My lovely San Fransiscan friend, Cherie, and I decided on Ireland as this months trip. We took a long weekend from friday to monday and up and went to Ireland. What a legendary trip twas!!!
This lovely quaint little country, with it's Guiness and Jameson, and it's undulating green fields lined with little stone walls makes me want to be irish. They are such a friendly bunch of people and I had an awesome time there.
The ancient language of Gaelic is still alive and well and all signs are Gaelic, followed by the english translation.
So
Day 1
Friday (Dé hAoine) 25th March 2011
Our Aerlingus flight from Geneva to Dublin departs at 10:35. I took the bus to the airport and met up with Cherie. Super stoked about our first trip since going home for Christmas, we found our gate, boarded the plane and gladly buckled our "wee" seatbelts. We bought 2 decks of cards onboard for 4€ (with the 3-leaf-clover on the back) and passed the time with Go-fish and snap. It was a 2 hour flight which saw us finally landing in good ol' Dublin. The connection to the city was the airlink bus which cost us 6€. You know how it is when you first arrive at the airport - trying to absorb as much as you can of the new place you're in.
Dublin city, hmmm what can I say: reddish-brown-face-brick houses all crammed together as if to keep each other warm, Pubs around every corner: the busiest attractions in Dublin, locals and tourists alike.
The bus dropped us off at Busarus Bus centre, and our lovely little hostel, Jacob's inn, was a but a few skips away. We checked in and locked up our bags. Now for lunch, and of course there was a pub right around the corner which provided us with our first Dublin pub-visit :) after a chicken wrap and a pint of bulmers, our tummies were full, and we were on our way. Wandering around dublin, with the perfect weather, sun a'shinin, was bliss. it was national daffodil day in support of Cancer and there were vendors selling little daffodil badges - the city was covered with folks going about their business with lovely little yellow flowers pinned somewhere on their jackets or shirts.
Dublin has these wonderfully coloured doors.
Fake (but hilarious) reason for this is: So that drunk Irish men may distinguish which house is theirs and thus may find their way home after yet another raucous night at the pub
Real (yet equally hilarious)reason: After the death of the queen Victoria, England ordered the citizens of Ireland (which was still under british rule) to paint all of their doors black in mourning of the queen. The irish rebelled and painted their doors bright colors, and the tradition has stuck.
Good old Irish ;P
Now I have to mention this too, Cherie thought I was being ridiculous but I had so much fun at every street crossing. The noise the traffic lights make indicting whether you can cross the road or not, for some reason makes me think of a space war:
"Go" sounds like PEW!!!PEW!!!PEW!!! = little space gun shooting away.
Listen to it next time you're in Dublin and you'll smile with a star wars scene playing in your mind
We walked down O'Connell street and onto the the south side of the liffy, the infamous Temple bar, scattered with pubs and clubs and bright walls and guinness signs. Of course seeing as Cherie and I have entered into the world of Post-card-hoarding, we returned to the hostel with a few cards in their paper bags - and this is only day 1!!!
A quick power nap was in order before our Dublin Pub Crawl. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant (NEVER EVER DRINK ON AN AMPTY STOMACH - it is so not worth the empty-stomach hangover) So We all met up at The Mercentile pub near Temple Bar, all introducing ourselves to each other as the hostel pub crawlers. That's what I love about Europe and travelling in general, one meets so many different people; We met Germans, Norwegians, British, Americans among others. We drank bulmers and shots. We played flippy cup. It was a bunch of old friends that had never before actually met. Souls in passing, enjoying each other's company for one night :)
1:00 Time to head home, as we don't really want to see our pillows or duvets for the entire day, nursing Irish hangovers.
Day 2
Saturday (Dé Saṫairn) 26th March 2011
Free breakfast cornflakes and toast
Today's Itinierary was trinity College, the medieval section of Dublin and then Jameson Distillery. We just couldn't bring ourselves to do the Guinness Factory as we both detest it - to me, it resembles tar - but hey whatever floats your boat right?
So trinity college was beautiful. Irish weather was back to it's miserable self, yet the grass and the trees of the campus were bright and colourful enough to cheer any old sod up.
We had quite a bit of fun embarrassing ourselves by laughing like hooligans and taking random photos, near the Giant Copper ball.
We found a cute little market centre and were tempted to get piercings done, but opted not to as I was being a pansy and didn't want to deal with the pain for the rest of the trip (don't stress, I'm talking about Ear Piercings here ;P haha)
Mexican food was in order once again for lunch followed by the Jameson Distillery.We met up with some people from the pub crawl last night and did the tour with them. Whisky making is a fascinating process and we got a free drink afterward - jolly nice of them ;P
Before our tour, We happened to go to the Brazen Head, the oldest Irish pub - estimated 1198! That's is crazy, how old that is! The interior is plastered with signed dollar bills and other currencies. Definitely worth a pop-in if you ever get to Dublin.
Got back to the hostel - quite tired out after all the walking - we didn't buy any transport tickets as we thought Dublin pretty small and centered.
Found this cute little Thai place near the hostel and had dinner there before heading to bed early.
Day 3
Sunday (Dé Doṁnaiġ) 27th March 2011
Daylight savings, boy is that confusing!! Lol I may be blonde-minded but trying to organise wake-up time was a bitch. we had to get on the tour bus at 5:50 am. We ponly had our iphone and no proper watch so trying to coordinate times was mad. When our room-mates came home at god knows what hour I woke up and attempted to ask them the time in their drunken stupor. We woke up in time thank god, with the help of the alarm AND timer.
We boarded our bus, sans breakfast or coffee, tired as shit!! Our poor bus driver, Joe Mulligan) attempted to squeeze the enthusiasm out of everyone but the only thing that revived us was the pit stop for coffee and food. The next stop was Limerick where we walked around for 20 minutes, saw the treaty stone where a treaty was signed between the Irish and the Williamites (supporters of the Dutch Prince William). Funnily enough the treat was broken "ere the ink wherewith 'twas writ could dry."
But I guess eventually a real truce was declared as the irish flag with it's Green(irish), Orange(Dutch) and white(surrender) suggest.
We passed a holy water site, and cherie and I, quite thirsty, wanted to fill our bottle with the holy water but couldn't bring ourselves to do it. lol
We finally got the cliffs - They were astounding, breath-taking, magical! 710 feet high!!! We walked along the edges marveling at the expanse of ocean before us, Ireland, it seems, was enjoying our company as the sun shone all day long :)
Post-card were bought in their plenty
The bus headed to Doolin for a pub lunch, I had a mighty tasty beef casserole.
We passed the Burren too, which is this expanse of rocks. Beautiful Nature.
Our crazy leprechaun of a guide, joe, eventually made his way into our hearts with his mad irish singing and monologues. We stopped at a beautiful ruin, I can't seem to remember the name of.
On the road back to Dublin. Tonight we have to go to Belfast by bus so we can catch our plane in the morning.
Day 4
Monday (Dé Luain) 28th of March 2011
After sleeping in our dodgy Belfast hostel, we made our way to the Europa Buscentre to catch our bus to the airport. Belfast airport was pathetic! Their departure boards weren't even updated so people had to keep asking where their gate was.
Geneva here we come :)
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Whether I be far or near, may I hear only good news of you all.
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.
May you have warm words on a cool evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door.
May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
