Dublin, Ireland

I almost think I should have titled this post "My New Favorite Place." It might be true!

On Friday morning, July 2, my friend Ashley and I set out for Dublin at about 6:00 AM. This means, we got up, left the college (with some luggage) on foot, walked to the Baker Street station, took the underground to Euston Square, then walked to the London Euston railway station and waited for our 7:10 train to Holyhead via Chester to arrive. Sound like a mouthful? It was... something like that. I just have to say it's very nerve-racking when you've never done this sort of traveling before and you plan it all on your own before you even get overseas. Luckily, my planning was spot-on, though, and we made it to Holyhead, Wales after a 4-hour train ride without a hitch. From Holyhead, we caught the Johnathan Swift - a cruise-like ferry - and crossed the Irish Sea over to Dublin. It's much cooler in that part of the region, and has very, very pretty countryside.

After boarding the Swift, we were directed to our seats in the Club Class lounge: a.k.a. First Class. It only cost a few extra Euro to upgrade, and we thought, Why not? When will we ever be doing this again, anyway?

The seats were great. They were cushiony and comfortable, with spacious legroom and right next to the window, so we could see everything. The was also a complimentary bar with food and drinks - juices, water, teas, coffee, soft drinks, wine, muffins, pastries, cheese, breadsticks, crackers, olives - you name it. This served as our lunch that day, and it was perfect, because it was also the first time we had eaten since the night before!

After enjoying some of the food, we decided to go out onto the deck and have a look. This sounds a lot easier than it actually was, believe me! I hadn't quite gotten my sea legs yet when we went out - I nearly got blown overboard! (Not quite, but the wind was VERY strong!) We took a few pictures and headed back indoors, where we decided it was safer.

After about a 2-hour journey on the Swift we docked in the Dublin bay, made a quick trip through Customs at the ferry port, and collected our luggage. When we made it to the lobby, I realized, the only part of the trip I hadn't been able to plan was getting from the ferry port to our bed & breakfast. So, I did the only logical thing: called a cab. A little nervously, too. I had actually never ridden in a taxi before, but it turned out to be a good experience. Our driver was there within ten minutes, and practically gave us a tour of Dublin as he drove us to our destination. He was very informative and friendly, quite welcoming, too, and recommended all the good places to go in downtown Dublin.

When we reached our bed & breakfast - The Parkway Guesthouse B&B - we were warmly welcomed by the owner, Seamus, and given our keys and our room, which was cute and even had a little television.

After asking Seamus for dinner recommendations, we set of for O' Connell street, taking in all the sights and sounds of downtown Dublin. We decided to look for a good place to get some fish 'n chips, because after hearing about them and talking about them, we wanted to try them. And so we did, at a little hotel downtown called O' Shea's, and they were DELICIOUS. It became our favorite meal of the trip quickly: fried fish (cod), chips, salad, water (with ICE in it!) and Bulmers Irish cider (which we basically tried on a whim, and fell in love with it).

After dinner, we wandered around some of the shops, going into a typical souvenir shop called Carroll's to look at t-shirts, postcards, and other usual things. A few presents were bought here. :)

Tired, we headed back to our room around 7:00 (mainly because everything closes at 7 there on weekdays, except for restaurants and pubs), and shortly after getting back, Seamus informed us that there had been a cancellation and offered to "upgrade" us to a room with its own bathroom. Being girls, we accepted. (Of course!)
After that, I got the best night's sleep I'd had in a long time, and was very well-rested when we woke up at 9:30 the next morning for breakfast.

As promised, we were serve a freshly-cooked full Irish breakfast in the morning, starting off with Irish cereal (which was really only oatmeal in milk, not cooked), orange juice, coffee, toast and jam, Danish bacon (which is basically known as country ham in Tennessee), eggs, sausage links, and tomatoes. As you can imagine, I didn't eat the tomatoes. :) However, I did manage to accidentally pour milk all down my front and ruin my shirt and jeans for the rest of the weekend.

After cleaning up and getting ready, we set off to explore the city of Dublin at about 11:30. First, we made the long trek down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was a stunning day, with sunshine, very few clouds, and a nice breeze, and the Cathedral looked beautiful inside and out. While we were visiting, a women's choir from Anaheim, California was performing certain selections of sacred music in the Cathedral. And let me tell you, you haven't heard a choir sing until you've heard them sing in St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was absolutely amazing!

From St. Patrick's we headed down to the Guiness Storehouse, passing by a few markets and thrift stores on the way. I was excited when we got there to use my International Student ID for the first time and receive a discount on my ticket. However, I was unfortunately not very impressed with the tour of the brewery. It was self-guided and very electronic, and I didn't like the Guiness, even in Ireland. I may be very American, but I still don't think it tastes good at all. Instead of redeeming my ticket for a free Guiness, I used it for a free Coke instead, and I think I offended the bartender. Oh well, I was thirsty! There was one pretty cool part of the Guiness Storehouse, though: on the very top floor (7th floor) there is the place called the Gravity Bar. It's basically 360 degrees of window, with a bar in the middle, and you can see all of Dublin from inside. It was very, very crowded and hot in there, but the view was great! We decided we would probably like the Jameson distillery a little better, so after getting a good look at the city we set off for that next.

We were right. Everything about the Old Jameson Distillery was better. It was nicer, had more of a homey feel to it, the people were nice, the atmosphere was pretty and very old Irish-looking, and the tours were given by actual people. Our tour guide was named Hugh, and he actually knew a great deal about Jameson whiskey and the history of it, along with Dublin and he was very funny and entertaining. At the beginning of the tour, he asked for 8 brave volunteers - 4 women and 4 men - for an experiment at the end. I had read about this in my Let's Go! book, so, of course, I volunteered. At the end of our tour I got to taste-test three different types of whiskey, along with a woman from Germany (who was excited because Germany had just won it's World Cup game 4-0), a man from the Netherlands, a man from Canada, a man from California, and a few other people from around the London area.
After that, I have to say, the Jameson tasted the best, and people from the Netherlands are not nearly as friendly as the Irish. And people from Canada like to talk.

After the Jameson tour, we decided to head back to our room, but on the way, found ourselves on a street filled with department stores and shopping. Did we stop? Of course! If you know me at all, you know I love clothes. And now I especially love them in Ireland. There is a store called Penneys that has the cutest clothes for very cheap prices - kind of like an inexpensive Macy's mixed with New York & Co. if you ask me! I left with a few shirts, and possibly some jewelry. :)

On Sunday, we overslept, and missed breakfast, because we didn't wake up until almost 1:00 in the afternoon. I guess we were tired! It was nice, though, getting that much sleep. We decided to head out sometime between 3 and 4, and grabbed a quick little lunch at Burger King (I know, we have one in the States, but it was only 3.50 Euro for a combo). We set out for Trinity College and stopped at a few shops on the way. The campus of Trinity is absolutely gorgeous. We took some pictures and I went into the Book of Kells exhibit, only it was closing 15 minutes from when I got there so I basically had to run through it. I would have liked more time in there; it was very interesting. At least I made it, right? After Trinity we went to a few more shops in the area, including a sweater shop with things made entirely out of wool, a bookstore, and then stopped at the National Gallery of Art. This was interesting, too, but like everything else, it closes at 5:00 on Sundays, and we were only in there for about 20 minutes before we had to leave. Another place I would have liked to spend more time.

We walked back down to the Temple Bar area after that, after taking an unintentional detour through St. Stephen's Green (a big, beautiful park). We wanted to stop at this pastry shop called Queen of Tarts, but apparently, they closed early on Sundays, too, and settled for a little Italian ice cream shop. I got banana flavored gelato. I should have gotten chocolate.

We then headed back to our room to rest a little before dinner, where we decided to eat at O' Shea's again, and get the fish 'n chips one more time before leaving. Once again, they were scrumptious. The waitress even offered us extra ketchup this time! (I think she remembered me.) After eating we decided to stay for a while at the bar and listen to a couple of local musicians doing Irish folk music. There were only two of them - one on guitar and singing and the other on banjo - but they were VERY good. Especially the banjo player. I could have listened to their songs for hours. I even downloaded a few of them on iTunes last night.

The next morning was an early traveling day, yet again. Seamus called us a taxi and we let the b&b around 7:45 AM. Our ferry left Dublin at about 8:45, and once we saw how crowded and uncomfortable the general deck was (we didn't have first class tickets this time), we decided to upgrade to first class again. It was so nice, and I even slept a little on the way back to the UK. We were sad to leave Dublin and the ferry behind, but glad to catch a train back to London as soon as we got to the station. I bought a Snickers bar on the train ride.

When we got back to Regents, I showered, did some laundry, and ate a nice dinner in the cafeteria, before talking to my parents and Patrick for an hour each. It was nice to feel connected again, after only getting to use the internet once a day in Dublin. I miss my family and friends at home very much, but I am getting more used to things around here, and am excited about moving on to Edinburgh, Scotland next week.

More later.