It's true, Ireland really is the friendliest place on Earth. Let’s back up though…
Since our flight out of Brussels was at 7 on Wednesday morning--Bonnie and I had the bright idea to motivate our group to sleep in the Brussels airport to save money on a hostel, and for fun!? However, upon arrival in Brussels we found ourselves stranded at 1 a.m. in the train station, unsure of what to do and quickly walked (sprinted) with our backpacks on to the nearest safe haven. Fortunately, the place we walked into happened to be a nice hotel with an even nicer hotel front desk manager. We are blessed to say the least; he let all six of us stay in the lobby until our bus arrived to the airport at 4:30 a.m.
As soon as we walked outside of the Dublin Airport we were greeted by natives and the bus conductor (probably because we looked like lost tourists). We spent the first day walking around Dublin, say and people watched in two lovely parks, visited Trinity University. Our original goal for the day, well Erin's goal was to find the Dublin Castle--which ended up being quite a disappointment actually. Day 2 consisted of us being on a 14 hour day tour to see the Cliffs of Moher...which were not at all a disappointment! We literally drove across Ireland (east to west) that day. That night we explored the night life of Dublin. Temple Bar is what we were told was the cultural spot to go for locals, so naturally...we went. We each had a Guinness, (when in Ireland, right?). By the way…it’s a waste of 5 euro. Traci liked it though, and helped finish all of ours.
Waking up to no plans in mind on Friday morning except to find a B&B, we hopped on a bus and headed to a town we had never heard of called--Enniskerry. Heard of it? Yeah, we hadn't either, but to our delightful surprise this little town was a dream. Enniske
rry consists of 1 pub, 2 restaurants, 1 ice cream shop and 1 pub/restaurant combination...in short, we were happy. This was the typical Ireland we had all been picturing in movies. Our dream came true, we stayed in the Ferndale B&B, the most precious and comfortable place to spend the night. We woke up the next morning to breakfast made for us, coffee, tea and cookies on our way out. A 10 minute walk North to the Enniskerry Golf Club we spent the day surrounded by the most beautiful landscape imaginable—The Powerscourt Gardens! (We ended up going back again the next day). We went to Nancy Murphy’s for dinner that night to watch the Ireland soccer match. We made friends with some older folks, and they informed us that “kids our age should be in Bray for a good time.” A three mile bus ride later, with again, not a clue to as where we were headed and what we were going to do once we arrived, we were in the middle of nowhere. Literally, all to be seen was a taxi service and an ATM machine. Luckily we met a few Bray locals that were headed to the same bar we were. A few dark alleys and a right turn later we were at the Bray Harbor Bar and listening to live music with our new friends. The singer happened to be the brother of one of guys we met. This should give you an idea of how small this town is…everyone in this bar was related or grew up with each other, and they more than made sure we felt welcomed! Best night by far.
Sad to say, we dreaded returning to Dublin. It was so much louder, dirtier, over-populated than our new favorite towns—Enniskerry and Bray. The following morning, while Leah, Erin, Traci and Kaitlin had an early flight home to make it in time for the first day of class; Bonnie and I had an extra day to spend in Ireland. We successfully wasted an entire day laying in the Trinity park reading, listening to music and watching a game of cricket.
We were feeling that luck was on our side this time around and decided to give sleeping in the airport another try. And this time…it happened! I can’t say that we slept well or really saved money since we spent close to 20 euro on airport food and drink, but it was a memory for a few reasons. On the bus to the airport we met a 26 year old girl from London who was in Dublin for a few days to visit friends. She was by far the most fascinating person we met all trip and had many stories to share. We were sad to see her leave, but were all smiles to have met someone so interesting when we thought our trip in Ireland couldn’t get any better.
Classes were in full swing once we arrived in Maastricht on Monday afternoon. We leave early again tomorrow on a group trip to get a taste of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. How we are supposed to do this in five days is a mystery to me. Stay tuned!
Since our flight out of Brussels was at 7 on Wednesday morning--Bonnie and I had the bright idea to motivate our group to sleep in the Brussels airport to save money on a hostel, and for fun!? However, upon arrival in Brussels we found ourselves stranded at 1 a.m. in the train station, unsure of what to do and quickly walked (sprinted) with our backpacks on to the nearest safe haven. Fortunately, the place we walked into happened to be a nice hotel with an even nicer hotel front desk manager. We are blessed to say the least; he let all six of us stay in the lobby until our bus arrived to the airport at 4:30 a.m.
As soon as we walked outside of the Dublin Airport we were greeted by natives and the bus conductor (probably because we looked like lost tourists). We spent the first day walking around Dublin, say and people watched in two lovely parks, visited Trinity University. Our original goal for the day, well Erin's goal was to find the Dublin Castle--which ended up being quite a disappointment actually. Day 2 consisted of us being on a 14 hour day tour to see the Cliffs of Moher...which were not at all a disappointment! We literally drove across Ireland (east to west) that day. That night we explored the night life of Dublin. Temple Bar is what we were told was the cultural spot to go for locals, so naturally...we went. We each had a Guinness, (when in Ireland, right?). By the way…it’s a waste of 5 euro. Traci liked it though, and helped finish all of ours.
Waking up to no plans in mind on Friday morning except to find a B&B, we hopped on a bus and headed to a town we had never heard of called--Enniskerry. Heard of it? Yeah, we hadn't either, but to our delightful surprise this little town was a dream. Enniske
rry consists of 1 pub, 2 restaurants, 1 ice cream shop and 1 pub/restaurant combination...in short, we were happy. This was the typical Ireland we had all been picturing in movies. Our dream came true, we stayed in the Ferndale B&B, the most precious and comfortable place to spend the night. We woke up the next morning to breakfast made for us, coffee, tea and cookies on our way out. A 10 minute walk North to the Enniskerry Golf Club we spent the day surrounded by the most beautiful landscape imaginable—The Powerscourt Gardens! (We ended up going back again the next day). We went to Nancy Murphy’s for dinner that night to watch the Ireland soccer match. We made friends with some older folks, and they informed us that “kids our age should be in Bray for a good time.” A three mile bus ride later, with again, not a clue to as where we were headed and what we were going to do once we arrived, we were in the middle of nowhere. Literally, all to be seen was a taxi service and an ATM machine. Luckily we met a few Bray locals that were headed to the same bar we were. A few dark alleys and a right turn later we were at the Bray Harbor Bar and listening to live music with our new friends. The singer happened to be the brother of one of guys we met. This should give you an idea of how small this town is…everyone in this bar was related or grew up with each other, and they more than made sure we felt welcomed! Best night by far.Sad to say, we dreaded returning to Dublin. It was so much louder, dirtier, over-populated than our new favorite towns—Enniskerry and Bray. The following morning, while Leah, Erin, Traci and Kaitlin had an early flight home to make it in time for the first day of class; Bonnie and I had an extra day to spend in Ireland. We successfully wasted an entire day laying in the Trinity park reading, listening to music and watching a game of cricket.
We were feeling that luck was on our side this time around and decided to give sleeping in the airport another try. And this time…it happened! I can’t say that we slept well or really saved money since we spent close to 20 euro on airport food and drink, but it was a memory for a few reasons. On the bus to the airport we met a 26 year old girl from London who was in Dublin for a few days to visit friends. She was by far the most fascinating person we met all trip and had many stories to share. We were sad to see her leave, but were all smiles to have met someone so interesting when we thought our trip in Ireland couldn’t get any better.
Classes were in full swing once we arrived in Maastricht on Monday afternoon. We leave early again tomorrow on a group trip to get a taste of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. How we are supposed to do this in five days is a mystery to me. Stay tuned!
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