On the weekend of March 15-19th I went to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! On the Friday we went to Dublin for the day and saw the Trinity College campus, but we didn’t get to see the Book of Kells due to the long line up in the rain and the expensive price. We then made our way around the city and found a Tim Hortons like in London! We got excited. Next we went to the Guinness Brewery and had to wait 45 minutes in line to get in. The line up was well worth it though and the brewery self guided tour was much larger than I thought it was – we spent the entire afternoon there. The whole building was about 7 or 8 floors with different exhibits about the making of the beer. We ended the tour off with a pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar overlooking the city of Dublin. Of course I ended up giving most of my pint to Mike. It was amazing spending the day before St. Patrick’s Day in the Gravity Bar crowded with people all in green. Next, we walked over to the Temple Bar area where many celebrations were taking place. We went in a few touristy shops and walked around the area enjoying the atmosphere. Eventually, it was time for us to head back to Belfast where we were staying for the weekend.
On Saturday we got up and walked around the city of Belfast. We walked along the boardwalk at the waterfront, and went up to the dome at the top of the shopping mall overlooking the city. After finding Irish souvenirs to wear for St. Patrick’s Day, it was then time to watch the parade. Shortly after the parade a series of sketchy events happened to us. We started walking to the area where the Peace Walls are, and quickly realized that it was a Protestant area of town. Of course we were all still dressed with our Irish flags and scarves, so a man and his kid stopped their car and told us to take them off since the area was Protestant. We quickly realized what we were doing and stuffed them in Mike’s backpack. We ended up finding the murals, but also passed by houses that had smashed and boarded up windows. We wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. We then made our way back to the city centre to go on yet another sketchy adventure.
Most of the kids in the city were aged 12-15 and seemed like juvenile delinquents. They were all VERY drunk. We decided to walk over to the Titanic museum and to see the port where it was built, and on the way we passed by a group of probably 100 of those young teenagers who were acting very strange. We then realized that they were all EXTREMELY drunk and acting VERY obnoxious. We walked past them all very quick. After an unsuccessful trip to the Titanic sights (museum doesn’t open until the end of March), we passed by where the group of teenagers used to be. Thankfully some police had shown up and scattered the kids away. The kids were still all walking in a similar direction as us though, and they were all very drunk still, crying, and limping as if there were a few fights. We couldn’t believe how they were acting – so embarrassing for the city. As we nearly passed all of them 8 or 9 police officers showed up to deal with them. We didn’t stay to watch – just got out of there.
For our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations we didn’t end up doing anything really exciting. We talked for a while in the common kitchen area in the hostel as we ate dinner. We then decided to go out to a pub somewhere to experience an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day. Problem was: they were all full or closed because they were too full. It was a failure of an adventure. We then came back to the hostel and just talked for awhile – not very exciting.
On Sunday we took a tour to the Giant’s Causeway. We started off the tour seeing Carrickfergus Castle, and then the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which we crossed! It was very nerve wracking, but the view afterwards was well worth it. The water around that area was as blue as the Caribbean – couldn’t believe it! We took the 3-hour coastal route, which was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining, sheep were everywhere, and the water was sparkling under the sun. We stopped at the Old Bushmills Distillery for lunch, which is the oldest licensed distillery in the world. Before we reached the Giant’s Causeway, we stopped at Dunluce Castle for pictures – really wish we could have gone in! Finally we had reached our destination – the Giant’s Causeway! Seeing the hexagonally shaped rocks was SO cool, and some of them were 12 metres high! We spent over an hour there and even though we had a sun shower, it didn’t stop us from having a good time. It was then time to go back to Belfast, but that day was definitely the highlight of the weekend.
On Monday we walked around the city basically wasting time until we left to catch the bus for the ferry to go home. There wasn’t anything to do in Belfast except to shop, which we didn’t really feel like doing. The highlight of that day was the ferry, which had a cinema on it, video games, free ipads with Internet to use, restaurants, shops, casinos, and a spa on it. It was a lot nicer than I expected! We then had a two-hour bus ride that took us back to Glasgow when we reached the ferry port, which drove along the coast part of the way. It was definitely a good weekend, and I’d go back to Dublin and the countryside of Northern Ireland in a heartbeat. We’ll see if I end up back in Ireland at all in May.
Tomorrow Mike and I are off on our big Eurotrip! We're starting in Milan and then going to Venice, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels, Paris, Nice, and Monte Carlo ALL in 3 weeks! Definitely can't wait!
Tomorrow Mike and I are off on our big Eurotrip! We're starting in Milan and then going to Venice, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels, Paris, Nice, and Monte Carlo ALL in 3 weeks! Definitely can't wait!
