IRELAND

Ireland!


Nicki and I had a wonderful time on our Ireland trip. Below is my journal of events from each of our days with a picture page for each day. This is my favorite picture from the trip, my wombo panoramic. You should also be sure to check out my short video from the pub. It might take a minute to load, but it is worth it!




Saturday, March 12

We arrived in Cork around 11:30am or so. We were able to successfully get on a bus to the city centre for 3 euro 70. It took us a little bit of wandering around before we found our hostel, but it was pretty nice once we got there. Bru helped us get checked in and told us some places we should visit in Cork. So we dropped off our stuff and started wandering the city. I think at this point we were both a little shocked that we were actually in Ireland. And since Mal was in Belfast until Sunday night we got to be our own tour guides. We had some lunch at a coffee sandwich bar kind of place. They seemed to be pretty popular so we thought we would try it out. We got ourselves familiarized with the city, but we were so tired that we just came back to the hostel and crashed.
Photos from Saturday


Sunday, March 13

We definitely slept 12 hours the previous night! So we took our time getting up in the morning. The other four people staying in our hostel room had all left by the time we got up. Not that we woke up too incredibly late, but they just got up really early. The shower in our room was pretty funny. There was just a push button to make it work. Push the button and water comes on for 30 seconds. There wasn’t a temperature control or anything. Apparently that is not normal in Ireland though, it just must have been the hostel thing.

Once we were ready we headed out and ate some lunch at O’Brien’s (another coffee shop/sandwich bar). Ireland is very quiet in the mornings. There weren’t too many places open at all, and there were hardly any people out. Then we decided to head east in an attempt to see the sea. We were not successful at all. Upon inspection of a map, we later realized that Cork is quite a ways in from the sea. We did find a nice little park on the way at least. So we got back from our big adventure and relaxed at the hostel a bit. Then we decided to go looking for the fire station. Bru knew just where it was so he gave us some good directions. We met some of the fire brigade, but none of them had keys to open the room where they goods to buy were located. We would have to go back when Paul was there.

Then we wandered around looking for somewhere to eat dinner. It was pretty funny because we didn’t really know of any places we should definitely eat or anything, so when we looked for a place it took at least a half hour each time. For dinner we ended up finding Tony’s Bistro. It was pretty good! They gave me a huge fish and they gave Nicki a whole chicken! We still had an hour to spare before we could go see Malory, so we just chilled at the hostel. It was after 9pm and there weren’t any roommates moved in yet, so we thought we would get the room to ourselves. So after much waiting we finally got to go see Mal. It was loads of fun and we kept her up all late and stuff and we went and bought bread. That buying bread part isn’t all too important, but I wrote it down and when I was just reading it I was pretty amused by it. Anyhow, then we went back to the hostel and to our disappointment found two people in the room with us…oh well.
Photos from Sunday


Monday, March 14

Happy Pi Day! We tried to wake up early in the morning, but my alarm was buried and not very audible, so we got a bit of a late start. We still made it to Snakebite’s for some French toast breakfast. Then we left to catch the bus to Blarney, while Mal went to class or to take a test or something equally fun. It was just a short 20 minutes bus trip, which was not too bad at all. We got to see some of the beautiful Irish countryside. Nicki and I both took a ton of pictures at the Blarney castle. Everything was so beautiful. It was a little bit rainy, but not too bad. Going up to the top of the castle was a bit scary for me considering I don’t like heights. I definitely kissed the stone though, so that was cool. It wasn’t really that bad because I just didn’t look down, and I had a death grip on those bars. We spent a good amount of time walking around the grounds and in caves and such. We even caught a geo! Then we left the grounds and walked around the little town for a bit. We went into some shops and also checked out the crazy food items in the grocery store. We were pretty cold and mildly wet (my shoes were very wet), so we decided to wait early for the next bus. It was a good thing we waited early too, because it left 12 minutes before it was scheduled to leave.

When we got back we went to Mal’s and the three of us went to mass. It was so hard to understand what was being said, because the priest had a really strong accent. Then we went back to Malory’s, which I called home when I wrote this, and ate some peanut butter and honey toast. Then I went to her bible study with her while Nicki got some quality internet time. I got to meet some Irish folk, including Paddy who had a great accent. He gave us a list of places to see in Dublin, including Merrion Square (spelled, m e oar oar i o n). He was also the first Irish person that I tested my Irish-speaking skills on. At first he had no idea what I was trying to say but then he kind of figured it out. He was very encouraging, saying that it is a pretty hard language.

So when we went home (ha) we departed again to get dinner. We had fish and chips from Lennox’s which is apparently the best in Cork, and it really was good. Bave-in was in the lead and she pretty much walks faster than anyone I know. We definitely race-walked to go get our dinner. At points we were running along so as not to get left in the dust! After dinner we went to the Thirsty Scholar which was a fun little pub. We got to see an old man play the spoons which was just so cool. We also met some of the other Arcadia kids, and Blake, the younger brother of one of them. It turned out that he had plans to go see the Cliffs of Moher the next day, which is what Nicki and I were planning, so we decided to go together.

Good Night Ireland!

One more thing: The whole trip I was trying to get used to people driving on the opposite side of the street and the driver sitting in the opposite seat. Today I only freaked out once when I thought no one was driving a car, which is a great improvement from the previous days.
Photos from Monday


Tuesday, March 15

Today was probably our most interesting day in Ireland and definitely the most adventure-filled. We woke up at 6 to leave by 7. Blake came to Mal’s and we headed to the bus station. We caught the first but to Galway in our attempts to see the sea by visiting the Cliffs of Moher. It was a long bus ride. We first got there at 11:30. Then we went to find out when the next bus left to the cliffs. No such luck. Apparently in winter there is only one city bus to the cliffs and it leaves at 10:30. Then we tried asking a taxi driver how much it would be. It would have been 2 euro a mile (about 50 miles there) +20 euro for each hour of waiting, so about 220 euro for the trip. That was way too expensive. Then we checked into renting a car, but since none of us are 23+ we were denied. The people there were very friendly (unlike the bus station lady who told us there was no hope), and they sent us to the cab office, which is different from a taxi, but still too expensive at about 180 euro, and then to the tourist info building. We talked with Stephen Duffy and he said to us, “Well the two buses I know of that go there have already left…but there is one last possibility.” Yes? And he goes, “Well I know this guy; His name is Gerry and he drives a van.” So he got Gerry’s number for us and then called Gerry for us at Blake’s request (way to go new friend). So Gerry would take us to the cliffs for 30 euro a piece, so we said that would be great, and Gerry came and picked us up in 10 minutes and we were off to the cliffs. It was really exciting, especially since we had pretty much run out of options.

The cliffs of Moher and the drive up are wonderful, amazing, and beautiful. Nicki and Blake really freaked me out by getting as close to the edge as possible, and even sitting on the edge. It is a very dangerous place and extremely windy! Apparently accidents happen all the time. We spent our allotted hour looking at the cliffs and taking pictures. We didn’t have time to go in the little shop that was up there. So by this point we are into the afternoon hours and we haven’t eaten all day with the exception of an orange in the morning. Before we went back to Galway Gerry took us to St. Brigid’s holy well which was really cool. It had a good story about how it came to be, but I can’t really remember it. Across the street there is a large monument that an English man built after he came to the well and was healed of his illness. Then we headed back to Galway to catch the bus back to Cork. We didn’t want to stick around for another hour waiting for the last bus, so we got on the bus, still without eating a meal. Gerry gave us his card and told us to give him a call if we were ever in Galway again. He was a really great tour guide, and I am pretty upset that I forgot to take his picture. Dang Tina!

When we got home we ate some delicious lasagna and then went to bed. Before we fell asleep though we got to listen to Malory’s good Ireland stories, which was a pretty good time.
Photos from Tuesday


Wednesday, March 16th

This morning we got to sleep in a little bit while Malory took an exam. Once we got up and moving we caught the train to Fota Wildlife Park. Nice park, funny times. Apparently that was all I wrote about the park, but it really was cool. We had a good time imitating the animals, especially the monkeys. When we got back we took Mal to class, and we got a little bit of internet time, and then we went to the student store and bought our science notebooks. It pretty much rocks my socks off. Then we went home for some tacos. They were yummy. While we waited for everyone to get ready to go out we drank fat frogs, which were pretty delicious. Then we went to An Brog which was supposedly a ‘more mellow’ pub, but it seemed pretty crazy to me. I did talk to one Irish man while there, but he was short and looked like a leprechaun, which was pretty funny really. Nicki talked to everyone in the pub, especially those named John. Good times were had by all, especially my good travel buddy (haha).

We finally got home and went to bed to get a wonderful two hours of sleep before we had to get up to catch the 8am bus to Dublin in the morning. Mal let me sleep in her bed which was much softer and warmer than the floor; best sleep ever!

At some point in the day I was also acting like a marionette (spelled with an oar) puppet saying ‘Paddy’ which was apparently very hilarious to some folks.
Photos from Wednesday


Thursday, March 17th

HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!

Quote of the day, “Hey can we got get some sheep?”

Today we woke up early and caught the first bus to Dublin. I took a lot of photos of sheep from the bus; I hope they turn out. (Afterthought: they were pretty alright once I figured out how to not get a glare from the window.) On our short break we got some delicious and huge muffins, yummy. It took about 4 hours to get to the edge of Dublin and then another hour to get to the city centre bus station on account of roads being closed for the parade. We saw part of the parade and it was really cool, probably the best I’ve seen. Then we walked to find our hotel. It is nice! We relaxed a bit before heading back out. We wanted to find a place to eat our sheep stew. We found a place but it wasn’t open yet, so we walked around. We went down a street past the natural history museum which we might check out tomorrow (yeah we didn’t). Then we went to Merrion Square (spelled m e oar oar i o n) which was gorgeous. Then we went and ate our traditional irish stew made with lamb at Foley’s. It was so good and rather expensive too, but it’s okay. Nicki got all the chocolate on a dare. We were there for a good long time. Then we went to Kahoe’s for our St. Paddy’s day pint, only I didn’t get one, ha! After that we headed back and we were chilling at our hotel when I wrote this. It was a good time for bed though, since we hadn’t slept in so long! Good Night Ireland!

About a week after I got home I got a newspaper clipping in the mail with the headline ‘St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland ends with 700 arrests.’ Good thing we went to bed at a rather early hour compared with the rest of the city!
Photos from Thursday


Friday, March 18th

Hi!

Today we woke up to the sweet smells of our luxurious hotel. First we went to the Gaelic Athletic Association Museum. It was pretty sweet and we got to test our skills at the games. I balanced for 5 seconds! After we left Nicki and Malory had a nice snack of alley popcorn. I’m glad they didn’t die from it, that is all I have to say about that. Then we walked across Dublin to get to the Guinness Factory. On our way we stopped for lunch at a pub for a carvery lunch, as they call them. It was good and Malory had some good Chuna. We also stopped at St. Michen’s and the Jameson Distillery to get some information on their times and stuff. When we got to the Guinness Factory the queue was forever long, so we re-thought our plan and decided to do that tomorrow morning. This cleared up some time in the day to take the tour at St. Michen’s. Hamilton (of the Hamiltonian operator) is buried there! Then we did some shopping. I got a great Irish outfit! Yesssss and we also did souvenir shopping. We got some food from Centra (cheap yay) for dinner and brought it back to our hotel. Dinner at 9 is a bit late but it was good to relax and be off our feet. We walked sooo much today. Tomorrow is also going to be a busy day, plus we will have to carry all our stuff with us. Notes for the day:
-Ireland has the best yoghurt peanuts.
-Nicki said I could be a jeans model.
-Check for seal before eating alley popcorn.

Photos from Friday


Saturday, March 19th

Today we woke up (a little later than scheduled but still early) and headed off to the Guinness Factory. It was great that we got there early because there was no line, and they even had a luggage storage place, so we didn’t have to carry our backpacks the whole time. It was a self guided tour so we cruised along pretty fast. At the end we were at the top of the storehouse in the gravity bar for our free Guinness that came with the tour. I had been saying all week that I was going to drink my whole Guinness, so I did. It was a pretty funny experience for me. I was more intoxicated than I’ve ever been and it was about noon, wonderful. From there we wandered back toward the city centre. I was going to get a postcard from St. Michen’s but they were closed. We ate some lunch. Then we did some shopping. Then we went to the bus station and we are currently headed off to Cork again.

We got back safely and headed to Mal’s. Nicki and I had some euros to spend, because it wouldn’t have been enough to change back to dollars, especially since they charge you a fee. So we went to get some candy and my last three postcards, only I forgot to get the postcards so I went to three places, but no one seems to sell postcards at 9pm on a Saturday night. Luckily for me Nicki gave me some of hers. Anyhow we ate dinner and then packed and filled out postcards. We were up very late and we had to get up very early. I’d say we got three hours of sleep, max.
Photos from Saturday


Sunday, March 20th

Today we sadly left Ireland. The cab took us to the airport, we spent our last euros, and we got on the plane out of Ireland. Now we are enduring our three hour wait in London Heathrow which is a madhouse!