Ireland

I went to Ireland last weekend so here's my report.

It was a pretty hectic week, come back from Lisbon at 1am monday morning just to take off to Ireland Wednesday evening. For this trip it was just Keegan and I.

This was also the first trip that we flew out of Geneva, so we needed a 3 hour trainride to get to the airport. We flew into Belfast fairly late and slept in the airport when we got there. It was quite good as the couches were padded and warm, and we had the security looking over us the whole night. Much better then the other nights, but more on that later. We took a bus for Dublin the next morning at got there around noon. The first place we checked out Dublin castle.



The original castle was destroyed a couple times, most notibly during a fire. They tried to save all the records (marriages, land ownership..ect) in the record tower so they decided to blow up parts of the castle to prevent the fire from spreading. They succeeded in saving it, but ended up blowing up the rest of the castle, good stuff. We took a quick tour inside and saw some pretty neat stuff such as a huge throne.



Afterwards we headed over to Kilmainham Jail which was used for all the prisoners during the revolts and revolutions. The place was really interesting and the guides told the stories of many different prisoners. It was definately a good place to check out. The main hall looked a lot like what I picture alkatraz to be like and the solitary cells in the basement are pretty crazy.





Afterwards we were taken outside to the execution yard. There were 2 spots marked by crosses where it took place. 1 was right by the gate where james Connolly was killed. In Irish law the prisoner has to be able to stand in front of his executioner but he was show in the leg and was dying of gangrene and was unable to stand. They sat him on a box and shot him anyways, which angered a ton of people.



That night we headed to a pub to get some food, drinks, and look for a place to stay (we didn't have a hostel). We went to this place they brewed a bunch of their own beer (and carried like a million other kinds from all over the world) and they had some good house beers. I grabbed the Porterhouse XXXX Stout and keegs had the Porterhouse Red.


For food we had some Irish stew and some Meat and Potatoes dish. We tried our "Oktoberfest" strategy to score some housing but no luck this time and left at 2am to go for somewhere to sleep.

Here's where we slept for the night.


and here's our room


yup, that's right, we did the "homeless bum" strategy and just rolled out our sleeping bags there. It was actually pretty comfortable and warm but we got kicked out by a random security guard at 6am. Urban camping was fun though. Later in the morning we went to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. They selected 4 people for a whiskey tasting and I was luckly enough to get picked, score!

The tour was ok, but everything was models and not the actually production stuff.


For the tasting there was 3 irish whiskeys (Jamesons, Powers, and Paddy's). Everyone did the safe bet and picked the Jamesons, except me; i chose the Power. Luckily for me they are all distilled under the same parent company so I was safe for now. It has a sharper taste so I liked it more. Next as a Scottish whiskey (Johnnie Walker) and american (jack daniels). I liked the scotch the most but got pressured into choosing the local one.


Afterwards we went to check out the parade. Nothing to special, just the usual bands and floats. It was quiet backed though.






The next stop was Trinity College to check out the Book of Kell which is some original manuscript of the bible or something. It was pretty colorful and looked like a picture bible, but old.


The last stop of the night was the Guinness Brewery. We picked a wicked day to go as they were giving away free samples of Oysters and beer. 30 oysters and some beers later we went on the tour.



At the end of the tour we did a guinness pour contest to see who could do the perfect pour.


We didn't win as we both over poured. Keegan's is the first from the right, mine is the 2nd.


We got to drink our glasses, so ovepouring was a good thing. Slainte!


We took the bus back to Belfast that night.

The next night we took a day tour up to the northern coast of Ireland. On the drive there we saw the cranes used to build the Titanic. They're named Sampson and Goliath and are the 2nd and 3rd largest in the world.



We took the scenic route along the coast which didn't disapoint.



The first stop was a old rope bridge called the carrick-a-rede rope bridge. Unfortunately it was too windy and they didn't let us cross it, but area was very beautiful.







We stopped for lunch at the town of Bushmills and made a quick stop to the Bushmills distillery for the people who wanted to go (we passed to spend more time at the other locations).

We made a quick stopover to see the Dunlace Castle. It was abandoned after part of the castle fell into the sea.


The last stop was the highlight of the day. It's a place called the Giant's Causeway which is an area with all these hexagonal shaped rocks all over. It was really cool to just wander around the area and was such a peaceful area. We were jumping around the rocks and I went to jump across this stream that feeds into the Atlantic and at the last minute figured it was a bad idea but slipped on algae and fell. Oops, my 2nd time swimming in the Atlantic in a week, not bad, and I manage to cut up my legs every time as well :) Check out some pictures and Wiki it if you want to find out more.










We got back to Belfast in the evening and we went for a walk around the town. One place we walked by was the Europa Hotel, which is in hte Guinness book of records as the most bombed hotel in the world, interesting title.



We eventually walked (accidentily) to the sketchiest region in town, the Falls Street and Shankhil street (one is Catholic one is Protestant). Its more or less the areas where most of the fighting took place. It was pretty creepy there with a bridge all covered in barb wire, political grafitti all over and a primary school all decked out in wire screens, metal doors...ect. We even saw an armored police car driving around. Crazy stuff.





We somehow got sick and felt pretty crappy the last day so we took it pretty easy and just went to Belfast Castle and the Cavehill area. We wanted to walk up the hill but just didn't have the strength.






After chilling in the castle for a bit we headed to the airport to go home. After a long flight and train ride, we got home at 1am and then right back to work the next day. All in all it was a pretty sweet trip.

Nothing planned for next weekend but the weekend after that is Krakow, so looking forward to that.