Ireland!

After getting back from Canterbury Friday evening I caught the 8:00 train to Holyhead, Wales. Holyhead is a small town in North Wales right on the Irish sea. There is a large port in Holyhead where a ferry runs to and from Dublin, Ireland. The whole journey from London to Dublin by train and ferry only cost me 30 pounds. It was quite the deal. My train ride was dreadful. It was supposed to take about 4 hours from London to Holyhead, but it ended up taking almost 5 hours. We were at a standstill for about 45 minutes at one point because someone had jumped in front of the train. The ambulance and police had to come and it was an ordeal. Elliot resides in Bangor, Wales, which is the last stop before Holyhead. Finally he joined me on the train and we continued the half hour journey on to Holyhead. By the time we arrived it was almost 1:30 in the morning. Our ferry left at 2:30 though so we had plenty of time to shuttle to the port and board the ferry. I was very impressed with the ferry. I thought it was going to be just a small boat for walking passengers only. However, it was like a mini cruise ship where car passengers could just drive right on and bring their vehicle with them. The inside was very nice too. There were lounges, restaurants and even a theater. If it wouldn't have been so early in the morning I would have explored around a bit more. We found ourselves a nice comfy bench and fell right asleep. Although traveling through the night is not very ideal, Elliot and I are both running out of weekends to do things. Also it cuts the cost of accommodation. The ferry journey took about 3 hours and we got to Dublin at 6 in the morning. I didn't feel very rested, but I was ready for a gorgeous day in Ireland. Below picture of the ferry.

As soon as we got off the ferry we got in line to buy our return journey tickets. This proved to be quite a situation because this was at the height of volcanic ash craziness. By now all the planes had been grounded for 2 days and everyone visiting Ireland wanted out. Since Ireland is an island they had to take the ferry due to the airlines all being grounded because of Iceland's volcano erupting and blowing ash over Europe. It was utter madness. We ended up having to get a later ferry home then we would have liked because the earlier one was already booked full! People were in a panic to get back to the UK.

We took a bus into town from the port and got dropped off near the spot where our tour departed. We thought it left at 7:00, but we found out that it didn't actually leave until 8:00. So we had time to grab some breakfast. All I wanted was a hot chocolate and a muffin, but there wasn't anywhere open that early in the morning. Dublin doesn't wake up until noon. It wasn't long before we boarded our Paddywagon Bus tour to head through the Irish country side to the Cliffs of Moher. Dublin is the capital city on the East side of the island (closest to the UK). The Cliffs of Moher are all the way on the West side of the island. I was very excited for the tour because I have been wanting to go to Ireland ever since some big movies have been filmed in the countryside there. There were about 50 people on our tour bus. We had a long drive to the other side of the island, but made some nice stops on the way. First we just stopped at a convenient store to use the restroom, but we were able to get some breakfast too. Our next stop was at Bunratty Castle, a glorious monument to 12th century military architecture. It was very impressive. There were also two cute little shops and a restaurant by the castle. I had some banana bread and Elliot had a chocolate bar at this stop. The banana bread didn't taste like my Grandma's, but it was still pretty good since I haven't had any in so long. I wanted to shop a little bit more here, but we only stopped for about 20 minutes before we were on the road again. After this stop we got off the freeway and started seeing some more countryside. It really was beautiful. They have stone walls built all over Ireland as gates and fences. I also saw a ton of sheep and cattle.

Before too long we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher, that tower above the Atlantic Ocean, are the most popular attraction in Ireland. They are considered one of the top sights to see in the world too. It was a wonderful day outside and there were quite a few visitors at the cliffs. Our tour guide warned us not to go to close to the edge and that it was pretty dangerous and then set us loose. It was a little hike to get up to the top of the cliffs, but the views were incredible. I can't even explain it. I have never seen anything like this before. The cliffs were so steep and the ocean at the bottom looked miles away. It was a little scary to peer over the edge to the rocks below, but so pretty. You would definitely die if you fell over, no doubt about it. We walked all along the cliffs. The fresh air coming off the ocean was fabulous. Since this is a hard place to explain unless you go there, I have included lots of pictures below!




Spending an hour and a half at the cliffs was really nice. Then we all met back at the tour bus. We had to wait for some people because they were late and our tour guide wasn't very pleased. Then a girl my age got on the bus laughing and said her friend was still up at the cliffs. Well this really pissed our tour guide off. He went into a small tantrum and said we were leaving her and that this will teach her not to be late and her friend to laugh in his face. He also said a few other choice words in Irish. The whole situation was quite comical to Elliot and I, but our tour guide ranted on about it for 10 minutes. Our guide was a typical Irish guy probably in his 20's. He was really fun and gave us lots of history and information as he drove. He even sang us Irish songs. He was a pretty good singer too. Elliot and I laughed so hard at some of the songs and some of his comments. It was quite comical to hear him pronounce anything that had a 3 in it. Instead of sounding like three, his Irish accent sounded like tree. We really enjoyed him.

We stopped for lunch in Doolin Village at a pub shortly after the cliffs. It was kind of like buffet style where the food was already prepared we just had to go through the line a choose what we wanted. Elliot and I each had what was called a meat bap. It was basically a gourmet bun with your choice of meat and some potatoes. I had ham and Elliot had pork loin. It was excellent. It has been a really long time since I have had a nice slice of meat. Elliot also had a pint of Guinness, which is the Irish made beer. It is so popular in Ireland.

Next we started our way back to Dublin along Galway Bay. The scenery was incredible. We made two more short stops. Our first stop was at The Burren, which is a lunar landscape with limestone rock everywhere. It is no wonder they have so many stone walls in Ireland, because they have so much rock here. I wasn't much into this rocky expanse, but we were only there a short while. On the way to our next stop the bus got stopped by an "Ireland traffic jam" - a herd of cattle. It was so cool. This is exactly what I expected Ireland countryside to be like. It only took a little while before we were back on the road again. Next we stopped at an old church. The flowers around the church were very nice. We continued on our journey home to Dublin after this. It was probably a three hour ride; my tiredness got the best of me and I slept for most of the ride back to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin around 9:00. It took us a little while to find our hostel even though it was on O'Connell Street, the most popular street in Dublin. After spending the previous night on the train and ferry, it was really nice to have a bed to sleep in. We were exhausted after not getting much sleep the night before and an all day tour. Below pictures of the Galway Bay that we drove along.

On Sunday we had plenty of time to explore Dublin. We were really surprised by how dead the city was in the morning. It didn't start to get busy until at least 1:00. We walked along the River Mersey that runs through Dublin. It was a pretty gross river compared to all the other large cities that I have visited. However, it was a great day again. We went to Trinity College, a very popular, beautiful campus in Dublin. We also saw St. Patrick's Cathedral. We enjoyed a park for a little while too. We didn't go to the Guinness Factory, where they produce the famous Irish brew, because Elliot had already been there and I didn't really have any desire to go. We ate a nice meal in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. The Temple Bar area is a very popular district in Dublin for nightlife. It was pretty dead in the day time, but there were some nice souvenir shops to look in. Below pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral and us in Dublin.


Soon I learned that Dublin is not a very exciting city as there isn't a whole lot to do there. It was also a really expensive city. We had pretty much seen everything there was to see by 3:00, so we went to a movie. We saw Cemetery Junction, a British film about 3 boys trying to make it out of a small town in England. It was pretty good and a nice culture experience. After the movie we grabbed some supper before we caught the bus to the ferry port. Our ferry left at 09:00. By this time it had been 4 days since all the flights had been grounded due to the volcanic ash. The ferry was so busy. There was a huge line way out the door just to buy ferry tickets. Elliot and I were really glad we had gotten our tickets when we got off. The ferry was so packed that we couldn't even find a place to sit down. A lot of the passengers were visitors that had been stranded in Ireland and couldn't get home because of the airline closures. We camped out on the floor for the ride back to Holyhead. We got into Holyhead around 1:00. We thought we would just catch a train the half hour ride to Bangor, where Elliot is located. However, the next train going that way wasn't leaving until 4:25 in the morning. We couldn't believe it. Neither one of us really wanted to spend the night in the train station. We decided to go see if there were any buses headed that way, but they were all done until the morning too. We asked a taxi how much to get to Bangor and it he told us 60 pounds. We definitely were not going to do that. We waited around for a little while trying to figure out if there was any other way to get to Bangor. I noticed that there was only 1 taxi driver left outside by this time and no customers so I decided to go bargain with him. He at first told me 60 pounds. I told him no. Then he said how about 45. In the mean time Elliot was bargaining with some bus driver that was taking an entire bunch of stranded passengers to London. Elliot got him to drop us off near Bangor for 30 pounds. I could have just rode the bus all the way back to London, but it was pretty expensive and I had train tickets for the following day. The bus dropped us off a little outside of Bangor on the highway and continued the route to London. It was pitch dark and we had to walk for a mile or so to get to Bangor. However we were home by 3 in the morning, which was a lot better than waiting for the 4:25 train and sleeping in the station all night.

We had quite the weekend of traveling. Even though I wasn't very fond of Dublin, I really enjoyed Ireland. It was a great experience and I would definitely go back again. Although I was really happy to get back to London and my own bed. It surprises me how much London feels like home. Whenever I get back from traveling it is always a relief to be back in London. I uploaded a bit smaller photos this time, so click to enlarge!