Dublin – Day 2

I had a hard time sleeping last night, and was up by 6am. I laid around watching the news for a bit then got up and headed out pretty early. The good thing about Dublin is that just about everything to see is within a 2 or 3 square mile area, so you can get a lot done in a day. My first stop was right across the street from my hotel, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A beautiful church with very nice stained glass throughout. Then I hiked up to Dublin Castle, which is more like a palace than a castle so I was a bit disappointed. There were really only two cool rooms, the rest was pretty modern even though it’s old. Then I went across the street to Christ Church Cathedral which has gorgeous tile flooring featuring anthropomorphic foxes and very nice clergymen who were more than happy to answer questions and tell you about the place. I was there right at noon so I got to sit and listen to their prayer for peace, a prayer they’ve been saying at noon every day for nearly 800 years, according to the clergyman I was talking with. After the cathedral I tried to make a stop at St. Michan’s Church but they were closed, so I continued on my way to my lunch destination. I’ve been following the White Moose Café on Facebook for a couple years now, it’s a hilariously sarcastic and funny place and I’ve wanted to go and see it for myself. I ordered the sandwich that the food critic criticized which lead to one of the more hilarious shenanigan sagas (the sandwich was good!) and towards the end Paul himself burst through the front door and screamed, scaring the absolute shit out of the staff at the front counter, before running off laughing into the back room. That’s exactly what I imagined working here with Paul as a boss would be like! The staff seemed to expect and laugh at it, it was all in good fun.

After my bucketlist food experience, I wandered down the road to the Black Church, and I’m not sure why that’s marked on the tourist map because aside from it being on its own island in the middle of an intersection there wasn’t too much special about it. I suppose it was a bit darker than others, and had plants growing out the top of it, but that’s it. From there I went back south to the Church Bar and Restaurant, someone bought the old church building where Guinness (as in the beer guy) got married and turned it into a bar/restaurant while leaving all the church fixings including the organ in place. It was a cool place for a pint and that marked the start of my own bar crawl of sorts. From there I crossed the river at the Ha’penny Bridge and stopped over at The Temple Bar to listen to the live music and enjoy another pint of cider. Then I walked down Grafton Street, the shopping district street, and stopped at Kehoe’s Bar which despite only being about 5:30 was already completely packed, standing room literally out to the surrounding streets. Still, I squeezed in and had my cider.

Let me tell you, Dublin is definitely a city of the night. During the day it was definitely busy, don’t get me wrong, but it was mostly tourists and locals trying to hustle to their destination. After 5pm the streets came alive with music, conversation, and lots of alcohol. By 5:30pm most of the bars were full and by 7:30pm you already had the drunk, older, Irish guys swaggering down the streets and groups of young people being loud and exuberant. Maybe it’s just because it’s Friday night, I don’t know, but it was fun to watch the transformation. On my way back to the hotel I wandered a bit around St. Stephen’s Green Park, a nice little green space in the middle of the city, and got back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the night. I have a big, long day trip planned for tomorrow, and since I didn’t sleep well last night I want to rest up!

Stirling Castle and Dublin Day 1

I got up and repacked my bags for my upcoming flight then left my car at the hotel and hiked uphill (of course, everything is uphill here!) to Stirling Castle. I passed by some cool old buildings along the way on cobbled roads with historic structures which were pretty neat. I spent a couple hours wandering the castle before heading back to my car and hitting the road to Edinburg. I’m happy to report that despite road construction and a bunch of obstacles, I made my way to the rental car return without scratching or denting the vehicle. Woo hoo! After dropping the car off I hopped on a bus to the airport and wandered around until Aer Lingus got us on a mud skipper propeller plane to Dublin. The flight was short and uneventful, which is always good. I checked into my hotel and was thinking about going out for a drink, but decided instead to hit the hotel bar for a cider and some Irish BBQ wings and chips. Tomorrow will be a busy walking day around Dublin!

Scottish Highlands – Day 5 (Glenfinnan and Glencoe)

It was pouring when I woke up this morning, so instead of heading out early per usual I decided to stick around as late as possible until the rain let up. Then I went over to the viaduct where the Jacobite steam train goes by, and although I wasn’t planning on being there that late for the train, I figured it wasn’t too long out so I waited. But despite being there on time the steam train never showed up (although a regular one did). Ah, well. I had planned to take the gondola up the Nevis mountain range, but with all the rain I had already lost half the day so I skipped it and drove through them instead, passing by Ben Nevis along the way. I made my way to Steall Falls through Glen Nevis, and like everything here what looked like it would be easy turned into a 30+ minute uphill mountain rock climbing experience. But I made it to the valley and the waterfall was huge and gorgeous. There was a path that would take you right to the base of the falls, but to get there you had to cross a single wire bridge with two other wires for balance. It had been raining, and people far thinner and fitter than I were having to go very very slowly to get across, so I opted out and decided I’ll just have to come back here later when I’m not quite so fluffy.

After climbing down the mountain back to my car, I doubled back through the mountains and got on the road to Glencoe. It was back to pouring again by the time I got to the most scenic and majestic spots, but dang was it still pretty. I continued south, stopping every couple miles to enjoy the view, and watched the sunset over the mountains at one of the pull offs. At the sunset pull off there was a very nice German lady that I gave my camera to for a picture. She wound up being all into it and wanted me to do a “jumping” pose, she was so funny I kept laughing through it. It took like 3 tries but we got it good enough. Then I drove very stressfully in the pitch black dark to Stirling where I stayed in a spa hotel for the night. I wish I had more time in the morning, I’d have loved to engage in the “spa” portion, but I headed for Stirling Castle in the morning, and then it’s off to Dublin!