I learned a lot of really neat facts in my 2 1/2 days in Ireland, so I thought I'd share them with you. How neat is that?!
Fact: In Ireland, literally every other person is a red head.
No explanation needed
Fact: My Hostel for 10 euro a night should be considered a 5 star hotel
The decorating is right on par with what you would think of as "Irish". Isaacs Hostel has their own outdoor beer garden attached, have awesome lounges, and to top it all off, the bathrooms are the most amazing things ever. In most hostels, you share 1 bathroom and shower that is literally about arms width big with the whole hostel. They are usually so grimy and disgusting that you feel dirtier coming out of the shower than you do going in. This is the first hostel where there is a big bathroom with stalls and really big shower areas. It's even bigger than my shower cubical in Sevilla (which I'm always hitting my funny bone).
Fact: Dublin reminded me of a historic old US town.
Kind of like down town Lawrenceburg on Walnut street. However, there are random stone/Irish looking buildings that just pop up randomly.
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Trinity College, which is located in downtown Dublin is one of the top 60 best universities in the world and also has the worlds largest library with more than 200,000 books, mainly written in latin, from thousands of years ago. Also, they are not arranged in alphabetical order, but in size from biggest to smallest. it you want to find a book, you literally have to bring a ruler and ask for its dimensions. The library is also host to The Book of Kells, which is actually 4 manuscripts of maybe one of the first written copies of the 4 gospels and is full of colorfully drawn depictions of Jesus and the stories in the gospels. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was so neat, so I'll have to take some off the internet to show you.
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| Old Library's Long Room. Can I have this please?! |
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| Book of Kells |
Fact: The official language in Ireland is actually Irish
It kind of threw us off when we saw foreign looking words on the signs at the airports with English underneath. It turns out that they actually use and can read Irish but don't speak it. Someone told us it's a dying language but still the official language of Ireland.
Fact: there are over 750 pubs just in downtown Dublin
This fact is actually not an exaggeration. The pubs serve great Irish beer (Murpheys Kilkenny, Smithwicks, Bulmers and of course Guinness), have great food and fun entertainment! We made sure we tried all of the different Irish beers that we could (I listed all the ones we tried above). I really liked Bulmers, the cider beer, but I think I've really gotten to like dark beer too! I think I'd like that better than Coors or something like that. It was really fun getting to try every type of beer and I feel like when I come back home, I can consider myself a world class beer drinker :)
Fact: I can now pour the perfect pint of Guinness
Since Guinness originated in Dublin, Brittany and I decided to take a tour of the factory. It was really neat. We learned all about the ingredients used to make it, how they make it, advertising throughout the years, and some really cool facts. For example, did you know when Arthur Guinness bought the land for the factory, he signed for 9,000 years? They still havethe land for something like 8,750 years. We also got to do a few taste tests and learn how to pour the perfect pint. One of the keys is to have a cold glass (6 Celsius). If it's 5 degrees celsius warmer or cooler, it changes the taste of the beer by 50%. How neat is that?!
Fact: "Neature Walks" and day trips to Kilkenny and Glendalough are pretty neat
Sidenote: for my family who might not of heard of neature walks, my roommate Annie showed me this youtube video about a geeky guy saying how "neat" everything is. At first I thought it was annoying, now I think its funny.
Anyways, back to storytelling. Tuesday, Brittany and I joined a tour that took us through the mountains in Wicklow. We got to see the gorgeous area of Glendalough and walk around their 2 lakes. Seriously, the rolling hills scattered with sheep, the still water in the brisk sun, and the green that fills your eyes for miles and miles is just the most peaceful and beautiful thing ever. I definitely like this part of Ireland better than the more run down looking Dublin!
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| The yellow flowers smell exactly like coconuts! Its awesome! |
We then went to Kilkenny, which is the old medieval city and has a really cool castle. It kind of reminds me of an Irish Sevilla, or smaller Andalucian town. It was really cool and we got to have a delicious lunch at this restaurant which used to be the house of the first lady in the world burned at the stake for witchery. I had "witches soup" for lunch and it was really yummy! We also had the two beers that are made in town, Smithwicks and Kilkennys
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| Restaurant |
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| Cute little streets |
So, compared to Annie, who seriously has a problem traveling every single trip, I have had the best of luck. While at times its been stressful or tiring, I've never had any serious problems. That all changed yesterday in the Dublin airport. As I showed you in a picture in my Paris blog, Ryanair is very strict with their carry on luggage requirements. Unlike most regular companies, Ryanair only lets you have a carry on. If you want to check a bag, it costs you.
Well I have flown Ryanair, or Vueling, or Easy Jet (some kind of "carry on only company) and have never never ONCE been checked to see if my bag fits. When you have 7 days of clothes and life in your backpack, it gets a little fat, but it has always fit under my seat. Well, in Dublin, they made us check to see if our bags would fit. I got a really cool gift for my dad at the Guinness factory and wasn't able to stuff my bag in the small slot. If I took out my travel book and a few other things, I would have been able to fit it, but you're not even allowed to have a purse or carry anything on. EVERYTHING has to be in the bag. Your hands have to be free. So, after spending bajillions of dollars in London (with pounds being almost double the dollar) and Dublin, I was forced to pay 35 euro, so like 65 dollars to check one little baby backpack. I was soooo mad and frustrated I could have cried. But I kept it in check.
Once we got to the London airport, we had to go through security again. Once again, this was the 10th time I have flown with my backpack and the same toiletries in it and never once have had a problem with security. I'm not complaining that they were being careful, especially after bin Ladins death, but I just don't understand how after every security and every flight I have been able to get through except for yesterday. Well, my backpack sends off all kinds of bells and I have to go to a side area with a security guard to go one by one through every single thing in my backpack and scanning it for bomb material and things like that. He finally found the problems. My MaryKay face lotion, Nutragena facewash and Renu contact solution (I had the directions on how to make a bomb out of those 3 things in my pocket, yup). So he threw them away. Just pitched them. After making my buy a 5 pound BAGGIE to check and see if they had any type of explosives in them, which of course they didn't, he still threw them away. By then I was spent and done. My stuff was sprawled out for the whole airport to see and I had now lost 2 things that you can't just buy in Spain. The third, Renu, costs about 20 euro, which is about 35 dollars just for eye drops. Those are like medicine for me. I need them. So I left with tears of frustration and hopelessness in my eyes and went with Brittany to join Annie and her friends who stayed in London the whole time
While we were walking to our gate, we heard an announcement that said our plane was going to be delayed 20 minutes (ended up being like 35). Well we really couldn't have a flight delayed because we had a bus to catch at midnight. Our flight was supposed to get back to the Madrid airport at 1020, but it takes about an hour to get to the bus station. By the time we landed it was 1050. Since Ryanair is such a 5 star plane company we didn't even land near a terminal. We had to take a bus to the terminal furthest from the metro. I'm not lying when I say the terminal was about a mile from the metro station. Brittany Annie and I SPRINTED for a whole mile to get to the metro. We sprinted up escalators and down long hallways and I have never been in so much pain in my life. When weighed at the airport, my bag was 10kg, which is like 25 pounds. Running with 25 pounds on ones back is the most painful thing in your life. We got to the metro at 11:15 with 5 minutes until the next train, when we switched trains to a different line, we ran to the next line too, once again having to wait 5 minutes until the next train came. When we finally got in the bus station exit, it was midnight exactly, we raced up 3 escalators only to watch our bus drive right by us. The next bus was at 1am or 6am, so we ran back upstairs to buy the last 3 50 dollar tickets on the 1am bus (that stupid lady wouldn't let us just switch saying it was our fault. No, its because Ryanair is a piece of mierda thats why you rude lady, don't get Spanish attitude with me.
OK! Although I had a bad ending to my week, it was all and all a great great great week and I had the best time! Feria is this weekend, so we will be dressing up in our Sevillano dresses and going to parties! yay! Pictures and stories to come :)
Lauren
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