WARNING: Extremely long blog with
LOTS of pictures!!
Okay so I don't really speak any Irish at all, and I totally wouldn't be able to tell you how to pronounce it. I just find Gaelic fascinating; also the fact that even though I was in another country, and that I knew they still spoke English, I was surprised to find out that many of the signs still had Gaelic above the English.
Anyway, so we started out in Cork, which was so beautiful and charming!! All throughout the streets, there were these cute little houses that were all different colors and there were iron gates surrounding all of them. It was amazing.
The first day we got there, we just lazily sat on our beds in our hostel before exploring a bit and finding somewhere to eat dinner. Ironically enough, we found an American-style diner to eat at on our first night in Ireland hahaha. That's my life. Then the next day, after basically running to catch the next bus to Blarney Castle (yes, the infamous Blarney Stone is here), we made it! Blarney Castle was so beautiful and too much to explain in words, but I will still try. There was so much more to see besides the castle, even though that was gorgeous! Parts of it date back from the 1200s. There was a huge garden, with a waterfall and tons of flowers and bridges. There was a dungeon, caves, a witches' altar, a sacrificial altar, the witches' kitchen, and so much more. We took a nice leisurely stroll all around the grounds, before actually heading to the castle, which was in surprisingly good condition for being around 800 years old! I didn't kiss the stone because for one, the steps leading to it were extremely numerous and narrow, and two, to do so, you had to be held in mid-air to kiss it. No me gusta.
Oh I'm just sitting in part of a castle that's over 800 years old, no big
Then we took the train to Dublin from Cork, and I adored the train ride. We got to see tons of beautiful scenery, and it was a great way to see the country. Once we got to Dublin, and our hostel (which was AWESOME), we decided against the ghost tour we had planned for because it was just too cold. We decided instead that we'd explore a bit for somewhere to eat and call it a night, as we were all tired and knew we'd have a full day of walking the next day; we were right. We left around 11am and ended up being gone until after 7pm, and it was FREEZING! That kind of spoiled that day for me, but it was still nice to see the sights. We visited Trinity College where the Book of Kells is, but I really didn't feel like paying to see it, so Chelsea (aka Mama) and I waited outside while everyone went in to look at it. The campus was pretty. Then we walked to see O'Connell St which is the widest and busiest shopping street in Europe. It's home to a bunch of statues, including the Spire (aka the Monument of Light), which is the tallest statue in the world, being 398 ft tall! It was built to symbolize Ireland moving into the new millenium.
The next day we ended up splitting up and half of us decided to take a warm bus tour, which was such a good choice. We saw Oscar Wilde's childhood home, the Archaeology Museum (which was super interesting), Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was beyond gorgeous.
I think these lead up to Dumbledore's office
The only remaining wall of Dublin Castle since the rest burnt down
We saw this man and a his daughter walking in the park behind St Patrick's. Cutest thing ever.
We took one last stroll over the River Liffey to find somewhere to eat on our last night in Dublin. We ran across some awesome grafitti.
Then the next day we were off to Belfast! We had another train ride with some time to kill and we had gummies to play with.
And once we finally got to Belfast, we realized there wasn't too much there. But we did a small walking tour and saw Queen's University, which is absolutely beautiful! Then we saw the botancial gardens and the Ulster Museum (I just took the opportunity to rest because my attention span for museums at that point was shot lol.) Then we found this cute little restaurant to eat and I had a delicious pepper steak sandwich on toasted ciabatta bread. It was amazing. The next day we decided to do a tour of Giant's Causeway, which is a peculiar formation of slow-cooling lava rocks. The legend has it that a Scottish giant named Bennandonor and an Irish giant named Finn McCool were fighting over Oonagh, their shared love interest. Bennandonor was coming to fight Finn and needed a way to get from Scotland to Ireland, so he built the causeway. (At the smallest gap, Scotland is only 12 miles away from Ireland.) Don't worry, Finn won in the end, using the ever-popular and faithful technique of scaring the crap out of Bennandonor. On the way back to Scotland, he destroyed the Causeway and that is why it looks the way it does. The Causeway was beautiful, but rather difficult and slightly terrifying to walk on, because it was hard to balance and it was really windy. It's the fourth greatest natural wonder in the entire UK and it's also a world heritage sight!
Me in front of Queen's University
Chels braved these rocks in her heels. I was impressed!
Our tour guide/bus driver Troy was fantastic by the way! He was rather intimidating at first, but once I got to know him a bit, I realized that he's honestly one of the nicest people I've ever met. He's super friendly, funny and outgoing and you can tell he's definitely passionate about his job and about making sure we all had a good time. According to him, he does it for the 'craic' ('crack' in gaelic, but it's Irish slang that means 'fun'.) He jokingly claims to be a great driver, an even better sleep driver, and an even better driver once he's had some of his favorite drink, Bushmills Whiskey. He took the time that he could of chosen to rest, while we were out seeing the rocks, to make sure our lunch was being made, and then even went so far as to bring our drinks and cutlery. He was a sweetheart. He even later reccomended us an amazing restaurant to eat at later where I had probably the best brownie sundae of my life. I miss him already. On the way back, we saw some amazing countryside, the ruins of Dunluce Castle, and most importantly, lots of sheep!
Then on our last day in Ireland, we decided to take a black cab taxi tour of Belfast that took us around the city as well as showed us West Belfast, where all the religious problems and tensions still exist between the Protestants and Catholics. According to Troy, it's about 90% safe now, as opposed to when it used to be 100% dangerous, but it's still scary to think about. We also got to see what was once the most bombed hotel in the world, Hotel Europa. (Luckily, it hasn't been bombed since the early 90s, and they have taken precautions to make it a lot safer, but it was still surreal to think about.) Our taxi driver/tour guide's name was Walter and he was so sweet and friendly. He even shook our hands before he left us at the airport. I learned so much on that day, and it was probably my favorite part of the entire trip, besides Blarney Castle.
We got to see what is disturbingly known as the 'Belfast Mona Lisa' because the gun follows you everywhere you look. It really does and it's scary to think about the real-life meaning of the mural. Then we went to the famous Belfast Peace Wall, which acts as a peaceful barrier between the Protestants and the Catholics. The decorated side is the Protestant side and we actually got the chance to write on it! I added to the 'blackbird' message someone else had left as well as a couple other things. I think it's safe to say that's one of the coolest things I've ever gotten the chance to do. I'm now a part of history and thousands of other people will see my messages and we will be connected in that way. It's amazing.
We also saw some of the incredible murals and memorials that line the city, before a quick stop to Milltown Cemetery (we weren't supposed to go in there on Saturdays or Sundays, but our driver just did a quick drive through, after ignoring the dirty look the guy at the entrance gave us.) This cemetery is where lots of IRA (the Irish Republic Army) members are buried, and it's a very controversial area.
Overall, I learned and was surprised over and over again how truely lovely and wonderful Irish people can be. Just to give you one more example, our taxi driver during our tour got a call from the hostel we had been at, saying that one of us had left their iphone there and he went back, without charging us extra, and ran in to get it for her.
The country was beautiful, I saw tons of amazing sights and met lots of wonderful people. Definitely a successful trip! I'll leave you with some fun, random pictures.
