Ireland was fantastic from the start! We got off the ferry from Holyhead, Wales around 5:30 and we were in Dublin! So we walked up Grafton Street on our way to the hostel. This was the best hostel yet, with very comfortable beds. We dropped off our stuff and went exploring. Along the way we grabbed some kababs for dinner, and went back to the hostel. Here we made some friends and got free wine complements of the hostel before we headed for The Temple Bar. On the way to the bar we saw a guy getting arrested while saying "All I wanted was a f&&@ing milkshake" don't know why that got him arrested...anyways on to the bar which apparently the Drake choir was at at the time, but we somehow "missed them, but our newly made friends didn't.
We woke up early on Wednesday and got on the tour bus, which was free thanks to our new friends, who weren't going to use them that day! So we took a lap around the city stopping at the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson whiskey distillery before we unfortunately had to catch our bus to Galway. I also lost my bus ticket in there somewhere and when i told bus driver this he came back with a great quote "sir you have an honest face, get on." So once we were in Galway we stumbled around the city aimlessly trying to find our hostel. Good thing it only took us 20 minutes to lap the city :) the backpacks obviously needed to be dropped off at this point and we were hungry, since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and the only stops we had made since then were for touring Guinness and Jameson factories, we grabbed some fish and chips, which we were later told was the best fish and chips in all of Ireland! Awesome! So after dinner we went to check out the local scene at The Kings Head Pub, which had live music and Irish dancing! There we met Cristina, a spanish girl who went to college in Canada and now lived in the Arran islands. She invited us to stay with her after we saw the cliffs of Moher on her tour - she was really drunk, but they are so friendly here! And don't worry we did not stay at her house!
The next day we slept in till 10:30 or 4:30 AM CST :) and caught a tour of the Cliffs of Moher(herherher) they really annunciated the end of it haha. Anyways the tour was of a lot more than just the cliffs, we also got to see some small towns and lots of castles on the way, as well as grabbing a bite to eat at a small pub. After the bus tour we grabbed some corned beef sandwiches for dinner and walked around the town when we stumbled upon a huge party by the river. Apparently the college students just finished finals. So we grabbed some Bulmers and sat by the river with all the people. The sun was still up at 10 so we were completely thrown off by the time, and headed back to the hostel where we decided to go out with our French hostel mates(everyone at this hostel was French, it was weird) so we went with them as we hit up a local pub. It was a much older crowd here so we didn't stay long, but it was packed there! (as was every other bar we went to in Ireland (remember were in Ireland from Tuesday-Friday) but maybe that's the reason their in a recession?) So we headed back to the main bar area, talked to some more locals, who knew Kansas and MinnesOTa accents, and made fun of them a little bit, but we called it an early night.
Friday started really early since we had to catch the 7:15 bus back to Dublin, and then we had a few hours to kill before our train to Rosslare, Ireland so we walked across the Haypenny bridge, through the temple bar area and down Grafton St and by Saint Stephens Green before we had to leave the city to catch our ferry into France. As we were on board the Oscar Wilde Ferry we thought we would have a quiet night. Not with the Irish though, around 10 pm we were watching terrible tacky disco cruise ship entertainment when Grant got up to go to the bathroom where he ran into an Irish guy who had clients from his business in Minnetonka, Minnesota and he offered to buy us a pint and come talk to Irish girls. He didn't really know these people but apparently everyone knows each other in Ireland. That's what they told us anyways. They knew about the states too (including the Minnesota accent and that Dorthy from the wizard of Oz is from Kansas(and clicked their heels together for us 3 times)) They were really nice though and gave us tips on France. We also met some business men who were on a "booze cruise" (their words, not ours) to buy wine in France to last the rest of the year (40 cases each they said) but they bought us another pint and asked us about our family heritage, (they liked Michael's Irish and told us we needed to go to Helsinki for Grant's mom) they were also very nice. Then it was bed time.
Goodbye Ireland, I think there will be more trips to you in the future. Also,
Goodbye English as the primary language.
Bonjour France. As I'm writing this we're almost to Paris - break out your je ne parle pas francais, parlez-vous anglais? (also the Irish said the French like Americans and love the Irish, they just hate the British which is why they may not like speaking English).
MORE pictures please :)
ReplyDelete-Danielle