Irish Roadtrip

When Will and Kate's wedding was announced for Friday April 29th, the entire United Kingdom went a little mental with excitement and anticipation (I'm talking pictures of the royal couple on t-shirts, duvet covers, lamps, even refrigerators.  Yup, I know). 

The news of the wedding was exciting for me as well since it meant an extra long weekend to start the week back at work after the Easter holiday.  And of course, when given an opportunity like a four-day weekend, one cannot simply sit around and let that pass them by.  So just days after the wedding announcement Kari, Laura, Heather, Charlotte and I booked our trip to Ireland.  I was incredibly happy because I didn't think I was going to be able to fit Ireland in this year - thank you Will and Kate!

I have to admit, after getting back from Budapest I was so exhausted after two weeks of travelling that I wasn't quite as keen about my Ireland trip as I had been when I booked it.  When Friday morning came along, though, and the five of us were piling into Charlotte's boyfriend's car (he kindly offered to drive us to the airport), my mood had completely changed; I was overcome with the girly giggles and I couldn't wait to get there!
When we arrived at the Dublin airport the royal wedding was on TV – we were in the middle of renting a car but kept taking time-outs to go watch the ceremony (poor rental car guy). We decided to rent a car because we wanted to do loads of things all over Ireland; our tour book listed a bunch of trips we could take but the prices were outrageous and didn’t cover everywhere we wanted to see. It ended up costing us much less to rent and drive ourselves and it was totally worth it!
After we finally found a place to park we walked to the Guinness Storehouse to start off our Irish holiday!

Now as you probably know I’m not a beer drinker, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the storehouse. The self-guided tour takes you up through a massive, cylindrical building shaped exactly like a pint glass; they say it would take fourteen million pints of Guinness to fill it! All seven floors of the storehouse are circular and focus on a different aspect of the Guinness industry (the brewing process; transport and world-wide distribution; media and advertising; and the infamous Gravity Bar at the very top where you can enjoy your free Guinness while gazing out at the incredible view of Dublin).

Now, when I say “enjoy your free Guinness” what I actually mean is enjoy fake-drinking your free Guinness while you take loads of pictures so that it looks like you enjoyed your free Guinness. I did try it (a couple times even, as instructed to by my father), but I couldn’t acquire a taste for it at all. I have to wonder how much Guinness is actually wasted here every day (although I’m sure it doesn’t faze them financially in the least).

That night we shopped around for a reasonably cheap dinner venue - our hotel was located right at the entrance of Temple Bar, the "cultural quarter" of Dublin, so we were in the slightly more expensive part of Dublin.  We lucked out big time, though, and found this fantastic little Chinese place that offered three course meals for only €16.50.  We had our own little Chinese buffet for dinner that night and it was superbly delicious!

The next day was day one of our Irish roadtrip.  I hopped behind the wheel (naturally) and we were off to Cork and Blarney Castle.  Driving on the left-hand side of the road is interesting to say the least.  It wasn't as challenging (or as scary) as I thought it would be.  It took a bit of getting used to, but it wasn't long before I was a pro. 
We made it to Blarney Castle in one piece and had a little picnic lunch on the beautiful castle grounds.  It was a gorgeous day and the view of the castle from our picnic table was lovely.

After lunch we made our way up to the castle.  It is extremely old (built in 1446 and occupied by Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster), so climbing up all the miniature staircases was interesting to say the least.  At the top of the castle is the legendary Blarney Stone and we, obviously, got in the queue to kiss "the Stone of Eloquence."  Once upon a time, visitors who wanted to kiss the stone had to be held ninety feet in the air by the ankles and lowered head first over the battlements in which the stone is embedded.  Today, thankfully, they are rather more cautious of the safety of we tourists; they actually employ this sweet old man to hold you while you lean backwards (while holding onto iron railings...for dear life) to kiss the stone.  The myth states that once you kiss the Blarney Stone you immediately will have the gift of the gab.  Not sure I needed the kiss for that, but at least now it's written in stone (ha ha ha). 

To the blog-reader's eye this picture doesn't really do justice to exactly how high I am, so take a look at a scenic shot I took from only a few feet away from the stone's location:

Ya.  I know. 
After we each kissed the stone we wandered around the castle grounds for a while, which are definitely worth the time.  Directly behind the castle is the Poison Garden, full of fifty or more poisonous plants and flowers (including opium!), some of which are kept behind bars.  There are signs all over the garden, labelled with information about the plants' toxicity, traditional and modern uses, and warning tourists not to touch or eat the plants - duh, they're poisonous!

On the way to the car we walked through the witch's area on the castle grounds (some say the Witch of Blarney was the one who first told MacCarthy of the power of the Blarney Stone).  The coolest thing in the witch's area in my opinion were the Wishing Steps - the Witch of Blarney instructs you to walk backwards both up and down the steps with your eyes closed, and if you can do that without thinking of anything but your wish, she says your wish will come true within the year.  Heather walked the steps first (with Laura holding her hand, guiding her), but I opted to walk them on my own.  I took my time and kept repeating my wish over and over in my head to ensure I wouldn't let any other thoughts enter my mind, and I did it!  Let's just hope my wish comes true...it's a good one!

We left Blarney Castle mid-afternoon and made our way to The Cliffs of Moher.  The cliffs rise 120 meters above the Atlantic Ocean and have been featured in numerous films including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and (one of my favourites) The Princess Bride!  I didn't know this tidbit of information until we were already at the cliffs, and I actually squealed with joy at the news.  I was so excited to be looking at the actual cliffs that The Dread Pirate Roberts climbed to rescue Princess Buttercup; a bit sad, perhaps, but I love love LOVE that movie!  The cliffs themselves are absolutely breathtaking, take a look:

After the cliffs we drove another couple hours (about hour six of the day) to Galway, Ireland's "cultural heart."  Galway is renowned for its vibrant lifestyle and numerous festivals, celebrations and events, and I really wish we would have had more time there.  We didn't get to Galway until about 7pm and by the time we had dinner we were completely exhausted.  We took a walk down the town centre and watched an incredible three-man band for an hour or so before we decided it was time to head back to Dublin.  Thankfully Heather took a turn driving so I got to take a rest; I don't think I would have been able to handle any more that day.
The next morning we were up and at'em early yet again to continue our Irish roadtrip.  Sunday's pitstops included Belfast and Giant's Causeway.  Our drive to Belfast pretty much epitomises my stereotype of Ireland and I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.  Okay - think of any movie you've ever seen that has been filmed in Ireland - there is always a driving scene where the characters have to stop in the middle of the road because a bunch of cows or sheep have gotten loose.  And, believe it or not, that actually happened!  We didn't notice at first; the traffic had slowed and we were just sitting in the car wondering what was up when suddenly Kari yelled, "Cows!  Get your cameras!"  We all burst into hysterical fits of laughter, quickly grabbed our cameras and snapped as many pictures as we could while the cows meandered past, tears flowing merrily down my face the entire time.  I will really never forget this moment:

We arrived in Belfast just before lunch and immediately booked the famous Black Taxi tour - this tour starts in the city centre and then moves through the Shipyards to where the Titanic was built and launched from.  It also takes you around to see the political districts which have bore the brunt of conflict between the Catholics and Protestants over the last thirty years; there are loads of murals that have been painted all over the buildings to educate about the history and culture of Belfast and Northern Ireland. 

The tour was very informative and I would have given it a ten out of ten apart from the fact that our taxi driver was probably one of the rudest, most ignorant men I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.  He made it very clear right from the beginning (without actually saying so) that he is Catholic and was so negative about the Protestant religion that I actually felt like he was trying to brainwash us.  He referred to them as assholes, called them thick ("with a capital T - a T so big that you would have to go to NASA and take a spaceship to reach the top") and even called them the C word!  I know!  We were in shock the entire time.  It was disappointing because the history of Belfast is super interesting; I just wish I could have listened to the unbiased version...
Next on our list was Giant's Causeway - this was hands down my favourite thing we saw in Ireland.  Giant's Causeway has been described as the Eighth Wonder of the World and was declared as Ireland's first World Heritage site in 1986.  Giant's Causeway is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking balsat columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.

For those tourists who choose to use a bit of imagination, however, the legend of Giant's Causeway is much more colourful than the boring scientific explanation.  The story tells that the causeway was built by a man named Finn MacCool as a walkway to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner.  Apparently when Benandonner walked across the causeway he was too terrified to fight Finn and ran away back to Scotland, ruining the causeway as he went.  I like this version much better (plus it explains the giant rock-shaped foot that stands in the middle of the site).  The five of us had our picture taken on Benandonner's foot; enjoy that and many others:

That evening when we got back to Dublin we had a nice (and very late) dinner and then hit up the pub scene in Temple Bar.  It was such a fun night - we hopped around from pub to pub, enjoying live Irish music, dancing around with the locals and other tourists and, obviously, drinking our faces off.  My favourite stop was The Temple Bar (yes, there's a bar called The Temple Bar in the area called Temple Bar, confusing I know). 

The band there was incredible; the guitarist is actually attempting to beat the Guinness World Record for guitar playing - he's going to play (or try to play) for four days straight!  I hope he achieves his goal because he was outstanding.
On our last day in Dublin we took the New Europe Free Walking Tour.  I was really happy that we had a chance to do the tour; these tours are always fantastic and we hadn't really seen a whole lot of Dublin since we arrived in Ireland. 
Our tour guide was born and raised in Dublin so we were really lucky to have a very knowledgable guy bringing us around the city.  He took us to the castle to start, which is a mixture of gothic, classic and modern designs.

The grounds just behind the castle, currently used as a helipcopter landing pad, used to be a small river where the vikings would dock their boats - this area is also where the name "Dublin" originated.  Right across from the castle, on the same grounds as the helicopter pad, is the Chester Beatty Library (apparently very famous for its collections of Islamic artefacts). 
The next stop on our tour was the birthplace of Jonathan Swift.  I am a huge fan of his The Modest Proposal so I was pretty excited to see the door of the house where he was born (it's not a very attractive door, but still).

We then journeyed to Christ Church Cathedral, the eldest of Dublin's medieval churches, and Dublin City Council, the site where only recently a load of viking artefacts have been discovered.

The tour then took us across the river Liffey and over Ha' Bridge (named as such because they used to charge a half penny to cross it).  After hearing some information that I cannot remember, we crossed back over to the south side, over O'Connell Bridge, and made our way to Trinity College.

Trinity College is a very impressive building with a very interesting history - apparently Protestants were not allowed admittance to the college until only very recently.  The college is also home to the famous Jedi library where the even more famous Book of the Kells (an illuminated manuscript Gospel book written in Latin) is kept.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to go in the library and see the book because we were running short of time.  The last stops on the tour were the building the White House was modeled after; Saint Stephen's Green Park (home of a very interesting-looking Famine memorial); and Shelbourne Hotel, where the Constitution for modern Ireland was signed in 1922.

This marked the end of our tour and we made our way to the Porter House pub in Temple Bar for an early dinner before we had to head to the airport.  En route to the pub we stumbled across a self-service Tim Hortons and had a little sentimental laugh, naturally.  The Porter House pub was recommended to us from a local who said the food and atmosphere were a must-see/eat for all tourists, and boy was he right about that!  The pub had five different floors and was made entirely from wood - very cool.  And the food!  I had a fish pie (a concoction of haddock, salmon, shrimp and cod all baked together in a seafood sauce and topped with a mound of mashed potatoes) and it was so delicious I talked about it for days afterwards.

Sadly our trip was over and we drove our rental car back to the airport and boarded the plane to go home.  It practically brought tears to our eyes; we loved Ireland so much - it was so amazing, words (and pictures) can't really describe the overwhelming beauty that each and every place we visited offered.  I will definitely go back to Ireland at some point in my life, and I hope that when I do I have just as much fun as I did this time around.