I spent the past few days in Dublin with Elle. We arrived late Wednesday night and were immediately hit with cold cold cold weather and extremely underdressed girls. I had heard that the farther north you get in Europe, the colder it gets and the less clothing the women wear, but I never could have imagined that they would be that scantily clad! Elle and I wore at least 5 layers of clothing at all times, and continually felt overdresssed. But alas, we stayed warm and cozy and managed to have a fantastic time, despite our conservative fashion choices.
The Irish bank at night
Temple Bar Street, where tourists flock to pay waaaay too much money to get drunk. Two pints of beer cost me 11 euros. Just to put into perspective how incredibly painful this was for me.... In the Czech Republic, I could purchase at least 5 liters of beer for that price.
a rare moment of blue sky with the river liffey behind me.
oscar wilde lounging in archbishop ryan park, an essential photo-op for an english major
Me and Kiley in the "Gravity Bar" with our free pints after the tour. The bar was really awesome and completely made out of glass, giving us awesome 360 degree views of Dublin. We went right at sunset and it was oh-so beautiful.
The next day we decided to take a day trip to the small town of Howth, about a 40 minute train ride from Dublin's city center. When we arrived, a bartender told us to get on the city bus and travel to the summit of the "mountain" (which was more like a hill...) and then hike down on the cliff paths. Sounded simple enough. This was a view of the sea and lighthouse from the summit.
Kiley and I bundled up on our hike.
one of the most beautiful places i've been so far!
Kiley and Elle on the edge of the cliffs! Shortly after this, we ended up getting horribly lost. We took the wrong trail, and instead of ending up back in the city center, we ended up on a beautiful forested hike that was destined to take us around the entire peninsula in about 3 hours. When we figured this out, we wandered off the trail onto a paved road and tried to use our noses to get back to town. Luckily people in Ireland are extremely friendly (and they speak English! quite the culture shock for me!) and directed us back towards town, but it took us about an hour and 45 minutes to finally get there. We ate some well deserved nachos shortly thereafter!
Of course the day of our departure was absolutely gorgeous, so Elle and I took advantage of the morning hours and fit in some extra sight-seeing. This is the original St. Patrick's Cathedral.
St. Stephen's Green
THE END! Happy to be back in my own bed (not in a 26 bed hostel room!) and so happy to be off the euro!
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