Last Stop: Ireland

I titled this post as "the last stop" not because it was my last journey, but because it was last trip to another country outside of England. With this trip to Ireland, I ended up with a total of five countries that I've visited. I see that as quite an accomplishment, since before this trip I had not even been out of the U.S., let alone my home state!

For this trip, I traveled with my usual travel buddy, Alyssa, as well as our friend Rose, who I first met during our study abroad orientation and then later at a free kickboxing and krav maga class. We soon became partners as we took the classes together and got to know each other more throughout the semester. Here's a picture of us three:

From left to right: Rose, Alyssa, and me!

Our Ireland adventure began very early in the morning--I'm talking before sunrise early. That's the one drawback to a cheap Ryanair flight: you either have to take an early morning flight or a night flight. We figured it would be safer and smarter booking the earlier flight. That way, we could find our hostel in the morning and use the rest of the day to do some sightseeing. We just hoped that we wouldn't be too exhausted to function.

The three cities we had planned to visit were Dublin, Galway, and Cork, spending the most time (three days) in Dublin, and then equal amounts (two days) in Galway and Cork, making our trip a week long. Thankfully, our flight to Dublin was out of Leeds, so we were only a taxi ride away (versus taking a train to London or Liverpool, etc.). We arrived early and got through security fairly quickly, although something in Alyssa's bag set off the security check, so they had to search her bag to make sure she wasn't carrying anything dangerous. The plane we boarded was much smaller than what I'm used to, so we actually got to climb up to the plane. It definitely reminded me of the scene in Hannah Montana: The Movie where Miley/Hannah steps off her plane. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Someone even referred to it after our short flight as we descended the steps. She said, "Hello, New York!" and everything!

Anyway, after our flight we had to get through customs, which was easy enough after getting through the slow, long line. The customs officer who looked over my passport did ask me if I was driving, which I told him I wasn't. At that, I swear he said, "Thank God," though he was mumbling. After that, we just took a bus into the city to drop us off near our hotel. From there, it was a five minute walk to our hostel. It was located in one of the little alleyways, so I was unsure how the inside would look. I was pleasantly surprised by the nice interior and the very friendly ladies at the front desk. They checked us in quickly and even gave us suggestions as to where to eat and the best ways to get to the places we wanted to see.

Since we had arrived in the morning, our room wasn't quite ready yet, but they let us lock up our heavy backpacks in a storage room until the afternoon. Then we headed to the place where they suggested we eat breakfast. I have to be honest, I don't really remember what I ordered. Plus, I was so hungry that I ate the meal right away, but I remember that it was very good.

After our meal, we walked over to the Trinity College, known for its library, which is the largest research library in Ireland and holds important manuscripts such as the Book of Kells. You were required an hefty entrance fee to enter the library, so we didn't go inside. However, we did take pictures of the beautiful campus:

I had to take a picture because the clouds were just so beautiful while we were there.

A sculpture outside of the Berkeley Library.

Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to settle into our room and rest our feet for a while before heading out to find the Guinness Storehouse. When we arrived, we were very disappointed to see that it was closed:

The ladies at the front desk of our hostel hadn't told us that it would be closed that day when we told them about going there, and we didn't remember anywhere online saying it would be closed either. We stood there for a while, unsure what to do, because we had traveled quite a bit to get there. After a while, we decided to keep walking down the street, hoping that there was another entrance to it. It turns out that we were in the wrong spot. Down the street and around the corner was the main entrance to the Guinness Storehouse. We must have been at one of the industrial entrances. It was such a relief when we realized we hadn't gone all the way out there for nothing:

Sorry for this picture's slight blurriness. I was having some technical difficulties.

Inside the Storehouse, we learned about how the company brews its beer and all the ingredients that go into it. Since I'm not much of an alcohol person, I didn't really retain any of it. We were even given a little glass of Guinness to learn how to properly drink it. You have to put your elbow out, bring the glass to your lips, take a deep breath, and take in a good mouthful of Guinness to swirl around your tongue to taste all of the flavors before swallowing and exhaling. Honestly, I didn't taste the Guinness when I was swirling it around my mouth, but boy did I taste it when it was sliding down my throat. And unfortunately, it was only the bitter taste of alcohol I tasted. So maybe beer isn't for me. Alyssa didn't find the beer very pleasurable either, although she drank more of her sample than I did. Rose, though, seemed to like it, and even went and poured her own pint of Guinness after our drinking lesson.

I didn't take very many pictures in the Storehouse, but I did take one of the waterfall they had there:

After touring around the factory and Rose had finished her pint, we headed back to our hostel and got ready for dinner. We went to a traditional Irish pub that even had live music. Alyssa was in absolute heaven. I got a steak sandwich that was very delicious, but I had a real tough time eating it because the meat was hard to bite off. Eventually, I just had to cut up the meat and the bread separately before eating them together. For dessert, we had the best sticky toffee pudding. Ever. Even though we were full, we all managed to help finish the whole thing. I never had a better sticky toffee pudding after that. I'm still waiting to see if I find a better version than that one.

With a delicious meal in our bellies, we went back to the hostel to get ready for bed. We were utterly exhausted by the end of the day (since we had been up before the crack of dawn), and we needed our sleep for our bus tour the next day.

The tour we went on for our second day in Dublin was called the P.S. I Love You tour, as one of our stops included the famous bridge scene where Holly and Gerry meet for the first time in Ireland. I love that movie, even though it makes me cry like a mad woman. Alyssa loves the movie as well, so we were pretty excited for this tour. Here's what our tour bus looked like, along with some pictures of us with it:

We drove for about an hour and a half before we had a quick rest stop. We ate at the Armoury Cafe and had scones with raspberry jam (a new favorite for me):

Yum!

Me and Rose!

Our P.S. I Love You destination came shortly after we left the cafe. And the scenery was beautiful!

After the bridge stop, we had another opportunity to get out and appreciate the scenery in a little more depth, versus just driving right through it:

Everything is so green in Ireland!

Our next stop was Glendalough valley, where we got to explore the area. I wish we'd had more time there to hike and take it all in, but the time we had was well spent. We first headed toward the monastic city that our tour guide had talked about. Sometime between getting off the bus and using the restrooms, we lost our group, but we found some of them when we approached the monastic city:

The more time we spent in the graveyard, the more creeped out I was. I was definitely ready to get out of there.

Then, we continued hiking up the trail for as long as we could before we had to turn around and return to our tour bus. We did not want to be left behind: 

We all wished we had a house in Ireland like this.

At around 2:30, we made it to the pub where we were scheduled to eat lunch. I was absolutely starving, so I was glad when they brought out my beef and Guinness stew and soda bread. It was the best stew I had during my entire stay in Ireland:

Our last stop of the day was a bit of a let down from all the beautiful scenery we had seen that day. We stopped at Avoca Mill, the oldest sewing mill in Ireland. This stop was definitely geared toward the older part of our tour group, but at least we got to stretch out our legs:

A very large sewing machine.

We got back into Dublin around dinnertime. Since we weren't too hungry, Rose suggested we get some Chinese food at a little shop near the Temple Bar area. I wasn't expecting the food to be very good (I just didn't picture Chinese food in Ireland), but it ended up being fantastic. They cooked your order right on the spot, so the meal was fresh and amazing. Plus, we got to eat out of those cardboard boxes they typically use for to-go orders, which I loved. (It's the small things that make a difference!) We were definitely grateful for Rose's suggestion after our meal.

After that, we wandered down Temple Bar. I had always thought Temple Bar was just, well, a bar. Turns out, it's an actual street (in addition to being a bar) with a lot of night life. So we wandered around for a bit, peeking our heads into a candy shop along the way:

When we emerged from the street, there was some incredible twilight lighting that we just had to take advantage of:

When in Ireland....

A cute bar near our hostel.

I love the traditional black shop color with the flower pots over the building.

Then we headed back to our hostel to get a good night's rest for our last day in Dublin.

Our last day in Dublin consisted of going to the Dublin Zoo. For the record, this was my idea, and for anyone who knows me, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. I love animals, and I haven't been to a zoo for a while. Plus, it's not very often that you get to say that you went to a zoo in a foreign country. I'm sure some people would think it's a waste of time and money, but I really enjoyed myself.

It was a beautiful day to start, but it was also very warm. Too warm for the long sleeve and jeans I was wearing at the time. It was still a pretty walk up to the zoo:

We saw many animals that day. Here are some that I took pictures of:

Their butts were so weird looking!

This snow leopard looked so sad. The monkeys had more cage space than this poor animal.

The orangutan on the right had the largest cheeks I've ever seen!

Red-ruffed lemur

While we were looking at the red-ruffed lemur, we saw this family of swans!

Ring-Tailed Lemur

When we were looking at the flamingos, the weather decided to cause a little chaos. After hearing a couple of rumbles in the clouds, it started to hail. The hail was gentle at first, but then it started coming down hard, causing the flamingos to squawk and a group of school children near us to start screaming, probably more in delight than fear. Poor Rose was in a wheelchair because she had sprained her ankle, so Alyssa and I pulled out our umbrellas to shield ourselves from the hailstorm:

The calm after the storm.

And just as suddenly as it started, the hailstorm stopped. After that, the weather was no longer sunny and beautiful, but cloudy and threatening to rain on us. We felt bad for the poor animals who were stuck outside, but they did bring in some of the animals, as you'll see below:

The Red Panda

These birds moved so slow!

This poor guy was missing an antler.

We had a cool time with the giraffes, despite them being inside. At one point, a baby giraffe came up to the window we were looking through, causing the mother giraffe to come over as well and bend her head down to look at us. I guess she decided we weren't harmful, because she walked away to eat some food. The baby giraffe stayed a little longer before heading off. It was an experience I hadn't imagined to feel so special. But it truly was for me:

I felt so bad when we went to go see the gorillas. There were a few of them huddled around the glass, looking cold and depressed. The people around us thought it was cool to be so close to them and just kept trying to get them to turn around, but us three could tell how sad they were. I just wanted to chase all the people away and give all the gorillas hugs:

The little baby kept banging on the glass.

Then we saw some more monkeys after a quick restroom break:

Then it was time to see the rest of the animals:

This guy was creepy. He stayed in the same exact position and stared everyone down.

There was a cute family of ducks eating just on the side of the walkway. :)

After we had seen all the animals, we got some lunch at a cafe right outside the zoo, which was quite delicious. Then we headed back to our hostel to pick up our luggage and head to the train station, where we waited for our train to Galway. Since we had to wait for a couple of hours (we were just a tad early), we got our dinners at the station. I was so happy that there was a smoothie/juice place, so I got a juice along with a sandwich. I was quite a happy camper.

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous once we were on our way to Galway:

Unfortunately, we had a bit of a hiccup during our journey. We had met a nice lady and her two kids on the train, and we thought she had said she was going to Galway. When she said goodbye and started to get up, we were confused since we thought we had twenty minutes left in our journey. Since we were slightly panicked, we didn't think it through as we hopped off the train. By the time the train had left and we had walked a little ways, we realized that we got off at the wrong stop:

Definitely not Galway.

This was the first mistake Alyssa and I had ever made on a train, so we were a little flabbergasted that we made a mistake so late in our study abroad experience when we'd had smooth sailing up until this point. Our mistake cost us a little over an hour of wait time until the next one came. The screen showing the arrivals of trains told us originally that there were two trains going to Galway, but it turned into one train at the end. If we had missed that train, we would be stuck until the next morning. Thankfully, we didn't miss the train.

Waiting for the train. Oops.

We didn't have any more mishaps after that, as we quickly found our hostel. Upon our arrival, the hostel receptionists had told us about a good deal on a bus tour around Galway, where we would see the Cliffs of Moher as well as other sights along the way. Since we had wanted to go to the Cliffs but had no idea as to how to get there, we quickly signed up to be on the tour the next day, as we only had one full day in Galway before heading to Cork. After getting our spots for the tour, we all took showers and got ready for bed.

I was pretty tired the next morning, but I was excited to see the Cliffs of Moher. Plus, I knew I'd be able to doze on the bus. After all the bus tours I've been on, I've found that it's really hard to stay awake while you're on the bus. At least for me, anyway.

Our first stop was Dunguaire Castle. Since we only had a few short minutes, we didn't rush over to the castle (as Rose's ankle was still hurting), but the view from afar was enough for me:

There were authentic thatch roof houses right across the street from the castle:

Our next stop was to see the Corcomroe Abbey, a 13th century monastery:

This archway was just tall enough for me to stand in, although I was bending just slightly.

Don't worry, I had to crawl to get through this one. I'm not that short!

After that, we made a quick restroom at Ballyvaughan before our next stop, the Poulnabrone Dolmen:

The line for the women's restroom was super long, like always.

The Poulnabrone Dolmen is a portal tomb, or single-chamber tomb, constructed in the Neolithic period with estimates between 4200 BC to 2900 BC. It was quite a site to see, especially with all of the wild flowers around it:

There were so many rocks around the area as well:

After that, we stopped at this pub to get some lunch. I had bangers and mash, which is always a good choice:

After lunch, we finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher! We had a lot of time there, so we took plenty of pictures. We could have spent most of the day there, but we covered a good amount of the area with the 90 minutes we had:

We didn't have time to explore the visitor center, but it was built into the hill!
It definitely reminded me of The Lord of the Rings. 

We were all pretty tired after walking around the Cliffs of Moher, but we had one little stop by the sea before making the rest of the journey back to Galway:

There's me photobombing Alyssa's picture! :)

Once we got back to Galway, we ate a little bit of dinner and hung out in our hostel room. Our bodies were too tired to do any more walking that day.

The next day was a partial day in Galway before heading to Cork. Alyssa had quite the experience as we were wandering the streets, as a cute Irish street performer winked at her as we walked past. I tried to get her to go back and at least give him so money, but she was way too shy to do it. We'll never know if that could have turned into a budding romance she always dreamed to have with an Irish guy.....

The Claddagh symbol!

You always have to get ice cream when you travel!
And when you're in the UK or Ireland, you have to get a flake to go with it!

We lounged around on the grass for a little while before heading to the train station to travel to Cork:

Once we got to Cork, we had to walk further than we had thought to get to our hostel. Once we got into town, we had to walk up a hill to our hostel. It was in a slightly shady area, but we didn't have any troubles while we were staying there. Our room was very narrow but long, with the bunk beds lined against one wall so there was enough room to walk. Thankfully, there was a bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower, so we didn't have to use the communal bathrooms during our stay. Since we had eaten dinner on the train, we only had to get ready for bed and hang out until we went to sleep.

The next day, we went to go see the famous Blarney Castle. We had to take a bus to get there, which took about 20-30 minutes. The area was absolutely gorgeous, and there was plenty to explore around the grounds after we had visited the castle.

During our cave exploring, I slipped and almost fell, but by catching myself from falling I got a little scraped up by the cave rock. But what's an adventure if you don't get a little scratch?

Sorry for the slightly creepy photo. My camera isn't as good in the dark.

There was a lot of different artwork around the grounds, one of them being these eye sculptures.

It was a steep climb up to the top of the castle, a climb that made me worry about falling. Thankfully, we all made it up and down the castle safely. We even got to kiss the Blarney Stone! At the time, I was very nervous about leaning over to kiss the stone, even though there were bars that would stop you from falling all of the way down. After I had done it though, I couldn't help but feel grossed out about kissing a stone so many people have kissed before. (I didn't get sick though!) It especially grossed me out after my grandpa told me that, apparently, while tourists kiss the rock, Irish people pee on it....I sure hope that isn't true:

After exploring the Blarney Castle, we took a walk around the grounds. On our way, I found another little cave:

I felt like I was in Jurassic Park with all of the huge plants around me!

This little guy let me take close-up picture of him. :)

This is the Blarney House. We missed the opening hours, but it was still beautiful to see.

Blarney Castle from afar.

Almost got it right!

This was called the Herbacious Border.

A dolmen on the Blarney grounds.

These are the Wishing Steps. We had to make a wish as we walked up the stairs with our eyes closed for it to come true.

We made it!

The Witches Kitchen was under this ginormous tree.

It's called the Witches Stone because of the cut-outs on the right side of the stone. Kind of looks like a face, right?

Along our walk, we found a playground with a tire swing! I love tire swings, so we waited for some kids to leave so I could bring out my inner kid:

I pushed both Alyssa and Rose on the tire swing as well. (Don't worry, I didn't hog it or anything.) But when I was pushing Rose, I miscalculated the angle that the tire swing was coming. I tried to get out of the way, but it sure enough hit me and pushed me on the ground. It was really funny!

Everything's good until.....

......Oops!

The result of getting in the way of a tire swing.

After that incident, we decided that we should probably say goodbye to the tire swing and finish our exploring. Right next to the Blarney Castle was the Poisonous Garden, as it had a lot of poisonous plants to educate people about the dangerous plants seen in that area. While we were there, I found this little guy:

Before we left, we said one last goodbye to the Blarney Stone, which is above that top window in the picture below:

Since the Blarney Castle took up our whole day, we just ate dinner and took it easy that night once we got back into Cork. The next day consisted of souvenir shopping and looking around the city before heading to the airport for our flight home:

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And that concluded our last big trip while we were abroad! After Ireland, we all parted ways. Rose met up with family during her last couple of weeks abroad. Alyssa left a week before I did, as my mom came to spend one week in England with me, where I played tour guide by showing her around Leeds and London. We went on our own adventures during that week, which will be my second to last post on this blog. Until next time!