Ireland recap.

River Liffey

After being in Northern Ireland for a few days, I took a train down to Dublin. The ride itself was gorgeous. Green hills and beautiful coastline. The ride was only about two hours and put me in the heart of Dublin and fairly close to my hostel.

Dublin Street// Love the doors

In Dublin I played tourist. It is pretty small and walkable—which I love! I started with Trinity College. The grounds itself were really nice. Not as grand as UW of course but still really cool. On campus the Book of Kells is held. The book is a beautiful and ornate version of the four gospels. I thought it was quite beautiful. I found the school’s Long Library to be more interesting though. If I had a library it would look like this one.

Trinity College Courtyard

Long Library// Courtyard

After Trinity College I continued to walk around the city. I went to the National Gallery that really wasn't that great—especially after seeing the Albertina in Vienna and the VA in London. Also saw the Dublin castle that I could only see from the outside, but I liked. Then saw St. Patrick’s cathedral. The bells were ringing, and it really was beautiful. Looped back around and saw Christ’s Church and walked through Temple bar. Dublin isn't terribly interesting, but I like that it is fairly quaint and all of the people are really nice and friendly.

Dublin Castle

The next day I conquered the Guinness store room. It is seven stories and a lot of fun. It’s a self-guided tour that brings you through the process of how the brew is made along with other information about the process and about Guinness in general. With the tickets you get a complimentary pint which you can choose to drink in a gallery at the top of the building that looks out at the city, or you can go to the “Guinness Academy” and learn to pour your own pint. At first I just went to the top because I didn't want to do the academy thing alone. But while it was a cool view of Dublin, the bar up top didn't give me the time of day. So, I used my stub downstairs and learned to pour a pint. It was actually really fun. I was with a bunch of strangers and got a certificate at the end. It was much more fun than just getting a pint at the top.

Poured the perfect pint!!

After Guinness I went and walked the city some more. Went to Phoenix park [largest inter-city park in Europe] and read my book. Wandered around a bit more before returning to my hostel. As I said before, Dublin isn't very large and there really is not all that much to do. Within two days I felt that I had conquered it. My original plan was to spend four days there though! Luckily I was able to change my plans though and head off to Galway the next day on the other side of the country.

I took a bus and within three hours I had made it. Settled into my hostel and didn’t do much else for the night. The next day I decided to take a tour of the Cliffs of Moher. My friend Mac from my study abroad group had been there the week earlier and recommended going. Boy am I glad I went! The cliffs were astonishing. Hundreds of feet tall and covered in green right next to the Atlantic. I made a friend along the way, Sandra, and we took pictures of each other while prancing along the cliffs. We climbed over this barrier at one point and continued on right by the edge. We found out later that it was a wall technically and we weren’t supposed to go that far. Whoops. Anyways, look at the pictures and try to grasp how amazing the cliffs were. Honestly though, they don’t do it justice at all. The cliffs have to be seen in person to truly be appreciated.

The following day I took a walking tour of Galway. It really is a lovely city. It’s a port town with friendly people, small shops, and lots of history. Also, café culture is similar to Seattle which I really enjoyed. I was starting to get used to Vienna’s cafes, but honestly I love the casualness of Seattle and Galway’s cafes. I also found out that Galway is Seattle’s sister or twin city. They sit at the same latitude so their climates are the same. Which is cool but unfortunately meant a gray day for me. I spent the remainder of the day sitting on a rocky beach reading while the wind tried to take me away.

I took the bus back to Dublin and then spent the night in the Dublin airport. My flight was at 8am so I figured there was no point paying for a hostel. It actually wasn’t too bad. At around 6 I checked into my flight and everything went smooth. Even Ryanair wasn’t too bad. But of course I had to do something stupid…

I arrived in Brussels on time and was headed to the passport screening area. However, I couldn’t find my passport. It was lost. Oops.

I was able to talk to some people though who escorted me to the plane I had just gotten off of [that had already started boarding]. Sitting on the first seat of the airplane was the most beautiful sight, my pink passport holder. Whew. Got it. Went through passport control. Continued on my way.



Stacie Marie