Druids and Devil's Bit

  

It has dawned on my that I cannot do a blog post a week with this trip. Too much happens every week! So, I was going to try to do a post every few days, but I get so busy and tired...anyway, long story short, this is going to be a short post, followed by a LONG post, so hang in there readers!
   Sofia and I left London on Saturday morning, April 2nd on a 6am bus to Holyhead, Wales. We had to change trains twice, but it was all smooth sailing overall. When we got to Holyhead, or the ferry station, we had to wait a few hours for our planned ferry ride to Dublin, but it was good because I worked on my last blog post a bit. Around 1pm we got on a bus that took us to the ferry boat. Actually, it wasn't a boat. It was a cruise ship. The thing was enormous!!! They had a gift shop, a cafe, roulette tables, poker tables, slot machines, and a full bar. Sofia and I settled onto a couch and napped for a few hours.

Holyhead ferryport

    The whole ride was 3 hours long, so I woke up after about a two hour nap and was very hungry. Unfortunately we didn't have very much food with us and I was ravenous! Every family around me seemed to have a bowl of these thick potatoe-y french fries. After the past few days of PB and J's and grocery store soups, the thought of having french fries was too enticing to pass up. So, I rousted myself and wandered off to the cafe to see the price of a bowl of fries. Fries were about 3 pounds...a bit steep just for fries. Dejected, I sadly made my way back to our couch and began munching on what we had in our grocery bag. Nothing would satisfy my craving! Looking around at the people around me, I suddenly realized that the family next to me had a full bowl of fries that they were ignoring. They had put them with their trash and were watching a movie. I began to wonder if I could go ask them for the fries...I mean, they didn't want them anymore.
     For the last hour I tried to shake off this newfound hobo instinct by reading, but I couldn't stop glancing up at the fries. Finally the boat docked in Dublin, Sofia woke up, and people began to disembark. The fry family left quickly, and before I knew what I was doing, the bowl of fries was in my clutches and I was eating them. Sofia was a bit horrified, but then ate some as well. Can't say it was my proudest moment.

    Anyway, after the hobo-tastic feast, Sofia and I got off the ferry, got our entrance visa stamps easily, and got on a bus to central Dublin. Dublin feels like a large town. The buildings are not very tall, they're made of brick, and they are kind of gritty and old in a charming way. Dublin is also a very small city, at least it seemed like it to Sofia and I compared to London. Thanks to this fact, we had an easy time of walking to our hostel, The Abraham House. It was a fairly cheap place, but it came with free breakfast, had a working shower, and had beds, so what more do we need? We put down our stuff, showered, and went out to an area of Dublin called Temple Bar, which is the bar/party area, and found a fish and chips place  (I got a deep fried beef burger and chips smothered in vinegar and salt. yummmmmmmm). From there we found our way to a suitably Irish pub called Farrington's where I had my first (but not last) pint of Guinness, and we listened to the live music. We were sufficiently tired by then and wandered back home to our hostel bunk beds.

Temple Bar

Fried Hamburger and Chips

My first pint of Guinness ever

    We woke up the next day at around 9, went and got our free breakfast, checked out of the hostel, stored our bags for the day, and made our way to the train station. Based on the suggestion of our friends in London, we had decided to take a day trip out to Howth, a seaside town outside of Dublin. Luckily, our Eurail passes worked for this trip, so we hopped on the train and were there in about 45 minutes.
   Howth was beautiful! It was the epitome of a seaside village. There was a market, piers, and a castle. First we stopped at the castle. It was small and privately owned, but it was still very beautiful. After wandering around it a bit, I found a lovely ivy covered structure that Sofia and I climbed and chilled on for a bit. After the castle, we took a hike/stroll on a path nearby, passing by some amazingly beautiful yellow flower bushes and a great view. We went on to explore more of the town, which generally was just plain cute. Once we had seen most of Howth, we decided to go to another town called Malahide. This town also had a castle, which was pretty too, although we didn't go in. We ended up walking along a nice wooded area, and then going to the seaside and sitting for a bit and snacking.

Random Castle

On a random wall structure

Yellow flowers and Howth and me

Howth pier

   We left Malahide around five to go back to Dublin, got Cornish Pasties (basically a hot croissant full of meats, cheese, and potatoes), which we ate in a beautiful park called St. Stephen's, and then grabbed a beer at a local pub where we heard some great Irish fiddle.  The bar closed at 11pm...which was weird and a bummer because we had to wait until midnight to meet up with our friends. So, we chilled at the hostel and waited for a call from our friends who were returning from a weekend trip. Around midnight we heard from them, wandered Dublin, found their place, and crashed on their dorm room floor on couch pillows.

Cornish Pasty <3

    The next day we woke up at around 11am. My friend Rebecca who we stayed with took us to the Book of Kells, which is kept in the library at Trinity College. The book is incredible! The exhibition said that the book took 156 cows for all of the animal skin pages. I couldn't take any pictures, but all I can say was that the detail was insanely intricate and the hand that wrote the text was incredibly precise. I was blown away. After the Book of Kells, Sofia and I saw the Medieval and Viking area of Dublin (mostly just castles and churches), walked by the place that Handel's Messiah debuted, and then we went to the Guinness factory. The tour was interesting, but the free pint of Guinness at the end was definitely the highlight. After the factory we made our way back to the Trinity College area where we were staying, and visited the Oscar Wilde monument and his Dublin home. Nearby we read some great Oscar Wilde quotes and then headed to our friends' place for dinner. We had a home cooked dinner, and drank the signature Dublin alcoholic ciders "Druids" and "Devils Bit". Overall it was a fun evening! We went to some of the bars and dance clubs and ended the evening by 2am. And thus ended our last full day in Dublin.

Guinness Factory

Me and Oscar

Full Irish Breakfast

  The next morning we woke around 9 and treated ourselves to a typical full Irish breakfast. This consisted of two fried eggs, two sausages, bacon, four pieces of toast, heinz beans, a grilled tomato, and a grilled mushroom. It was soooo good! After our wonderful breakfast, we got on a train to Rosslare in order to tak another ferry to Cherbourg, France, and then Paris.  On the way, we had a lengthy conversation with a very drunk Irishman at 2pm, which was pretty hilarious. The ferry was pretty uneventful for being 15 hours overnight, other than Sofia getting horribly sea sick and earning the sea name "barfy". The sea calmed down after a few hours and so then Sofia and I just curled up in our seats and slept most of the way to France.