Dublin
2006-10-09
Dublin is by far my favorite place that I have visited so far. All of my travel partners will readily agree. The trip to get there was long and hard, but only Dublin could have been worth it. It was hard coming back.
We had to leave on a 10am flight from Treviso Airport in Venice. Ryanair does not go to Dublin from Pisa. We had to take a cab to Campo Marte from Santa Croce at midnight to grab a 3 hour train to Venice (actually Mestre where we stayed when we visited Venice-ha.) We had no idea where the Treviso airport was. We looked up bus schedules to get there and discovered that it was really far away. However, the first bus did not leave until around 8 and we were there at 6. So I called the cab company number and a cab that could sit 5 at most came to pick us up. This trip Jes and Mel who go to school in Boston came with us, so we had 6 people. The cab driver told us to be quick about it and (of course) I jumped in the trunk to avoid the police seeing us. The airport was about 30 minutes away, I was in the trunk of a taxi and it was pitch black outside. It was just funny at this point and I was already half asleep since we had been on a train the last few hours so I just zoned out and stared at the full moon with my ipod on. It had better be worth it was all I could think.
We finally got on the plane at 10 and took a bus to our Hostel near downtown that is supposedly one of the 10 best hostels in the world. It really was fun and there were students from all over the world there. Everything in Dublin closes fairly early, so we walked around some, did way too much souvenir shopping and then went out to the pubs. We met a guy named Gunter who went out with us. We went to dinner at a place called Darwins and then went back to the pub where we had met him. He bought me a drink that the women have in Ireland that is Guiness with some sort of mint mixed in. After that we went to a couple different pubs (Gunter had me try Irish Cider too, and we all liked it) and finally ended up in the original Temple Bar. There were all sorts of people here. Zena and I stayed a little later than everyone else and we met a couple guys from Germany who spoke excellent English and some guys from Spain that I could use my Spanish with.
They Irish men are wonderful gentlemen and all of us agree that they are super-hot. The Italian men call out to you and are really skinny and greasy, so it was a breath of fresh air to have really hot guys not gawk at you and say excuse me as they passed. Of course it was nice being able to understand everyone too. The Irish women actually have figures and have some meat as opposed to Italian women and they were also very courteous and not petty at all like the Italian women are. The people were so friendly!
Much like the UK, Ireland had amazing fish and chips. We fell upon a place that was in my travel book that is the oldest fish and chips place in Ireland. It was sooooo amazing!!! We had heard that Ireland food was nasty, but they had all sorts of American chains to choose from. We went to Quiznos for our last dinner in Ireland and some of the girls grabbed Starbucks at one point. It was like going to the states for a couple days, but with bars as every other store.
Mel and Jess took a bus tour, but the rest of us walked around on foot. Dublin was very cold compared to Florence and we froze to death, but we loved walking outside anyway. Dublin is a very small and walkable city. We went to Dublin Castle, Saint Patricks Cathedral (people are buried in the walls,) Trinity College where the Book of Kells is held, the main drive at OConnell Street, the Jameson Brewery and of course Temple Bar. We also saw where authors and playwrights such as Oscar Wilde grew up near their central park. It took next to no time to see it all and it was all interesting and beautiful.
We finally had to head back for our 6am flight back to Venice. We were exhausted from not getting any sleep, but none of us regret losing the sleep to go to Dublin. It was a 12 hour trip to get back from Dublin to Florence. I am still exhausted although I went to sleep last night at 11. My parents have been in Rome this weekend and they are coming to Florence sometime this evening. I have no idea when and my dads phone is off, but I cannot wait to see them. I bought my family waay too many souvenirs in Dublin since we are Irish. Mckenzie, Ashley, Zena and I all bought Shamrock necklaces that we are wearing constantly now. I miss Dublin and I wholeheartedly reccommend going to anyone who goes abroad.
Dublin is by far my favorite place that I have visited so far. All of my travel partners will readily agree. The trip to get there was long and hard, but only Dublin could have been worth it. It was hard coming back.
We had to leave on a 10am flight from Treviso Airport in Venice. Ryanair does not go to Dublin from Pisa. We had to take a cab to Campo Marte from Santa Croce at midnight to grab a 3 hour train to Venice (actually Mestre where we stayed when we visited Venice-ha.) We had no idea where the Treviso airport was. We looked up bus schedules to get there and discovered that it was really far away. However, the first bus did not leave until around 8 and we were there at 6. So I called the cab company number and a cab that could sit 5 at most came to pick us up. This trip Jes and Mel who go to school in Boston came with us, so we had 6 people. The cab driver told us to be quick about it and (of course) I jumped in the trunk to avoid the police seeing us. The airport was about 30 minutes away, I was in the trunk of a taxi and it was pitch black outside. It was just funny at this point and I was already half asleep since we had been on a train the last few hours so I just zoned out and stared at the full moon with my ipod on. It had better be worth it was all I could think.
We finally got on the plane at 10 and took a bus to our Hostel near downtown that is supposedly one of the 10 best hostels in the world. It really was fun and there were students from all over the world there. Everything in Dublin closes fairly early, so we walked around some, did way too much souvenir shopping and then went out to the pubs. We met a guy named Gunter who went out with us. We went to dinner at a place called Darwins and then went back to the pub where we had met him. He bought me a drink that the women have in Ireland that is Guiness with some sort of mint mixed in. After that we went to a couple different pubs (Gunter had me try Irish Cider too, and we all liked it) and finally ended up in the original Temple Bar. There were all sorts of people here. Zena and I stayed a little later than everyone else and we met a couple guys from Germany who spoke excellent English and some guys from Spain that I could use my Spanish with.
They Irish men are wonderful gentlemen and all of us agree that they are super-hot. The Italian men call out to you and are really skinny and greasy, so it was a breath of fresh air to have really hot guys not gawk at you and say excuse me as they passed. Of course it was nice being able to understand everyone too. The Irish women actually have figures and have some meat as opposed to Italian women and they were also very courteous and not petty at all like the Italian women are. The people were so friendly!
Much like the UK, Ireland had amazing fish and chips. We fell upon a place that was in my travel book that is the oldest fish and chips place in Ireland. It was sooooo amazing!!! We had heard that Ireland food was nasty, but they had all sorts of American chains to choose from. We went to Quiznos for our last dinner in Ireland and some of the girls grabbed Starbucks at one point. It was like going to the states for a couple days, but with bars as every other store.
Mel and Jess took a bus tour, but the rest of us walked around on foot. Dublin was very cold compared to Florence and we froze to death, but we loved walking outside anyway. Dublin is a very small and walkable city. We went to Dublin Castle, Saint Patricks Cathedral (people are buried in the walls,) Trinity College where the Book of Kells is held, the main drive at OConnell Street, the Jameson Brewery and of course Temple Bar. We also saw where authors and playwrights such as Oscar Wilde grew up near their central park. It took next to no time to see it all and it was all interesting and beautiful.
We finally had to head back for our 6am flight back to Venice. We were exhausted from not getting any sleep, but none of us regret losing the sleep to go to Dublin. It was a 12 hour trip to get back from Dublin to Florence. I am still exhausted although I went to sleep last night at 11. My parents have been in Rome this weekend and they are coming to Florence sometime this evening. I have no idea when and my dads phone is off, but I cannot wait to see them. I bought my family waay too many souvenirs in Dublin since we are Irish. Mckenzie, Ashley, Zena and I all bought Shamrock necklaces that we are wearing constantly now. I miss Dublin and I wholeheartedly reccommend going to anyone who goes abroad.
posted by Alyssa at 11:24 PM
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