Ireland, Day 7, 1/6/09

Today, we check out at about 8:30 am, and headed to the bagel store for some breakfast before making our way to the train station to catch our 9:15 back to Dublin.  Again, the ride was pleasant, except for an annoying child who kept screaming half the time lol.

We opted to walk back from Heuston Station in Dublin to our hostel, the Bunkhouse :), on Parnell street, which was the worst decision of my life, as the whole walk was a 45 min trek alongside the River Liffy.  After we checked in to the hostel, we headed to Trinity College to see the Books of Kells and the Long Hall.  I have to say that it was well worth the money to see.  The exhibit on the book was really cool, and although I only saw a fine art copy as the book is being restored, it was still awesome.  My fav part of the whole thing was the long hall, which is this huge collection of old books on two floors of shevles, complete with long, wooden ladders on ropes and wheels.  They were sorted by side and at the head of each set of shelves on each side, there was a bust of a famous thinker, dr, or philo person, like Newton, Socrates, and Plato.   It was huge and beautiful, and just being in this awesome and very old room was like taking a huge step back into history.  

After that, Lorelei and I headed to Carrolls Irish Giftshop on O'Connell St. We then headed back to the bunkhouse to pack, and embarked on a cheap and typical dinner at McDonalds, which was SUPER swanky.  We were even like served.  It was so awesome.  

We then went back to the bunkhouse for some hot cocoa, and then we embarked on a Ghost bus haunted tour of Dublin at 8pm.  This tour was super cool.  It was in a semi converted double decker bus, and we all sat up on top, which was nearly blacked out due to the curtains on the windows.  Our guide was this actor, who I felt like was probably mostly drunk lol.  We went around to this old medical school, Bram Stoker's childhood home, which is now a blood bank (how FUNNY).  We learned that he was inspired to write Dracula based on the stories his mother told him about the cholera epidemic in Ireland in the 1800s.  

Our next stop was St. Kevin's Graveyard, which is apparently haunted.  It's now a park and all the bodies were exhumed and all the tombstones are against one wall.  There's also a medieval church there, covered in Ivy, and was where Blessed Bishop Hurley (who's gonna become a saint) was hanged, after his skin was boiled off with oil because he wouldn't denounce the pope.  We learned about graverobbing here, and I got a hook placed around my neck, which was effin creepy.  Lorelei was also like a guinea pig and helped our tour guide reenact grave digging.  We all got weird orbs in our pics, which was also creepy. 

Next we learned about exorcisms, which really freaked me out, and then we went to the 40 steps, which is the most haunted place in Dublin.  One of the girls in our tour group got a super creepy pic of a outline of a figure in a greenish haze.  Our tour guide was also creeped out by this, as this place is haunted by the "green lady" who wanders the steps and the church looking for her child that was taken from her because it was born out of wedlock. 

All in all, I really enjoyed the tour, and it was a really fun experience :)

But it's almost time to go home :( 

Ireland, Day 6, 1/5/09

I'm super excited about today, as we were doing a bus tour of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher with Healy Tours (Thanks Mary Eileen, it was a great pick).  We started off early, grabbing breakfast on the way.  I had a plain bagel, toasted, with Cadburry Nutella, which is like heaven.  Seriously. 

Our tour group was really small, so we got a small bus, which was really great because it made everything more personal.  Our driver/guide, Chris was friendly but a bit creepy.  He sort of attached himself to us, which in the beginning was funny.  But, he was creepy in the sense that he gave us really wacked out dating advise.  He was a single guy, in his 60's and said he was glad he never got married and that it was better to date around because then you can just leave the person when you're tired of them...creepy.  He also told us it was ok to date multiple men and call them our boyfriends, and that it wasn't necessary for them to know about eachother... creepier.

While we were driving, we passed a ton of SHEEP :(, cows, and llamas.  Our first stop was Dungaire castle, which was spectacular in the early morning light and located right on the water.  After that, we drove through the Burren, which is a bunch of limestone Mts that used to be underwater.  Apparently, it is the best place for botanists to study flora and fauna because it's unique in that everything from several climates can grow in it.   The entire area, which is in County Clare, (which is where my father was born), is famous for its stone walls, which really give it that story book feel.  It also borders the Atlantic Ocean, which makes it really scenic.  

Our driver dropped off most of our tour group who was doing a walking tour, and took us to the Aillwee Caves, so that we could do some cave exploring.  Driving up and through the Burren, it began to get really misty, despite the constant sunshine, which along with all the stone circles that surround the whole area, made for a slightly strange and ethereal feeling.  All the mist made me think I was in like a King Arthur movie.

The Aillwee Caves were AMAZING.  Again, we had a smallish group, which reminded me of my four person basically private tour of the Catacombs in Rome.  The caves were small and narrow, and led us deeper into the mountain.  They were also very poorly lit.  The stone formations, consisting of Calcite were beautiful.  The ceiling was encrusted with fossils of underwater creatures, and bones from extinct bears litter the floor.  There's also a really interesting stone formation that looks like two hands joined in prayer.  The cave was full of drop offs and in one room, our guide turned out all the lights so we could experience utter and complete darkness.  That was pretty damn creepy.  There was also a waterfall that was still flowing, which was a beautiful site.  Overall, the caves were amazing, and I'm so glad we did them.

Back outside, the mythical early morning mist disappeared, and we could see the spectacular vistas from the top of the mountain.  We drove down and had time for a little stroll in the village, were we took pics of the small side streets and awesome street sign.  Picking up the rest of our group, we continued on towards the Cliffs of Moher.   We passed more ruins of Castles and went past Blackhead lighthouse.  Our driver pulled over to the side of the road to what he called the mini cliffs of moher.  These are only 285 ft above the Atlantic, so they're safe enough to walk to their edge, which is exactly what I did!  I got some amazing pics, and jumped across stones and over large holes to get to the edge.  The rock formations in this area were amazing.  I gotta say, between Blarney Castle and its grounds and this bus tour, I felt like Indiana Jones, climbing over stuff and exploring and such.  

Passing an old monastary, we headed into the town of Doolin (home of traditional Irish music) for lunch, before embarking onto the Cliffs of Moher.  We drove past another castle and finally, after an epic drive up a steep road, we had reached the cliffs.  We proceeded up the trail and I got my first look at the impressive Cliffs, almost 700ft above the Atlantic Ocean.  They were still a bit misty, but looked amazing with the sunlight behind them.   The ocean was so blue, but dangerously rough, and in the distance, I could make our the Aran Islands.  We trekked towards an old guard tower, taking tons of pics, and I even saw some dolphins coming to surface from where I was standing.  It was an amazing adventure.

After the cliffs, we drove a bit further into the Burren, stopping at Lemanagh Castle.  In this area, I saw quite a bit of wild horses, which was a really awesome site.  We stopped a bit further in at the Dolmen, which is an ancient tomb and burial site attributed to celtic people, and is a good 2,000 years older than Stonehenge.  AWESOME. 

Then, we headed back towards Galway, stopping to looks at a few ancient forts and to observe the perfect straight lines that rainwater had carved in the limestone.  

Back in Galway, we headed down to catch the sunset over Galway bay, collecting more pottery along the way.  Me, being the ditz that I sometimes am, accidently choked myself on a rope attached to a boat because I stood up without looking where I was going. TYPICAL lol.  

We picked up paninis and ate at our hostel.  After resting for a bit, we headed out to the King's Head pub to listen to some Irish music, but ended up going the Tis Coli, another pub across the street, which looked even more lively.  As we approached the bar, who did we run into, but Bronwyn and Jesi, the Aussie girls from Dublin.  It was an AMAZING coincidence, and we all grabbed a couple of beers, exchanged emails, and caught each other up on stories.  I also taught them a few phrases that they loved some much that they wrote down so they could bring them to Australia, which consisted of "this is why we cant have nice things", "this is why we cant take you anywhere", and "this is why mommy left us".  Jesi actually used on of them after I spilt a bit of beer on my jeans lol.  I also successfully scored a pint of Guinness from an American boy named Dan, from Wisconsin.  That was a GREAT SUCCESS. (I love free drinks). I'd have to say that besides New Year's Eve night, this was the best night out I've ever had.

AMAZING :)

Ireland, Day 5, 1/4/09

We left our hostel in Cork today at 8:30 am, and walked to city centre to the Bus station to catch our 9:25am bus to Galway.  Our bus driver was a pleasant old Irish man, who was clearly super nice, as he pulled over to let some guy off who realized that he left his ipod in his hotel. 

On the bus, we drove through the green and pristine Irish countryside, passing through Marrow, Limerick, Shannon Airport, Ennis and arriving in Galway. While long, the ride was really pleasant...even though I saw TONS of SHEEP.

Galway is right on the water, and when we finally got off the bus, you could smell the salt in the air..it was wonderful.  We walked to our hostel, Sleepzone Galway City, which had a pleasant staff and feww 15 min internet access.  After we checked in, we walked to Eyre Square, passing the famous O'Connells, and down shopping street, which is a really pretty cobblestone street boasting the oldest Claddagh Ring shop in all of Ireland. We saw the old remains of a castle that is now a bank.  Farther down the road, we found the Spanish Arch, alongside Galway Bay.  Walking along the rocky beach, we found shards of pottery with celtic symbols on it, so once again, I felt like an archaeologist, and I snagged some for closer inspection when I got home.   We walked farther down and took some lovely pics of the Sunset over the bay.  On the walk back to our hostel, we did souvenir shopping and I bought a really unique claddagh ring!

Stopping back at Sleepzone, we got ready and went to dinner at this little hole in the wall Irish/Italian restaurant called Buon Appetito, where we had AWESOME Shepard's Pie with Mash.  Dinner was candle lit and for a while we were the only patrons, which again made it really awesome. 

After dinner, we headed to the renown pub on Eyre Square, called O'Connells, where we had Guinness and chatted with a few Irish people over a game of darts.  On our way home, we stopped to play on a playground, because we're secretly 5 years old.  Returning to our hostel, we indulged in the free tea provided and I tried this awesome hazelnut and chocolate candy bar, and we met some guys from Toulouse, France, who sadly were much less friendly after they realized we were American :(. 

I managed to find an open computer for a hot sec, and friended my British friends, which was awesome!

Ireland, Day 4, 1/3/09

Today we were up at the effin early, 5am, so that we could catch our taxi at 6am to Dublin's Heuston train station to get to Cork. After a bit of ticket drama at the station, we were finally on our lovely train to Cork.  However, as it was an early morning, everyone was a bit snippy, but oh well what can you do right...I'm not exactly a morning person either!

I slept for a teeny bit, but was woken up by the MEANEST Irish woman train conductor ever, who did so by grabbing the foot that was touching the seat next to mine and yelling "We don't put our feet on the seats", and then walked away.  I was HIGHLY affronted, and decided that she had to be the meanest person in all of Ireland.  We arrived in Cork a bit before 11am, and took Bus #5 to Cork International Youth Hostel on Western Road.  Cork is a really hilly city with small cobble stone streets and colorful buildings.  It was spread out and really quaint.  However, it is the second largest city in Ireland, with a population of 120,000 people.  We dropped our stuff off before catching another Bus, #8, into city center to Catch the Bus to Blarney.  

Blarney is about a 20 min drive outside Cork.  The drive was hilly and bumpy, but ever so green.  Blarney the village is also really quaint, and the whole thing looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale.  It was super medieval and so darn green.  The castle is easily the biggest thing in the village, standing atop a hill, and build on a bulk of limestone to make it even taller.  Blarney's grounds were just as magical as the castle was.  A beautiful river snaked through the primeval forest and the shamrock green fields.  The walk up towards the castle is a small dirt road, and you have to cross a wooden bridge.  The first thing you see is a dog kennel and a guard stand, which is conveniently located next to the castle dungeons, which we decided to explore last.  Working our was up and around the castle to the entrance, we passed the old guard tower.  We finally reached the entrance to the castle.  

This entire experience was cool because they basically just let you roam the castle.  You do everything at your own pace.  I felt like I was stepping back in time as I walked through narrow doorways and stone spiral staircases.  It was literally like stepping into a fairy tale.  Passages were small and narrow, and the stone was at the very top. What made me even more delighted was that Winston Churchill kissed the stone; so we're basically linked through the Blarney stone.  In all seriousness, I was a bit hesitant after I saw the old Irish guy who would be holding me on the castle, but I kissed the stone anyway, and now I hope I'll be more eloquent :).  

After we climbed down from the top of the castle, we walked along the stone battlements, through a forest to the Badger's Cave, explored the castle's dungeons, and then explored the grounds in the Rock Glen.  There were waterfalls, the wishing steps, which if you walk up them and back down with your eyes closed, the witch grants you a wish.  We also saw the Witch's stone and her kitchen, as well as Druid tombs, Druid caves, fairy rings, and Stone Circles and Druid sacrificial alters.  SO COOL.

We walked the village of BLarney while we waited for our bus, and did a bit of shopping, as well as explored an old graveyard.  We arrived back in Cork and walked up St. Patrick's Street and found a little place to eat, called the Liberty Cafe. We then headed back to the hostel to get some sleep and pack, as we needed to be up early to leave for Galway.

So far, this whole backpacking this is AWESOME!

Ireland, Day 3, 1/2/09

Another amazing day in Dublin, albeit being our last day here till Jan 6th.  This city is a perfect combo of history and modernity.  Today, we caught the bus to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It's a lovely old church, reminding me of several churches I saw in Rome.  However, there was a distinct Irish feel, and lining the alter were Suites of Armor Heads on like pikes.  It was really cool.  The stained glass was beautiful, and even though it was locked off, there was an old stone spiral staircase leading up to the bell tower that I was dying to climb!  After we explored the Cathedral, we stepped out onto the grounds, which were amazingly green, which is what Ireland is famous for.  There were also flower in bloom in the supposed spot where St. Patrick used to bless and baptize people, which was really amazing.  

We then walked down the road to high street, the highest street in Dublin, to take pics of Christ Church cathedral. Then, we made our was to Dublin Castle, which is really funny because the only part that is a castle is this one tower.   We then made our way to St. Stephen's Green, which is a BEAUTIFUL park in the center of Dublin.  It was so green and pretty, and had tons of fountains.  Also, I saw the cutest children here ever...there are so many red heads!! Also, old Irish grandpas are the best because they were all over the place playing with their grandkids...so darn cute!  After we explored the park, we made our was to the statue of Molly Malone, who is known as the tart with the cart, the fish with the dish and the trollop with the scallop.  awesome. 

We walked up Merrion Street Upper, which has all these awesome Georgian houses with different colored doors till we reached Merrion Square, which is a park devoted to Oscar Wilde.  We met an older irish man there who told us a bit about Oscar Wilde's history in dublin.  I loved Ireland mostly because people all the time just walked right up to you to chat.  It's so different from here.  

Heading back towards the hostel, we passed the American College of Dublin, located in Oscar Wilde's childhood home, and walked the grounds of Trinity College, the oldest in Dublin, which was build in 1592 by Elizabeth I.  We had to wait till the sixth to see the Book of Kells, but that was totally ok. From here, I went to the National Library to visit the genealogy dept to see if I could find my father.  However, I was directed to the archives, so after grabbing lunch at this chic bagel place on Nassau St, I was off to do more research.  The archives were on Abbey Street, near the famous theater!  However, I wasn't able to find anything conclusive on my Father...oh well.  Walking back, I got some great pics of the Sunset!

We decided to stay in that night, instead opting to just do a traditional irish dinner at the Oliver St. John pub in Temple Bar.  I tried this green stew stuff and had guinness while listening to traditional irish music.  It was really great!  We found out that Paula, Em, Bron, and Jesi all call New Years: New Year, and determined that we were on Holiday, not vacation...ah I love British/Australian english :).  

Here's my favorite Emily quote:

"So we went to Dublin Castle today and took a tour.  Apparently, a lot of people in Ireland died fighting for independence...from England.  So Paula and I tried not to talk."

I'll miss Dublin, and our roommates, but I'm so ready for Cork!!

  

Ireland, Day 2- 1/1/09

Today was yet another amazing day in my Father's homeland! And I think one of my highlights of the day was TRYING VEGIMITE!!  My Aussie roommates, Bronwyn and Jesi let me have some, and let me tell you it is deff an accquired taste...aka YUCK. 

We left the Bunkhouse quite early to catch the Dublin City Tours hop on hop off bus tour of the city.  John was our adorable and funny driver, and it was basically just us and this old Portuguese couple on the tour! We took the entire 1.5 hour tour once through, and then caught the next tour bus to Kilmainon Gaol, the old jail in Dublin.  It was a super creepy place, and we had a tour of the jail and all its 'haunted chambers', and learned that it was build on the principle of Panopticon (DR. WRIGHT would be proud jaja).  

After that, we went to the coveted and nearly holy GUINNESS FACTORY, which was nothing short of amazing (Brian Bligh I know you're jealous).  The whole place is 7 floors of beer and awesomeness.  Me, not having eaten all day, got up to the gravity bar and after 2 pints of Guinness was sufficiently drunk...typical.  We ate at Guinness, and caught the last bus back to the hostel.  There, we chatted with Paula and Emily about Uni (short for university), politics, and life in general.  They were really awesome girls, and taught us several inappropriate phrases, such as 'blond smeg' and 'I'm sweating like a shitting dog'.  We also found out that neither the Aussies or the Brits knew what Frats were, and we had a great time explaining that to them over SoCo and Lemonade!

Later that night, we headed out with Bronwyn and Jesi to Fitzsimon's Bar in the Temple Bar district; then we decided we wanted GElatto, even tho it was FREEZING out.  Overall, it was another amazing day in Ireland!

Ireland: Day 1, Dec 31st 2008

IRELAND WAS AMAZING.  

When we landed at 7am, it was still dark outside, and all of Dublin Airport was decorated for the holidays.  Things ran smoothly and we soon found ourselves on a public double decker bus into the city.  We checked into Dublin City Bunkhouse, our AMAZING hostel, and the adventure began. 

Dublin is amazing.  We walked around a bit, exploring Moore Street, O'Connell Street and a bunch of bridges that span the River Liffy.  It's a pretty hopping and vibrant city.  My favourite was the awkward silver spire in the middle of O'Connell street, which is called the stiletto in the ghetto, the stiffy near the Liffy, and the erection in the intersection.  so typical :)

Back at the Bunkhouse, we met our 4 roommates, Paula and Emily, from Preston, England; and Bronwyn and Jesi, from Sydney Australia!  They were awesome girls!  For New Year's Eve night, we did a bit of Pub Crawling in the Temple Bar area!  Eventually we split up from P and Em, and ended up in the Pub called The Temple Bar, where I made friends with a British man and his friend, and ended up LOVING the taste of Guinness. 

At midnight, I even got kissed by a respectable Irish guy (so respectable that it was on the cheek..YES MORALS!)  

Check Facebook for pics and hopefully I'll be loading up some pics on Photobucket as well!!