Ireland: Dublin, Howth & Galloway

(Warning: This is a very long post, so feel free to skim or just look at the pictures!)

After Slovakia, we were all overjoyed to land in Dublin on Wednesday evening! After 5 weeks of german, it was SO refreshing to step off the plane and read the english signs, and hear english being spoken everywhere around us - the Irish accents didn't hurt either!

Our hostel was a 25 minute bus ride from the airport, but we found it easily since we could communicate with the bus drivers and airport staff. It was my first hostel experience, so I had no idea what to expect. We checked in without a problem, and went to drop our bags off in our rooms. I was in an 8 bed mixed gender room, and it was very basic but seemed clean and nice. There were 3 other people I knew in my room, and then 4 strangers. The 4 of us happened to be on one side of the room sharing 2 bunks, so we at least had our own area. You had to pay for lockers, so we ended up just carrying our valuable and leaving our clothes and toiletries under our beds.

Chester Beatty Library

We were very hungry so we split into smaller groups, and headed out to a few pubs recommended by the front desk at the hostel. We ended up at O'Sheas, which quickly became our go-to place. We split some authentic Irish food and each ordered a Guinness. Around 9:30 live music started, and we ended up staying and watching until almost midnight. After our rather uneventful and tiring day in Slovakia, this was exactly what we needed - we were already in love with Dublin. The music was fantastic, the people were nice, and everyone just seemed so happy and content. The owner even came up and introduced himself and welcomed us to Dublin. He recommended his favorite sights and places in the city.

We got up early the next morning, ready to hit the streets. We had complimentary breakfast at the hostel which was nothing fancy (toast, juice, cornflakes, coffee) but free, so we ate quickly and set out on foot with our maps! We spent much of that day and the next wandering around Dublin, which is easily walkable as it is very compact. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grafton Street, the Temple Bar district, the Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Library, Trinity College, and many of the other big sights. Everything was so green, and the weather was in the upper 40's so walking around was very enjoyable!

The people in Dublin are the most helpful and jolly people I have ever met. There were many times throughout the day that we were standing and talking about where to head next, when multiple people would stop and ask if we needed help finding something. Many times we didn't even have a map out or even look confused, but they were always willing to help. In most other cities, you can get help if you ask for it, but I have never been approached so much without even looking confused or asking! When we were looking for the Dublin Castle (which doesn't look like a castle at all, hence why we could not find it) a man stopped and asked if we were lost, and walked us all the way to the castle before heading back in the direction we had come from back to his destination!

My perfect pint!

Pouring

On Thursday afternoon, we went on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse for a few hours. We had bought our tickets online and they were valid for 12 months, so we did not have to be there at a certain time. We met up with some of our friends studying in Paris and started the tour. It was a self guided tour, that took you up 7 stories and explained the history of Guinness and how it is made. It also taught us the many ways in which it is transported all over the world, and visualized the advertising strategies of the brand throughout its history. The tour also provided us with many samples of different kinds of Guinness and various chocolates made with the beer. Included in the tour was one pint of Guinness and it could be redeemed in two ways; you could either have it served to you on the top floor at the gravity bar that offered spectacular views of Dublin or you could learn how to pour the perfect pint. We went up to the bar just to see the views, but decided we wanted to use our tickets to learn how to pour it.

Gravity Bar

We were in a group of 7 so we got our own "teacher", who walked us through the 7 steps of pouring the perfect pint. It was much more complicated than we expected! He taught us why the Guinness glass is shaped the way it is, and what each of the 7 steps does for the process of pouring the beer and the result it has on the taste and appearance. We were all successful in our training, and ended up with 7 perfect pints! We got a certificate to prove it, and then got to enjoy our product.

Howth Harbor

Within those two days, we really got to see all of Dublin and more. We had hit all of the major attractions on our maps and in our books, and had explored the city plenty. I had a small guide book that suggested visiting a town a short train ride away from Dublin, and one of the other girls in our group had been told to visit there too. The town was called Howth (rhymes with both, as we found out), and was a small harbor town on the coast of the Irish Sea.

Eating at sunset

We got on a train in the late afternoon, and within 25 minutes we were in Howth. It was right on the coast, and was so cute! Everything was even more green here, and there were boat pulling into the harbor with their catch for the day. We had heard of a famous fish & chips restaurant, so we stopped in a store to ask about it. We found it after walking for just a few minutes, and ordered our fish & chips. They only served take-out, so we headed towards the pier to eat them while enjoying the sunset. They were fresh and delicious, and the views made it ten times better! We watched the sunset and the last of the boats come in, and took many, many pictures. We headed back to Dublin around 6:45, happy and full. Howth was the perfect end to the best day we could have imagined!

Fish & Chips

We spent Saturday on an all day tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs are on the west coast of Ireland, and are only a 3 hour drive from Dublin, but the bus tour took us to many smaller towns in the countryside along the way and back. We left our hostel at 6:10 AM, and didn't arrive back until almost 7:30 PM - it was a long day, but it was absolutely worth every second of it!

On our way to the cliffs, we stopped in a few small towns for rest stops and coffee. We got to enjoy the green countryside, and the quaint villages along the way. At each stop we only had about 20 minutes, but that was enough to wander a bit and take some pictures of the scenery. Our bus driver had a microphone and would speak along the way giving us the history of Ireland, and facts about the various towns we were passing through. He pointed out many churches, cottages and other buildings that had been abandoned during the potato famine and had never been re-inhabited.

We got to the Cliffs around 11:30 and had until 1pm to explore. It was a hike up to the top, but the weather was beautiful and we were happy to get off the bus for a while. The views were breathtaking, and photos cannot even begin to capture the beauty of the cliffs, greenery, and water. Nevertheless, we all took a few hundred pictures. We were lucky to have the perfect weather for the day!

On the way back we drove north along the coast for much of the way, and stopped at a few more towns. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we stopped at a church that had been abandoned during the potato famine and had been since converted into a cemetery. The roof was gone, and only the stone walls of the church remained. It was on the hillside far outside of any town. I love visiting cemeteries, and everyone here thinks that is so strange, but I was loving this stop!

Panoramic View of the Cliffs

Cemetery!

We got back to Dublin at 7:30pm, and headed out to the pub for our last meal and Guinness. After dinner, we headed back to O'Sheas (the original pub we went to) to listen to the live music. It was a Saturday night, so everyone was out at the pubs. The band playing was very traditional and so fun to listen to!

On Sunday morning we packed up and had a few hours before heading to the airport, so we wandered a little more and got a traditional Irish breakfast. We headed to the airport around 11:30, and were on our way back to Slovakia in no time! Luckily this time in Slovakia our bus picked us right up from the airport and dropped us off in Vienna.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip! I am so happy that I got to see Ireland. It is by far the greenest and happiest place I've ever been to! We were all surprisingly happy to get back to Vienna though, as it actually feels like home to us now. We were all looking forward to our own beds and cooking our own meals!

We finally start class this week, my first one is on Thursday and then Friday morning we are off to Budapest. This week will likely be spent running errands, seeing more in Vienna, and regrouping before our next trip.