ireland

i just spent the last two weeks in ireland. thanks to my best friend's parents.

my trip started on the 2nd of august. i was supposed to fly from chicago to toronto, meet up with my friend there and then fly onto dublin. of course that didn't work out. i ended up flying to frankfurt, from frankfurt to london, and finally from london to dublin. arriving 12 hours late. the flight ended up being uneventful, though the customs at heathrow was awful. the guy was a complete dick and i was already exhausted and irritated by my 4 hour debacle with the airline the previous day. customs in dublin was a breeze.

after arriving in dublin, and finding that my luggage was lost in my travels, i went to the hostel and met up with my friend. i found her asleep. we quickly went out for food and returned to the hostel for some much needed sleep.

the next day, we decided to take the hop-on and hop-off bus to get to some of the sites we wanted to see. first stop was the guinness storehouse. they have a self-guided tour through the place. the no longer brew there, although they do still bottle. the had a tasting on the third floor. and you could learn how to pour the perfect pint on the fifth floor. i poured quite a nice one and have a certificate proving i was taught the correct method. the infinity bar is on the roof of the building and is a recent expansion. it is the highest building in dublin. and you can see a full 360 degrees. the second stop was the jameson brewery. they have a guided tour and a tasting at the end. 8 people were chosen to participate, and my friend was one of them. the rest of the tour was given a choice of what kind of drink we'd like. i guess jameson has finally acknowledged that people like to drink their whiskey with other stuff. it was an amusing tour. the rest of the evening was spent wandering around. we ended up visiting the christ church. that night we were so tired that we ate dinner then went to bed.

day 3: our hop-on and hop-off bus tickets were still valid so we got on and took the full tour. this time we picked the route that went past st. patrick's. we did the full loop and more getting off at trinity college. we wandered around the campus. it's ridiculous. a whole host of new and old buildings. connected in weird ways and not in any sort of order. afterwards we went shopping, as my luggage had still not appeared and i was sick of wearing the same clothes day after day. ended up being pointless as my luggage was at the hostel when we got back from shopping. that night we finally had the energy to go out. we went to the smallest pub in dublin (it's the size of a walk-in closet), a pub called mckoe's which had a good after-work crowd, temple bar (which is the most famous bar in dublin), and fitzsimmon's down the block from temple bar.

day 4: we took a mid-morning train to kilkenny which is southwest of dublin, halfway to cork. my friend had booked a hostel. when we found it we were told that it was actually being renovated and we were placed in a different hostel in a different part of town. this place was sketchy. we were in a room in the attic. there was only one other person staying there. as it was mid-afternoon and we didn't know how long we were going to stay in town, we rushed out to go see the sights. the church was old and had some interesting stained glass and tombs. kilkenny castle was nice but had been renovated with, i think, little accuracy. then we went to the design center which in the stables of the castle. the guy who ran our hostel informed us that there was a stretch of 6 or so pubs all in a row and is in the guinness book of world records as being the most bars in a row. My friend set her sights on going to all of them that night. as the other tenant of the hostel was a young woman, we invited her along. we ended up hitting up 3 of them by the time it was midnight and closing.

day 5: we had intentions of going to the kilkenny brewery, but we didn't know how to get to our next stop wexford or what time we would need to leave. so first stop was the tourist information. they were unhelpful, so we had to go down to the train station. we found out that we needed to take the next train which was in an hour. we rushed back to the hostel and then back to the station with our luggage. so no brewery. but train times afforded us with a couple of hours to kill in waterford. so we went to the cathedral and the friary. we also visited reginald's tower, what's left of the old fortifications. we arrived in wexford that evening with no reservations for a hostel. we wandered almost to the edge of town and then cut back into the town. we were able to get a room in the the first b&b we came across. it was really nice compared to the sketchy place we had stayed at in kilkenny. plus there was a pub right next door. we were tired from running around with our luggage, but we had time to kill so we wandered around town. we ended up at the pub next door.

day 6: when i had originally read about wexford it sounded like there was a lot to do. but upon further reading i realized that much of that stuff was outside of town. we had seen some of the stuff when we had wandered the night before. we found out from some locals that there was this ruinous abbey that was locked up. we were told to contact some guy named murray. we found the site but couldn't find murray. we gave up and went to the tourist information and they told us that the organization that looked after the abbey had just stopped doing it. but they told us of this historical irish park that was just outside of town. "a 45 minute walk". they didn't inform us that it was mostly uphill, further than 45 minutes, there's almost no sidewalk, and you'd have to cross a highway to get there. the park was interesting though. a little too recreated, but at least there weren't people walking around in costume. afterwards we returned to town by cab, picked up our luggage and walked to the train station. we took the train back to dublin for a night stopover. we ventured out to mckoe's again.

day 7: we took the direct morning train to galway. immediately went to the tourist information office. we were directed to our hostel and given a lot of information about the tours to do in the area. after going to hostel we decided we wanted to do both tours but we only had one day, so we went back to the tourist info. he told us there was no way to do both tours in one day, but we could go to the aran islands and experience a little bit of both. the best way to do this is by bike. i haven't ridden a bike in years. but it sounded good so i agreed to the trip. we got our tickets and went to a pub for food, drinks, and sports.

day 8: we woke early to catch the bus to the ferry to the island. we got there a little later than planned. got our bikes and started out. as i said before i haven't ridden a bike in forever and i've never ridden a mountain bike. my friend gave me a tutorial in bike gears and we set out. i unfortunately didn't understand the lesson and had my bike on the highest gear trying to go up the steepest mountain. i was dead before we got the top. i had to get off twice to walk my bike. but i soon found out my mistake and switched gears to the lowest. and kept it there the rest of the time. we didn't go to the top of the peak or the most famous site but we did get out pretty far and the island was so pretty that we saw a lot anyways. but boy were we exhausted by the end of it! we did a bit of shopping while there. i got a stuffed animal sheep that i fell in love with halfway across the island. and a beautiful blanket for my mother. plus we had time to kill before taking the ferry back so we got some food. i finally got some fish and chips which were delicious! we were trying to get an earlier ferry as we had finished sooner than we had expected. but they wouldn't take anyone not for the current ferry. they had us wait in line for if there was room. they let some us on and stopped at the large family in front of us. the guy said they would take two more. and before the family could decide if they wanted to separate or not my friend and i had volunteered ourselves for those spots. we got back to the hostel and immediately passed out for the night.

day 9: we took the train in the morning to athlone to meet up with paddy who was to drive us to the remains of an old church. paddy was awesome! he sang for us and told us a bunch of extra tidbits. plus nothing beats a private car to tourist spots. we took an afternoon train to dublin, and rushed to the other train station to catch the evening train to belfast. the hostel in belfast was sketchy, in a different way than the one in kilkenny. the one in kilkenny was bad because of how small it was; this one was sketch for how large it was. my friend said it reminded her to tyler durden's house in fight club. the manager (or the night porter, whoever he was) sent us across town to get food. we ended up at this indian place. delicious! the irish definitely know how to do indian food. then to bed after the long day of traveling.

day 10: first stop was the tourist office. we really had hit and miss luck with the tourist offices. but towards the end of the trip our luck was good. they hooked us up with a hop-on and hop-off tour and bus tickets for a tour of the northern coast and the giant's causeway. we moved into a different hostel. it was new so it was really nice but they still haven't worked out some of the base business parts. like identifying who works there and who is staying there. we dropped of our luggage and went to find the bus tour. we got and it was interesting. belfast is such a weird city, because they were in turmoil until just 30 years ago. they call it "the troubles". like it was nothing. there's still so much left from that time but the residents are obviously trying to work past it. my friend saw some things on the bus tour that she wanted to visit but we weren't sure if it was safe enough to get off, or to go back. upon returning to our hostel though, we were informed that one woman staying there wanted to do a black cab tour. since we had just done a tour we were hesitant. but we were told that it was quite interesting and was specifically about the political history and "the troubles" of belfast. and that it was a private tour. we agreed to go. paddy was our driver. he was incredibly interesting. and took us to all of the sites and more that my friend was most interested in seeing. he was an older gentleman and catholic so his views were quite biased, but it was interesting none the less. there are murals everywhere in belfast honoring someone or memorializing occasions during "the troubles". after a 2 hour tour we decided to go find a pub and maybe some food. we stumbled on one that was filled with fans of some team. we found out that northern ireland was playing football that day against israel. food in pubs in belfast, not as reliable as the food in the republic, so we wandered around looking for a food place ending up at the same indian place as the night before.

day 11: this day we spent on the bus tour of the northern coast. there were several photo op stops before getting the giant's causeway. one was a castle on the water that they've placed fake soldiers in the windows taking aim at you. the second one was really just a pit stop, for coffee. then we were at the causeway. it's this crazy natural phenomenon where the rock is in geometric shapes. and it kind of juts into the sea. it was really beautiful and crazy. we walked all around the coast and climbed the stairs up the cliff and walked the ridge back to the bus. then the bus took us to a photo op of a castle right on the edge of the coast. at one point i guess on of the end rooms fell off into the sea. that's how close it was. the thing about these irish castles is that they are just built up and over the rocks and cliffs and things. it's like they just rise out of the rock. the next stop was the bushmill's brewery. we didn't have time to do the tour and you had to do the tour to get the taster certificate, but my friend did manage to get a taste for free. the last stop of the tour was the rope bridge. we only had an hour and twenty to do it and the sign said it would take an hour, so my friend decided to do it. i had no urge to walk across a rope bridge possibly with some idiot who wanted to shake it so didn't bother with it. luckily they let you walk to the bridge and not cross it if you just want to look at it no charge.

day 12: our whole goal was to get back to dublin and buy all the gifts that we needed for friends and family back home. we took a morning train to dublin. checked into our hostel and went out to shop. first stop was jameson for my boyfriend's gift and a few gifts for my friend's family and friends. then for some bad euro fashions. i got a cute top, a long tank top to wear with leggings. this was the only day that it actually rained on us.

day 13: early morning trip to the airport and flight home. this time i actually flew through toronto. my friend and i killed our 4 hour layover by drinking and eating at an airport bar. my flight was delayed getting home but i was at the wrong gate anyways so it gave me time to realize my mistake and to find the other one. arrived home safe and soundly. luggage intact.

woo! is that enough info? if anyone is planning a trip to ireland, i'd love to help you out and tell of the places i liked in more detail and the places to avoid (like the linen house hostel in belfast).

the whole trip was lots of fun. and i don't think i could point out one thing that was my favorite part. it was all so interesting and beautiful and the people are soooooo nice! and the accent. my poor friend had a hard time understanding some of them so i acted as translator a lot. it usually just ended up being funny. we both had stupid moments. and we're still friends. i'm sure there was frustration at points but never anger or hatred. woo!