It's Tuesday and I've spent the last two days recovering from my trip to IRELAND. This is going to be a long blog post, because I am now officially Ireland obsessed and I want to be sure I remember every detail. It's such a beautiful country and gave me a new appreciation for both my heritage and for beer. Here we go:
Day 1
I left for the Bologna airport immediately after my Italian class Thursday morning, on my first real solo journey in Europe aside from my initial trip from the U.S. After my 35 euro Ryanair debacle last weekend, I somehow managed to pack for the entire weekend in my Longchamp bag. This is the bag usually used only to carry my laptop and a few thin notebooks. I'm now a self-proclaimed packing extraordinaire. My day of traveling was very easy, and it was surprisingly really nice to travel alone. When we're in a big group I constantly feel like we're stressed and rushing. Someone has to use the bathroom, someone needs a water, someone gets stuck at security, someone walks fast, someone walks slow, you know the drill. Normally, I love airports, so getting to travel alone again made me feel like I was just hopping on a plane back to Clemson like always. AND I finally got an Italian stamp on my passport since I was leaving the EU. Very exciting! I landed in the Dublin airport to the refreshing sound of THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Don't get me wrong, Italian is beautiful, but English sounded so good. And especially in those cute Irish accents that I love so much. I took a bus from the airport to the city center where I spent a good twenty minutes getting lost looking for my hostel. It was thankfully really nice. Definitely the nicest I've ever stayed in before, even for my first 10-person dorm experience. I was hoping to meet lots of other young people in the hostel, but unfortunately there were only two girls in my whole dorm the first night, and neither of them spoke English. I was too excited to see the city to try to make friends, so I dropped my bags and wandered off with my map in hand.
I was staying on O'Connell street, which is the main shopping street north of the River Liffey. I crossed the river and headed in the direction of the Temple Bar district. Wow. It was around 7 p.m. and this place was already packed. Only in Ireland. There were great street performers that I stopped and watched for a while and then grabbed a quick sandwich for dinner and walked around some more. I immediately felt comfortable and at home walking around Dublin. It's definitely not as architecturally stunning or original as most European cities, but it's incredibly laid-back and homey. I might have freaked out being alone in Paris or Barcelona, but in Dublin I never felt nervous. I window shopped and got my bearings on the city until it got dark. Then I got a (really bad) ice cream...yeah, this is going to be a problem when I go back to gelato-devoid America....and sat by the river taking pictures for a while. Then I headed back to the hostel in hopes of finding some other 20-something backpacking students, but unfortunately there was only a huge group of 50-year-old English men and a huge group of 14-year-old Italian school kids. Figures. I was exhausted anyway, and decided it would be best to go to bed early and get the most out of my next day.
Day 2
I got up early and got hostel breakfast. I was the only English speaker in the entire restaurant. So many Italians. I can't escape them. I got a bunch of information from the front desk, and then headed back across the River Liffey to meet for a free tour. I did one through the same company in Paris and it was really interesting even though we didn't stay for the whole thing since we were pressed for time. I figured this would be the perfect thing to do since I had a whole day to kill until Meg got in later that night. My tour guide's name was Mick and he was my age and hysterically Irish. He kept us laughing the entire time and was so knowledgable about Irish history. And very passionately Irish. He made it clear that he hated British people. At the beginning of the tour he made us say where we were from and there were two girls from South Carolina. I asked them where and they asked me at the same time where in New Jersey I was from. Turns out they grew up their entire lives in Hilton Head, but moved to New Jersey a few years ago. One of them is dating a guy who graduated from Vernon the year before me, and they knew a ton of people at Clemson. Small world! Mick took us inside of the Dublin City Hall, where he told us about the beginning of Irish history. Fun fact: the national Irish symbol is the harp, and when they started getting a reputation for being alcoholics, the government ordered Guinness to change their logo. Guinness responded by simply flipping the logo, so the Guinness harp and the Irish harp are mirror images of one another. We moved from there to the Dublin Castle, most of which burnt down and was rebuilt in the 1800's, so it looks more like a college campus in the South than a castle. He then walked us around the Temple Bar and showed us a few great places to go out. We then moved onto Trinity College, which was unfortunately having their "Grand Ball" later that night so there were trucks and tents up everywhere, but it was still nice to enjoy another homey American comfort: a college campus! We then learned about a few of the museums and went to St. Stephen's Green, which was (surprise, surprise) so green! It felt like Bowman :) If you can't tell, Ireland made me really nostalgic. At St. Stephen's he told us all about the Potato Famine, and how Irish people don't consider it to be a famine, they consider it to be a genocide. 1.5 million people died, and 1.5 million people immigrated to the U.S. Other countries were apparently sending ships of food to Ireland to help, and the British blockaded those ships so that the Irish could have no means to live by. It was cool to learn about so much Irish history throughout the tour, and I normally hate history so that's saying a lot. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was all going on in perfect weather. So ha! to all of the people who laughed at Meg and I when we said we wanted to go to Ireland, because it never rained :)
After the tour I went to the National Library, where Mick told us we could look up our genealogy in the national database. I wish I had had an older family member with me, because there were so many McEntee's that I had no idea who was who. There was an Elizabeth and several Johns, so perhaps I stumbled upon a few direct ancestors!? I left the library and wandered around the Grafton Street area where I took in the sights and went gift shopping. I eventually found myself back in Temple Bar with still a few hours to kill until Meg arrived, so I decided to really tap into my Irish roots by walking into a bar and drinking a Guinness. Solo. I felt like an old man. But there was great live music, a great atmosphere, and since I hadn't eaten since the bilingual hostel breakfast, I was kind of drunk. I headed straight across the street to the first place I saw to get a wrap and regain some stability. Drunk by myself in a foreign country at 4 p.m. At least it was almost 5 o'clock? I headed home and took a long, much needed nap until Meg called for directions to the hostel. I met up with her in the lobby, so happy to finally have a friend in Ireland with me! Then we started to get ready for our first night out when tragedy struck. Ireland has different voltage than the rest of Europe. Any of you who know me well enough know what I'm getting at...my straightener wouldn't work. So, this is a disclaimer to all of you who see my pictures and wonder why I'm sporting the eurofro for the entirety of my trip. This only gives me an excuse to go back to Ireland some day and take better pictures with an appropriately tamed lion's mane.
Meg went out and got dinner at a great place in Temple Bar. By this time I had unfortunately started to feel like I had a fever and a sore throat, so I got really good soup to make me feel better. We had a big plan of 5 different bars that my book suggested, and mapped out our routes for the entire night. The first stop was at the Porterhouse. This was also our last stop because we had way too much fun there and couldn't leave. So much for that! The bouncer at the door noticed we were American so he asked for our I.D.'s as a joke and told us it was 21+. For about five seconds we believed him and got really mad. Silly Irish man. We got Irish beers and wandered this huge, four-story bar until we found a suitable place to sit. This place was so crowded and for once we didn't see a ton of other American girls. All Europeans. We sat with a couple from Holland and were quickly joined by a group of too-old-for-us guys from Manchester. We ended up sitting at this table the entire night because we had so much fun! Meg was proposed to by the creepy one in the weird shirt, and I bonded all night with a married 38-year old who gave me great hope for the future when he complimented my conversation skills and reassured me that there are guys out there who like smart girls over bimbos. Phew. But why are you eighteen years older than me and married and from England? We talked with the Brits and the Dutch about our thoughts on Ireland, American football, college, Obama, and every other typical conversation topic that always comes up between different cultures. After our Irish beers, Meg and I switched over to American beers. They don't have them in Italy, and a Coors Light sounded too good to pass up. We got a lot of abuse from the British guys about our beer selection, but it was worth it for the taste of home. We didn't leave until the bar literally kicked us out, and by that time we were both exhausted and headed back to our hostel for a quick nap before getting up at 6:30 a.m. to leave for the West Coast the following morning.
Day 3
After our short night of sleep we headed to the bus stop to catch the 7:45 a.m. bus to Galway. We slept the entire ride, which I now kind of regret since we probably passed a lot of really cool, green places, but I was feeling even more feverish than the day before and really needed the rest. We got to Galway and boarded another bus with this adorable old man named John who took us on a tour of Galway and the countryside. He told us all about Galway history as he drove us around, and then we headed around Galway Bay out into the countryside. The countryside was by far my favorite part of Ireland. It's so beautiful and quaint. We drove through several villages, making a few stops at castles, beaches, and little town centers along the way to take pictures. Here's just a preview of what our bus ride looked like:
Our ride up the Burren eventually lead us to the Cliffs of Moher. This was the most incredible place I've ever seen in my life. I thought the mountains in Gran Canaria were cool. They're not. At least not in comparison to this:
We went out already feeling exhausted, and we both had wet hair due to the voltage issue, but we figured we're only in Ireland once (that better not actually be the case) and had to make the most of it. Our first stop was at a bar called The Celt right down the street from our hostel. There was great live music and we got Irish beer since the place was full of locals. After our beer we kept wandering and as we passed a very average-looking pub that we would have easily overlooked, I heard something that was too good to be true. Live music. I've Got Friends In Low Places. Tons of drunk Irish people singing country music. I nearly died and dragged Meg right in there while I was beaming of pure joy and singing along. We got another beer and ended up staying until the musician was done playing for the night. We had been sitting right next to his adorable old Dad the entire night and didn't even realize it, so the musician sat down with us and his Dad and we all talked for a really long time. They were Dublin natives and so nice! They told us all about things we should do while we're here and just gave us the greatest overall impression of this country and its people. After we left this bar we were on a mission to get to the one place we had actually planned on going that night: The Brazen Head. It's Ireland's oldest pub so we figured it had to be cool. The thing about Ireland is that it runs a bit more similarly to American time. People go home and sleep at a decent hour. We were in Barcelona last weekend, so we were a bit thrown off when the Brazen Head was closing down around 1 a.m. when we arrived. Fortunately, the owners saw us and how drunkenly upset we were that it was closed, and gave us a mini personal tour of the place. They had one room that was completely covered in American dollar bills and American police badges! I took a picture of a Bergen County one that was right next to a Charleston one. The owners were great, and they immediately sensed that Meg and I "had Irish blood." As soon as we dropped the names McNulty and McEntee he nearly died. He was such a nice old man and told us to come back tomorrow, but sadly this was my last night. From there we headed to the famous Temple Bar, one place we knew would not be closed. It was so crowded but there was even more awesome live music so we had a great time. In true Irish fashion we stumbled all of the way across the river and back to our hostel where we finally got a great night of sleep.
Day 4
This was my last day, and the first time that I've traveled somewhere and literally wasn't ready to leave. I need at least another two weeks of my life to see everything I want to see in Ireland. We got up and headed to the Guinness factory (promptly at 10 a.m. for a healthy breakfast). It was pretty cool, and the best part was drinking our perfectly poured Guinness at the top of the gravity bar! It has an amazing view of Dublin and overlooks the entire city. The workers were all so nice, and Meg and I ended up standing at a table with two old guys from the West of Ireland who were just in Dublin for the day. They asked so much about our lives and studying abroad, probably in hopes to relive the glory days. I love Irish people. After Guinness we split up so that Meg could go on the free walking tour, and I headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. I had a lot of time to kill unti her tour was over, so I got a sandwich and had a little picnic in the gardens next to St. Patrick's. It was so beautiful outside. I just laid down, put on my headphones, and people watched for an hour or two in the sun. I honestly never wanted to leave.
Ireland is somewhere that I absolutely have to go back to. Everything about it, the people, the atmosphere, made me feel so at home and so eager to see more parts of the country. Now I get to spend my first extended period of time in Italy in a while, which I'm really excited about. It'll be nice to not unpack just to repack three days later!
Ciao :)
