10/3/14 – 10/5/14
(excerpts taken straight from my journal I kept during my 2014 study abroad experience)
10-9-14
This past weekend, I visited one of the places I have always wanted to see: Ireland. It has by far felt the most like home out of all of the places I’ve visited. We took a bus to Pisa, and then flew from Pisa to Dublin on Ryanair (which isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem).
For our first two nights, we stayed at an airbnb. It was so nice because we felt right at home, I had my own full size bed, hot showers, breakfast cooked for us every morning, and they even had two puppies that greeted us every time we got home. The man and woman running it were very nice. They picked us up from the airport and set up transportation for us whenever we wanted to go somewhere.
The night we got there, we visited our first Irish bar. We got burgers and fish and chips (and obviously beer).
The next day, we did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour that would last for two days. We saw Trinity College, St. Steven’s Green, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and of course, the Guinness Storehouse.
St. Patrick’s cathedral was built by the Normans in 1191, then rebuilt in the early 1200’s, and is the largest church in Ireland.
The Guinness Storehouse was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It’s a seven-story building that shows 250 years of history in Guinness, what goes into the beer, and how it’s made. We learned how to taste Guinness the correct way (inhale, take a sip, swish it around, swallow, and exhale) and how to pour the perfect pint (it takes 119.5 seconds). We also received “Perfect Pint Certificates”. After, we got to take or beers upstairs to the Gravity Bar, which had a 360-degree view of Dublin.
For dinner, we headed back into town to another Irish bar. We went to “Quays” in the “Temple Bar” area, and I got cottage pie (shepherds pie). Then we went down to the bar and listened to live music all night.
The next day, it was beautiful out, so we walked the Cliffs of Howth (Howth Head) in Dublin Bay. It was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. On top of the hill, was an estate called “Tara’s Hall” (so obviously I took a million pictures next to the sign).
Then we took a train to Malahide to see the Malahide Castle. To get up to the castle, we took a kiddie train (pretty embarrassing, but fun). This castle was built in 1185 and was owned by the Talbot family. The only time it wasn’t owned by the Talbot’s was between 1649-1660, when it was granted to Miles Corbet. However, he was eventually hanged and it was returned to the Talbots. Many of the family members died during the Battle of the Boyne. We saw many different rooms in the castle and learned that the wall color was called “Malahide Orange”. It used to be very popular, but was very hard to recreate.
We then took a train back to town and the stop we got off at was called “Tara Street”. We checked into our hostel “Abbey Court”, and made our way to the “Rainbow Room”, which held 42 people (never again…). It was hot and smelled like feet, not to mention the bathroom smelled like smoke and was constantly in use; although the showers weren’t too bad.
Then a few of us went to a local pub “Café en Seine” and tried Irish coffee, which has whiskey in it. (It’s not my favorite).
The next day, we did the tour bus again and saw “Kilmainham Gaol”, the jail. It’s a former prison, built in 1796, where many Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some even executed. There was no separation of prisoners, the youngest prisoner was a 5-year-old girl (for stealing a cloth to stay warm), it was very dark and cold (they left windows open in order to prevent spreading diseases) and hangings were preformed right in front of the jail for the public to watch. It was then closed in 1924.
We also visited a National Art Museum and saw work by Picasso and other famous artists.
For dinner we went to another local pub called “Merchant’s”, got more fish and chips and beer (they even had Blue Moon), and listened to live music.
Our flight the next morning was very early and we had to take a bus to the airport. In the airport, we saw a rainbow over our plane (which is only fitting while in Ireland). Luckily, we left the day we did, because the next day there was a news report saying that two planes hit wings on the Ryanair runway in Dublin. Overall, it was a very successful and fun trip.