Sorry this is so delayed!
Wednesday (April 18)
It was
off to Ireland on Wednesday! We began the journey by taxi to the train station,
and then took the train to Edinburgh, then a bus to the airport, then our
flight to Dublin that was only forty-five minutes, and finally we took a three
hour bus ride to Galway and walked two minutes from the bus station to our
hotel. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was around nine-thirty so we
decided against venturing out and just spent the rest of the evening taking it
easy in the hotel planning Thursday’s excursion.
Thursday (April 19)
We went
on a bus tour from Galway that included a stop at a farm house, the Cliffs of
Moher, and a couple other random things along the way. I knew it was going to
be a marvelous experience as soon as we met our bus driver/guide and he had a very
definite Irish accent that was a wonderful to hear. Our first stop was to a
little farm in Burren (which is an area of hills/mountains full of limestone)
where we had a hiking tour up to a nice viewpoint. The owner of the farm, John
Connelly, was our guide for the excursion and as we began our little walking
tour he pointed out some sheep and baby lambs of his which were adorable and I
wanted to pet them so badly. We stopped to see a fairy tree which is basically
a tree that people tie random stuff to in order to follow a superstitious
custom that their burdens are left at the tree with the object. Then we
continued climbing and as we progressed upwards it definitely got a lot colder
and windier but the view also got better which made it bearable. We saw the
ruins of three churches, which are actually called the seven churches, but four
never were built. I think there may have been more to the story than that, but
I can’t remember everything our guide said about it. There were also a ton of
stone fences that ran up and down the hills and according to our guide, serve
no purpose. Finally we returned to the farm house and some people got homemade
desserts like cheesecake and apple pie, but I decided against it to save my
spending for lunch. Right before we left our guide brought out his King Charles
spaniel puppy, Coco, who was absolutely precious. I got to hold her for a
couple minutes and she gave my face quite a good washing with her tongue. Then
I made a quick trip to the barn where one of the farm hands was showing some
people a lamb named Spot. I also got to
hold her for a brief moment and it kind of made me want to have a pet lamb.
Back on
the bus we headed for the Cliffs of Moher which are about an hour and a half
away from Galway, but it wasn’t that far from the farm. The cliffs were
gorgeous and I wanted to spend hours there. It reminded me a lot of Portugal;
however it was super windy, so much so that my hair was kind of all over the
place in the majority of the pictures. We were there for an hour so we wandered
along the cliffs for a while and saw a tower called the O’Brian Tower that you
could go up in, but it had a price, so I just enjoyed taking pictures of it.
The gorgeous cliffs
From
the cliffs we next went to the town of Doolin for lunch at a pub called Fitz
something and I got a very yummy vegetable soup with brown bread. Then we made
a stop at a five-thousand year old tomb, called Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, which
was basically a few large stones with another stone on top where the remains of
thirty people had been found. From there we made our last stop of the day to
see from a distance Dunguaire Castle. We had passed it earlier in the day and
the tide was out so it was all barren looking and so our driver told us that we
would stop briefly on the way back when the tide was in. It definitely improved
the scenery with the water right up next to it.
Dunguaire Castle
Once we
were dropped off in Galway, we walked around the shopping streets and ended up
at the Spanish Arch, which wasn’t that exciting but I took a picture of it
anyway. Then we continued walking and came across a church that had a little
grotto for Our Lady of Lourdes. Finally
we stopped for supper and then returned to the hotel after having completed what
I would consider a very successful day of sightseeing.
Friday (April 20)
In the
early afternoon we were off to County Cork on a little over three hour bus
ride. We passed the time by watching the 25th anniversary edition of
the musical Phantom of the Opera on Paige’s laptop. By the time that finished
there was less than a half hour left to the trip and as we arrived in Cork,
right on cue the rain began to fall. Fortunately our hotel was only a couple
minutes away so my luggage didn’t get overly wet. After checking in, we
ventured back out since the rain had stopped and did a little gift shop
browsing as well as getting some supper. Eventually we headed back to the hotel
after picking up some breakfast food supplies, (ended up being cookies since
that was the cheapest), and then spent the rest of the evening using the
internet and planning our activities for Cork and the surrounding area.
Saturday (April 21)
We were
up with the birds and took a bus to Blarney to visit the Blarney Castle. We
were some of the first to arrive at the castle and ended up staying for about
three hours because there was a lot to see. First we went into the castle, and
at the top, is the world famous Blarney stone, which supposedly gives the gift
of eloquence to all those who kiss it. Among the famous who have participated
in the tradition is Winston Churchill. So we both kissed the stone, which was a
little scary because in order to actually kiss the stone you have to slide on
your back and lean your head down into this hole that gives the sensation of
falling, but I survived it and maybe I’ll be rewarded for my efforts. That
remains to be seen. After the castle, we
made our way to the poison garden which consisted of a large quantity of deadly
plants. Then we wandered along a path that led to a horse graveyard where there
were markers of horses with names like Snoopy, Magic and others that I’ve
forgotten. Further along we crossed through a fern garden that had ginormous
fern trees and I also climbed a tree that had these huge trunk-like branch
parts that were perfect for sitting on. The last thing we did was go to a rock
garden area that had some bridges and waterfalls as well as wishing steps that
you are supposed to walk up and down backwards with your eyes closed in order
for your wish to come true. We both
participated of course and then as we continued on we saw a witch’s kitchen, a
witch’s stone and a fairy glade, according to the signs posted about. Finally
we made a couple quick stops to nearby gift shops and then it was back to Cork.
We then
went in search of the train station and caught the 1:00 train to Cobh in order
to see the Queenstown exhibit of the Titanic. Cobh used to be called Queenstown
and it was the final port that the Titanic stopped in before the tragic iceberg
collision. The exhibit featured some of the last photos taken of the ship
thanks to a passenger named Frank Brown who had his camera along with him on
the journey from Southampton to Queenstown where he got off the boat. He had
been given the trip as a gift from his uncle, a bishop, however when an
American couple on board offered to pay the rest of the trip for him, he wired
his uncle who insisted that he still get off the ship at Queenstown. I’m sure
he was quite grateful to his uncle after the tragedy for refusing to let him
continue. The exhibit also included information about emigration from Ireland
in general and also showed things from the sinking of the Lusitana during the
war since it happened right off the coast near Cobh. It was an interesting
display and it took over two hours to get through the whole thing, so we didn’t
catch the train back to Cork until five.
Back in
Cork, we wandered around in search of a good place to eat. We eventually
settled on a place called Ketchup that much to my excitement had traditional
Irish stew. I felt like I couldn’t leave
Ireland without at least once sampling some Irish stew, so I ordered it and received
a huge portion in a giant bowl and with at least six or maybe more slices of
bread accompanying it. Irish stew is basically composed of lamb, potato, swede
(kind of like a turnip), carrots and celery. It was very good and super
filling. I did an impressive job of eating the majority of it considering it
was way more than a normal sized serving. After our stomachs were extremely
satisfied, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a day.
Sunday (April 22)
We went
to Mass at a church called St. Mary’s that was run by a Dominican order of
monks. It was a rather short Mass, but it was strange how most of the people
didn’t know whether to kneel or stand or sit at various parts and responses were
almost non-existent, or the people would say the priest’s parts too. Just a
little strange; nothing like Mass in the United States that’s for sure.
After
packing up to head out to Dublin, our final destination in Europe, we grabbed
lunch for the road and caught a bus that made the journey in around three
hours. Once in Dublin, we almost were really lost while trying to find our
hotel, because we became confused and so began to turn around to retrace our
steps. Thankfully, this friendly Irishman saw us two with all our luggage and
slightly bewildered expressions and asked if we were lost, to which we
responded in the affirmative. So he told us where to go, which ended up being
the direction we had originally been going, so back we went and at last we did find
our hotel.
After
recuperating a little from the strenuous job of dragging our luggage for a good
half hour, we headed back out to see if we could find some souvenir shops
before six, the closing time for shops in Ireland. We walked quite a ways before
finding one, and then we found the same shop again and again in different
locations, sometimes even on the same street. It would seem that there is some
sort of monopoly going on, because all of the shops are the same with the exact
same prices and products (being the same store and all) so it is kind of a
bummer. As we were walking out of one of them, we were face to face with the
movie theater so we decided it wouldn’t hurt to see what movie times and prices
were. Just as we were entering, it started pouring and neither of us had had
the foresight to bring our umbrellas. So while we waited we decided a rainy day
was acceptable for seeing a movie and decided we would go see an 8:10 showing
of the movie Battleship, although neither of us knew much about it other than
it was an action-adventure type of movie based off of the game. We had some
time to kill before the movie so we ventured out for some supper during a brief
reprieve in the rain and also made a stop to another of the same tourist shops
in the hope that there would be something different or cheaper, but it was to
no avail.
Monday (April 23)
The
last full day in Europe arrived and sadly it was another rainy day like every
day before it. Our first destination was to Trinity College which we made it to
before the rain started thankfully. Our tour was done outside, but our guide
was nice and tried to find spots to stand out of the rain so it was all good.
He basically pointed out some old dorms, the examination building, the
cafeteria, the library (housing the famous book of Kells) and a little arch
type of building in the center of the university that has a bell that is older
than the school itself. He also pointed out a bronze ball sort of sculpture
that was identical to one that I took pictures of at the Vatican Museum. I
guess it is to symbolize how humanity destroys itself or something depressing
like that. Apparently there are a ton of those sculptures all over the world
including two in New York. After that our guide dismissed us to go see the
library with the Book of Kells. There was an exhibit that included information
about various old bibles including the Book of Kells and explanations of the
long, complicated, and tedious process of making such bibles. After those
rooms, we came to the room that held two parts of the Book of Kells as well as
two other bibles. The detail and illustration was pretty amazing for something
done in the 800s. The last room to see was the great hall room that was full of
books and had a cool domed sort of ceiling. Sadly I wasn’t allowed to take any
pictures but it was a really cool room. After stopping at the gift shop where I
bought a postcard as a souvenir, we head out to our next destination, St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
A rainy setting for our Trinity College tour
The
cathedral was interesting and it had a large quantity of tombs including
Jonathon Swift’s, who had been the dean of the cathedral for many years. After
that Paige and I split up for a couple hours while she went to the Guinness
Factory and I explored some random streets and saw a couple churches. One of
the churches I came across was St. James, and it had a sign saying it was
affiliated with the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and was considered a first
stop in the pilgrimage. I thought that was kind of neat, but unfortunately the
church was closed so I was unable to go in. Once I met back up with Paige, we
did our last bit of souvenir shopping, and we also found a gelato place, so in
honor of our final day we got some Italian gelato. It was a good last day, but
it felt so strange to realize that after over three months, I was finally
leaving Europe.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Tuesday (April 24)
We were
out of the hotel before 7am in order to get to the bus stop for an hour ride to
the airport. After checking in our bags, we had to go through customs for the
U.S. which wasn’t too bad and as a pleasant surprise we then didn’t have to go
through any customs upon arriving in Chicago. It seemed kind of strange to think
that all of my travels were over and I had left Europe for good. Tuesday made
the hundredth day of me being outside the United States. It’s hard to believe I
was really gone for that long, but it has been a great experience and one I’ll remember
forever.
Well
this is my final entry since all my exciting adventures have come to an end and
I’m back in good old Nebraska. I hope for those of you that have taken the time
to follow along with my posts, it was an agreeable experience and I’m super
excited that I’ve actually accomplished my goal of blogging throughout my whole
trip! I had my doubts about following through on my plan, since I’m not much of
a writer and any previous writing attempts have never made it past a first
entry. Anyway, without further ado, I bid you all farewell; it’s been a grand
few months!
