The Luck of the Irish

Just enjoying Ireland

On the journey from London to Dublin, I was very much questioning if the Luck of the Irish was on my side. Everything started out fine, I made it onto the first train that left central London and headed toward the town of Crewe, where I would then transfer to another train to the port town of Holyhead. Only, about 45 minutes into the journey, it became clear that the journey would not be a smooth as I first thought. With some problems arising with the tracks, we were paused for a good hour. We didn't reach our first stop until at least an hour and a half later than expected. This meant that we had missed our connecting train to Holyhead. Now, our ferry didn't leave until 2:40am, so there was still a little hope. Unfortunately, a coach bus did not arrive to take us to Holyhead for about 45 minutes. We reached Holyhead at 3:00 am just 20 minutes short of the departure time. I would of made it to the ferry if the time had not jumped forward at 1am. So, I spent one night of my journey in a very cold train/ferry station. I did not get much sleep due to the fact that it was cold. At 8am the next morning I finally got onto a Ferry to Dublin. The ferry ride lasted 4 hours and I couldn't tell you much about it due to the fact I slept the whole time. When I finally reached Dublin 7 hours after originally planned, I was ready to check into the hostel and eat food other than chocolate bars. Well Ireland is celebrating there 100th Easter Rising this year. This is a celebratory event marking the independence of Ireland from England. I knew this celebration was happening before going of course, I had just planned to get there in the early morning to miss the crowds. Instead, I arrived in the middle of a 3 hour parade. This meant my friends and I had to walk completely around a huge parade. On top of this, it started to rain, and it really came out of nowhere because on one side of Dublin it was sunny but on the other rain. About 5 minutes from the hostel, I was wet, hungry, and convinced in a past life I must of made a leprechaun mad, the rain stopped and I was greeted with one of the best rainbows I have ever seen. 

The rainbow!

I stopped walking, closed my eyes and remembered it was Easter, on this day I celebrated the fact that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins. This rainbow reminded me of the promise God made to his people that he would never flood the earth again. When we reached the Hostel 5 minutes later, I felt rejuvenated, yes my day had been bad, but I didn't just spend 40 days in the desert without food, no I was traveling around Europe... I was in Ireland for heavens sake! After that point, my luck definitely began to change for the better. 

one of main bridges in Dublin

Standing in front of St. Patricks Cathedral 

Unlike London, I didn't really know what I wanted to see or do. In fact, I really had no plan at all. The first day we were most concerned about eating food, and finding a church to go to Easter mass at. We ended up stumbling into a small restaurant on the main street. Here I had a traditional Irish Sunday roast, which was delicious! After dinner, we made our way to a catholic church for Easter mass. Now, I'm not catholic, but as it was Easter, and like 90% of Irish are catholic, my choices for types of churches were limited. Therefore, I went to catholic mass. This actually was not my first mass, considering 2 out of 3 of my swim friends were catholic, I had attended a few with them before. After mass, we explored the streets some more and then called it an early night before our adventures the next day. Our first full day, we took a free guided tour where we saw some famous churches, Trinity College, and learned a little more about the history of Dublin. 

Enjoying my pint at Guinness

After the tour, we headed to the Guinness Store House. This was really fun, we got to go through a museum and learn the making of Guinness as well as learn how to properly taste beer, and smell it. This was actually not my first time touring a brewery, I have gone to Budweiser in St. Louis with my family, but it was my first time tasting a Guinness. The room where you get your "free" pint is a circular room with a panoramic view of Dublin, the perfect place to drink a beer. Unlike my mom, I actually enjoyed the darker beer! Overall it was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone. 

In Dalkey

The next day, we ventured a little into the country and visited the town of Dalkey. This was just a 30-minute train ride out of Dublin and well worth it. The town has a very nice park where you can climb up pretty high and have an amazing view of the Irish Sea. The luck of the Irish continued to increase because although the weather called for rain, it never rained once that day! 

Stopped in town of Kinvara on way to cliffs

Bottom of Cliffs

The last full day was by far my favorite; on the third full day we took a trip to the Cliffs of Moher. On this day, it was clear that our luck had really changed. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and blue skies. Not many people can visit the cliffs when it is sunny and blue skies. Usually, it is really cloudy or rainy.  Due to the beautiful weather the tour group was actually able to go on a boat and see the cliffs from the bottom. If you ever visit the cliffs and it is a nice enough day to do this, I 100% recommend. 

Top of Cliffs

Once reaching the top of the Cliffs the beauty blew me away. It's times like that, seeing some part of nature that is unbelievably beautiful that I know without a doubt in my mind that God exist. How lucky am I to get to enjoy all of his beautiful creations. Unfortunately, we had to leave the cliffs but one day I hope to go back and once again bask in their beauty. Hopefully I will have as great of weather as I had that day.  Overall, my time in Ireland was pretty great. I enjoyed the city of Dublin but I don't know if I would ever visit again. This being said, I would defiantly visit Ireland again because I absolutely loved the Irish countryside.

The Cliffs of Moher

Some Tips for Ireland:

1. Experience the countryside!

2.They are very proud of their country and heritage and have the Irish Flags flying everywhere. (This reminded me a lot of the US where there is at least one flag on every street. In the other countries I have visited I only maybe see 2 or 3 of that countries flag)

3. In Dublin, Temple Bar is where a large amount of bars are, but they are full of tourists and very crowded. This is a good place to go eat, I recommend The Quays Irish Restaurant. I ate here and it was delicious. I had Guinness stew! 

4. If you want some good Irish music while you drink a pint, I recommend The Cobblestone. This bar was down the street from our hostel and off the so-called beaten track. It was crowded but not just with tourists, there were many locals coming to hear the music. 

5. The Queen of Tarts is a great place to stop in the afternoon and have a sweet homemade treat and drink some tea. I enjoyed some delicious chocolate cake and tried a great fruit tart. 

6. Finally bring a rain jacket and umbrella; I doubt you can stay in Ireland without it raining! 

Amsterdam

Reunited with Rego

After leaving Dublin I flew to Amsterdam where I met up with one of my high school swim friends Regan and her dad. They were gracious enough to let me crash there father daughter trip. My feelings towards Amsterdam are so so. I loved the architecture of the buildings and the canals in the city were beautiful. I also loved learning about Amsterdam's rich history. As for the overall feeling of the city, I didn't really care for it. The city was a little dirtier than the other two I have visited and the roads were pretty small making the car look very out of place. 

Biking in Amsterdam, it's a miracle I survived

The bikes on the other hand fit right in. Amsterdam has so many bikes, in fact they have more bikes than people and an estimated 30,000 are pulled out of the canals each year. I actually witnessed a barge going through the canals and cleaning it of bikes! I had the chance to take a bike tour, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done, with cars and bikes whizzing passed you, it's basically every man for himself. I actually witnessed a person riding a bike get hit by a car. Everyone was fine, but after that moment I was happy to never ride a bike in Amsterdam again. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam but, the city might of been just a little to liberal for me! I would like to go back to the Netherlands and visit the countryside though!

Enjoying some fries with mayo, a Amsterdam specialty

Observations on surviving Amsterdam:

1. The guy to girl ratio is like 3:1 I would not feel comfortable walking around the city by myself

2. A Coffee shop IS NOT A PLACE TO GET COFFEE, it's to smoke weed

3. Public smoking of  weed in Amsterdam is okay. The odor of it in the air is prevalent,  so don't be shocked.

4. Prostitution is legal, so ditto #3 on the "don't be shocked" part.

5. WATCH OUT FOR BIKES, they are crazy drivers!
 6. Enjoy the lovely architecture

Standing in front of the main canal

My Easter travels were beyond wonderful, with only a few bumps a long the way I returned to Linz tired, pockets empty, but rich with new cultural experiences. I once again am beyond thankful for the amazing opportunity's I have. My next stop is Budapest! Where overall things will be much cheaper then the cities I visited over Easter. Thank God. I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes about travel.
 "Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else"-Lawrence Block 
Love, Alex