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| View of Dublin from the Guinness Storehouse |
This weekend marked my first completely solo trip and it was a wonderful success! I woke up early on Saturday morning to catch my flight to Dublin. My least favorite part of traveling alone (and traveling in general) is the actual traveling. And Ryanair makes it significantly worse. I get seriously stressed every time I fly with them that for some reason my hand luggage won't fit their ridiculously strict requirements and I'll be forced to pay an even more ridiculous amount of money. So far so good, but I always come out of the boarding gate shaking and relieved. Luckily, two nice Irish guys sat next to me on the plane so I talked with them for a while and tried to understand what they said back to me. Then they passed out from a crazy night in Sevilla and I also tried to get some sleep between the Ryanair advertisements.
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| Dublin Castle |
We landed in green ol' Ireland and I took a bus to my hostel. It was pretty easy to find and I checked in. Unfortunately, they gave me the top bunk, which was the highest top bunk I have ever seen. I am mildly afraid of heights, so getting down the first few times was really interesting. I eventually figured out the crawl backwards method and got down without any broken limbs. Now it was time to venture out into the drizzling city. I had heard about a food and book market in Temple Bar so I headed there to catch the end of it. I spent a while looking at the many English books and trying to decide what was light enough to carry home. One of the vendors noticed me looking and we ended up hanging out for the next half hour. He walked around his books with me, picking on me, and offering me a selection ranging from "The History of Jews" to "How to Tie Knots" to "Fish and Tackle." We had a lovely banter back and forth, and he gave me a big hug at the end. I ended up visiting him again the next day and receiving another bear hug. The Irish are amazing. I bought a snack bar at the food market, and the saleslady told me I sounded like I was from the lords and ladies because I said something like, "I'll have an apple bar." I'm not sure how she thought my American accent classifies as royal sounding, but I'll take it. I continued strolling around and saw the Christ Church Cathedral and other impressive buildings. Dublin was full of bustle but it was getting dark and dreary so I headed back to the hostel. I chatted with a bunch of people from Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and American girls living in Sevilla. Some of them were living in Ireland for several months and it was great to hear about everyone's travels. I got fish and chips for dinner at Leo Burdock's which were good but too greasy for me. I decided to have a semi-early night because I had so much planned for the next day, so I watched some 90's music videos with people in the hostel and tried to sleep in my 12 person dorm room. That was only semi-successful.
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| St. Stephen's Green |
The hostel had a full Irish breakfast included in the price so we all feasted in the morning. They had eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, beans, cereals, and breads. I headed out for my big tourist day on a satisfied stomach. First, I went to see the famous Trinity College. It really was gorgeous - maybe I'll go there for grad school. It was absolutely empty though, as it was a Sunday morning. Then I headed to Dublin Castle, which had a beautiful green with a sculpture garden and surrounding stone fortresses. The Chester Beatty Library was closed at the time, so I would return later to see the artwork there. Next, I headed towards St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was a beautiful church and also had a nice park around it. I got my free glimpse at the inside but mostly admired the towering outer walls. I embraced the Irish drinking culture and went to the Guinness Storehouse to find out how they make this stuff that everyone loves so much. It was a very cool factory - a tower of many stories that you walk through on a self-guided tour. I read a lot about how one makes beer and tried some Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top. I am not a fan of beer, but I had to have some Guinness while in its homeland. The top floor of the factory has an amazing view of Dublin to enjoy while you sip the dark liquid. Amazingly, I never got lost while walking around Dublin. It was a shockingly tiny city that was very easy to navigate and had tons of helpful signs. I followed them to St. Stephen's Green which is an absolutely beautiful park. I people watched and walked around there for a while, enjoying the Irish greenery and ducks. I made a quick stop back at Dublin Castle to see the Library but I was too exhausted to really enjoy it. I rested for a bit in the hostel and had some more interesting conversations. I met an older guy from Ireland who seemed to have an endless vault of wild stories, including how he smoked on a plane but somehow got away with it while the alarm was blaring. According to another friend, he had told these same stories twice earlier that day and was telling them when we got back later that night. I'm not sure how much of them was true but they were certainly captivating. I went out to dinner that night with people I met from Australia and Puerto Rico. We settled on a burger place and had a nice dinner. I was glad to not be eating alone again like I did at a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I am proud that I did it, but it is infinitely better to eat with someone else. After dinner, we went to check out a comedy show I had spotted a sign for earlier. Two guys outside the pub were high on probably many substances and told us a bunch of lies about the show - there were no seats, they could get us in for free, and we would somehow end up spending at least 50 euros each that night. It turned out that there were seats, we paid 5 euros to get in, and we spent no more than that. The show was incredible. It was a night for comedians to present new material, but they were all very strong performances. It was incredibly refreshing to hear some English comedy, something I haven't seen since coming to Spain. I was laughing out loud the entire time, and I'm sure the accent helped make them seem even funnier to me. Because we were three foreigners together and sitting right in the front, they made lots of jokes about us, which was special. After the show, I went to sleep with a smile glued to my face.
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| Cross where you can make a wish if your fingers touch |
I woke up bright and early on Monday because I had booked a tour of Wicklow County, the countryside surrounding Dublin. I had no idea what to expect or what kind of people would be on my tour, but it turned out to be incredible. I waited for a while on the street and on the bus for the tour to begin, but the tour guide was a very entertaining old Irish man named John so waiting was not terrible. We drove all over the countryside with incredible narration and interludes of Irish music the entire time. We stopped along the way for breathtaking views of the Irish hills and lakes. I met other young people on the trip and we took each other's pictures. We stopped for coffee and I had a scrumptious scone with cream and jam. We drove past where they filmed
P.S. I Love You. I understand why they fell in love in that movie - I would fall in love with just about anyone while walking along that road. We saw the streams where the get the dark water used to make Guinness. The tour guide was taking my picture and told me I had a beautiful smile and asked how many people's hearts I had broken. I had to tell him, "None that I know of," but it was a very sweet compliment. The Irish sure know how to charm. Our final stop before lunch was at Glendalough, a valley of two lakes. We walked around a cemetery and he showed us a stone cross where you can make a wish if your fingers can touch around it. I volunteered to try and failed miserably with my short arms. He told me that means I will never find my true love and then he kissed me on the cheek. He tried to make it better by saying I just haven't found my love yet, but I'm pretty sure my arms won't be growing anymore, so I'm doubtful. Then my new friend and I took a scenic walk to the beautiful view of the Upper Lake while everyone else took the bus. The view there was truly spectacular. I could have just sat in that spot and watched the ducks for hours, but we had to make it to our very delayed 4:30 pm lunch and back to Dublin. I had a delicious lunch of cottage pie at Fitzgerald's in a small town with some new friends. On the way back, we made plans to meet up later and go to some pubs.
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| Glendalough |
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| Cottage Pie at Fitzgerald's |
I went back to the hostel and packed for my super early flight the next morning. I met some new friends in the hostel and we all went out with my friends from the tour. Essentially, I organized a pub crawl (traveling alone doesn't have to be so lonely). First, we went to The Stag's Head, a very famous place I had read about in my guidebook. It was cool with wood carvings and deer heads mounted on the wall but was quite calm. Then we went to a more lively pub in Temple Bar. We chatted with some guys from Northern Ireland and England and danced a bit to the live (but, unfortunately, not Irish) music. I said goodbye to my new and short-lived friends and went back for a couple hours of sleep.
I was very sad to leave Ireland in the morning rain. I cannot wait to go back and explore more of the countryside and meet more of the nicest people I have ever encountered (they apologized for almost, but not even, bumping into me). I ended up sitting on the plane with two girls in my program so we chatted most of the way home.
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| St. Patty's Day with Spaniards |
Yesterday, I continued my Irish streak by celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Spain. I met up with some of my Spanish friends at the Irish pub in Sevilla where there was a huge party. Everyone was wearing big Guinness hats that you got for buying a drink and painting their faces with the colors of the Irish flag. Some Spanish boys tried to convince me that they were Irish to get my hat but I didn't fall for it. That accent is incredible and unmistakable.
