Hola amigos! I know I haven’t blogged lately, but until this past weekend nothing exciting has been going on. However, I have lots to share about my weekend in Ireland.
This past weekend started my 4 straight weekends of traveling and it couldn’t have started off any better. If you asked me a year ago if I would ever go to Ireland, I don’t know if I would have said yes. A few of my friends found a cheap RyanAir ticket to Dublin from Madrid the first week we got here and we all decided to book the tickets. I was excited, but I had no idea Ireland could be so awesome.
Thursday, all 7 of us (Jess, Laine, Kristin, Patty, Sam, Kate and me) left school around 12, and started our journey to the best country ever. And yes most of us skipped our first class, so that was fun too. I was excited, but kind of bummed that weather.com predicted “heavy rain and wind” for the entire 4 days we would be in Ireland. But although I packed light, I was prepared for the rain, the wind and the cold. When we left Valencia Thursday it was like 80 degrees so I was ready for some fall-like weather. After flying from Valencia to Madrid, Madrid to Dublin, we arrived in Ireland around 11 PM Thursday night. We took a nice bus from the airport to the area where the hostel was. And I had found the place (which was rated the best in Dublin) and was in charge of directions. However, it was raining and none of us could find the sign of the hostel. After walking around it several times, we found it. And let me just say the hostel and staff couldn’t have been better. After traveling all day, we decided to go to sleep and figure out what we were going to do Friday.
Friday morning we awoke around 9 and headed to Howth to see the cliffs. Howth is a gorgeous city that is located about 45 minutes away from Dublin on the coast. We took a train there and made our way to the pier and the cliffs. Unlike Spain, Ireland marks places clearly and also puts up warning signs about the dangers the cliffs could cause. However, the path around the cliffs was much more safe than Calpe. Another great thing about Ireland! We wandered around the cliffs, which took a few hours, but the scenery was priceless. I seriously want to move to Ireland now. After walking up to the top of the cliffs, we decided to head back down and find a bite to eat. While walking back into the town we came across the house of William Yates, which immediately brought back horrible memories of my first literature class at Ole Miss, but it was cool. We found a cute little restaurant in the city where I had the Irish fish n’ chips with cod and I have to say it was delicious. So much better than the Spanish bocadillas I have for lunch most days. After lunch we caught the train back to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin around 4 PM and decided to go to the Guinness Factory. I have never had this beer, nor really knew much about it, but it was interesting. The factory is neat because it is shaped like a huge glass of beer (7 stories). You start off in the bottom floor learning what ingredients they put in it, then you learn about how it becomes alcohol and on the third floor you learn all about Arthur Guinness and his dream of Guinness. It is here where you go to the “tasting lab” and have a small glass of the beer to see if Arthur would approve. The next few floors are filled with advertising techniques, and other random things. On the seventh floor is the actual place where you get your free pint of Guinness and it is also where you can see all of Dublin. So even after an interesting tour you get to enjoy your very own pint of Guinness. After touring Guinness, we headed back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner and headed to bed since we had a very long day on Saturday.
Jess and Me at the Pier in Howth
Me, Laine and Jess at the cliffs in Howth
Fish n' chips
Patty, Jess, Me and Kristin at the tasting lab in the Guinness Factory
Saturday Kristin, Laine, Jess and I woke up early and were at the train station at 7:30 AM headed to Cork and Blarney Castle for the day. We decided since it was 3 hours away we wanted to leave early so we would have the whole day there. The train was so nice that it even had our names printed above our seats. 3 hours later we arrived in Cork where the weather was perfect… a little colder than Valencia, but sunshine and no rain. We took the bus to the cute town of Blarney. We toured Blarney Castle and kissed the famous stone too. The castle was gorgeous with the leaves changing and the green grass. The landscape was amazing… I loved the taste of fall there. The castle was interesting and filled with little rooms for small people (or at least we had difficulty climbing up and down the stairs). At the top we kissed the famous stone. It was interesting because I have always thought that the stone was a huge stone somewhere in the castle, but I was wrong. The stone is this tiny thing at the top of the castle, which requires lying on your back and kissing this stone. It was funny because this really old nice man helps you and it is a bit awkward, but now I can say I’ve kissed the stone. I think it brings good luck, still not sure about that. After spending a few hours at the castle we ate lunch at this little restaurant in Blarney. I gave in and had a hamburger and it was the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. It tasted like heaven. Next came the fun part… we had read about this factory with wool and sweaters and scarves there so we decided to check it out. Two hours later all 4 of us had made purchases and we were satisfied. We headed back to Cork and caught the 3-hour train back to Dublin. We got back in Dublin around 8:30, showered and ventured to the pub next door. The pub was crowded as it was the soccer game against France… they don’t mess around with their soccer games over here in Europa, that’s for sure. Instead of eating dinner we had a few beers and watched the game with the locals. Unfortunately Ireland lost, but we did meet some of the nicest people. Needless to say it was a fun night.
Kristin, Me and Laine in Blarney
Blarney Castle
Doing the touristy thing
Kissing Blarney Stone
The view from the top of the Castle
Sunday my friend Kristin and I woke up early to see the sights in Dublin. We didn’t really know where we were going or what we were going to see, but it was easy to find places. First we came across a gorgeous Irish church called Christ Chapel I think. Unfortunately it wasn’t open, but we saw the front of it and the landscape. After we headed towards a park, which also was closed (who knew they closed parks) but at least we got to see a little bit of it. And then we found a cute shopping street (thank goodness nothing was open since we had absolutely no room in our carry-ons). The street was decorated with Christmas stuff and since Kristin and I are obsessed with Christmas decorations we got excited. Hopefully it was just a preview as to what we will see in Switzerland in a few weeks. We saw Trinity College and then ended at Starbucks to enjoy a Christmas coffee (best decision ever). We met up with everyone shortly after and headed to the airport. Everyone was worried about their bags since RyanAir only allows ONE carry-on of small size including purses, but we were thinking oh they won’t check. Well, surely enough they were checking everyone’s bags, and it was kind of funny. Although we were all worried (myself included since my suitcase wouldn’t even zip) we passed through and got on the flight without having to pay the ridiculous price to check a bag.
Trinity College in Dublin
Christ Cathedral in Dublin
Closet thing I found to my Irish name in Ireland
First Christmas tree I've seen this year... glad Ireland celebrates
All of our carry-ons headed back to Spain... notice how mine doesn't even zip... oh RyanAir
I got home late Sunday night and am already missing Ireland. I have never been to a country where every person you encounter is nice. Not only are the Irish are so polite and sweet, but also very helpful. It was also nice to be in an English-speaking country for a few days and in a place where the temperatures are normal for November (since it was 82 today in Valencia). The niceness of the people, the scenery and the English language made me very appreciative of Ireland and I wandered why my ancestors ever left such a gorgeous place.
-MO
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