I did it.
I saved up money for a year, I got my passport, and I WENT somewhere.
More specifically, I went to Ireland.
My first overseas adventure. And yes, ‘adventure’ is the right word for it. Almost every day, I shared pictures of my trip to people on social media but I didn’t really TALK about
my travels. So I decided to write a blog post describing my time! Well, I want to write a couple separate posts because I stayed in 3 different cities, so that seems reasonable.We stayed in Ireland for 10 days with my mom, dad, and grandpa, so I’ll
try my best to recall what I can.
I want to start with my stay in Dublin. That was our first stop and my probably (maybe, I’m not sure...) favorite city we stopped in. I’ll share pictures so you guys don’t get
TOO bored of me rambling. But here we go!!!
Dublin, Ireland
The flight was 7.5 hours, in which I developed bad sciatica (where your leg muscles hurt and cramp from sitting too long. Google it.) The man in front of me put his seat all the way back and every time
he went to the bathroom, I sneakily moved the seat up but then he came back and moved his seat in a position where I couldn’t move. What a lovely flight...the Dublin airport was a blur and the next thing I remember
was being crammed in a bus and then looking out the window and seeing literally 100 other buses. The city is RUN by the bus system. There were a lot more buses than there were cars (a tip: get off the bus FAST. Make sure you are standing
by the door when it stops or you will not be able to get off. The driver closes the door before you barely touch the sidewalk).
We got off the bus, looking like the tourists we were and lugging our suitcases to the hotel. The hotel looked small from the outside but it was decent sized. Nothing like you’d find in the U.S though.
The room was small, even though it had three beds; 2 singles and one queen.
I learned then about the toilets.
You call it ‘toilets’ and not bathroom or restrooms in Ireland. The flushing is also different. In the Dublin hotel, they had 2 buttons over the toilet and uhhhh, which do you press? So I
pressed both. They both flush the same way but you need to hold the button down. In America, you flush quick and easy. In Ireland, you have to stand and hold.
The fan button for the bathroom is on THE CEILING. To give you a quick side note, we learned that Irish people were usually around 5'6 and they use to make small doors in castles and churches because they weren’t tall. So now, why
is the button to turn on the fan on the ceiling?! My mom is 5'8 and could barely reach it. I’m just...still confused.
We took a nap when we got to the Dublin hotel then went to Murray's Pub when we woke up for dinner. I had seafood chowder and Guinness bread (Guinness runs this country...) and to be honest, I wasn’t
a fan. It was my first time there when I realized that Irish waiters/waitresses don’t really check up on you while you’re eating. I don’t
know if they think they’re being rude but I wanted 3 refills on my drink and didn’t get one (this wasn’t just Murray’s! This was every restaurant!) But we went with the flow.
Walking back to the hotel that night, I noticed that the young boys and girls (when I say ‘young’, I mean young adults) all dress nicely. Most guys wore black skinny jeans and a lot of the women wore boots. And I’m not kidding, but I’m not sure I saw an average face even once. They were all so attractive. No acne, all skinny. I felt out of place for a hot second, then I felt fine because I was having
too much fun.
p.s. the reason they were skinny? Sugary drinks were rarely around and junk food was not seen except in express grocery stores. They mostly ate lots of protein and drank a lot of water (your options were
always “tap, still, or sparkling”).
The next day, we went touring.
My grandpa and my dad went to the Guinness Storehouse and took a tour. They wouldn’t stop talking about it so I guess it’s worthwhile. My grandpa kept saying something along the lines of “If
you didn’t go to Guinness, you missed out on the best experience in Ireland”. I didn’t go because I don’t like beer, but it sounded fun!
Christ Church Cathedral was beautiful (even though my mom and I got lost trying to find a very big church...). Christ Church was founded in 1030 and it still holds sermons today. I sat on a chair in the
Church and prayed about how thankful I was to be there. How crazy is it to pray in the same place as the vikings did? We had a walking tour for the church in which we got to see more of it than the general public did. My dad
and I climbed stairs that made everyone in the group claustrophobic but we got to go to the top of the church and rang the old bells that are heard all around the city of Dublin. So cool.
The Dublin Castle was full of political history. Very hard to keep up with, but very cool to see where kings and queens sat and where some of them were inducted. Beautiful lighting fixtures and hallways.
After wards, we tried going to a hugely famous bar called Temple Bar but it was so packed, I couldn’t even move. It was cool that we saw it, but I didn’t learn anything about it because we
didn’t stay. We instead went to Quays (pronounced “Keys”) and I had my first “bangers and mash”. Mashed potatoes and pork sausage with onion gravy. Amazing and I became obsessed right away.
(My banger's and mash)
After
going to take a nap after dinner, my dad, grandpa and I went to our very first Irish pub (I kept slipping and calling it a “bar”). In America, the only draft alcohol I like is Angry Orchard, an apple cider. I don’t
like beer. In Ireland, they have Orchard Thieves apple cider. Fine, I’ll take it I guess.
Holy cow
It’s smooth and has foam at the top (which are bubbles made by nitrogen, I learned). I
don’t know how, but it’s better than Angry Orchard. They don’t sell it in the US and I’m going to miss it so much. The pub we went to only played English pop music, which was weird but great. They also
had a bouncer to make sure you were dressed properly to go in. No sweats. I was wearing jeans and my Jonas Brother’s shirt, so I guess that was good enough to go in. I went home from the pub early after a couple of pints
and walked in the drizzly rain back to the hotel by myself (which it rains all the time, but this was so dreamy to me for some reason). I felt so independent and I loved it.
The next morning, I woke up at 6:15
am and went to the coffee shop next door by myself, called Esquire, and had the best caramel latte I’ve ever had. Ireland shops usually open at 8 or 9 am, but this coffee shop actually opened at 6:30 am! I read a book
and then asked the barista where I should put my cup and he didn’t understand me. He was flustered. “I’M DONE WITH MY DRINK!!!” “Oh oh oh, just leave it on the table.” It was then I learned
that you leave your cups and plates on the table after you eat in every place. I felt rude about it every time, but that’s their culture.
(Thanks for putting a heart in my coffee)
Then we were off to see the Book of Kells, something my mom was excited to see. The Book of Kells is a 9th century manuscript that was written in Latin and contains the 4 gospels of the new
testaments of the bible. I asked my mom a dumb question: “I don’t understand? Why is this important?” She then put it in perspective for me. There were no copies of the bible back then. Monks transcribed
the gospels and illustrated it in their own language. Did they have the actual bible in their hands? But even if they didn’t, they were making history. It was very interesting but very hard to look at because it was
swarmed by people who stood there for 5 minutes. It was situated in a college called Trinity College that is still in use. The library attached to the Book of Kells room was extremely old and is still a library that college
students use today, which is wild because some of these books must covered in dust.
(Trinity College Library)
The next place we went to was EPIC (Every Person Is Connected) Museum. It was apparently the “the #1 tourist destination in Europe of 2019”. My dad was very excited about it. It ended up being...fine. It was an Irish
emigration museum where we learned about Irish citizens who moved out of Ireland and did great things. I think it would be more interesting for Irish people but it was interactive a little bit and that kept me going.
The
day was already tiring but we were chugging along. We went to the National Museum of Ireland (Archeology). It was free, which was great. It was also very big. I, myself, was kind of done with the history lessons so I don’t
think I enjoyed it as much as my family did. I brought up to my mom that America’s human history didn’t go back to 1000 A.D. but Dublin was founded in 988 and the amount of historical facts overwhelmed me.
(Museum entrance)
We were off to the St. Stephen’s Green after saying that we wanted to skip the Natural History Museum. St. Stephen’s is a huge garden in the middle of Dublin and it was gorgeous. We sat on
a bench in the middle of the gardens for a while and got our bearings. I recommend going there to relax during or after a busy day!
(My dad and I)
The next day after all these activities, we left Dublin. I got a caramel latte to go from Esquire and took off for our
next destination.
Stay tuned for the next post!
AND I have a video I'm working on! Can't wait to share it!
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