Everybody's a little bit Irish!

Two weekends ago I traveled to Ireland with one of my flatmates, Taylor, and two other guys from our internship group, Kevin and Adrian. As those of you read my last post know, I was literally cramming to get everything done Thursday night before we left so early Friday morning. The good news? I was able to get the blogging that was needed completed, and I finished my journal. The bad news? I only got about two hours of sleep before I had to be up to leave for Ireland!!

We had no issues getting up in time, I think the excitement was enough of an alarm to really get us going. We left for the Tube a few minutes before planned (who does that?), and go to the station for our train about twenty minutes early. What? There is another train that leaves in five minutes? Or we can take the train we were planning on in 25.. nah. Let's go early! Really, who does that? We arrived at Stansted (try looking this up and seeing just how far out we had to go!) Airport to fly RyanAir. We got checked in for the flight, and only made it through security with minor delays because I did not have my liquids in a sealed bag (oops, sorry) and Taylor had liquids of all sizes and shapes, none of them in a bag. We had to squeeze out her hair gel into other containers! Oh the problems. At this point in time, we were happy to have arrived earlier than expected.While in the airport, we realize we have about an hour before the flight and by now we were starving. We picked up some breakfast and read the morning papers. Next step? Off to Ireland.

The flight was not too bad however the cabin pressure and congested pressure didn't mix. The only way I can describe how I felt was.. I felt like Harry Potter getting my forehead and nose ripped to pieces. My right ear wouldn't pop. It was dreadful. So much for sleeping. Upon landing, we picked up WIFI, Tweeted and Facebooked about our location, found a map and headed out to find our hostel! We purchased three day passes for the buses (more on this later..) and headed to the hostel, Jacob's Inn.

When we found the hostel, we tried checking in. We were told we could not check in until three. At this point it was around 11. We updated life with wifi, and picked up dozens of brochures to be sure we did all we could possibly do! Immediately it was decided we would go to The Church. For lunch. What is this business you may be asking? The Church has loads of history... which you can check out at their website I linked. Here is my two favorite photos: Arthur Guinness and The Organ- which Handel once played!! Since we had a few more hours to kill, we decided our next stop would be the Jameson Distillery!! Taylor and I were chosen to be on the table of taste-testers. This means at the end of the tour, we get to try three shots of whiskey. One from Jameson, one from Jack Daniels, and one from Johnny Walker. Believe you me, Jameson is hands down the winner. Hands. Down.

After the tour, we headed back to the hostel and checked in. The next plan was to find dinner, so we began walking! After a number of overpriced menus and semi-wrong turns, we found The Living Room, they were still serving dinner and had an outdoor beer garden. We were sold! After eating various non-traditional anywhere food, we spent a while enjoying the atmosphere in the beer garden.

We had already made plans for after dinner, there was a Hostel Pub Crawl! We dropped off things from dinner and headed straight to The Merchantile to begin the evening. We met a number of wonderful people from all over the place, Sweden, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, California, and Germany! I think the funniest part was most everyone was American! This lasted until approximately 6:30 in the morning, but our group didn't last that long. At one particular pub, there were drinking games. One of the guys and I were participating (and cleaning house) and the other two headed upstairs to listen to the live music. When it came time to move pubs, the two of us joined the group after almost being left behind ourselves and assumed the other two were ahead in the group! Little did we know, they were actually left behind!! With no working phones and bits of wifi, if you knew where to look, we could not contact one another and we finished the night separated! The best news is that everyone got home safely! :)

The plan for Saturday was to wake up early and walk to meet a bus tour. The tour was to take us out to Galway to see the scenic views, Galway walking tour, fairy forts, Cliffs of Moher, Portal Tomb, some castles and then return us back to Dublin. The initial tour left 30 minutes late, which made us 30 minutes late throughout the rest of the day. By the time we got to Galway, it was pouring. So our walking tour became a guided tour on the bus. And our bus driver felt bad (mainly because these really cranky and annoying group of girls from California complained), and told us he would take us to everything and more! It was fantastic. The best day of my life. Nothing will ever compare. Unfortunately when we got into Galway (I had slept the whole way), I could NOT keep my eyes open. So I also slept through the entire bus tour of Galway (sorry Brittany.. I tried!). After Galway, the first stop was lunch. Lunch at this little pub and chocolate desserts at a little homemade chocolate shop down the street. None of my chocolate made it back to Dublin. But it was wonderful. The woman working asked me how much Irish I had in me... I apologized and said maybe a little way back, but I am mostly Welsh and Scottish! She told me it was my fair skin, freckles and hair that gave it away.
 The next stop was the Cliffs. I want my ashes to be spread from the cliffs when I die. It was beautiful, breathtaking and so incredibly striking.
I took as many pictures as possible, but it was nothing compared to what we actually experienced. We began at the middle and walked as far as you could go on the right- until there was a fence keeping you out. Then we retraced our steps back to the middle and began to go as far as we could to the left. It was here that we jumped the small wall 'suggesting' not to go past this point. Oops. We had to. And this was where some of the greatest photographs were taken. If you have not been, please book your tickets now. Please. Do it before you die. It is worth it. 





CHECK OUT TAYLOR AND I LIVING LIFE ON THE EDGE!
After the Cliffs of Moher, we headed to a variety of locations across Ireland. 







The next stop was the Portal Tomb. This is a formation of rocks that is centuries old. No one knows exactly what they are marking or why they are there, aside that it is a tomb for a female body. Our bus driver told us that this woman must have been something extra special because she was not decorated in her burial, yet she was given such a beautiful grave site.

The next stop was to a fairy fort. This has also been there for more years than anyone actually knows. The stones have been set, as they were here, for as long as everyone can remember. 

The next stop was a castle. I was also asleep for this, so Taylor took my camera and got a few stunning photos of the castle and the sun beginning to set (Nice work Taylor, I approve).

Finally, we headed back to Dublin and we found some cheap pizza around the corner from our hostel and stuffed our faces. We were dead tired but wanting to do so much more! We mustered up the energy to try a few more pubs before the end of the night.. under the agreement that we did not set any alarms in the morning. What a great feeling.


On Sunday, we slept in for a while and then went to find food near the Temple Bar area. What a wonderful idea this was. We were able to do some souvenir shopping and get a delicious lunch! Our next game plan included finding our way to the Guinness Factory. Success. Boy was that a blast! And if anyone is wondering? Guinness is 700000000xbetter in Ireland. Go and get it! For dinner, we headed back to the Temple Bar area and found this quaint little italian restaurant.. who happened to be playing the Euro Cup 2012 final, Italy v. Spain (unfortunately Spain won). After we ate dinner, we found an Irish Pub to grab dessert, Bailey's Cheesecake. What a wonderful thing it was. We headed back to the hostel for an early bed time because we had to get up at the crack of dawn to fly back to London.

That is the gist of Dublin.. if you need more details let me know! :) Look for another blog post in coming days on last week and weekend! I need to tell you everything!!
Cheers!
Sarah Marsh
-updated Nov. 2012 with video.