IRELAND - Dublin, Galway, and Cork

DUBLIN –

I made it to the motherland! I had been looking forward to the day I would make it to Ireland and I could not have had a more amazing time. Our first stop in Ireland was to Dublin. We headed there late on Good Friday from Italy. We got to our hostel around 12:30pm. We stayed at the Four Quarts Hostel which was a pretty good location, right on River Liffey on Ushers Quay street. We had a pretty funny situation occur at the hostel. We had booked a 6 bedroom dorm for the 4 of us but when we got into our room, there were only 2 open beds.. the rest were filled with sleeping people! We felt so bad sneaking around the room in the dark trying to figure out what to do. It ends up that the guy on shift that night had mixed up the rooms and 2 guys were in the bed were had booked. He was able to move some things around so Lauren and Jordyn slept in a different room that night and Lisa and I got the 2 beds in our original room. He felt so bad and told us we would all be in the same room the following night, which was fine with us! To our surprise he gave us all free Grolsch beers as an apology. At that point we were nearly grateful for the mistake because we were able to enjoy a free beer! Since it was Good Friday, all the bars were closed and unable to sell alcohol as the law states. We decided that one beer was good enough and just walked around the city before we went to bed. We saw a lot of government buildings along the river that were all lit up for Easter. They were all so pretty! We also walked past Temple Bar. We stopped in a convenience store to pick up some snacks. I bought Guinness chocolate for midnight of Easter for end of Lent! It was tempting to eat, but I only had one day left until I could have chocolate, and I knew it would be worth the wait.

Saturday- We got up early and enjoyed the free breakfast of toast and coffee at the hostel. Our first plan of business was to go to the Guinness Factory. It was an early start to beer drinking, but we were in Ireland so it was totally acceptable! We walked through nearly 7 floors of the brewery. There was a lot of history to the brewery and it was fun to learn about how it was made. We had a sampling half way through which was pretty good. Once we got to the top floor we got a free pint! The top floor was so cool, it was called the gravity bar and all the walls were windows that looked out over the city of Dublin. It was a great place to enjoy the view and nice pint of Guinness.

View of Dublin from the Gravity Bar

After the brewery tour, we meet up with my good friend Jeni who is studying aborad in Dublin. We meet up with her for lunch. I got a bagel and cream cheese since I wasn’t too hungry. It was quite a delicious bagel I would have to admit. Then we continued to go on a tour of the city guided by Jeni. We walked to a cute park called St. Stephen's Green Park then we went to Jeni’s apartment to relax a bit. 

We decided to head to where P.S. I Love You – the movie – shot their bar scene which took place at Whelan’s bar. It was so cool to see! And luckily, right next door was a bar called Ryan’s which I had to get a picture of.

We then headed towards the main street in Dublin, Grafton Street here we went into some fun gift shops and I really loaded up on souvenirs for obvious reasons. We then went to see Trinity College. It was such a cute campus! I loved how we came during the springtime because everything we in bloom and with a perfect sunny day, you couldn’t ask for anything more.

Last stop before we split up to get ready for dinner, Jeni and I stopped at a store in the Temple area that had Irish code of arms and other souvenirs for Irish descendants. I stopped in and got a few things to take home to the states with the Ryan name on it, which was so cool!

After getting all cleaned up, we meet up at The Porter House to get dinner with Jeni. It was a fun pub that had it all! Lisa, Lauren and I got Wrasslers beer, which we unfortounately did not realize that it was a super dark beer. We drank it anyways, but it was probably the most bitter beer I had ever tried. While we waited for our food and drinks, we got to listen to some trad music that was playing. It was so great to hear some traditional Irish music. Lisa and I split loaded nachos, and they were so yummy! I also got a flight of three different beers. They were all much better tasting than the Wrassler and a great finish to our dinner.

The rest of the night we decided to check out a few bars. We stayed in the Temple area. We stopped out side of Temple Bar, but being a very popular tourist spot, it was pretty packed and not worth the wait to get a few drinks. Instead we went to Mezz bar. It was a fun little bar and we got the Mezz lager and tequila shots! There was a live band playing the back and we all were drinking and dancing with the rest of the crowd. We finished our night at Workman’s pub which was right down the street from our hostel. We got a few drinks there and Jeni, her friend Bridget and I all were hanging out in the terrerce talking with a few Irish guys they knew. It was just a great night, but I was not too happy of a camper the next day because we had a 6:40am bus to Galway. I wouldn’t have changed anything for that night though, it was so fun to spend time with Jeni over drinks in Ireland!

GALWAY-

The bus to Galway really made me feel like I was in Ireland. There were farmlands, horses, cows and sheep grazing the green fields. I slept most of the way but we got to Galway at 9ish. We first checked into our hostel and dropped off our bags. We grabbed some coffee and toast at the hostel before exploring the city. 

It was pretty cool being in Galway on Easter, I would have never thought I would be in Ireland on a holiday but there I was! And because it was Easter, I could finally eat chocolate!! We went to. The Galway Food Festival which was held next to the Galway bay for the Easter weekend. There were lots of food kiosks that gave out taste tests for their products. I had some brownie samples; pesto and hummus and we witnessed a pig roast with the chef cutting off the pig feet! I bought some homemade Galway fudge. The flavor I chose had butterscotch, chocolate and vanilla. It was delicious but very rich!

Butterscotch, chocolate and vanilla fudge!

We then walked along the bay we saw church getting out, and everyone was dressed up and so friendly!  

Walked to Salthill beach to see the Atlantic, on the beach and you could see some of the Arian islands too. There was a Kayak in the sea and even a swimmer! After walking along the water for quite sometime, we headed back to do some shopping in the town. I bought lots of cute little things!

Then we went to grab lunch. I got Quiznos and found Resses! We ate our quick lunch in Eyre square. It was the cutest park. 

Then made our way to the bus which happened to not run at the time we thought!! We ended up having to take a can to the cliffs. Our driver was named John. He was so nice and friendly! He told me all about the nightlife in Galway and places to see. We napped a bit for the hour or so since the ride was quite long and we were exhausted from all the traveling. Finally we got to the cliffs – they were unbelievable, literally I have a loss for words because it was so gorgeous! It was scary to be on edge of these cliffs – with no railing -  but exhilarating at the same time. We took lots of fun pictures and meet friendly people. After an hour, we headed back. 

The drive to the Cliffs

Once we got back from Clare, we got ready for Easter dinner, we ate at O Riordains. I had Goujon chicken which came with French fries and vegetables. After went to the Kings Head for drinks and live music. It was crazy how many people were out on Easter Sunday night! I had Smithwicks red ale and it was very good. And we watched a band play... they were so great! They played sum 41, blink182, Adele, pink... Hit the spot! We were pretty exhausted, and went back to the hostel to sleep .

The King's Head Pub

Monday: After a good nights sleep, we woke up and grabbed delicious toast with some coffee for free at the hostel. Then we checked out and waited for bus to Cork.

CORK –

On the way to Cork, which is where the Degnan side of the family is from via my Mom, we passed through Limerick. Limerick is where my Dad's side of the family is from (along with Tipperary). It was so fun to drive through Limerick knowing that my ansestores are rooted in that land. And another coincidental thing was that as we drove through Limerick, we passed a store called "John Deignan" which is my Grandpa's name! (except he spells Deignan without the "i")!

We finally got to Cork at 3pm. Being Easter Monday, the town seemed pretty quite but still a cute little place. Out hostel wasn't open for check in until 4, so stumbled into a blowing alley the Liesureplex. We just hung out there and snacked a bit with our huge duffel bags and then made it back to Aaran House Hostel. The owner, Tracy, was great at explaining everything about Cork, it felt like we had a house Mom for the day! We stayed in a nice four bed private room and the how place felt like a little cottage! We decided to explore the town a bit since it was still light out. We walked down the main shopping street and passed the English Market. It happened to be closed but it was fun to see from the outside. 

We stopped in a few pubs to see if they were serving food, but it turns out that in Ireland it is a lot more common to find places that only serve drinks! Not that we were complaining. We had racked up a bunch of pubs to check out after we grabbed dinner. Thanks to Tracy’s suggestion, we ate the Gourmet Burger Bistro, which was only a few minutes down from our hostel. Since it was a little overcast and chill that day, I decided to get their soup of the day – Tomato and Almond Soup – along with cheese croquette salad. The layout of the restaurant was very interesting. There was a trap door that would open up every-so-often with the customers order. It was like magic, but of course the kitchen must have been above the eating area, but it was still a very fascinating idea. It was a very filling meal, and really hit the stop on a cold spring day. The food was similar to American food, which was a nice change from pasta and pizza in Italy. 

Tomato Almond Soup and Cheese Croquette Salad

After the very filling meal, we walked back to the hostel to relax a bit. We had meant to go back out for a drink or two at a pub and listen to some live music, but our constant traveling really got to us so we all just showered and hung out in our hostel but planned to get up early to visit Blarney before out afternoon flight to London.

Tuesday morning we got up early to catch a city bus to Blarney so we could check out the Blarney castle! It was again an overcast and chilly day, with just spots of rain but it made the green fields of Blarney look even greener! We entered the Blarney grounds and walked down the Cherry Blossom path that lead us to our main landmark – the Blarney Castle! Everything was so green and all the trees and flowers were in bloom. There was a cute little creek that ran along the path and the grounds of the castle were ginormous. Thankfully the castle itself wasn’t too far away since that was our priority. 

Lisa and I posing on the bridge

Once we arrived at the castle we began our climb up to the Blarney Stone. The stairs were very narrow and there were low ceilings so it was sort of a challenge to get to the top. Once we made it, I was the first to kiss the Blarney Stone. There were two guys working there. On of them held on to my waist while the other took pictures. The part of the stone that you are actually supposed to kiss is the very last strip of stone, so you are literally suspended from waist down off the castle! There were two poles that you can hold onto and of course the worker was also holding you so it felt safe but I did not realized how low you have to go! It was pretty exciting to do, regardless. Kissing the stone is said to give you the gift of eloquence. Can you tell the difference in my writing due to my newfound eloquence?  



After we all got our chance to kiss the stone, we walked out of the castle to explore more of the grounds. We walked through the stable yard, which used to be a stable but now is filled with cute shops. Then we walked through the poison garden. This garden was actually filled with poisonous plants. The quote they gave at the entrance to the garden stated, “Everything in this garden will either kill you or heal you” which was a bit frightening, but we kept our distance. , gift shop and took bus back to catch flight to London. Meet a woman in Blarney, told us some history on Blarney and its series of owners and said the current owner was very rich but a nice, humble man. This was refreshing to hear because the town of Blarney was so cute and quant and it would be heartbreaking if anyone were to change that aspect of the town. It was obvious that he was kept good care of the Blarney Castle and its grounds since it was a beautiful experience for us.

Ireland was so great, I loved seeing all the stores that had "Ryan" signs. It was just so fun to know that my ancestors had lived here and I was able to come back and walk a few days in their footsteps :)