Dublin
Late greetings from Ireland! Chase and I landed in Dublin, Ireland on May 26th. We landed around 1pm and set to work on figuring out how to get from the airport to our hostel. Unlike Madrid and Lisbon, there was no metro or train lines from the airport or in the city in general. Dublin’s public transit is primarily bus and a couple tram lines in the center of the city. The bus route that would get us closest to our hostel was going to take almost an hour and a half and we were too tired to try to deal with that, so we settled on an uber/taxi.
Even though the uber ride said it would only take thirty minutes, by time our driver managed to push through Dublin city traffic, it took a little over an hour. Upon first inspection, our hostel in Dublin was nice, way nicer than the one we had just come from in Madrid. The lobby was spacious and lead down to a vibrant bar where multiple table shuffleboard and pool tables were housed. We got lucky and were able to check into our rooms when we arrived and didn’t have to worry about dropping our bags and coming back.
Chase and I ended up in different rooms this time, so we split off to put our stuff away then meet for lunch later. The room I booked happened to be a six-bed dorm with an ensuite bathroom. When I got to the room, no one else was in there and all the beds were made meaning no one else had checked in for the room besides me. This was a welcome surprise, and I took advantage of opening the window to let cool air in, and getting settled without feeling like I was making too much noise. The bunks were quite nice and the lockers beneath the bed were spacious enough to fit both my big bags and all my stuff that inevitably came out of my bags.
The biggest downside about the hostel was that were was no kitchen, not even a half-assed kitchen like the hostel in Madrid. There were vending machines, a laundry room, and the bar downstairs where you weren’t allowed to bring in outside food. This quickly squashed my plan of making some meals in the hostel to save money. There wasn’t even an electric kettle to use to get hot water so I couldn’t even have cup ramen to save money. At this revelation, I mentally prepared myself to spend more money in Dublin than I originally wanted. With nowhere cold to store food, I didn’t want to buy fruits and deli meat for possible sandwiches and breakfasts for fear it would go bad before I could eat it all.
Chase and I met for lunch a little later, after we put our stuff down. We ate a place right next door to the hostel because I was hungry and didn’t want to go much farther. I took a chance and ordered chicken curry (this was not an Indian restaurant, but I was curious). The food was actually pretty good, but the funny thing is that the meal was served with fries (or chips as they call them in the UK) as well as rice. Definitely not something you usually get with Indian food. After some searching, I found that it was common to get chips with Asian food in the UK. Not sure quite why but I guess that’s a staple there.
We walked around for a little bit after eating lunch, Chase ended up wandering around longer than I did because I was tired and really wanted a nap. The little bit of the city I did see during the walk was lush and green. The sky was a bright blue, and the sun was out in full force. This was shocking to our Uber driver who said to enjoy the weather because it wouldn’t happen again.
I also finally got an international cell plan! It was getting annoying not having data and relying solely on wifi. It took a little bit of configuring but I was now the proud owner of a French number and esim which gave me access to unlimited text and call (within reason) plus 20gb of data. I was set.
The next day I got up early because the previous night I booked a tour to go West and see the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. I decided to do a tour because that was really the only way to see the cliffs and go West without a rental car. I sat next to a group who were originally from Texas and now lived in London. They were showing their mother (and mother-in-law technically) around Dublin. About an hour and a half into the drive the bus pulled over to make a brief stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere so people could use the restroom and grab some snacks for a lunch at cliffs if they desired. And you will never guess what this gas station held.
Behold, upon pulling into the gas station there is a statue of Barack and Michelle Obama. The gas station was named Barack Plaza and there were pictures of the former US President decorating the walls. A cardboard cutout of the Obama’s stood in the main lobby. There was even a second floor that held a small little museum dedicated to Obama. This was incredibly bizarre, and I had only heard about this legendary gas station from TikTok. The reason behind the station is that Obama’s great grandfather was Irish and lived in the part of Ireland where the gas station was built.
After getting to see the ninth wonder of the world, we traveled on another two hours to the cliffs. Our tour guide gave us two hours to explore the cliffs on our own and I was incredibly grateful that I chose a tour where a lot of the site seeing was independent. The weather for the day was just like before, clear skies and a warm breeze. I hiked up a short and hill to the wall the expanded along the cliffs and took in the sight. It was breath taking. The water was a deep blue that crashed gently along the dark cliffs. There were different small flowers that dotted the green grass. It was something straight out of a movie.
I walked along a path to the right and kept going beyond the point where the trail “technically” ended. The trail was most certainly still there, but the wall keeping people separated from the cliff edge was gone. This is what I was looking for. I wanted to get some better pictures where I wasn’t leaning over a large stone wall. I hiked down a decent way and had a small picnic on wide ledge. I stayed there for a bit, taking in the gorgeous sight before me before I decided to head back up to visitor center. The weather was so nice and warm that I started to sweat and quickly took my sweatshirt off. I was regretting the jeans I had worn as well.
My expectations of UK weather was cold, damp, and grey. Ireland was none of those things the entire visit. Everyone got back on the bus and we headed out to Galway, a two-hour drive North of the cliffs. The Irish countryside was beautiful and the lady next to me couldn’t help but keep pointing out how green everything was she. She wasn’t wrong. With so much rain the countryside was lush and inviting. Farms popped up every so often along with small cottages.
The bus pulled into Galway around 3pm and here we were given another two hours free time. Our guide gave us the option of walking around with him for a short walking tour if we pleased. I started with him but quickly took my own route after I discovered how hungry I was and how slow the group was progressing. I made my way to a pizza place the guide recommended. It was a great little place off shops st that made pizza like you get in Italy, which is something I absolutely adore. Pizza in the US does not compare to the thin crust, wood-fired pizza you can in Europe.
After devouring the entire pizza and a glass of Pinot Grigio, I started to wander around. Galway was pretty but crowded, more crowded than Dublin. This is probably because Galway is smaller and most of the people were clustered in a couple central streets that held all the cool shops and pubs. I got overwhelmed very quickly and ended up in a bookstore where I bought two physical books that I could take with me to read in cafes. So far, I had been relying on a book I downloaded on my phone, but it was getting annoying staring at the little screen and draining my battery.
By the time it hit 5pm, the group was back on the bus, and we headed East to Dublin. I was so happy I booked the tour even though I didn’t originally plan to do any official tours. I prefer to do things on my own because it’s typically cheaper but taking the tour was way cheaper than getting a rental car and much safer.
The next I had plans to stay in the city of Dublin. I booked Chase and I bar crawl that night, but the rest of the day was wide open. I knew I wanted to visit Christ Church Cathedral, but I was hesitant because it was twelve euros to go inside the church. I woke up that morning around 9:30 and was trying to decide what to do when I realized that it was Sunday and therefore, there must be a Sunday mass service. Their website said they had an 11am service and all were welcome to attend. I made up my mind, what better way to see a cathedral than experiencing a service?
Now this maybe an unpopular opinion, but I believe that all churches and religious buildings should be free for the public to visit. By making people pay, it prevents some people from being able to get into a holy place and makes it harder for people who genuinely want to visit to pray. Of course, you can tell these places that you are there to pray and they should let you in for free but what’s to stop them from denying you entry because you look like you might not be local and are trying to cheat the payment. Places of worship are for the public and therefore, should be accessible to public without a pay wall.
I put on one of my sundresses and a light jean jacket and made my way to the church. The outside was beautiful, with grey stone that lifted into the sky and an enclosed bridge that connected the main building to a secondary building. The grounds were covered in flower beds and trees with low hanging branches. I was even more taken aback by the inside. If the church looked tall on the outside, the high lofted ceilings made the space enormous. Stained glass windows lined every wall. The floor was made up an intricate mosaic design.
The service lasted about an hour and a half, a usual Sunday service and it was great to be back in a church community again and experiencing a similar service to one I knew would take place a couple hours later on the East coast of America, when my parents went to our usual church. Because it was a little chillier that morning, I went back to the hostel and changed and then Chase and I went in search of brunch. We ate and continued on through the city. I also wanted to see St. Peter’s Cathedral. There was, again, an entrance fee but this time I simply admired the building from the outside.
At this point I settled down in St. Peter’s Park, a lovely park right next to the church and read on the lawn for a while. Chase headed off to explore more. My favorite part about traveling is getting the chance to explore at my own pace and in my own way. I love sitting in parks where locals frequent and enjoy a sunny afternoon in the grass. It’s comforting and relaxing. I don’t benefit from having to see something every day I’m traveling. Sometimes it’s enough to see a cathedral then relax like a local for the rest of the day.
I met Chase back at the hostel later where we got ready and headed out to the bar crawl. It started pretty early by bar crawl standards, 8pm. There was a pretty big group doing the bar crawl and we made fast friends with two girls ahead of us in the queue to check in. Their names were Ashley and Hye and they were from Boston and Chicago, respectively. They had met that morning at the hostel they were staying at (not the same as ours sadly) and we got along quickly.
The bar crawl was fantastic. Our group of four quickly grew to a group of six when we met two guys named Adam and Gunner at the first bar. They weren’t part of the bar crawl, but they decided to come along with us because we were all getting along so well. That night was a lot fun, and I will leave the rest of the experience up to your imagination. Chase and I ended up getting back to the hostel around 2:30am.
I had no real plans for the next and last day of my time in Dublin. I woke up around 1pm, very hungover. Chase and I decided to split again for the day. I made my way to a McDonalds in search of fries and coke that wouldn’t break the bank and would cure the slumpy feeling of being hungover. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the National Botanical Gardens. This is quite the hidden gem in Dublin. It’s free and is a massive sprawling park with four different greenhouses, two smaller museums, a café, a couple flower gardens, a pond, and more.
I took my time walking through the greenhouses and seeing all the different kinds of plants from all over the world. It was quite an impressive collection and clearly a lot of time and care went into the keeping of the greenhouses and gardens in general. I sat on a bench in the sun for rest the day, reading and enjoying being out in the fresh Irish air.
Two things I know people might be wondering if I did or not is the Guinness Storehouse tour and the Jameson Distillery tour. I did not do either. For one, I do not like Guinness. I tried it on the bar crawl and hated it, so I didn’t want to spend money on a tour about a beer I didn’t care for. Despite being right next to Jameson Distillery, I didn’t do a tour of the place either. Again, not a whiskey drinker and if I was gonna spend money on a tour, I would have rather spent the money on one of the churches or a museum that interested me.
Next morning Chase and I took a direct bus to the airport to head to London. We checked in online so all we had to do was drop our big backpacks off at check in. We were flying Aer Lingus again and they had kiosks where you would weigh your bag, tag it, then drop it on the belt. Well somehow my bag got taken off the scale too soon, so the wrong weight was recorded. I had to pay for the checked bag, but I also didn’t want to deal with both my bags and Aer Lingus is hit or miss on whether or not they are strict on carry-on bag size. When I went to drop my bag on the belt, it came up with an error cause the weight was reading as something different than the weight on the bag tag. An employee told me I would have to wait in the long ass queue to have it tagged manually by a someone at the check in desks because the kiosk would charge me again. Great.
Despite the employee telling me the queue was moving fast, it wasn’t. Chase went ahead and went on through security, no point in both of us waiting in the long ass queue. I timed it and it took a full hour to make it through the line. AN HOUR. At some point I had lost my neck pillow and had to rearrange my back so that anything considered a liquid would be in the checked bag. This was after Chase had gone through security and been pulled aside for a bar of soap. A BAR of soap. Not even a container. By the time I made it through the check in counter queue, I was upset about waiting so long. Upset over my lost neck pillow which I had come to cherish as a much-needed accessory to traveling. Upset that I now had wait in another queue for security. Upset that I had yet to eat anything that morning.
To sum up that morning, Dublin airport and Aer Lingus were dead to me.
I loved Ireland. I loved the beautiful weather we got lucky to have and the lush greenery of the city and countryside. I don’t see myself living in Dublin, however, it makes me wish I would have looked at the opportunity of having done college there.
