Trinity College CourtyardBefore the Wicklow Mountains, we visited Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. The Book is absolutely gorgeous, and Trinity College is not so bad itself! It would be so cool to be a student there. We grabbed lunch before we caught our bus to the mountains, which I have to mention because I got a BLT bagel!! That is one of my favorite meals at Alpine, and it made me soooo happy. But not as happy as the BEAUTIFUL mountains made me. I think this day was probably my favorite day in Ireland- we hiked around for close to three hours, and it was definitely pretty windy and chilly, but the hike was not difficult and the scenery was just absolutely breathtaking. This place was definitely the way I pictured Ireland- so green and peaceful. By the way, in case y'all aren't noticing, I am becoming quite the nature hiker! Who would have guessed. So after our return to Dublin, we had another dinner in Temple Bar where I had yet another "Cajun" burger (at this point, unlike my American food loving friends, I was getting REALLY homesick for good Italian food and fresh vegetables) before we went to bed early to get up BEFORE SIX AM the next day.
Thursday morning we trekked to the train station with a plan of going to Limerick and catching a bus from there to the Cliffs of Moher. After a little bit of confusion, we got onto one of the nicest trains I have ever been on in my life. No offense TrenItalia, but Ireland is totally beating you as far as cleanliness and train technology goes. We had to make reservations, so when we got to our seats, a little board above them said our names!! I was quite tickled by this. Unfortunately, in Limerick we discovered that we had missed the bus to the Cliffs, so we got on a bus to Galway hoping to get to the Cliffs from there. Let me just mention that Galway is literally on the opposite side of Ireland from Dublin. So after a morning of literally traveling cross-country, we arrived in Galway to discover that we had just missed the last buses to the cliffs from there! Geez. We had a somber lunch but thankfully Colleen was determined to see these cliffs, because she marched up to a cab driver and made a deal with him to drive us there himself. This guy was great, and he was not from Ireland so he had never been to the cliffs, either. Y'all know I am a sucker for people like that, so I was trying so hard to get him to come out with us, but he wasn't properly dressed, because the cliffs are SO WINDY. People used to regularly get blown OFF! They were beautiful though, and even though the day was exhausting, I'm really glad I saw them. I am not glad, however, that I have developed a tendency for car sickness in Europe. I felt like DEATH after we wound down the mountain back into Galway. It did not do anything to help me that we had to take a 5.5 hour bus ride back to Dublin. But it was a great day nonetheless! I absolutely collapsed into bed after that one!
See? My name right by my seat on the train!
Above: Beautiful cliffs!Below: Can you tell how windy it was? This is the tamest picture I got!
For our final day in Ireland we actually stayed in Dublin! We spent the morning touring the Dublin Castle (where I was extremely underwhelmed because the whole palace was rebuilt in like the 1800s or something like that. Not really very castle-like at all. But I digress.), walking through St. Stephen's Green and visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral which is where Johnathon Swift used to preach! Finally, we went on a tour of the Guinness Factory, which was actually not so much a factory tour but just a very large museum explaining how Guinness is produced, but it was really cool and we got two free Guinnesses. That night, after a hilarious cab ride, we had a "traditional Irish dinner" at this pub just outside of Dublin and listened to a band and watched some Irish dancing. That was probably my favorite thing we did at night in Ireland... and then we decided to just stay up all night because we had to catch a bus at 3 AM.
Above: St. Stephen's Green in DublinBelow: Johnathon Swift's pulpit
So we bar-hopped in Temple Bar and caught about 2 hours of sleep before catching our bus and subsequently missing our flight in the London airport. Flying on a budget airline means it's your fault when things like that happen, so after paying 100 pounds and waiting for about 10 hours in the London Stansted Airport, we finally made it home. Although not before a very Euro Trip moment on the flight when as soon as the fasten seat belt sign turned off it was literally a zoo of 13 year old Italian kids climbing all over each other and screaming for the rest of the flight. Have I mentioned that RyanAir's cabin interior color is a soothing neon yellow? But anyway, I have learned over the past 3 years because I've flown so much thanks to going to school far away, you just have to roll with those kinds of punches and I was really grateful for my parents and the way I knew they would react to the news of my traveling difficulties. Either way, I have never been more excited to get back to Florence, sleep in my tiny bed, and eat VEGETABLES and other delicious, not hamburger foods.
Above: In the Sky Bar of the Guinness Factory.. great views of Dublin. In case you couldn't tell from the full glass, not a fan of Guinness at all!Coming up next, my Prague/Jacob's trip/UNC are the national basketball champions update!
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