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| Dunguaire Castle |
Ireland was by far my favorite place that I visited. I enjoyed everything about it: the food, people, music, landscapes, and the overall essence of the country. We flew into Dublin late at night and then immediately got on a bus that took us to a small town on the West coast of Ireland, called Galway. We all had heard about this town from friends and we decided we wanted to travel through the Irish countryside and see it for ourselves. I fell asleep on the bus listening to "Hoppipolla" by Sigur Ros, a great song but one that will definitely knock you out. We weren't disappointed in the slightest when we woke up. It was the most classic, stereotypical country Irish town you could think of. We arrived and got off at the small bus station and realized just how small the town was. However small, we still couldn't find our hostel properly. We stumbled the wrong way a couple of times, all 6 of us making a huge commotion with our rolling suitcases on the cobblestone. Finally a guy across the street saw us and asked if we were lost. He came right over and nicely explained to us how we had been going in the complete wrong direction. He was our first encounter with a great Irish accent and friendly personality and it was so refreshing and nice. We plopped into our hostel beds after he sent us the right way but not before we all took a look at the room and started complaining about the size, push button shower, and other things about the room that obviously differed from our unbelievable apartment in London. We were tired, so our anger was a little amplified at the time. In the morning we obviously decided to suck it up and become one with our hostel.
The next day we got a great breakfast at a place we grew to love, called Coco's. I noted that everyone here is so nice, ridiculously so. They want to know your story, where you are from, what you are doing, and if they can help you in any way. Then we hit up the tourist information center, as any good Americans would. We read about the Cliffs of Moher that we had heard so much about and we talked with the ladies there about how and when we should visit them. They arranged for us to get our own van tour which would take us into the countryside and out to the cliffs that same afternoon. We were thrilled we could go so soon, so we waited and then finally boarded our first bus with tour guide Paul, a great Irish man with bright blue eyes and a great accent. Every accent was great, I won't lie there. He introduced himself, taught us some Irish phrases such as "What's the crack?" which is similar to "What's up", and "Oh class", which means "Cool!" Paul told us that Gaelic or the Irish language isn't used as frequently anymore, it's sort of a dying language, but it is used more in the rural areas. I noted all the street and shop signs were in Gaelic as well as English. He explained that he was taking us to meet our other guide who was further along and waiting with our van. I almost forgot to mention that we happened to be in Ireland on a leap year, which is actually a special occasion. On the 29th of February in Ireland, a woman is allowed to propose to her man. (Yes the movie Leap Year doesn't lie, for those of you who have seen it). Paul, the guide, kept joking that he was doing our other guide a favor, sending him 6 ladies to tour around the cliffs on leap year of all days. We all wondered if we would see any proposals by the end of the day in Galway. Driving through the countryside in Ireland was one of the most memorable things, and the most beautiful. Our tour driver had a story behind everything we saw. We drove past the Burren landscape (an area well known for its rocky texture) and also saw the gold sands of the area called Fanore. We learned that Clarenbridge, a village we passed, has an annual oyster festival in which last year 45,000 pints of Guinness were consumed at a pub called Paddy Burke. We also travelled through the fishing village of Kinvara (which means "head of the sea"), where Dunguaire Castle, the most photographed castle in Ireland, stands majestically. We stopped here to take pictures and our guide told us that it was tradition to go up to the gate of the castle and ask it a question. Supposedly you would get your answer in due time. Naturally, we all followed this Irish tradition upon hearing it. We got back in the car and our driver asked us if we wanted to hear some traditional Irish music. We agreed immediately. He started playing great songs, one of which was the popular tune "Galway Girl", which we started hearing all the time in Galway's pubs. It's also featured in the movie "PS I Love You". This song became the theme to our trip. The entire time I was there the only thing I remember thinking is, "Wow, this is legitimately what anyone would imagine Ireland to be like." Green Fields. Rock Fences. Sheep. Blueish Gray Sky. Castles. Rolling Hills. Those are the guaranteed things you would see driving by. Hannah really wanted to stop and play with the sheep at one point and she told our driver every five minutes. He gave her the name "lamb lover". He eventually stopped one time and we made small talk with a farmer who was out in his field and told him where we were from.
The cliffs we were traveling to, the Cliffs of Moher, are actually the third highest cliffs in Ireland, but arguably the most visited. They stand 120 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. When we got there, the weather was cloudy, but as we walked around for awhile, the sun and blue sky began to peer out, leading to some great pictures. While I was walking around the pathways, I couldn't help but get frustrated. I was only perturbed because I couldn't make the scene in front of me appear the same way on my camera, the cliffs were just too beautiful and amazing. No picture I took there did them justice, although I wish they did. I had to get over that frustration and just enjoy the scene unfolding. With each passing second the clouds moved further and the sun shone more, peeking out in random spots and shining on the water, creating natural spotlights. I could have sat there for hours. John, the tour guide, told us to be ready after an hour or so though, and we after that length of time we met him back at the van. He drove us back and we said bye to him, closing a great trip and one of the best sites I saw abroad. At night, we went to two pubs that John told us about to hear traditional Irish music, Taaffes and The Front Door. At Taaffes we stood and heard a band play traditional Irish music. We picked a great first spot to go. It was small, local, and fun. Pretty much every place you go to in Galway was going to be small and local but this one definitely was. We could only stand because it was packed and no seats were available and we were right in front of the band, taking in the music and tapping our feet. The second spot of the night was The Front Door. Here we had fun harassing the DJ, when at one point Hannah asked if he could play the 90's tune "Cest la Vie" by B*witched an Irish girl band. He told us everybody in the pub would probably kill him if he did that. We heard the song "Galway Girl"multiple times that night, which made us love it even more.
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| Cliffs of Moher |
We started off our day in Galway by eating at a great place called Maxwell's, where I had the best bread I've ever had in my entire life. It was sweet and fresh as anything, and tasted great when I dipped it in my seafood chowder. The chowder was so creamy and had huge chunks of fresh salmon in it, which I loved. After breakfast we headed to Galway Bay to see all the boats and the port area. It was pretty small and we saw only a few boats, which weren't very large. The weather was beautiful though, windy but blue sky was peering out occasionally from behind the gray. I spotted a lady who was allowing her son's stroller to be overtaken by seagulls, which was definitely a site. We stopped in jewelry stores, souvenir stores, natural medicine and food stores, and more. Hot chocolate was a must, so we headed back to Coco's our breakfast place that was near our hostel and had a good helping of hot chocolate all around. Filled to the brim with marshmallows. Then we all decided to rest, and I remember writing in my book a bit and putting Irish songs I had heard throughout the day on my ipod. We went out to a pub with a live show at a place called The Quay, where they played great Irish songs but also threw in some classics from Lynyrd Skynyrd, U2, and other rock bands. They also played the classic "Galway Girl" for everybody at the end, which I was beginning to think was very routine for anyone playing in a band in Galway, Ireland. They love that song, and rightly so, it's amazing. After that Hannah, Mackenzie, and I made our way to the equivalent of McDonald's in Ireland, "Supermac", except that it was ten times better. Why you ask? It also happened to have a Quiznos and Papa John's inside of it. We weren't complaining.
We woke up early to hop on our bus ride back to Dublin for the remainder of our time in Ireland. It was sad leaving Galway, I grew to truly love it so much. It's small town charm was so appealing, along with the countryside surrounding it. I had the most relaxing trip, as we all got our own seats on the greyhound style bus, and sprawled out with out feet on the seats next to us. I put my ipod in and listened to my Ireland playlist for the entire 3 hour ride, which was great. Watching Ireland roll by you and having great music to accompany the experience is phenomenal. I put "Galway Girl" on repeat. We arrived and found that Dublin was the capital of Ireland for a reason. It had huge buildings, tons of people, and busy streets, something we hadn't been used to yet here. We found our hostel and then immediately found a Chinese Buffet, of all places. We were pretty desperate just to sit down and eat, so don't blame us. However unappealing it sounds, the food was actually pretty good. We had dinner later that day at a place called Oval Bar, where I had Irish stew and Shepard's pie, both of which were fantastic. I love the food in Ireland. That night we met up with some boys from our program and went out to celebrate our friend Michael's birthday.
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| Cliffs of Moher |
Our day of exploring Dublin had arrived, and it was the first day where the weather turned for the worst. It was rainy by the end of the day but in the beginning it was tolerable, as we made the trek to find the Guinness Factory. We walked a good amount and finally found the gates and went inside. It was huge! It was also in the shape of a giant pint, with something like 8 different levels. The bottom was a souvenir shop and the other levels took you on tours of how they make their beer, the history, a museum with things like bottle logos throughout the years, and more. At the very top of the building there was a 360 degree bar called Gravity Bar where you were served your complementary pint of Guinness. The bar was in the shape of a circle, clearly, and all the walls were made of clear glass, so that you had an aerial view of Dublin on all sides. We stayed there for awhile, taking in the sites and enjoying our Guinness. I wrote down some fun facts while I was there: Guinness purchases 2/3 of Irish grown barley. Arthur Guinness, the creator and founder of the company, signed a 9,000 year lease for the area, so he must have been pretty optimistic. The beer is brewed in 50 countries around the world and the company was started in 1759. After the factory I spent some time in the gift shop and then we all went for food nearby. Afterwards, Paul, Drew, and I made our way to Trinity College to try and go see the Book of Kells in the library there. We ended up not seeing it because we got to the library 30 minutes after they closed, which was a bummer. It was still interesting to see the college campus and admire the scenery. At that point, it started pouring down rain, and we decided to grab a taxi to take us back to our hostel. I got back and Hannah was hungry so I went with her to have one more Supermac's experience. We ordered an entire pizza to ourselves with no shame as we talked about our time in Ireland. After that, everyone was ready to get food, and even though I had just had my fill in pizza, I went out and had some soup with the crew. Then a couple of us went to a giant place called Market Bar to end our Ireland experience.
Going to Ireland was a trip that I will treasure forever, and a place that I am positive I will return to someday. I fell in love with it. While my time in Ireland was fantastic, we all stepped off the plane in Spain, back in Valencia, with warmed hearts. The weather was warmer, the sun was shining, and we were feeling as though we had returned home. Valencia had officially become our home after that lengthy break, and we were truly excited to be back in our city.
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| Dublin and the River Liffey |
