wicklow Tour' to see the coast and countryside of Ireland right outside of Dublin. Our tour guide was fantastic and carried a wit all his own. He entertained us with some hilarious stories all while keeping the bus from slipping off any cliffs we happened to drive near. We went through Dun Laoghaire (pronounce dun-leerie...mmyeah) and saw
Lake
With ducks ... like Furman people SWIMMING in what was probably 10 degree water. Bur. We stopped at a 'park'/natural foods and things market for 'tea' and found some very nice and pricey items. Then the rain came. We drove through and past many filmed landscapes and barely saw some lakes. We had a very large lunch in Wicklow and watched a bit of rugby. We weaved through Bono & the Edge's neighborhood. Finally we were taken to this gorgeous monastery and filled in on much of it's interesting history. We then walked from the monastery through a very green forrest and ended up at a beautiful lake. It was too bad the weather was cold and wet but we thought it better to be out there than 'trapped' in Dublin. Upon our return in the late afternoon, we did some easy strolling through the part of Dublin near Maria & Blaine's hotel and again caught an early dinner. Later on, I'd meet up with Nikki & Co. to part take in Irish night life night number 2. This time we headed to a spot recommended to us by our Irish friend Pablo. We met some friendly people and enjoyed a few pints.
On
Trinity College
Old .... old ... old ... and cool Sunday, we thought it might be fun to attend a service in the famous Christ Church ... however, Maria's concierege was wrong about the time so we wandered down to St. Patrick's and found their service to be earlier, so we adjusted accordingly. We strolled through the adjacent gardens and got a hot cocoa to kill some time. The service was really nice and we were invited to have coffee and tea afterwards with the church members. We decided to 'hop on' the hop on hop off buses that takes people around Dublin and see the sights. We got off and had lunch at this very authentic pub with tastey food. We hopped back on and did a loop around town and got back off at the Guinness Storehouse 'Museum' .... we learned allllllllllll sorts of neat things about beer and Guinness and then we had one up top with a beautiful panoramic view of Dublin. We managed to catch the last bus back into the heart of the city and found a really nice place to grab a bite and met some very interesting and friendly Irish people. They explained Gaelic football and Hurling to us which sound and
Eager Beaver
I laughed out loud at this pub's name look like incredibly skillful and violent sports. They let us know the championships were the next day following the parade and we should try to check it out. We were intrigued. Afterwards I again met up with Nikki + and we pub hopped but after long the zeal had worn off.
On THE St. Patrick's Day, my siblings and I gathered quite promptly in order to place ourselves for what was to be the most interesting and curious parade I have ever and probably will witness. No one reminded us to bring our crazy make up and costumes, but we were oddly surprised and fascinated by what we saw. One thing that was of particular interest were the amount of American marching bands that had been invited and were in the parade. Almost felt like we were back in the States. Everything else and everyone else involved in the parade was over the top. It was like Halloween on steriods and ecstasy which almost reached a scary point. My siblings and I kept looking at one another more or less with a 'Is this for real?' look on each of our faces. About 4.5 hours after standing in the
same spot (and once the 2 hour actual parade had finished) we decided to get a move on a grab some lunch. We chose to forego the hurling and football games due to fatigue and exhaustion and instead opted to watch it comfortably laying and sitting around my sister's hotel room. I had plans to meet up with my friends later on that night to part take in the festivties, but unfortunatley Nikki's phone had been stolen ealier and we did not get in contact.
The following day we had a late flight so we took advantage of our extra time to roam around, picture grab, and get some last minute gifts. We flew back into Madrid that night and grabbed some tapas and an early night's rest. I proceeded to show my siblings around my current home town and savor in the warmer weather we were given. Some how the wind had caught word that we were headed south and followed us. We had an enjoyable time in Madrid and realized all of the hype gearing up towards Easter now that we were in uber Catholic land. We happened on a few processions and random festivities.
On
O'Connell Street
I grew to love the speer Friday we packed up once more and headed south to Malaga to spend time with our cousin Georgina and Santiago. It had been a good 15 years since my siblings had seen her. We arrived to our hotel and took advantage of the still shining sun and lounge chairs and free towels. We did that quite a bit for the next few days ... we were eventually quite sun kissed. We met up with Georgina and Santiago and made our way to Malaga one night to check it out, ran into a small procession, had some tapitas at a restaurant frequented by Antonio Banderas, saw some pretty decorations up around the city and made our way back. They took us to Mijas one afternoon, then to the coast to enjoy a very fishy meal of paella and many many many shellfish. We walked it all off along the boardwalk and then headed to Easter Mass.
The next day we had a late flight out so we rented a car and headed to Marbella and walked around a little near the beach and through the old town and then made our way to the airport. We got back to Madrid
U2
I was beside myself when our tour guide drove us by the place where they were first recorded late and I left my siblings at their airport side hotel. It was a great ten days together and I was glad they were able to make it over here to check it out!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.382s; Tpl: 0.041s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0523s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Funky Cold Madina
non-member comment
What a blog!
Thanks for the fun reminder of the fun we had having fun! I just want to know did you not have any better photos of me other than the one with me wearing the funny little hat in front of St. Patricks?Okay the one with Georgina was pretty good...but what about the one in el parque de Retiro? Nonetheless...I enjoyed reading it and Zabel, BP (Baby Paul) and I all think you need to be a writer. You da best. Take care and keep your feet on the ground while you keep reaching for the stars. Later tater! MM