This was my FAVORITE song while in Ireland, Galway Girl. If you’ve seen P.S. I love you (if you haven’t, then this entry might be really boring to you, I make a lot of references) then know that it’s the song that Gerard Butler sang to Hillary Swank in the pub when he kissed her. So good. Anyway, back to the point…for the second half of spring break, I went to Ireland. Loved it.
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| me in the Irish countryside!! |
After arriving in the Dublin Airport, we took a city bus into the center of Dublin. Carrying a 5000 pound duffle bag, we then walked and finally found our hostel called “Four Courts” – it was directly across the river from the courthouse! We stayed in a room with like 12 beds in total. It was also connected to another room with about the same amount of beds (where some people actually LIVED) and then we all shared one bathroom. Yeah, it was a lot of people. In my first 10 minutes there, when I was standing at the sink in the bathroom, one of the guys living there rushed past me wearing only tidy whities....hmm. When we were unpacking our stuff and getting settled, this writer that lives in the hostel came up and introduced himself. He was about to go to a book launching party at a nearby bookshop that he had to make an appearance at and invited us to go with. Hell, why not? We figured if it seemed like he was about to take us into a back room and sell us into sexual slavery, then we would turn around and leave. So, we went with him and he actually showed us different parts of Dublin that we probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. It was a nice little first impression of the city. We then got to this cute little bookshop and saw the book launching for “The Bad Karma Diaries,” I think it’s a children’s book. But it was cute, and reminded me a lot of little events that go around in Chapel Hill. And hey, I got free wine out of it…so it’s all good in my book. We then went back to the hostel, showered, and went for dinner. In Italy, we don’t even think about eating dinner until after 8 pm. When we went out searching for food in Dublin around 8:45 or so and nothing was open! We finally found a TGI Fridays and just ate there. After just going to a little pub for a little bit, we were exhausted so we went back and went to bed.
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| Glendalough |
The next day, we had a scheduled free tour of Dublin around 1 or so. The plan was to meet up where the tour starts. I didn’t really want to go, so instead I went to lunch with Jaan and Jaye (these awesome people staying in our hostel from Australia) and then went shopping and exploring by myself. It was a really nice day, got myself some new clothes, some gelato….and a haircut! Spent an hour in a little café with some chamomile tea and a muffin…it was very nice. I then returned to the hostel and met up with everyone else to go to a pub-crawl! Stacy was sick and said she wanted to stay in, so it was just Noah and me. The pub-crawl was something organized by a bunch of different hostels in Dublin. You pay a little to get in on it, then at every pub (there are 5 in total) you either get a free shot when you arrive, a free shot with every drink you order, a free Guinness, or a discount. I met and made friends with some pretty cool people from different parts of the U.S., Brazil, and Ireland! I love those Irish accents… The last pub we went to was the one from P.S. I love you!!!!! Pretty awesome. Some of the other pubs had live music, one of which had 2 guys on guitar singing GALWAY GIRL! I was so excited. This was the first time I had heard the song since the movie, but little did I know that any place with live music would play it at least 2 times a night for the next few days. Anyway, I wont go into any more detail from the night, but I’ll just say it was a lot of fun.
The next day we had a small bus tour of the Irish countryside scheduled at 9:45 am. If you know me at all, you know I don’t do well with public transportation early in the morning…and then add the issue of zero sleep and lots to drink the night before. No good. We’re on the little bus, which was more like a van, and we’re sitting in the back. Noah and I are basically dead. I’m passed out, but then suddenly awake and need to get off. “Stacy will you ask him to pull over?” Stacy: “what?” Me: “Sir you could please pull over?!” I start to get up and stumble through the aisle. “Yes, I’m going to pull over, don’t worry” (thinking I meant so I could take a picture.) He realizes I’m trying to get out and I try to open the door and trip while getting out of the van. As I do my thing, the others have a pleasant little break on the hillside accompanied by tea, coffee, and cookies. Good times…but I did get to sit up front with the driver for the rest of the day. Score. We saw Wicklow and Glendalough. In Wicklow there is the bridge where Gerard and Hillary walked on during P.S. I Love You- we of course stopped for a photoshoot. The area was beautiful. Rolling Hills…but not the kind one sees in Italy. They were a lighter color and just looked so different, so irish…so beautiful. In Glendalough we saw this old settlement and a really old graveyard. It reminded me of the Lord of the Rings or something. We then walked to these 2 lakes which were absolutely beautiful. Mountains towering over it, the lake we spent the most time at was breathtaking. Too bad I was basically dead that day, but I still appreciated and enjoyed it. That night, after returning from the tour, we went to a free bbq at a pub with a bunch of people at our hostel. It was a lot of fun and the food was SO good. A few of us then went to a couple of different pubs to listen to live music and drink. There is always a fun pub to go to, no matter what day it is.
The next day, we decided to journey off on our own to Howth, Ireland. We took the train from Dublin there and it took about 25 minutes, give or take. The town was right on the ocean and was absolutely adorable. One of the first things we saw when we arrived was seals in the harbor!!! Awesome. A man even came out with a bunch of fish and fed them. The kept making these weird grunting noises and looked so fat and lazy….I would probably be one of those seals if I were an animal. We then walked this trail that takes us up this huge cliff. I’m not much for hiking, or any form of exercise for that matter, but this was absolutely beautiful. All up and down the cliff were these yellow flowers that smelled like coconuts and the water below was a pretty shade of blue. It looked like a typical Irish postcard. My battery was basically dead so I wasn’t able to take that many pictures, but I tried to get a few in. Just sitting on one of the rocks on the cliff and looking out over the ocean was the PERFECT way to end our trip in Ireland. It was so peaceful. We then got some fresh seafood at a local restaurant and then headed back. |
| Howth |
Overall, I loved Ireland. This is one place that I can’t wait to go again (although I’d rather stay in a smaller more authentic town than Dublin). I loved the culture, the accents, the music, and the scenery. The country went above and beyond all of my expectations…and mine we really high to begin with.
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