Luck of the Irish

Tags

backpacking, beer, blarney, castle, cork, drinks, dublin, europe, friends, guinness factory, ireland, Photography, temple bar, travel

So after an amazing time back in Canada for the holidays I was lucky enough to have one of my best friends come back to Europe with me. Danyka is my sister from another mister and we had been planning a three week backpacking trip for the past few months and the time was finally here!

Now let me tell you, trying to ‘see’ Europe in three weeks is a challenge, but we managed to make it to 8 – yes you heard me – 8 countries in 21 days. (You can go ahead and be impressed now). These next few posts are going to recount our amazing adventures as we navigated some of the most breathtaking countries either of us had ever seen.

Now I’m a planner. I have an agenda that I keep everything in – A friend in University asked me if I even scheduled pee breaks in there… (I don’t, in case you were wondering…) So I was going to ‘live on the edge’ and we were only going to book our first two stops. Go me, right?

First stop: Dublin.

Arriving in Dublin I didn’t really have too many big expectations. The only things I really had on my list of to do’s were the Guinness Factory (clearly I have my priorities straight) and kissing the Blarney Stone (to get some of that Irish luck you hear so much about). Other than that I was pretty open to whatever experiences Dublin wanted to give me… And boy did we have some experiences.

We got into Dublin early Friday morning and immediately dropped our bags off at Issac’s Hostel, where we would be staying in a mixed dorm for the next two nights. Now, I’m fine sharing a room with guys, gals… anyone really. But of course, we get bunked up with a Backstreet Boy. This guy used SO much cologne that we thought we were going to die from the fumes. The one night he came in and spritzed himself 42 times! Who does that?? It’s called a shower buddy…

Anyway… Back on track.

We headed out and did my favourite thing to do in any new city: bought tickets for the tacky red tourist bus! I know most people think they are lame, but it really is a great way to see everything and it also works great as your public transportation!

The first stop we got off at was for the Dublin Castle, which I didn’t even know existed but was pretty neat. We had tea and took #selfies in the obscenely large mirrors that decorated the place before heading back out in search of Saint Patricks Cathedral.

Our last stop that day was the Guinness Factory. It was awesome. Mostly because entrance came with free beer. We wandered around the 5 floors of the place pretending to be really interested in what makes up their beer before getting to the tasting room. After that we finished off in the Sky Terrace bar where we took in the city lights while enjoying our free drink.

Saturday was by far the best. We got up bright and early (a reoccurring theme on this trip as you will later learn) and headed off on our tour to Blarney Castle. I was really excited about this because the past summer I had seen photos of my Grandma and her friends kissing the stone and after she passed away I was excited to follow her footsteps.

We stopped in the adorable town of Cork on our way to the castle and we wandered through the market and took a random ferris wheel ride in the middle of the city. For those of you who don’t know Danyka and I, we have a weird obsession with taking romantic ferris wheel rides together… I’m not sure why.

Getting to the castle was magical. It was a beautiful day;  the grass was misty from the overnight rain and there was a subtle fog that surrounded the base of the castle. It was really neat being in a castle that old. Only the partial stone walls remained and I had to constantly remind myself that people had once lived there.

Once we had wandered through the downstairs room we started the trek up to the top where we could kiss the stone. Now, I’m incredibly impressed that my 80-year-old Grandma was able to climb those stairs. They were so narrow and there were a lot of them! When we finally reached the top I was totally out of breath (I counted that as my cardio for the day).

Now, kissing the stone was not at all what I was expecting. You have to lean back over a hole hundreds of meters above the ground, which they do not tell you in the visitor guide. They really do make you work for that ‘good luck’. Naturally, I was terrified. I made Danyka go first and then after whining and panicking I leaned back, gripped the guy for dear life and kissed the stupid stone. I probably contracted some kind of disease from the millions of people that had gone before me.

Fun fact: kissing the Blarney Stone is the most unsanitary tourist attraction in the world, in case you were wondering. 

Our last stop on the tour was Cobh, which was the last port that the Titanic departed from before sinking. By the time we made it here we were both so tired, hungry and cold that we just found a little cafe and had a cup of tea.

After sleeping all four hours on the bus trip back (another trend you will notice with me and transportation) we ran back to our hostel to change before meeting my flat mate Dan and his girlfriend, Kelly, at Temple Bar.

Temple Bar is the trendy area of Dublin and also the name of a famous bar. We walked in and could barely move… The place was packed! We managed to find a seat on the heated patio and got some drinks. We had a great last night in Dublin enjoying each others company, making fun of Dan’s ‘Hunter Hayes’ impressions and drinking Guinness – just like the Irish (they actually drink Guinness, right?)

Then it was time to say goodbye to Dublin. To be honest, after the rain, wind and cold that engulfed us on our last day we were pretty excited to head off to a warmer destination.

See you soon, Roma!

With Love,

CW