Celebrate in On March 17th, this past Thursday, Kate and I headed to Dublin, Ireland for the St. Patrick’s Day Festivities! I have been infatuated with Ireland for as long as I can remember. I always knew I would go someday, I just didn’t know when that day would be. My friends and I have always been big St. Patrick’s Day celebrators. Every year we visit the local dollar store and stock up on the tackiest/greatest costumes and decorations they have to offer. As soon as we turned legal drinking age we have made it a tradition to spend St. Patrick’s Day at a pub in Toronto called The Black Bull Tavern. It is a popular place to celebrate in Toronto and all the hard core celebrators, such as ourselves, are willing to wait in line every year for a couple hours or so in the early afternoon, in order to get a table on the patio and “celebrate” the day away. For the past few years someone we are with gets interviewed by CityTV. Last year I accidentally swore, feeling all Irish and what not, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get aired. So anyway, I’m a big time fan of St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland, the culture, and of course the accent- so off I was Thursday night to Dublin!
We didn’t get a flight that would get us there in time for the parade, but they treat every day of the weekend like St. Patrick’s Day so it wasn’t too upsetting. We reached our hotel long after midnight and the pubs and clubs close at 2am, so I didn’t get to have too much of a crazy night. We did walk through the city which was nice. The man at the front desk recommended a day tour and part of the tour was at a national park I wanted to visit. The rest of the tour sounded interesting and the pictures to go along with the info in the brochure were beautiful. So at 9am the next morning we went to our bus stop to meet our tour guide and start out day tour of Wicklow Mountains National Park.
We started the tour at Glencree Valley and pulled over on the side of the road to take pictures. I was surrounded by green hills and mountains as far as I could see. We then drove through the alley for a while and got to take in some more of the scenery from the bus until we stopped for coffee in Glencree. After the coffee break we drove down the valley once again until we stopped at Lough Tay where we were again surrounded by amazing green landscape. Lough Tay is also referred to as the “Guinness Lake” because the Guinness family estate borders with it. We then got to see an area in Wicklow where they filmed a part of P.S. I Love You. Following, we headed to Glendalough (“Valley of the Two Lakes”) which is one of the most important sites of monastic ruins in Ireland. It was founded by St. Kevin and is extremely old... he founded it in 618 AD. It is surrounded in ancient buildings and tons of gravestones, it is very pretty. In Glendalough we got to see St. Kevin’s Church, Priest’s house, Cathedral, St. Savior’s Church, and the round tower. The round tower was the most “in-tact” out of all of them. The rest were hauntingly beautiful but they are so old that they were the remains of the four walls of the buildings – no roofs. It was really cool. We then went to the Lower Lake Glendalough which was also very pretty. After we went for lunch at a traditional Irish pub named Fitzgerald’s in Avoca village. They film Balykissangel there, a popular Irish show. Before I knew it the tour was over and after an amazing day of experiencing the country side we were on our way back to Dublin city. That night we went to a couple traditional Irish pubs where we enjoyed lots of Guinness and traditional Irish music. We ended our night at the clubs at Dublin’s famous Temple Bar.
I spent the next day and night learning a lot about Irish culture by devoting my time visiting as many Irish pubs as possible. In between, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.
My final morning waking up in Dublin was a sad one because in no way did I ever want to leave. Everyone in Ireland was so friendly and I knew I was going to miss leaving a pub while an Irish man played guitar on stage, and having the whole pub cheerfully wish you a goodnight even when you didn’t know them.
We had a late flight back to Spain so we spent Sunday being very touristy. We would pass a sign point the National Leprechaun Museum every day, so we took it as a sign that we had to go. The other people that were waiting along with us to do the tour were 90% children with their parents but we had high hopes that the museum would be awesome – and it was. The tour consisted of walking through a variety of rooms – “12 Chapters”- that told stories about Irish folklore and mythology. Even though it seemed like it was mostly attracting children, it was interesting and interactive.
We did a lot of walking through the city afterwards and checked out a bunch of buildings and monuments in Dublin. Our last stop before we left was the Guinness Storehouse. It was a Guinness Fermentation Plant from 1904-1988. They turned it into a 7 storey tourist attraction where visitors can learn about the history and the making of Guinness (and taste it of course). The building is shaped like a giant pint. Each floor takes you through the history and the making. When you reach the top floor, “The Gravity Bar” (the head of the pint), you can drink some pints while you enjoy a 360 degree view of Dublin.
When the tour was over we went to one last pub for some food, music, and more Guinness. We then picked up our luggage after doing some last minute shopping and headed for the airport. One last Guinness while waiting for the plane and it was time to say goodbye. I absolutely loved Dublin and it was such a great experience. I have officially decided to become a resident! If not in Dublin, I think anywhere in Ireland would do. Such a good trip!
Glencree Valley
Drivin' Through
P.S. I Love You Scene
Gerard Butler was on this bridge...
Guinness Lake
Glendalough
Glendalough Cathedral
Lower Lake
Avoca
Leprechaun Museum
Guiness Storehouse
View from the Gravity Bar
