I am Irish?

Giraffes from the Zoo!

If the title doesn't tell you where I was next, I don't know what to tell you! Current writing this post coasting along the river of somewhere, very pretty. Well recently I was in Ireland! I left from the UK to Dublin by the railsail and it took me about 13ish hours. I took some trains from London to Wales to catch my ferry which I paid almost nothing for and it was just about the height of luxury. I made two friends along the way and we boarded the ferry anxiously thinking it was going to be rinky dink and well it was huge and great. After arriving in Dublin we settled in and went out for dinner.

 

Guinness Store House

Now for the fun stuff! My first day there I did a walking tour of the city which took about 3 hours and we experienced 3 seasons, winter, fall and summer. It was a great experience and I got to see Dublin Castle and some other great places and I learned where everything was which was useful in the days to come! The next day I ventured out on my own to the Dublin Zoo and Phoenix Park which was quite the experience and I remained trapped in the zoo for about 2 hours. After leaving the zoo I opted to walk around and after walked probably 2 miles found the Guinness Storehouse where you can tour it but I opted out because I didn't want to spend the €20. After finding my way back to the tram I made it back to the hostel where I planned what I would do next. In case you're wondering how I see what I see in all of my blog posts because I am great at getting lost, I do a free walking tour in every city and country that I go to because you see so much since they are not paid ahead of time you pay them what you feel they should be paid at the end of the tour which I really like and you get a really good insiders view because they show you what they think you should sew while you're in their city and they always give you really good recommendations as well.

The incredibly famous Temple bar and incredibly over-priced

     I'm operating on an open itinerary and pretty much doing whatever I want, whenever I want and staying as long as I want in every city or country. The next day I lounged around and did my classic shopping and hunting down my favorite drink Sprite, which I found. The day before I left I was moved rooms and ended up with 4 mates to hang out with, 2 of which were nice. We went out to eat and then resigned to a pub downstairs for live music and a beer. I'm definitely not much of a drinker (maybe because I'm 20, so its a no no in the US) but I tried a sip of everyone's beer and hated it all and resigned to having an Apple Orchard Cider beer which I didn't like but hated less than the others. I drank about a 1/4 of it and went back to the hostel. It was a great experience and now I have the excuse to say I had beer in Ireland and that's why I won't drink anywhere else! Ireland remained a temperature of around 60F and was just cloudy and basically I loved everything from the people to the weather to the food even though I experienced all 4 seasons in about 3 hours. Except Spanish food I ordered some and let's just say it was not Spanish food at all, or anything related to anything Spanish.

Photo of one of the bridges in Dublin,
this one is across from the Ha'Penny Bridge

Here's a good story I heard while I was in Ireland because in Irelands history something really awesome happens and then something terrible happens right after, however this isn't terrible, It's hilarious. Back in the 1990's Dublin submerged a giant clock to count down to the millennium in the Liffey River, great idea right? Nah. The clock stopped working and they had installed a huge plaque in the O'Connell bridge and had to remove the plaque. Well one day another plaque showed up in that spot and everyone wanted to know whose it was because the story it told wasn't true! It stated
'THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES
FR. PAT NOISE
ADVISOR TO PEADAR CLANCEY.
HE DIED UNDER SUSPICIOUS
CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN HIS
CARRIAGE PLUNGED INTO THE
LIFFEY ON AUGUST 10TH 1919.'
However this plaque tells an imaginary tale and after threatening to remove, two brothers came forth and claimed it was theirs in order to commemorate their late father and that was just oh so sweet so the authorities chose to leave it there. Way to have a heart Ireland!

 

Dublin Castle and Crypt underneath

So basically I would totally move to Dublin in a heart beat I love it so much there.


I anticipated leaving the next day around 10am but my plans backfired miserably and I ended up not leaving until about 6pm and I got lost and then it took me 36 hours to get to my next destination!

 

I am sure you are also wondering why the title is 'I am Irish' well while I was in Ireland my grandmother told me that part of my family is actually orginated from Ireland! How cool is that!?

Well my next vacation destination starts with a P!