Well tomorrow we are leaving the great Green that is Ireland. Today we went to Howth to the most beautiful
peninsula, it was really stunning. We
walked and walked, and walked some more, just when I started thinking we were walking
back to Dublin (it was 20 km) we found a little old lady that was practically
running circles around us, she stopped on her second lap and told us how to get
back to the mainland. Andrew wanted to
try some traditional irish fare, but sense we were in a shipping port, their
traditional fare was all fish-like, as well as being pretty pricey. The raising Euro is definitely raising our
costs, but we are thinking that travelers always look gaunt and it is a look that
we could master and possibly pull off. Anyway we rode back into Dublin, and we took tons of really beautiful pictures that
I will post once we get somewhere with a reliable connection, hopefully in France. We will also try to get a skype number so
that we can talk to you peoples.
So here are the top list of things that anyone traveling to Ireland
should know.
1) It
is freaking cold here….bring a jacket, bring a sweater, and bring a warm
towel.
2) Ireland
is possibly the most expensive city in all of Europe, so fill the pockets
of that wee jacket up with lots of Euro’s—the dollar doesn’t go far.
3) The
toilets do not like Americans, they do not flush, do not take it
personally, be thankful they have toilet paper.
4) Guinness
is what they have in pubs, Guinness is what they drink in pubs, if you
drink in pubs, you should drink Guinness.5)If
you ask for water at Mc Donalds, they will give you water straight from
the tap they use to wash dishes.
5) If
you ask for water in a pub, they will try to sell you a bottle which will
look very pretty, but will cost almost what a Guinness will cost.
6) Hostels
are not for those who have trouble sleeping—hostels are not for those who
don’t like watching sports (by sports I mean rugby and soccer, I do not
mean baseball or football), and by all means heed this….hostels are not
for those who do not like foreigners!!!
We had a wonderful time in Ireland. Dublin is a city that is easy to get a hold
on, the public transport is really pretty cheap, the views nearby are gorgeous,
and there are enough free museums to make up for the nights you spent in temple
bar, the people are great, and they speak English.. It is and was a great jumping off point.
-Alex
More Final Thoughts….?!
Alex did not exactly explain how much walking we did. Like,
a LOT of it. We took a cliff path that went around the entire peninsula, past
two lighthouses, and over many, many uphill steps and paths. My legs are still
throbbing. Anyhow, the other thing she did not mention is that we did find our
authentic Irish food, fittingly the last meal of our time here, at a pub called
“the Hairy Lemon” back in Dublin.
I don’t know why it’s called that, but the cover of the menu talked of a hairy
man that had yellow skin. Anyhow, Alex ordered the not-so-Irish bruscetta, and
I got the “Dublin Coddle.” Or was it cottle? Well, it sounded weird, but was a
stew of bacon, sausage, potatoes and carrots. It came with a baked potato and
brown bread—VERY Irish. The stew is Irish, the potato, obviously Irish, but I
never knew of this but these Irish love brown bread. It’s like American wheat
bread, if you took seven or eight slices, smashed them down into a single
slice, and then dehydrated the new super-slice. Topped with oats. The stew had
what Alex referred to as pale Vienna
sausages. Gross description, but the stew was good. And we had it all with a
pint (as Alex mentioned, a pint in a pub = a Guinness).
So here are a few more things that anyone traveling to Ireland
should know:
8) No
they didn’t spray graffiti on those sheep’s wool, that’s their version of
branding them.
9) And
even if you wanted to spray paint a sheep, they don’t like to be petted,
let alone vandalized.
10) No,
they aren’t dyslexic… they actually
spell centre that way.
11) And
finally, despite what you may have been told, there are no leprechauns in Ireland. Unless you count the
masks that the noisy foreign kids buy at the gift shops.
So Ireland
was fantastic, and we are very excited about the Paris. According to the Parisian guy that
beat me in three consecutive games of foosball the other night (they call it
babyfoot), “Eez a nize plaze.”
-Andrew
