An Irish Adventure

About a week ago, my friend Corey and I decided on a spur-of-the-moment decision to go on one last trip before the end of the semester, and so I found myself packing up my backpack once more and boarding a plane for Dublin. We arrived late Thursday night, found the hostel with little hassle, and decided to tackle the city bright and early the next morning. Aside from the fact that we could actually understand people, one of the biggest shocks was the cars all driving on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness they painted these warnings at all the crosswalks!

We decided to do our own walking tour of Dublin, and first stopped to admire the campus of Trinity College. It was amazing how once we stepped through the gate, we seemed to have entered an entirely different world; one with much less traffic, noise, and drunk Irish folk. The College is home to the Book of Kells, a prized ancient artifact of the Celtic culture, so we figured we would come back on Monday to check it out. Continuing on, we saw the Dublin Castle, and then made our way to none other than the Guinness factory. If there is one thing about Irish culture that every Irishman is proud of, it's the Guinness Legend. The infamous stout has been brewed in the heart of Dublin since 1759, and many attribute it's fantastic taste to the purity of the local water. I had never tried the drink before, but quite liked it, and made a point to have at least one pint of it each day I was in Ireland. So I'm not actually Irish, but I can still drink like one!

We were both quite cold and chilly as it had begun to rain (big surprise) and headed back for some rest at the hostel. It was there that we met two other students who were bunking with us, from the U.S. and studying in Milan. We decided to all go out for some dinner and then a drink or two, and I must say it was an absolutely fantastic night. After a nice meal, we headed over to a favorite local pub, The Celt to have a few drinks and listen to the live music. Never before have I been in such a cheerful, warm and jovial environment. We were all dancing and singing to traditional Irish tunes, and I felt like my Ireland experience really couldn't get any more authentic than this. It was pure fun!

The next day, we headed out on a tour to the Wicklow mountains and the Lake of Glendalaugh. As they say with the Irish accent, the landscape was "gargeous" and so very, very vast. We saw endless rolling hills and mountains, and waterfalls; I couldn't believe how green and lush everything was in the middle of December! Our guide even stopped to show us the fields where the great battle scenes of Braveheart were filmed (not Scotland) and explained that the reason why it was shot in Ireland is because the government offered to provide the 2,000 necessary extras for free. How exactly does one go about that? The Irish army! Interesting, eh? In our tour group were 7 German students that we got to chatting with, very friendly they all were, and it made the day all the more memorable when we came back with a few more friends than we'd started with.

Words can't really describe the rugged beauty of the countryside...

The next morning we took the DART train to a small fisherman's town on a penninsula North of Dublin. We hiked along the coastline, in a seemingly perpetual state of wonder and amazement at how gorgeous this island was. It was very windy, and began to rain in the evening (we weren't surprised at this point) so we relaxed more or less in and around the hostel. By Monday, I really wasn't looking foward to leaving. Originally we had wondered what could be so great about a big old book, but after seeing the Book of Kells exhibit, I can now say "What isn't great about this big old book?" It was written more than 1,200 years ago and has been so preserved that one can still admire the intricate detailing of its images and manuscript. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

And then it was back to Budapest, one last time. I am so very, very excited to see Aunt Shelley-- I think I might even be able to pick her up at the airport-- and then jet off to Spain! Goodness gracious, this has been one crazy semester...