Ireland*

March 13 – March 16: Ireland

Here we go…the 34 day epic that spans eight countries!

March 13- Monday- We start in Ireland where I flew into Dublin. My friend Erin and her husband Matt live in Bray just outside of Dublin. I knew she worked until 18:00 so I decided to wander around Dublin a bit before I took the train out to her place. As I had been in Dublin before and had not particularly enjoyed it (one of my least favourite cities in Europe) I checked out a couple of places I had not seen before. I walked down O’Connell Street walked through St. Stephen’s Green, sat and read at Trinity College and wandered through various other parts of South Dublin. I had my massive pack with me and it was my first day with it, so I was not used to carrying it around everywhere. I took frequent stops to read and enjoy the “beautiful” weather (rain and wind). When the rain started to drench me I ducked into an internet café to figure out my Portugal leg of the trip. I booked my hostel and did some research on transportation methods. Upon finishing this I decided it was time to head to Bray. After the forty-five minute train ride I trekked 20 minutes through hard rain to arrive at her warm house. One of her housemates let me in and I waited for Erin. She arrived; we (her husband, her sister and three friends who were visiting from the States) made dinner. After dinner we played a game called Celebrity with her housemates and the next door neighbors. The game was quite humorous and it was nice to have a fun, quiet night in.

Tuesday had us up and early and out of the house by 8:00. We were catching a bus tour of the area north of Dublin and along the coast. The tour was expensive, something I normally would not do, but since I was with friends and that is what they were doing I decided to go with. Erin wanted to take her sister to a true castle and this tour brought us to one…the Malehide Castle. We took a tour and were able to walk around for a while. The castle was actually still in use and not just in ruins, so that was fun. We then drove along the coast and looked at the beautiful scenery (and I kept dosing off after a long couple of weeks in London). Upon our return to Dublin we grabbed food at AbraKebabra…I thought the name was absolutely brilliant while the food was rubbish. We again walked through Trinity College and this time stopped at the Natural History Museum which was basically 200000 animals stuffed. The placed reeked of formaldehyde but I had a great time. The animals were stuffed in all of these crazy positions and environments. With our return to Bray, we walked along the beach (it is a coastal town) and to Tesco’s to pick up supplies for chicken fajitas, my favourite food to cook. Dinner was grand and bed was early!

On Wednesday, we left at a bright 7:00 to get into Dublin so we could buy tickets and catch the bus to Galway. The ride was about five hours so we had some good quiet time on the bus. We pulled into the city centre of Galway and searched for our hostel, Kinlay House. After walking in a big circle we finally found it. I was staying with randoms, which was no problem because this was my life for the next five weeks. We price checked the local restaurants for lunch and picked the King’s Head. Lunch was pretty good and provided enough fuel for our hike through the city. We walked along the river and out to Galway’s Cathedral… a beautiful and good smelling place. This cathedral had a nice display of St. Patrick. The weather was not beautiful so we resorted to the Irish tradition, finding a pint. Now Erin’s sister and her friends have never had a proper Guinness and we thought it only appropriate that they have one. These were some typical American college girls that hated beer, so they were not too fond of the half pint for the four of them....hhhhh! We returned to the hostel for an hour where I continued to read about the places I was planning on visiting. When my crew was ready to go we returned to the same pub for dinner and live music. We danced, I bought the girls a snake bite, and I talked to the four Kiwis from Bath next to me. After a good four hours, I headed out for a solo walk along the coast. A nice clear night with the crashing of the waves, what a peaceful night!

Thursday I woke up nice and early for a long run along the coast. I got lost a couple of times so my run was one that would just not finish. I was in shorts and a t-shirt so I was frozen when I returned! I showered, ate breakfast, and we hopped on a bus to go see the Cliffs of Moher. After an hour bus ride that took us through very small, windy village roads, we reached the infamous Cliffs of Moher. They were all the beauty that anyone has ever spoken. It was not too windy so I was not worried about getting blown over the cliffs (seriously a couple of tourists die each year from being blown off the cliffs). The beauty is such that I can not even begin to describe in words (I do not have the patience right now because I have been blogging for a while and I know my words will not do it justice). Let’s just say they are amazing and that if you are in Ireland you need to see them. We hopped back on the bus and I got off at an obscure stop to catch the bus directly back to Dublin as I was heading to Belfast by bus that night. Our bus was packed and traffic was really heavy going into Dublin so I missed my bus. I did manage to catch the last bus up, but man was the station packed (the next day was St. Patrick’s day so I believe everyone was going to see family).

I caught the bus to Northern Ireland so here ends Ireland’s chapter.