Ireland

Cliff Walk in Howth

Us and our new friend Dave at the Pub

At St. Stephens Green

In Howth



Us at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Ireland was our last trip and my favorite trip of all! The people in Ireland were so nice and friendly, and I know everyone says that but you can't even imagine how nice they are. For example, one night we went to a pub for dinner and we asked the guy sitting next to us to take our picture, and he then started talking us and by the end of our meal we had joined tables with him and his friends (they were all teachers in Dublin in their late 20s) and were hanging out with them!

Our trip couldn't have began any better. When we got to our hostel the guy at the front desk told us the hostel had been overbooked so they no longer had a room for us, fortunately the hostel was joined to a hotel and they were upgrading us to the hotel! Our hostel was supposed to be a quad dorm room with no bathroom (we'd have to use a communal one) but our hotel room was beautiful and came with a full irish breakfast every morning!

Our first day in Dublin we went on a self-guided walking tour of the city and saw all the touristy sites such as Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathederal and St. Stephen's Green. We went to the Guinness Storehouse where we attempted to drink our free pint of Guinness but it was really gross. We went shopping and I bought an authentic clauddaugh ring at a jeweler, and a Bailey's chocolate bar- the best thing in the world it was filled with baileys cream! We had lunch at pub and I got a Irish Stew Pie which was delicious and for dinner we went to the pub where we met our Irish teacher friends. Then we went to Temple Bar- a popular bar area in Dublin- and went pub hopping for a few hours and drank Whiskey Reds (cherry 7 up and whiskey) which were surprisingly good.

The next day we went on the Dart Train (similar to the commuter rail) and traveled up the coast of Ireland. We stopped in Howth which had a beautiful view of the ocean and walked along a cliff walk for a few hours. We went to lunch at a restaurant there and had delicious seafood. Then we continued on the Dart Train to Dun Laoghaire and sat along the edge of a board walk by the ocean. At night we went to a pub in Temple Bar where we heard live music, at first we went into the wrong place which was a weird 80s club but quickly left and found 2 men playing guitar and one singing songs such as Wonderwall, The Joker, Your Sex is on Fire and a few Irish classics. It was a really fun and relaxing night and then we went back to the hotel to wake up at 4 am to catch our early flight (and it was day light savings time!) Needless to say the next day was miserable because we were incredibly jetlagged and exhausted.