Ireland

March 9th, 2009

I finally made it to Ireland! Thursday night, the trip began as I walked with Liane, Teemu, and Elli to Central Station where we would catch a train to the airport. The thing about flying with Ryanair, is that while the flights may be cheap, the airports are always at least a half an hour away from the city. When we got to the airport we had some time to waste, so we sat in the airport bar to have a pint. I decided to have a pint of a beer called, "Caffreys" which I must say was not very good, but I was still glad I tried it because of the name.

Preview

We arrived in Dublin that night and got to our hostel around midnight. The four of us were staying in the Shining Hostel, not too far from O'Connell Street. We woke up early Friday morning to start the day in Dublin. We had breakfast on O'Connell Street at a cafe called Kylemore. I actually ran into a girl from Boston College at breakfast which was really random, but cool... she was in Ireland for BC's spring break. We were able to see the Spire from the cafe, and after breakfast set out to find the General Post Office. We were a little confused with the map, and ended up walking towards a normal post office before we turned around. When we finally saw the General Post Office we realized it was right across the street from the cafe we ate breakfast at.

After seeing the General Post Office, we made our way down Henry Street and walked towards the Halfpenny Bridge. We crossed the bridge and then went to the Temple Bar. The area around the Temple Bar had some cute shops that we browsed through before going into the bar. We all had a half pint of Murphy's beer before moving on. Again this was the second strike for Irish beer's as I was not a fan of the dark beer which is apparently popular in Cork.




After walking around the Temple Bar area we made our way towards Grafton Street to do some shopping. I was surprised that there were alot of stores similar to the stores back home, but I did find one store, House of Ireland, which had some nice traditional items inside. When we had finished checking out the shops, we made our way to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. We didn't go inside, but there was a beautiful park next to the Church that we walked through. I found that Dublin had a lot of nice parks!



We continued walking towards the Guinness Factory, passing many churches along the way. We met up with our friend Eoin (who is studying abroad in Glasgow but lives in Galway) and he came on the tour through the factory with us. We learned that all it takes to make Guinness is water, barley, hop, and yeast. The factory was cool, they design the museum in the shape of a pint glass, and it is said to be the biggest pint glass in the world. When we finished walking through the factory, we made our way up to the Gravity Bar. It is at the very top of the factory, and it is said to have the best view of Dublin. With the price of admission we were all given a pint of Guinness which all had shamrocks on top! But again, I was not a fan of the dark beer.

After we finished at the Guinness factory we made our way back towards O'Connell Street to find a pub to eat dinner in. We ate at a place called Madigans where I tried the fish and chips. Later that evening we went to another pub called Messrs Maguire. We met up with one of Elli's friends from Finland and just spent the evening hanging out in the pub.

Saturday morning we woke up early to catch the 9am bus to Galway. It was about a four hour bus ride to Galway including the quick stops along the way. When we arrived in Galway, we checked into our hostel before walking up and down Shop Street. Shop Street was really cool, and there were tons of traditional Irish stores along the street. There were also alot of places to find Claddagh Rings, seeing as apparently Galway is the home to Claddagh Rings. I ended up buying myself an Irish sweater in one of the stores on Shop Street.


After walking around Shop Street we headed back to the hostel to drop some things off before walking along the coast. I absolutely loved seeing the water, but it was very cold and windy. We walked along the promenade and walked to Salt Hill. The shore was my favorite part of Ireland, and despite how cold and windy it was, I loved it.

After we finished walking along the shore we freshened up at our hostel before going out to dinner. I had fish and chips again, but from what was appparently the best fish and chip place in Galway. We then went out to the Kings Head pub and met up with some students who were studying abroad in Hungry. Most of them were from Austria and they were just talking about thte different places they have seen, and the places they would like to go.

Sunday morning came, and we were headed back on the bus back to Dublin. I was feeling a little sick from the fish and chips I had the night before (which were supposed to be amazing), so I was glad to sleep on the bus to Dublin. When we got to Dublin, we walked around Trinity College and Saint Stephen's Green. We found the Boston College House in Dublin which was really exciting, but unfortunately closed. We spent most the evening in a Cafe before heading to a pub for dinner. We were taking our time today because it was supposed to be a long night. We stayed at the Heineken House until about 230am before catching a cab to the airport. Our flight was at 740am and we didn't book a hostel, so the plan was to crash at the airport. Apparently it was a popular idea because the airport was full of people for 3 o'clock in the morning. We didn't get too much sleep, but the morning finally came and we made it back to Glasgow.