Summary of day four: a day filled with disaster and wonderful surprises. Let’s get this show on the road.
The goal for this morning was to visit an indoor market called Liberty Market. So, after the regular shower, get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth routine, I set out in the rainy streets of Dublin, on my way to said market. When I arrived there, however, I quickly realized that the market wasn’t actually open. As a matter of fact, there was a large banner hanging in the street – right next to the market entrance – saying something to the likes of “Liberty Market – open on Saturday from 11 am”. So there I was, in the pouring rain, with no umbrella and no plans left for the morning. It looked like the day was going to be a complete catastrophe.
Being a great problem solver (/sarcasm), I decided to carry out my afternoon plans a little bit earlier and then see how the evening would go. All in all, this was an excellent decision.
My plan was to go visit St Patrick’s Cathedral and Marsh’s Library in the afternoon. These two were very conveniently located right next to each other. The struggle started when I arrived at the cathedral, though. There was an entrance fee of about €5 but it turned out I didn’t have any cash on me whatsoever. Now imagine trying to find an ATM abroad, in a city you’ve never been – and not even in the city centre, at that.
After some asking around, I found out that there was in fact an ATM inside a supermarket right around the corner. So obviously, I rushed there, as it was still raining cats and dogs and I didn’t fancy just standing out in the cold without getting anywhere. I went inside the store and walked to the back, where the ATM was located. As I approached the cash machine, something sparked a feeling of disappointment in me. There was a sign on the face of the machine saying “This machine is out of order”.
By now, it was only around 10:15 am and it seemed like everything that could have gone wrong, did, in fact, go wrong. I went over to the cashier and asked if he could let me withdraw some money. It turned out he could only give me cashback if I bought something from the store. So I grabbed a Mars bar from the counter and withdrew my money. I finally returned to the cathedral and paid my entrance fee.
Time check: 10:25. Having arrived inside, I was looking around at the back of the cathedral when I heard a man call out that there would be a free, guided tour starting at 10:30. Naturally, I decided to stop exploring and wait for the man to tell me interesting anecdotes and fun facts about the place. I’m glad I did, because I actually learned quite a lot from this tour.
A view of the inside of St Patrick’s Cathedral.
After this wonderful tour of St Patrick’s Cathedral, I moved on to Marsh’s Library. By now, the rain had more or less stopped. I entered into the picturesque staircase leading up to the library itself and I was intoxicated. This is what it looked like.
The staircase leading up to the main building of Marsh’s Library. (sorry for the poor quality, this was taken from my travel video – will be uploaded later)
Sadly, in the library itself, photography was not allowed, so I can’t show you any pictures of the inside. You can check out their website for a little insight, though.
As soon as I got into the main room of the library, there was an employee waiting to greet any guests coming to visit. He informed me that the admission cost had been scratched because of the ongoing painting and carpenting work that was being done. I didn’t mind, because I was not allowed to take any pictures anyway. So I strolled around the library for about half an hour, admiring the sight and smell of all these old books in one place.
By now, it was around 1 pm and I had already done everything I had planned for that day – except dinner. So when I came out of the library, I strolled into one direction and just kept going. That’s how I found some great things and places I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
About two streets away from the library, I found this cute little art shop. They sold a creative of creative products, ranging from tote bags to greeting cards. There was one card in particular that I found rather amusing, so I couldn’t help but snap a quick picture of it.
Even though I have no idea what Busáras is, I’ve always been a sucker for puns and linguistic humour.
By now, the rain had stopped falling from the sky, which I was very thankful for. My shoes had become all wet because of the puddles on the streets and my coat was drenched as well. I managed to find a place to dry myself, though.
Somehow, I ended up at Dublinia. This is a museum right next to Christ Church Cathedral, entirely devoted to the history of the Vikings in Ireland. I hadn’t originally planned to go here, and I hadn’t even heard of this place before passing by, but it looked like an interesting place to visit. I went in.
The museum itself was a very interactive and informing place to spend some time. There were wax remakes of Vikings, you could spell your own name in ancient runes, and there was even a range of Viking clothing you could try on.
After this refreshing change of pace from the whole walking around in the rain without a clue as to where I’m going thing, I took the opportunity to climb the adjacent and accompanying St Michael’s Tower. This led to a great vantage point with pretty cool views of Dublin.
Having done everything on my list and more, I decided it was about time to head back to my hostel and freshen up. I walked along the river Liffey for quite a while, as my hostel wasn’t quite in the city centre. I rediscovered a coffee bar I had been to a couple of days before, and decided to hop in and come to my senses in there.
The bar’s name is Dwarf Jar. They don’t have a website, but they do have a Facebook page. If you’re ever in Dublin and looking for a great, cozy place to drink coffee or tea and eat something, this is where you’ll want to go. My favourite was the chai latte, at my trusty seat by the window.
My view while I was enjoying my chai latte. It’s surprisingly fun to just sit and watch people hurry off to their destinations.
Aside from dinner, this was the last exciting thing that happened on day 4 of my adventure. I returned to my hostel, freshened up, and sat in the hallway editing my video and checking my dinner reservation. While I was sitting there, I met a young Swedish woman by the name of Ana. She was sleeping in the adjacent room and I had a nice talk with her.
For my last night in Dublin, I decided to have dinner at a pub not far from my hostel. This was pretty much the only healthy dinner I had during my five days there. I decided to go for a vegetarian curry, and it was better than I had expected. Again, there were problems with finding money, because the pub’s machine wouldn’t accept my card. It all worked out in the end, though.
Soon after, I went back to the hostel and got to sleep early for once. This was the only night that I was all alone in my 6-person room. I enjoyed the well-needed quiet night and drifted away to sleep peacefully.
Thank you for reading this second-to-last blog update post! Sorry these last couple posts are a little bit late, the past days have been quite busy.
-S
A day of walking, having lunch in a playground and making mistakes. Welcome to today’s update post!
As per usual, I woke up about an hour before my alarm would have gone off because of my rowdy roommates. As soon as my bunkmate found out that I was awake because of her friend’s alarm, she came down to ask me to borrow my charger and adapter. I would later find out that that wasn’t actually my smartest decision ever (but more on that later).
My morning was pretty much the same as yesterday: I took a shower, headed down for breakfast and came back up to get ready for my plans of the day. Today’s schedule: Kilmainham Gaol and Guinness Storehouse. And also stressing out because I had never taken the tram before (at least not abroad).
According to my schedule, I had all morning to do the tour in Kilmainham Gaol. While planning my trip, I thought this was a bit much, but it turned out that I actually needed it after all. Not because the tour took that long, but because I had been very stupid; I forgot to buy my tickets online.
Now I have no idea how this happened, because I even sent some e-mails to the staff about photography permits and student price reductions. I must have thought I had booked my tour as well, but when I actually got there, I realized I didn’t have a reservation for this place in my little folder with printed reservations. I started looking through my e-mails, only to realize that I hadn’t actually made one.
Panic started kicking in. Employees told me that there were no spots left on any tour until 2:30 and there was no way they could squeeze me in anywhere. The staff at reception told me I could go check out the free museum, which I did. It was okay, but there was nothing spectacular in there. That is, until I heard a girl from Belgium tell her friends there was going to be an extra highlight tour at 10:30, which would take about 30 minutes.
The tour that I thought I was supposed to be at started at 9:30, and by now it was 10:20. So I rushed to reception and asked if there were any spots left on that tour. I was extremely happy when the clerk told me there was one more spot. So I bought a ticket, and I got what I wanted in the end.
The tour itself was really nice, even though we only got to see the highlights. Our tour guide was interesting and funny (and his accent wasn’t half as bad as about everyone else here).
On my way from Kilmainham Gaol to the Guinness Storehouse, I passed a supermarket, where I decided to buy a sandwich and a drink. Having done this, I started looking for a place to eat lunch. I quickly found one: a more or less deserted playground in a residential area. The swing looked like as good a place as any to eat, so I sat down and got right to it.
Following this adventurous lunch was my tour in the Guinness Storehouse. You know, the place where they make (well, used to make) the bitter, dark brown beer all Irishmen and -women seem to love. Luckily, I didn’t forget to book and print my tickets for this one, because there was a substantial queue for at-the-door tickets.
The tour consisted of a number of parts: some general information about the brewing process, a tasting experience, a Guinness advertisement history, a bar at the top floor (with a cool 360° view) and a merchandise shop.
This was the part of the tour you’d probably most imagine when someone tells you about a tour in a beer brewery. There were videos, panels with information, pictures and even some interactive bits. There’s really not that much to tell about this part of the tour, so let’s just move on.
This is what you might imagine when you hear stories about guided tours, and at the same time it’s really not. Having ascended to the second floor of the building, the staff had us queue for about ten minutes before being allowed into a special tasting room. At the end of a corridor lit with red striplights, there was a white room with four pillars around the room. Each of the pillars let out a vapour of one of the four main ingredients in beer.
After some explanation on how to taste Guinness (“You have to use your whole tongue; the tip for the sweetness, the middle and sides for the bitterness and the back for something else”), they led us into the next, less lit room. We all received about a shot glass’ worth of Guinness to put our new tasting knowledge to the test. I honestly tried very hard, but I couldn’t manage to taste anything other than what I had tasted the day before in the pub.
This was without a doubt the most thought-invoking, funniest part of the whole tour. Before getting to the third floor, I thought the main part of this would be about how Guinness advertised their brand in the past and update said marketing strategy – and the majority of this floor was like that. But there was one corner where visitors could find the most hilarious and weird-looking constructions, one of them being a man-sized fish riding on a bicycle.
Along with this mechanical weirdness was a quote: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” I guess that the fish makes sense when you think this quote was right there, but still. WHAT HAS ANY OF THAT GOT TO DO WITH GUINNESS?
Beside this amusing fish, there was another thing that at first sight had nothing to do with it. It was a construction of an oyster, that had supposedly come to life, that whistled. Once again, both hilarious and terrifying. However, this one did seem to have a little bit of a backstory behind it. Apparently, back in the early days of Guinness, they found out that stout and seafood was a great combination. So, they started advertising for this combination. The whistling oyster was a part of that.
Of course, you can’t just come take the brewery tour and then not drink a pint of beautifully crafted and tapped Guinness. Luckily, there was a complimentary pint for everyone over eighteen, so everyone went to the bar on the top floor and enjoyed a cold beer. The views were quite impressive, but I couldn’t get my phone camera to focus decently so I just took a picture of my Guinness.
Update: I’m still not sure whether I like the taste of Guinness or not. It has something really bittersweet to it, and I don’t know if I like that. The actual experience of drinking Guinness is nice, though. It has a really soft feel to it. It’s hard to explain.
After these two tours, I decided to head back to my hostel. My plan was to work on my travel video and blog updates for a while. This was when I found out that my roommate had been a bit of a sly fox. As I told you in the introduction, I lent her my phone charger and adapter. When I got back, only my charger was lying on my bed. I thought the adapter might have fallen somewhere. I looked on the floor, between my sheets and even under my mattress, but I couldn’t find it.
She took it back with her to Colombia. At least, that’s what I’m assuming. Either way, I had to go buy a new adapter at reception. Now that I have it, though, everything is okay again.
My place for dinner was The Brazen Head. They pride themselves in being the oldest pub of Ireland, serving customers since 1198 according to their website. Anyway, I had some trouble finding a table that was free, as I didn’t actually get a reservation. You see, exciting and beautiful as the website may be, I couldn’t manage to find where to actually make a reservation online.
So, I decided to hang out at the bar for a little while until a table cleared up. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait very long, and eventually I was able to settle down next to a travelling couple from Catalonia. I ordered the beef chili and boy, was I glad that the order included some mild sauce to soothe the senses. It was very spicy, but very tasty as well.
Update: it’s 11:24 and I’m lying on my bed. About half an hour ago, I found out that I wasn’t going to be alone tonight after all. (all my roommates from yesterday left) A Norwegian guy named Bruno just came in and told me about himself. He’s a nice guy looking for work in Dublin.
Anyway, thank you for reading this daily update! I hope you enjoyed.
-S
Welcome to daily update #2. Let’s get right into it!
This morning, I was going to wake up around 8:30 and have a relaxed, calm morning. One of my roommates thought differently about that. Due to an alarm going off at 7:15, I woke up over an hour earlier than I had anticipated. I decided to put my being awake to good use and go take a shower.
For some reason, I expected to have one shower per room (6 people in my case). Just to clear things up, that’s what I expected when I was still in Belgium. When I arrived at the hostel, it quickly became clear that I wouldn’t have to work out a showering schedule with my roommates. I sighed with relief internally. The shower was great and really enjoyable. So when I got back to my room, I dressed and went down for breakfast.
You should know, when I booked my accommodation online, I also ordered a full Irish breakfast every morning. Looking back on it now, that probably wouldn’t have been necessary, but oh well. The deed is done, might as well get some good breakfast out of it, right? Breakfast was also a good time to start writing for my blog. I did have to finish it at night, though.
Right after breakfast, brushing my teeth and packing my bag, I was on my way to Trinity College. First, I had to go through some struggles trying to find the right bus to take, but I got there in the end. I must say, the views in and around Trinity College are quite impressive. I don’t know if it’s just me because I come from a not-so-impressive city or if the campus is actually that remarkable, but I was awed.
The inspiring front side and main entrance of Trinity College
Of course, the highlight of my visit to the famous Dublin campus was the Book of Kells exhibition and the visit to the Long Room. The exhibition itself was kind of eh, but the Long Room was definitely worth it. It’s just as beautiful in real life as it is on all the pictures.
A side view of what the Long Room looks like from inside (although I’m sure you already knew this as there are literally millions of pictures online)
A close-up picture of one specific section of the Long Room
For lunch, I bought a sandwich and a drink at some supermarket in the shopping streets and I went and ate it in St Stephen’s Green Park. It was a refreshing change of pace to eat surrounded by trees, birds, water and Chinese people.
I was originally planning on visiting the Oscar Wilde house, as it seemed like a fun and informative thing to do. I walked all the way there, only to find out that the exhibition and tour have been discontinued since 2007 and the building is now owned by American College Dublin. Fix your website guys 🙁
While the visit to Trinity College was the most informative thing I’ve done in Dublin so far, the most entertaining by far was my visit to the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History Department). I was originally planning on only going to the Archaeology Department, but I’m glad I decided not to skip this one. The stuffed animals lent themselves perfectly for funny pictures. I saw the opportunities and seized them.
Here are some of the less obscene examples.
After that, not much happened any more. I walked all the way to my hostel. That should have been a 20-minute walk, but it obviously took me over half an hour because I’m Slowpoke and I got lost. Anyway, I went and drank a chai tea at this little coffee shop I found yesterday and then dumped my stuff at my room in the hostel. Then I went out for dinner and came back, and now here I am, writing a blog post in the hostel lobby.
So, that was today. I’ve been working to get this daily update out on time – as opposed to the previous one – so that anyone that might be following me can actually follow and not lag behind. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading this update post!
-S
Disclaimer #1: I will try to make these update posts a daily thing. I’m sorry if I miss a day, it just means I was too busy, tired, cranky or I just could not be bothered.
Disclaimer #2: I didn’t take many pictures because I’m kind of focusing more on my GoPro. I’m shooting short 5-second clips which I’ll turn into a kick-ass travel video when I get back home. I’ll be sure to share it with you all 😉
Wow. What a refreshing, well-needed change of pace compared to a month and a half of sitting in my room, doing nothing but studying, eating and sleeping all day every day. Yesterday was one of the busiest days I’ve had in a long while. Let me tell you about it!
In order to catch my 9:55 am flight, I had to be at the airport at 7:55. This meant that I had to catch two early trains (because there was no direct connection from where I was to the airport). This, in turn, meant that I had to take a bus at 6:22 to get to the train station in time. In short, this obligated me to get up at 5:30, which was another thing I hadn’t done in a long time.
The night before, I thought to myself “I’ll go to sleep around 8 pm, that way I can still get eight hours of sleep”. Bad idea. Let me tell you something: if your body is used to going to sleep at 11:30, YOU WILL NOT actually fall asleep until around that time. I learnt this the hard way. I lay awake in my bed for about three hours until I finally fell asleep. It was awful.
All things considered, though, I did manage to fall asleep eventually and wake up in time. I got to the bus stop on time, caught my bus, caught my train, caught my connecting train, got through airport security and customs swiftly and I was at my gate an hour early. Oh well, it’s better like this than to have to rush in order to even make it.
So everything regarding my flight to Dublin went pretty smoothly. (This doesn’t mean nothing went wrong, but I’ll tell you more about that when I’m back in Belgium.) After getting my baggage back from the conveyor belt, I went to the big airport hall. There, I had to queue for about 10 minutes for a bus ticket. For the unaware, Dublin Airport (like most airports) is not exactly located in the city centre. In this case, there were about 15 kilometres between the airport and the city.
Obviously, I couldn’t walk that far with my big bag of stuff. So I searched for the bus stop and waited a little while. Luckily, the bus system in Dublin is pretty well organised, so I didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes. What followed was a bus ride that didn’t seem to end. This might be because I am used to bus rides that take about 10 minutes in Belgium though. Half an hour later, I arrived at the bus stop that was closest to my hostel (according to Google Maps). I embarked on a 15-minute walk that probably could have been shorter if I had known my way around. In the end, I did arrive at my hostel though.
Time check: it’s 1:30 pm. I couldn’t get into my room until 2:30 because they were still cleaning it, so I decided to get lunch at the café because I was starving. All in all, it was pretty good and I managed to fill up enough time so that I was now able to access my room. I went there, unloaded my baggage and headed out.
By the time I decided to get out and explore the city, it was raining cats and dogs. According to the online weather forecast, it was going to stay like that until around 6 pm. So I said screw it and headed out anyway. In hindsight, this was a pretty good decision since it did in fact keep raining until the evening.
I walked around what I considered to be the city centre of Dublin. But, of course, what I thought was the centre was actually not. It turned out to be kind of a suburb of Temple Bar, if that makes any sense whatsoever. After realizing I was walking on a road I had walked on before, I made the decision to just stop walking and head into a pub. Being determined as I am, I walked into the first pub I came across and had myself my first pint in Ireland.
After this little endeavour, I headed back to the actual city centre because – well, obviously – I hadn’t been there yet. Temple Bar is a really nice place to just walk around with no real destination in mind. I just strolled through the streets and soaked up the atmosphere. I really liked how there was a mix of locals and tourists there.
Having seen both the urban hub of Dublin and its outskirts, I decided to go have dinner at the Hard Rock Café, which was conveniently located in said urban hub. First, I bought myself a T-shirt though. Yes, I know I’m basic, sue me. I was kind of stressed for this, as it was my first time eating alone abroad and even my first time eating alone in general. It turned out to be less awkward and lonely than I had anticipated. The waiting staff were really friendly and the weird looks from others that I had expected didn’t come.
Right at the end of my lovely dinner, I got a message back from someone I knew from school back home. I had seen him and his travel companion at the airport and I sent him a message about it. We decided to meet up for a pint at Temple Bar. It was a great, unexpected hour or so in a typically Irish pub.
By now, I had to start thinking about how I would get to my next destination. You see, I was planning on going to a bar that organized comedy nights. Friday night was “International Comedy Club”. So I got out my trusty Google Maps, and went through the struggle of trying to find my way without decent internet connection. Eventually, I did get there.
The comedy was great; there were four comedians coming in and two of them were absolutely hilarious. The other two were not bad, but they weren’t great either. The comedians even improvised jokes about the audience, which was very impressive to me. There was a lovely atmosphere of love for each other and solidarity between everyone there.
After the comedy club hilarity, I tried to find my way back home. I took about three wrong turns before finally managing to find the river, by which I orientated myself and found my hostel. After a 20-minute walk, I found my way back to my room, where I fell asleep almost instantaneously.
Well, this was the summary of my first day. More summaries are on the way, but they will likely be a little late because of who I am as a person and because I don’t have as much time as I had hoped and anticipated. Thanks for reading this daily update post!
-S
Hey guys!
In this post, I will be discussing my (solo) travel bucket list. I put solo between brackets because I don’t know yet if I want to travel solo as much, because I don’t have any experience being abroad on my own. For those of you who don’t know what a bucket list is:
a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying
It apparently originated from the expression to kick the bucket (to die). So basically, a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before kicking the bucket. A travel bucket list specifically is a list of destinations you want to see or visit before dying, or in this case, in 2017.
Let’s kick it off! (pun intended)
I have a friend who recently moved from the UK to Australia and I would love to see her there. Moreover, Cairns is home to one of the most beautiful and largest coral reef systems: the Great Barrier Reef. I wouldn’t mind doing a bit of snorkeling and deep-sea diving here.
Aside from this obvious choice, there are a lot of places in the glorious US of A I want to visit. I’ve never been outside of Europe, but I intend to change that as soon as possible. I’ve heard a lot of crazy things about nature across the pond and I’d like to find out for myself. I feel like the Grand Canyon would be a great place to start. Not to mention, afterwards I could go chill out in California.
I NEED to see the Northern Lights in Finland, preferably sleeping in one of these glass domes. The thing is, these are rather expensive, so I’ll probably have to wait to do this with somebody else. Also, let’s be honest, this whole “sleeping in a glass igloo and falling asleep while looking at the stars” thing is way too romantic to do it by yourself.
I feel like this is something everyone needs to see at least once in life. Historic ruins like these should be on everyone’s travel bucket list. It seems like a beautiful historic place to spend a day and maybe explore the surrounding mountains. The Incas who inhabited this place centuries ago had a big impact on the world, so I think visiting this place could really help give us insights into why the world today is the way it is. This could fit in perfectly into a South America road trip or trekking route.
I included this place because it is just SO versatile. It literally has everything. Big city stuff in Bangkok, great food all over the country, breathtaking nature for backpacking or taking a scenic route, interesting culture in the temples and ruins and even cozy little shops and markets. I got urged to go here by a friend from high school, who has Thai roots. We were supposed to go there together with some other friends, but sadly that didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean it never will though.
I have to admit, I got the idea for Delphi from a YouTube video by Vsauce (He takes a selfie in Delphi here). Michael posts some amazing, mind-blowing stuff, so be sure to check him out. However, there’s just something about archaeological sites that fascinates me. When I was in Pompeii with my classmates in a last-year-of-high-school trip, I was baffled. I couldn’t believe I was walking on the same roads that people who died over two thousand years ago also walked on. That being said, I would love to feel that again, but in a different place. And that is why Delphi is on this list.
Disclaimer: I do realize there are tons of beautiful lakes in the world and by no means am I saying this one is the best of all.
I found this lake while I was browsing the online for travelling ideas (as I often do) and I was stunned. The sheer beauty of the surrounding mountains would make me want to buy a ticket to Canada and not even worry about the rest. Besides, after checking out the stunning nature in this park, I could go chill out in Calgary, Alberta and see some of that Canadian politeness all for myself.
Well, that was all of them. For now. If you guys have any thoughts on these, let me know. If you have any recommendations for me, let me know as well. I’ll be sure to check them out. Thanks for reading!
-S
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