The Emerald Island.

4 days. It took me four days to fall in love with the place. I only went to Dublin, Belfast, and the Giant's Causeway and fell in love. Unbelievable. Please play this song (and then the successive playlist of the same artist or play The Dubliners because they rock as well) while you read because it will put you in the perfect mood for my Irish shenanigans that will follow :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY

Yeahhh buddy! Look at that 

The adventure started in Bologna where Ed and I took a train to Verona, then a bus to the airport, and then a plane to Dublin. When we FINALLY got there we were starved so we checked into our conveniently located hostel (literally a few minutes away from Trinity College and Temple Bar) and walked to a close pub called O'Neill's which turned out to be a famous pub. Win. We got our first Irish meal of Shepard's pie and a Guinness. Now that meal instantly hooked me on the country. I mean my mom makes a mean Shepherd's pie and this one stuffed me to the core with pure goodness.


Anyway, after getting our fill of yummy yummy food (and laying around in the pub for a little) we decided to explore the city a little and head out to Temple Bar (the bar district) where we went to THE Temple Bar, tried some cider, and then headed out to wander some more. We consumed some cookies, got into a club for free, and people watched like it was our job. I can't even describe this one white guy who was creeping on some girls from afar being mimicked by some asian guy. It was quite entertaining. Then we called it a night as we had a jam packed day the next morning.


Day 2 was even more hectic. We had a few things we wanted to see before catching a bus to Belfast, so we got up night and early and headed to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells and some other really cool Illuminated Manuscripts. I was super excited when I found that they were in Dublin because my Art History class last semester talked about them. I love seeing a lot of the places and artworks that I have learned about because it's just so surreal. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I can't share the awesome, BUT the internet can! Enjoy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg/220px-KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg

After that we headed to the Guinness Storehouse to take the tour and get our free Guinness with admission. The museum is seriously cool. Lots of things to touch, very technologically advanced, and overall visually epic. I recommend people check it out if in Dublin. Also, the top definitely has the best view of Dublin in the city. OH! And you have the opportunity to try and pour your own, there is a waterfall inside, and the history of the beer is interesting in itself. When we were enjoying the view and drinking out beers at like noon, Ed and I both attempted to get foam mustaches... I failed. He however totally got it to work. Haha, very entertaining.


Time out. A note about our roommates in the hostel in Dublin. Two were from Australia (the girl was in Ireland for the Nationals of Irish Dancing...) and two Americans. Small world. They were all really nice. I guess that's all I wanted to say... awkward...


Then it was back to the Hostel, packing up, grabbing the Bus to Belfast and just enjoying the trip to Belfast.


Belfast. I really liked Belfast because it had that English influence that Boston has but is still very much Irish. When we finally arrived (the bus ride was about 2.5 hours or so) it was close to closing time for a lot of the places in Belfast which was not leaving us a lot of time to do things (everything closes by 5pm in Ireland...grrr). We checked in at our hostel and by the time we had done that mostly everything was closed so we just wandered around Belfast and grabbed some food. I had mashed potatoes and ham which was delicious as usual and we even got a dessert of vanilla ice cream with Bailey's on it. Then we wandered again. Belfast at night is really cool. Ed got some really sweet pictures and I wish I had brought my nice camera to say I have some of my own. Then we decided to head to sleep early because we had to be up really early for our Giant's Causeway Tour the next morning. Oh, first of all, the front desk guy was awesome. He knew a lot of interesting information and in general was chill to talk to. Although our first experience with him involved us not being allowed to bring Fish and Chips into the hostel... awkward, but afterwards he turned out to be awesome. Also, the two girls we shared a room with were from Spain. Let's just say it was fun listening to Ed and them speak Spanish, understanding generally what they were talking about and not being able to respond. Man, I wish I still took Spanish. Beautiful culture and language. Oh well.

There was one main thing in Northern Ireland I knew I had to do and that was the Giant's Causeway. Man was it worth every cent. Speaking of cents. Northern Ireland is in Sterling. Woo! New currencies. Threw me off again though having to convert all the prices to euros and dollars. But that's a different topic for later on. Giant's Causeway. We got onto this really nice bus, right outside our hostel (I know perfect planning), and traveled along the Coastal Causeway Road along the northeastern coast of Ireland where we made several stops. The first being Carricksfergus Castle. Basically for only picture taking opportunities but the Castle was cool looking, there was a Jack Sparrow statue, and it was raining. Then we headed further up the coast and the sun started to break through just as we got to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge. Now this bridge was built by Salmon fisherman to get across this crater? ditch? umm... cavern? anyway, the bridge is a rope bridge and kinda shaky.. and Ed is terrified of heights. BUT he was awesome, and crossed that sucker twice! I loved it. The views were also unbelievable. See?

After that we made a quick stop at Dunlace Castle and took some pictures of the ruins that were once a castle on a hill. From there we went to the Bushmill Distillery for lunch. The fish and chips were very yummy as was the rocky road bar thing I had for dessert. There was this woman who was traveling on the same tour as us and started asking me if I was getting good photos. After affirming that I was she told me she was a travel agent, her camera was dying, and was hoping I could send her the best of the day. So, when I returned to Bologna I emailed her a bunch of photos. Who knows? My photos may be used in her Atlanta, Georgia agency! Cool right?


Then FINALLY we reached the Giant's Causeway. This was one really cool place. The rocks are shaped like hexagons and they form this really sweet looking wave going out towards the ocean (which in the distance you can see an Island with 40 inhabitants and tons of Puffins :) and past that Scotland!). We climbed around taking pictures for about an hour and a half and Ed even found the wishing chair I couldn't find! I was mildly impressed :P

I feel like pictures are the only thing that do this place justice... so here are some!












After getting our fill of this awesome place (more photos are on facebook) we headed back to Belfast and went to sleep. The next morning we had to get up early again to try and fit in the things we wanted to do before heading back to Dublin.


We got up early enough to get to City Hall where we wandered around a little (we couldn't take the tour because it wasn't until later) and then headed towards the Titanic Museum which had just opened earlier in the month. I thought it was also really cool. A lot of different mediums and technologies were used. My only complaint would be that there were little to no actual artifacts. Just a lot of reconstructions which I guess makes sense. Really that's a nit-picky thing to bring up because there was so much information and some many interactive elements. I think my favorite one was the three dimensional room that took you on a tour of the ship or the room with the excavations of the ship. Overall, the museum was really well done. From there we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and caught the next bus to Dublin. We also accomplished (kinda) our goal of collecting all the sterling coins that made up the cool coat of arms on the back.


Now when we reached Dublin again, we had an epic race to see a few things before they closed and being that it was Friday, the times were even earlier. Our last day in Dublin was a whirlwind because as I have said, everything closes around 5, and being Friday everything closed by 4:45. Let’s just say we had almost no time at all to try and fit in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the National Library, plus we had to check in at our new hostel.  However, the champs that we are, we saw the Cathedral AND got into the Library AFTER it closed. Ed seriously has some persuasive abilities slash the man who worked there was super nice. Basically, we showed up 7 minutes after it closed, thinking that it closed at 5 not 4:45, and the guy told us they were closed and that we should come back tomorrow. We told him we were leaving on an early flight the next morning and couldn’t. So he said “fine, but we have to be quick!” It was awesome he acted like a tour guide and was telling us all the famous people that had read there and whatnot then ask if we wanted a picture so of course we said yes! He was awesome.

St. Patrick’s is worth mentioning because of its gorgeous stained glass, collection of old flags, and overall how beautiful it was. I wish we had more time in it.  After the Library (which was after the Cathedral), we checked out the Oscar Wilde house and statue, both which we just a quick look from the outside as the house is not open to the public and the statue is in a park. It was cool to know he lived there. If I get back to Ireland I would love to do the literary tour in Dublin and the music tour. They seemed really cool.

I want to go back. There is so much more to experience on that little island and I didn’t get to really know the people, which I have heard are the best part. Guess I will be going back!

Here is Ed's Blog too if you want to here his take on the trip, just look under Ireland. There are three posts. http://ekewaka11.wordpress.com/