{Ireland} Dublin

As I was planning my trip to Europe I was most excited about visiting Ireland. And of all the cities in Ireland, I was most excited about Dublin. Oddly enough, looking back I would say that Dublin ended up being my least favorite city of the entire trip. I found it dirty and rundown, and the down economy of Ireland seemed most evident in Dublin. That being said, I know quite a few people who absolutely love Dublin and would want to live there, so it might just be me. It also didn't help that my one full day in Dublin was the day where my cold was at it's worst.

In total, I spent a day and a half in Dublin. After dropping my stuff off at my hostel I made my way to the Guinness Storehouse to be a classic tourist and take the tour. I've already learned quite a bit about how beer is made in the past, so the tour wasn't incredibly informative for me, but it is very well done.

 

Included with the tour you can either have a free pint of Guinness in the Sky Bar (the top floor room with 360 degrees of floor to ceiling windows and great views) OR you can get a free pint by taking a lesson on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I opted to go up to the Sky Bar since I thought it would be cool to get a good view of Dublin, especially because I was still trying to get the lay of the land.

Since I was there on a quieter day in the middle of the afternoon, and since I hadn't redeemed my free pint yet, they told me I could go do the Perfect Pint class as well, so I ended up going back downstairs to get my pint there. There's a very exact process to pouring a pint of Guinness..let me tell you.

 

 

 

That pint of Guinness was actually my first pint ever of the stuff, so I can't tell you if it actually tastes better in Ireland than it does at home. I've been told that it does.

After The Guinness tour I explored Dublin for a couple of hours just to see what was around. I knew I'd go check out Trinity College and some of the things in that area the next day, so I didn't worry about hitting any of those sites during my first afternoon. It was at that point that I realized that Dublin just doesn't do much for me. I can wonder around aimlessly in London and enjoy every minute of it, but in Dublin I just wasn't intrigued for some reason.

During my full day in Dublin I went on a walking tour of Trinity College and then got to see the library and finally, the Book of Kells. The walking tour was great and the tour guide was funny, so I enjoyed that. The Trinity College library is something that appeals to a library lover like myself, but the Book of Kells was a bit of a letdown to me.

One thing that I will say about Dublin is that it does have some great options for shopping. Both Grafton street and the mall there were fantastic and I enjoyed spending time in both of those places.

Something that I learned with the hostel in Dublin is that the mega-hostels can potentially be really annoying when there are large groups staying there. There was a group of high school students from Sweden who were making tons of noise in the hallways at all hours of the night. I've learned that smaller hostels can be much more peaceful and homey. Although the hostel in Dublin was very modern and had individual outlets and lights built into the headboards, so features like that can be nice.

As it turns out, the smallest hostel I stayed in was the one I was headed to next, so the contrast was heightened. More on that next!

{Ireland} Galway

It's been a while since I last posted about my trip to Europe. I still have my Ireland and Scotland blog posts in draft mode because they're waiting for me to add pictures to them. I really need to get rolling on this, so hopefully I'll get the rest of these up in the very near future.

When I started thinking about going to Ireland the top things that I wanted to see were countryside and castles. I wanted to see nature and natural beauty and lush greenness. I knew that getting over to the west coast to see the Cliffs of Moher was a must-do.

Since seeing the Irish countryside wouldn't be possible without some mode of transportation, I decided that a tour bus was the best route. Renting a car for one person wasn't cost effective, plus navigating random country roads by myself did not appeal to me at all. I was a bit leery of the tour bus route since it seemed so touristy and lacking in flexibility, however this specific tour ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

I booked a two day tour package through the Galway Tour Company. For a few extra bucks they'll pick you up in Dublin instead of Galway, so that made my life even simpler. It's about a two hour bus ride from Dublin to Galway and I spent the time peacefully napping on the comfy tour bus. I also quickly found out that taking a tour bus is ideal when you're traveling alone. I met two girls who were traveling together and eventually met up with them in another city in Ireland later in my trip. I met a group of six girls who were traveling Europe together for multiple weeks and hung out with them quite a bit. I also met a girl who was staying in Dublin for a month and she and I hung out at the Cliffs of Moher and took pictures for each other. So, not only was the tour company itself wonderful, but it was a great way to connect with other travelers.

Also, after doing all of my own planning for every little detail of the trip, it was really nice to sit back and let the tour company do all the work. I just had to get off at the right times, and the rest of the time I got to sit back and watch the Irish countryside go by while listening to fantastic bus drivers who were immensely entertaining.

I got to see a lot of cool things during the two tour days, way more than I could hope to cover in a blog post. I'll try to cover some of the highlights though.

The most important thing is that I discovered my favorite place on earth during the first day of the tour. It had been overcast all morning, but when we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher in the afternoon we got a glorious dose of sunshine. I only got to spend two hours there, but it was hands down my favorite two hours of my entire trip. I am in love with that place. The natural beauty is stunning and none of my pictures can truly do it justice, but here are some pictures anyway.

 

See those tiny little people in this picture? (click on the pictures to see them larger) That gives perspective to how big these cliffs really are.

Included with the bus tour was a 1.5 hour walking tour of Galway itself. Like both of the bus drivers I had, the guide was awesome and I loved every minute of it. I also loved every part of Galway that I go to see (although I'm sure I saw mainly the touristy part).

I went to a pub that was recommended by one of my co-workers (my company has an office in Galway) and ended up being there on a night with a fantastic band and some great Irish dancers. I absolutely loved the music.

The Burren - amazingly unique landscape.

Cong - An adorable and very tiny town that's completely surrounded by rivers.

Kylemore Abbey - this is a pretty classic Irish tourist destination and it's absolutely stunning.

 

 

Ross Errilly Friary - this ended up being our last quick stop right at the end of the second tour day and I took some of my favorite pictures here.

 

Amusingly enough, the hostel that was included as part of my two day tour ended up being my favorite hostel in Ireland. I spent hours upon hours researching all the hostels for my trip, and the one hostel that I didn't actually pick myself ends up being one of my favorites. Funny how things like that work out.

Next stop - Dublin!