The Spring Break Adventures continued as we hopped on the plane to Dublin, Ireland. I have been wanting to go to Ireland for as long as I can remember. One of the main reasons I chose to study abroad during Spring semester was so I could go to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. Well I made that happen. Last August, we were hanging out in our house in Spokane and Sarah and I booked our flights for this whole break just to make sure we would be in Dublin on March 17, 2011! Here's a little idea of how my 4.5 days in Ireland went:
Day 1: 6:30 am flight to Dublin. Not much fun to wake up at 4 am, but hey, the price was right and we would be able to enjoy a large part of Tuesday in Dublin. We made our way to our hostel thanks to the Airport shuttle that just happened to stop about 4 blocks away from where we staying. Our hostel was called Abraham and it is in the north part of Dublin (basically on the other side of the river from the Temple Bar area). It was lovely and we all enjoyed long, hot showers since we didn't shower in Scotland. Gross, I know. Well aware, actually, but considering we didn't have shower shoes or towels and the showers looked foul, we just decided to wait it out until we had our own facilities. We lounged around until Lindsey and Hannah arrived at our hostel after their adventures in London. It was a fun change to the group dynamic and the five of us didn't waste much time to get out and explore. We walked across Butt Bridge into the Trinity College area. Trinity College is absolutely gorgeous and we were on the look out for Lindsey's future Irish husband. Unfortunately, we didn't find him. After falling in love with Trinity, we headed out to meet a guy named Andrew, who Lindsey and Hannah met in London. He went to University of Oregon and is traveling around Europe for a bit. It was fun to hang out with him and explore more. We wound up in Temple Bar and ate at Old Storehouse, where we got our beloved Bulmer's Cider and various traditional Irish meals. Yum! After dinner, we scoped out the Temple Bar area and once we realized all of the main pubs were full, we went to a place with more Bulmers and live Irish music! It was a fun first night and set the tone for a relaxed fun few days in Ireland!
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| Husband searching at Trinity |
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| Cherry blossoms in full bloom at Trinity |
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| Bulmers |
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| THE Temple Bar |
Day 2: We woke up bright and early for our Paddywagon tour to the Blarney Castle and Cork. Of course, we ran into some girls on GIF who were doing different Paddywagon tour, but leaving from the same place. Our tout took us down through Kilkenny, a major dairy city in Ireland, and down to Cobh, the final stop of the Titanic. My former 3rd grade, Titanic obsessed self was very excited to see this little port town and imagine that boat leaving from there almost 100 years ago! Cobh was cute and quaint- the sun was out, the candy was cheap, and we were near the ocean, so we really didn't need anything else! After Cobh, we went through Cork before heading to the Blarney Castle. Cork is in the South Central coast part of Ireland and is an area worth going to! We got to the grounds of the Blarney Castle and instantly fell in love with it. The grass was bright green, the daffodils were in full bloom, and the birds were chirping. It was gorgeous and we probably took pictures every two feet. Eventually, we got to the castle and climbed up to the top where we saw THE STONE. Huge tourist trap, yes, but that's okay. We got the gift of gab for the next seven years and well, when you are in Ireland, you have to kiss it! There was tax free shopping and a little restaurant near the grounds, so I bought every Irish/Ireland souvenir possible and a ring that I will treasure for the rest of my life. The cottage pie was soo good- basically a beef stew mixture covered by mashed potato. After lunch, we loaded the bus and went down to Kinsale at sunset. Kinsale is right on the water and SOO pretty! There was an old castle ruin right on the edge of the water and we just took pictures, walked around, and soaked in the environment. It was so peaceful to be on the water (I miss the ocean/large bodies of water when I am in a central city) and we could have stayed there forever. We headed back to Dublin and enjoyed yet another Subway sandwich after a long day. Subway and Starbucks tend to be a common travel trend for us...
Day 3: St. Patrick's Day! The day finally arrived and we were excited for whatever it had in store for us! The streets will filling up with people wearing their brightest green and anything Irish. We got out coffee, shamrocks painted on our cheeks, and plenty more green things! We met up with more Gonzaga in Florence people at the Hard Rock Cafe... yes, I know, the Hard Rock Cafe? But considering they had the cheapest pints in the city, we couldn't not go! Avoiding the parade was one of our better ideas because we were able to sit down for a long lunch at Quay's Cafe while it was going on. The city was a whole new places once we left left. The streets were packed the alcohol had kicked in for many people! We couldn't keep paying 6 euro every time we wanted a beer, so we went to the grocery store and picked up some provisions. It was fun to people watch. We were astonished at how many young, Irish teenagers were out drinking and completely drunk before noon! They were making the Americans look good! Naturally, dinner was Subway and we enjoyed wandering and people watching before ending our night at O'Sheas, which was right down the street from our hostel. We took care of our friends who wouldn't be able to write more than a sentence about what they remember from St. Patrick's Day and everyone was in bed by 10 pm! It was a great day and experience- crossing it off the bucket list!
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| Cheers! |
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| More Bulmers! |
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| Streets of Temple Bar |
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| Seas of green! |
Day 4: We woke up, got our free breakfast and Starbucks, and explored Dublin before out 1 o'clock meeting at The Guinness Factory with the other GIF people. We were able to see Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was such a beautiful day and there wasn't too much of a crowd anywhere, so we were able to enjoy the morning. The line was pretty long, but moved relatively fast at Guinness and we were on our way! The factory/tour is very impressive. There is a lot of history and culture within a pint of Guinness. It is easier to appreciate any type of drink once you learn more about it's story! (Personally, I think it would be genius for Starbucks to make a 'Starbucks Experience', where you learn about the history of the company as well as the beans, roasting process, flavoring, and the way to brew coffee. And then you get to sample different types of coffee at the end.) Anyways.. we went through the self guided tour and got our complimentary pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar, which was incredible 360 views of Dublin (once you can look past all of the people). That was my first pint of Guinness and I am happy to say I had it in Dublin! There was a restaurant in the factory, so we went there- easily one of the best decisions of the day. Sarah and I split the Guinness and beef stew, which was to die for and everyone else got some sort of traditional Irish meal. The Irish meals were good everywhere, but we were getting ready for some Italian again! After lunch, we explored a bit more, got some last minute souvenirs and met up with everyone in Temple Bar for Vance's birthday! They ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe again and part of us split off to see some more of Dublin for some people's last day. Our wandering led us to this milkshake place which was SOO good. I got a Reeses milkshake and some people got Oreo/White Chocolate Bueno bar shakes. The owner liked us, so we got a free Kit Kat shake. Easily the best dinner choice. Our night was a whole bunch more wandering and we just ended up going to bed early because Lindsey and Hannah had an early flight to catch and we were off to another Paddywagon tour for out last day.
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| Christ Church Cathedral |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| Guinness Factory/tour... |
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| My first Guinness! |
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| View from The Gravity Bar |
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| Milkshakes |
Day 5: Paddywagon Tour to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey!
We got on the bus around 7:40 and headed across Ireland towards Galway. It wasn't a very exciting drive, but it was interesting to see different parts of the country. This tour let us see some of the rugged, deserted famine valley areas, Connemara, the Quiet Man movie cottage, Leenane, Ougherad, Kylemore Abbey, and bits of Galway. It was completely different from the stereotypical lush, green hills of Ireland that one would associate with the countryside, so it was good to be exposed to more than than the postcard perfect areas. I was very excited to see Kylemore Abbey because my parents went there in the 80s and have a picture of it that I framed in my room. If I was ever in trouble growing up, they would 'threaten' to send me there, so it is a little family joke. It is a gorgeous building with very romantic architecture. Right as we left the Abbey, the Irish rain started coming down. We were lucky enough to have missed the rain up until then. The views were tainted by the rain, but the landscape was still spectacular. Once we got to Dublin, the night ended with Subway and another early bedtime because of our extremely early bus to the airport!
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| Cong, Ireland |
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| First glimpse of Kylemore Abbey from the bus! |
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