Day 136-137: Irish Exploration

Monday, May 31, 2010: Dublin, Ireland

The beauty that is Dublin

Early, early Monday morning, Mateja and I stealthily left the hostel hotel room armed with our backpacks and checked out at the front desk below. It was just before 4AM that we began walking down the street to the bus stop about a kilometer away to catch the last night bus that would take us to Victoria Station. We bought our bus tickets at the automated machine just across the street from the hostel and began walking towards our stop. About halfway, we ran into the girl from our hostel dorm room that had so abruptly left late in the previous night. We were surprised to see her just now heading back to the hostel from her night out (apparently she was in some kind of dance program/group) and told her a quick goodbye.

 Mateja's first KK!

We made it to the bus stop with time to spare and attempted to make conversation with one another in order to stay awake and not miss our bus. We managed to do so and boarded the nearly empty bus that took us to Victoria Station. Once we arrived, we had to walk a ways to get to the coach station, and we sleepily ambled our way there. We arrived early again to the bus stop and spoke to the driver in the coach. He explained that the bus he was driving was also going to London Stansted Airport, our destination, but left 20 minutes earlier than the one we had booked tickets for. We explained that we were on the later bus, but he offered to take us on his, since it was nowhere near full. We put our things down below and boarded the bus, thankful to have a seat in which to sleep for the next hour.

Quickly enough, the coach arrived at Stansted and let us all out. We were early to the airport as well, as our whole day was running early so far (better that than late I guess!). By this time it was nearing 7AM, so we stopped at the Krispy Kreme in the airport and treated ourselves to a hot cup of coffee and a tasty donut. This was Mateja's first Krispy Kreme, a fun experience indeed! She decided after one bite that it was too sweet and decided to scrape off the chocolate and sprinkles that adorned the top of her fried ring of dough. Fair enough :)

We boarded our 6 GBP (Great British Pound) Ryanair flight to Dublin, the first of four flights we would be taking on this trip alone! We landed in the capital of the Republic of Ireland mid-morning and caught a bus to the city centre. I was super excited at the airport after the security officer that scrutinized my reason for being in Ireland stamped a green seal in my passport that served as proof of my stay in Ireland! Not to mention, Mateja and I were both happy to be back in a land that accepts euros....you do not even know!

Our waterfront view

We knew that we would have limited time in Dublin, as it was essentially just a layover between London and Belfast. Our first chore (after stopping at the Tourist Info point we passed to get a map) was to locate the Dublin coach station and buy our bus tickets for the afternoon trip to Belfast. We managed to find the bus station easily and were sold two tickets to Belfast at 4PM by a typical Irish boy, that is, he had red hair! We also visited the basement of the station where there were lockers available for rent. We stowed our things together in a locker and inserted our coins to secure our belongings. Thinking back to our trip to Marseilles, we were so thankful to have the lockers for the day; the French really need to take a hint!

Trinity College, Dublin

As it was nearing noon and we had not eaten much yet this day, we stopped to get some lunch. Mateja had the brilliant idea to go the the Subway we had passed on our way to the train station so that we could each get a stamp for my card that I had been working on filling the entire semester. This would give me a free sub for when I got back to Tilburg!

Book of Kells

Unfortunatley, this Subway did not do the stamps, but we decided to get subs anyhow, and took our deli lunch to the riverfront where we ate and watched the happenings of the city all around us. After finishing our lunch, we walked to Trinity College, a historic site and University that Mateja had researched online. We toured the campus on our own and walked over to the line for the viewing of the Book of Kells. Deciding that the fee of somewhere around 10 GBP was too high just to see a book (that you know is probably under glass and you can only get as close as about five feet away from) , we turned back and exited the beautiful campus, anxious to make the most of our time and explore the city.

St. Stephen's Park

We walked along the famous Grafton Street and window shopped as we wandered to our next stop. We came to St. Stephen's Park, a beautiful area full of greenery and people relaxing. We enjoyed resting there for a few minutes as Mateja wrote postcards and I caught up on my blog notes. Sitting in the heat of the sun, we realized that we were quite thirsty and decided to find a nice Irish pub where we could get a drink.

Magners vs. Guinness

Mateja had Guinness on her mind (hey,  we were in Dublin!), and so we found a place, Sinnott's Bar, that served Guinness at a reasonable price and headed inside. We had to take the stairs down, as the pub was below ground! We chose a cozy table for two and ordered a drink each from the waitress. Mateja was satisfied with her Guinness and I was content with my Magners (Irish cider that Daniel got me started on).

Mateja's fresh manicure

After we were refreshed from our afternoon drink, we continued our hurried exploration of Dublin. Passing by, we couldn't refrain from venturing inside H&M, a store we were quite familiar with from all of our shopping both in Tilburg and on all our trips. I think we went in at least one H&M on every single trip this semester! Although each one has just about the same things, we never tired of looking around at the relatively inexpensive clothes and accessories. Neither of us bought anything, but Mateja took advantage of a free manicure by painting all five nails on one of her hands, each finger sporting a different color. I followed suit, but decided to just paint one nail on one of my hands. Silliness! We left H&M and right outside we bumped into a "Wet Paint" sign. Struck by the irony, I captured this moment through the lens of my camera, as Mateja showed off her fresh manicure next to the sign.

Dublin Castle

We headed next to Dublin Castle, which we were both excited to see and hoping to take a tour. However, we got there late enough that the tours were done for the day and the last one running would make us miss our bus. So we explored the castle whereabouts on our own and were sadly disappointed with what we saw. There really was not much to the place. We looked around for a bit before heading back through town to the bus station.

View from the bus window

On the way, we stopped for a pre-dinner/bus journey snack, which we ate in the bus station while waiting for our departure. We boarded the bus shortly after 4PM, and it was packed with other tourists heading north to Belfast. We said goodbye to Dublin as the bus pulled out and our two-hour journey north began. While I wanted to stay awake during the ride and see the lovely Irish countryside, I could not ward off the sleepiness that was coming over me. We had been going all day, since 3AM, and we were pooped! Mateja and I both fell asleep seated next to one another on the bus, waking up intermittently as the bus rolled over bumps and catching short glimpses of the country we were passing through. We were both lucky enough to get a view of the Irish sheep in the fields as we rode.

Katie showing us the map of Belfast

We arrived in Belfast around 6PM and were to meet my friend, Katie McKinney, who had studied abroad a whole year at Agnes Scott during my sophomore year, at the bus station. We had just disembarked the bus when I heard my name, looked up and spotted Katie walking towards us. I gave her a big hug and introduced her to Mateja. We gathered our things and headed through the station to the street side where Katie's father was parked with the car to take us to her home in Newton Breda, essentially a suburb of  Belfast. We rode sleepily through the hills of Belfast up to Katie's quaint home. We unpacked the car and headed inside where we were introduced to her mother and shown our rooms.

Katie's family was so sweet! They had prepared a room each for Mateja and I. Mateja stayed in Katie's room upstairs, while I stayed across the hall in Katie's sister's bedroom. It was so nice to have our own space where we could spread out and relax! We were so appreciative of their hospitality, especially as we descended the stairs and were greeted by a table laden with Irish beef stew and bread. We joined Katie's family for a yummy warm meal and enjoyed sharing with them about our trip so far.They were anxious to hear all about Tilburg and our semester, and we chatted with them for awhile.

Graffiti in Northern Ireland

Since we had a limited time in Belfast, we decided to make the most of the night (even though Mateja and I were exhausted) and go ahead and explore a bit of Belfast. We returned to the city by car, with Katie's mother driving us this time. She dropped us off and Katie began giving us a tour of the city. We awed at the buildings and graffiti reminiscent of the ongoing strife between the two sectors of Ireland that adorned the exterior walls.

Proost to Magners!

As the sun set and it began to get dark, Katie invited us to go to an Irish pub for a drink. We went first to Duke of York, which was rather busy, and enjoyed a drink. I had Magners again....hey, I was in Ireland! We relaxed and enjoyed our drinks for a bit before heading to another Irish pub nearby that Katie explained was 400 years old! It was called Kellys Cellars and we walked in and looked around a bit. We didn't stay too long, as it was super noisy and crowded. Our final pub for the evening was called Madden's. Katie took us here, becuase this pub features live traditional Irish music. We sat and enjoyed the sounds of the Irish tunes and took in the whole experience.

Worn out from our long day and mini pub crawl, we returned back to Katie's home via bus and settled in for the night. Mateja and I both slept comfortably in our own bedrooms.


Tuesday, June 1, 2010: Belfast, Ireland

View of Belfast from Tesco

The next morning we slept in a bit, but rose early enough to get in a full day of Belfast! We found Katie downstairs and she showed us our breakfast options. We chose to eat potato bread, an Irish specialty! It was super yummy :)

Botanic Garden

After breakfast, we headed to Tesco, a local grocery store (where Katie actually works) in our attempt to find an outlet converter that would allow me to straighten my hair and Mateja to charge her phone, which was dead at this point. Unfortunately, this Tesco was out of the proper converters, so we bought chocolate instead and awed at the view of the rolling hills of Belfast from the strategic viewpoint of the enormous Tesco front windows.

C.S. Lewis Reading Room

We opted to take the bus into the city, since we had walked a ways already to get to Tesco. Our first stop was at Queen's University, Katie's Uni. She gave us a tour of her school, which was really fun to see, especially since she knows all about my home University. We walked the campus and looked at an art exhibit before passing through the adjacent botanic gardens and coming to the Ulster Museum. We also visted the Uni's libary, which features a C.S. Lewis reading room. We had to be super quiet since it was exam time, but we still managed to take a photo at this memorable local.

Traditional Irish dress

Back at the Ulster Museum, we explored the multiple stories of this interactive museum that told all about the history of Northern Ireland and its inhabitants. We saw memorabilia from the Titanic (which was built near Belfast) and played around in the childrens' section. We dressed up in traditional Irish clothes and hats and laughed at our own appearances. As we left, we stopped in the gift shop where Mateja bought a new mini mirror to keep in her purse. It was really cute and she really liked it!

Lovin' the hats, ladies!

After the museum, we revisited a sight we had seen the night before when we drove into town. Just around the corner from the museum was a small cupcake shop called "Once Upon a Cupcake". We thought we would go see what it was all about, since we were enthusiastic about the idea of cupcake shops in Europe. Inside the shop, we were amazed at their variety and creativity of flavors, but decided not to order anything.

Cupcakes in Belfast!

We began to get hungry and phoned a friend of Katie's to meet up. Mateja and I treated Katie to lunch at a burrito place she recommended close to the University, Bonjum. We were so hungry that we ate very quicjly, but thoroughly enjoyed our tasty burritos!

Afterward, we crossed the street to a cafe called Clement's where we met Katie's friend, Sarah, for coffee. I sipped my mocha latte and we all caught up. After we finished our coffee, Sarah drove us to the City Hall, where we planned to continue our tour of Belfast, led by the marvelous Katie McKinney.  We were disappointed to find out that the tours of the City Hall were not running that day, but we got to go inside and look around a bit. We  said goodbye to Sarah who had to leave and headed down to a nearby shopping street.

City Hall, Belfast

Katie had heard that we had visited Primark in London and promised to take us to the one in Belfast. We were excited to go again, and enjoyed this visit to Primark much more. The store was much less crowded, making it much easier to actually shop. We milled around in the shop for nearly an hour, leaving with bags full of goodies and gifts that we got for super cheap! (for example, I bought two nice pairs of tights for 50 pence each!)

Victoria Square

After we were through in Primark, we headed to Victoria Square, an outdoor shopping area kind of similar to a mall in America. We looked around and checked out the films playing at the theater. We made a game plan for the evening. Mateja and I would go watch the film Tooth Fairy at the 3 GBP movie deal night, while Katie would go to school and work on a project she had to complete for her art class. Before we separated, Katie took us to Marks and Spencers, a gigantic department store, where we each picked out some items from their food shop for supper.

We parted ways, and Mateja and I returned to ODEON cinema for the movie. We ate our small packaged sandwiches we had bought for supper and decided to spoil ourselves and indulge in Ben and Jerry's ice cream during the movie (since they conveniently sold it at the theater!). We relaxed and enjoyed the film, which turned out to be really good. I did not think it was going to be, but I really enjoyed it!

Posing with Katie's Uni

Afterward,  we met up with Katie outside Victoria Station and took the bus back to her home. It would be another early morning for us, as we would be boarding our second flight of the trip to go back to Britain, this time to Glasgow, Scotland. We rested comfortably again for the night in Katie's home, excited about the prospect of Scotland and seeing our friend, Daniel, again in the morning.

Altogether, I enjoyed our time in Ireland. Although it was quite hurried and we only got to spend two days in the country, I was thankful that we had the chance to go and that we got to stay with Katie and meet her family. Katie was a great tour guide, and we really enjoyed staying with her and seeing her again. I wish we could have seen more of the countryside or gotten to explore more, but I feel like we packed a lot into two short days! Next time I visit Ireland, I will definitely allot more time to take in the beautiful country.