Dublin

My sister and her husband spent the last days of their visit to Ireland in Dublin, and I decided to join them for a day.

We had booked a taxi from Doolin to Ennis because the schedules otherwise didn't suit us. The taxi was a bit late picking us up, so we missed the bus from Ennis to Dublin. But because the driver was typical Irish, he drove us to Limerick, where we caught the bus on the last second. But we did, and arrived to Dublin in good time. On Friday evening in Dublin, what do you do? Temple Bar of course :). We just had a few drinks, listened to great live music and enjoyed the atmosphere of an Irish pub. Nobody is pushing you or spilling beer on you, people actually move away from bar after getting their drink, people are having fun, singing and dancing... I love Irish pubs.

On Saturday I had booked a visit to see Book of Kells. You don't have to book in advance, but I recommend it, unless you want to wait in line for a very long time. With online ticket you can enter quickly and easily. I had also booked the audio guide online, it costs only 5 €, and the ticket is 11-14 € depending on the time of your visit. I hadn't even visited Trinity College before, and it was nice to see that too.

Trinity College is in the centre of Dublin, and it was founded in 1592 by Queen Elisabeth I and its library contains about 5 million books! The Old Library is one of most visited places, and of course Book of Kells. The Old Library has about 200 000 books.

Pics of the exhibition

Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript written in Latin, and it contains the four cospels of the New Testament, and also various introductory texts and tables. It was created by early Christian monks around 800 AD. It is very colourful, and it is Ireland's finest national treasure.The pages are made from vellum taken from the skin of over 150 calves. (Info is from their brochure.)

The Long Room of the Old Library. I cried a bit when I saw that. What an amazing place! I wish I could touch those books, read them... I would spend weeks and weeks there! For me this was more impressive than the Book of Kells. Books <3

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic, one of the few remaining original copies.

 In the 18th century, the college received the Brian Boru harp, one of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps, and a national symbol of Ireland, which is now housed in the library (wikipedia). In the long room no flash allowed, that is why the pics are a bit dark.

I visited Dublin also a couple of months ago, stayed just one night then too, and here's a few pics from that trip. That was the weekend of Ice Hockey World Championships, and Finland won!!!!! That is a huge thing, and Finns go crazy when that happens! I was in tears after the final whistle, in happy tears of course!

I also celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago (woohoo), and spent that with a couple of friends having dinner and some drinks. My colleague went a bit crazy, and that is what my desk looked like when I got to work... Had to do some work before I could fit in :D. It really doesn't happen too often that I laugh after arriving to work on Monday morning.

Now I am thinking what to do next? Do I stay in Ireland for another winter (sic!) or move on again. Winter here was really horrible for me, so I have done a couple of interviews. In many countries my salary would drop a lot, even to half, but so would my living costs, and I would get my own place again, but I couldn't save that much. I don't miss having my own flat THAT much, since my flat mate is always gone! #thebestflatmateever

Good sides and bad sides in both staying and leaving, and I am not sure what to do next. We'll see... In couple of weeks I will have a few days off again, and going to Northern Ireland to see Giant's Causeway, and then to Sligo. I think I should write a post about the every day life here, hopefully I get that done next week (haa haa I know).

 

Doolin - Inis Mor

Since my sister and her husband were visiting Ireland, I decided to take a couple of days off too, and we travelled to Aran Islands. I went to Doolin on Wednesday after work, and met them there. I arrived to Doolin quite late so I just went for a walk after sitting on my ass all day. I started walking, didn't realise that I walked about an hour and that I actually have to walk back too and it was getting late. Luckily this is Ireland and Irish people exist. One car stopped and offered me a ride, and dropped me off about 1,5 km from my hotel. I stayed at Aran View Country House, I booked it only 2 days before and I got a very good last minute deal, 64 € for a single room including breakfast.

Doolin is a lovely little town, very touristy since it is close to the Cliffs of Moher. This was the view from the hotel!

More pics from my walk



After breakfast (scrambled eggs and smoked salmon), it was time to head to the ferry. My sister stayed at b&b, and the owner drove us to the pier. It was a bit windy, so the sea was a bit rough but not too bad, and even my sister survived. We had a bit of rain too, and we got salt water face peel for the same price! Lovely.

The ferry takes about 1,5 hours to Inis Mor, which is the furthest and the biggest of the 3 Aran Islands (Inis Oirr, Inis Meain and Inis Mor).

From the ferry we walked to our b&b Tigh Fitz, it was about 1,5 km. It was lovely b&b in very peaceful area, the only noises we heard were cows and roosters.

View from the backyard, and flowers in the front yard



The main sight in the island is Dún Aonghasa, a prehistoric hill fort. It is actually not known exactly when it was built, and the walls have been rebuilt. We took a minibus there, but it is very popular to rent a bike too. Or you can take a horse-drawn carriage, but I don't recommend it. We had a guide in the bus, who gave us a lot of information about the island. The population on the island is about 800, and it is popular tourist destination. They want to keep Irish culture and language alive, and there you actually hear people speaking Irish. In the mainland you never hear Irish unfortunately. They learn it at school, but nobody speaks it. Young people leave the island, because if you want any education after high school, you have to leave, and most of them are not coming back. Our guide told us that there were 17 in his class at school, and he is the only one living there today.

A few pics from the minibus

Dún Aonghasa. To get up to the fort, you have to hike up... and the trail is rocky. You really wish you could just admire the scenery, but you have to look to your feet non stop, especially when coming down. I appreciate they have not changed it much, but cable cars do have their advantages too :D.

That is actually the edge, from there it is a long way down... The view was absolutely gorgeous, and luckily the weather was clear. There are no fences or any security on the edge, and some people were actually standing exactly on the edge! I am not afraid of heights, but I am not that stupid either... It is also popular to lie down on the edge and look down that way but I didn't do that either. Needless to say, neither did my sister :D.

Some more pics from the minibus

After the tour we went to Aran Sweater Market, they wanted to buy something original as souvenirs and what could be more original than that! I have my Aran Island Sweater, and some other stuff too. I really recommend them, very warm and good quality products (you can order also online, they ship anywhere in the world). Then it was already 5 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch, so we wanted to get something to eat. We went to a pub first, but they still had lunch menu and there was nothing except salad to eat. So we walked to the hotel (there is only 1 hotel on the island) because it was closer to our b&b, but they didn't serve food at that time! So we walked to a restaurant further away, and finally got food... Very nice baked cod by the way! And a glass of wine (duh). After that we were way too tired to walk, so we took a taxi back. The rest of the evening we just relaxed

On Friday after breakfast we took a minibus to the pier. It was a bit rainy so we didn't do much else, just took some pictures. The main village, taken from the pier.

From the ferry, the piers on other islands looked like this. I don't know if you can see it that well, but it was like a huge Rubiks cube made of big rocks!

My view at Inish Meain

And the view at Inis Oirr

Luckily the view was mostly a lot better! This time the sea was calm, which made my sister very happy, so when the rain stopped we sat outside on the deck and enjoyed... I really enjoyed the visit, I got the same calm and peaceful feeling there as I got in Shetland. That feeling is difficult to explain, but for me it is very relaxing. I could just sit in silence and look at the scenery for hours, and I get energy of that. I guess I am an island person, but I would not want to live in a small island like that. It is great to visit at summer, but living there in the winter... Nope. 

The day was clear but it was a bit misty towards Doolin, so couldn't see Cliffs of Moher that well unfortunately. But trust me, this is Cliffs of Moher and it looks amazing on good weather!

Aran Islands is absolutely a place to visit, well worth it! You can take a ferry from Doolin or Galway, or fly to Inis Mor. Many people do just a day trip, but I highly recommend staying at least one night. From there we went to Dublin, but I will make a new post about that...