"Erin Go Bragh" or My Trip to Ireland
Yes I'm finally getting around to posting about last weekend.
We flew into Dublin on Friday morning after spending the majority of the night on a bus and then on the floor of Stanstead Airport. I felt like a real college student napping on the seats in the airport like all the other kids were. The whole place was literally filled with 20somthings waiting on their early flights, tucked into sleeping bags.
Initial impressions of Dublin aren't very positive. It was dirty and rainy and the people were mean, although the accents were very sexy. Apparently in Dublin it's ok to be smashed drunk at 11am and it's also ok to push people out of the way with your bags on the very narrow streets. I was told by one of the guys that worked at the hostel we stayed at that only the Irish that live in Dublin are mean and that comes from a very brutal history. And that's true I guess, being Irish was never pie because of all the invasions, subjucations and persecution. We did manage to meet a few nice people in the city, but all the pleasant Irish folk you hear about resided in the country. The weather didn't help things either because it was miserable, cold and gray the whole weekend. Here are a couple of shots of Dublin I took, overall an unimpressive city but had some picturesque moments despite the weather.
Daytime Dublin with the O'Connell Statue:
A glance down an alley into the Temple Bar area:
Nighttime Dublin with the Ha'Penny Bridge:
We walked to the Guiness Storehouse, also known as the Holy Grail of Beer (hehe), and took the tour of the brewery. Lots of fun was had and the tour included a free pint. On the glass walls of the Gravity Bar upstairs they had quotes of James Joyce novles talking about places in Dublin such as Trinity College and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here's me at the factory and then a few pics of us being happy with the beer, or in Ram's case, water.
This one people said I should send into Guiness to use as an ad:
We then made a quick stop at the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, took a few pictures, bought some original Irish whiskey and went on to buy our tickets for RIVERDANCE! I know it's totally cliche to see Riverdance in Ireland but it was so amazingly worth it plus it's the original place they had Riverdance and the troup we saw it with is the official Riverdance X troup. Yes... the prancing is 10 years old, no Michael Flatley though, thankfully. We paid an arm and a leg for second row seats at the show that night and it was worth every penny. I spent the entire night sitting with my mouth open in amazement. They had a live band with a fiddler girl, a guy playing Irish bagpipes and flutes, as well as a few more people. And on top of the fact that the dancing was superb, the lead dancer guy was gorgeous! I was sitting with three other girls and every time he tapped his way towards us we would all clap and cheer like complete idiots. He winked at me a few times, I was happy.
So the next day we had the genius plan for seeing the oh so famous Cliffs of Moher. And a tour lady in Dublin said it's not too far from the city of Galway which is across the entire country. We mounted an expedition and took a crack of dawn 3.5 hour bus to Galway, only to find out when we got there after paying about $30 for bus tickets, that the cliffs are 60 miles away and we're too late to catch the tour that goes there. Imagine the jaw dropping ... so instead we rented bikes and planned to go to a small town called Spiddal to see the ocean, some other cliffs and enjoy the Irish countryside. The weather was looking like rain but since we were told it's only 6 miles away no one was phased. Of course the skies opened up and we got totally drenched, and Spiddal was not 6 miles away.. no.. it was 12 miles.. one way. We found that out when we finally got there. I took a spill about 15 minutes into our wet and bumpy adventure and now have a few very unlady like bruises on my legs. Once we did make it to Spiddal the sights were amazing, it's indescribable how gorgeous the Irish country side is, so I'm just going to share a few pictures:
Galway:
The way to Spiddal:
From the cliffs in Spiddal:
Me looking like a hobo with my feet in the ocean:
Me with Spiddal in the background, and yes I'm totally drenched from the storm:
And Celtic Crosses are absolutely everywhere, this is a small and very old cemetery next to a small church in Spiddal:
The night we got back into Dublin was fun, we went out to Temple Bar which is the fun/pub/club place in Dublin. Touristy but still a good time. Interestingly Temple Bar is called such because that was the closest place Jews could build a temple in Dublin, at that time the area was outside the Dublin city walls. Sunday we spent going to Trinity College and Christchurch Cathedral, both very important places in Dublin. Trinity College houses the Book of Kells which is this 1200 year old illuminated manuscript made by monks in Scotland, and Christchurch is just a very very pretty building with some really great crypts underneath it. Here are a few pictures of those:
Christchurch Cathedral:
Me and Steve being adorable in front of the Cathedral:
Trinity College campanille:
And of course no trip to Ireland would be complete without having a REAL Irish Coffee which is coffee, cream, Baileys and Jameson Whiskey. OH yeah... we even got it in special Irish Coffee glasses. That's me and Walker at a real Irish Pub (meaning it was all green) having our brakfast Coffees:
Aside from the mean Dubliners and the total overcastness and rain, it wasn't too bad of a trip. I'm glad I got to visit and see the things I did, and of course the biking of 24 miles in the rain makes for a very good story. This last bit is for Sofia:
I did find an oyster bar and an Irish guy with his lovely accent said our favorite word ever :)
Paris this weekend! Stay tuned!
posted by Veronica @ 12:16 PM
0 comments
