For mine and Dana's second and final trip, we headed over to Dublin and Edinburgh. Now, I might be biased because I'm always thrilled when I can speak English, but these cities were some of my favorites so far.
After a tourist day in Cologne, we boarded our night time flight to Dublin. As we got on the plane, I got a call from our hotel telling me that our room was apparently too dangerous to stay in because of electrical failures, and that they would be putting us in another hotel for the night. An excellent way to start a trip. It all turned out fine, but not the greatest thing to tell a natural worrier moments before a vacation.
Anyways, we made it to Dublin. And again, praise the public transportation in Europe. Airports, trains, and tourist attractions are all incredibly accessible in a way that American cities are just not. A cheap bus took us directly from the airport into the city center. And it had free wifi. Take that, USA.
After passing out from pure exhaustion, a hotel breakfast the next morning (💗), and moving our stuff back to our original hotel, we headed out to our free walking tour. If you've never taken a Sandeman's walking tour before, DO IT. Our guide was enthusiastic, informative, and incredibly friendly. After the tour he even took us to one of his favorite pubs for lunch (and assured us that he wasn't getting any kickbacks from them either). Here are some of the sites we saw on tour:
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| Dublin Castle |
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| Possibly my favorite picture of Dana, ever |
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| Temple Bar area |
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| Trinity College |
After our Irish stew and mashed potatoes lunch (YUMMMM. Ireland had p great food, not sure why people trash it all the time), we went back to see the Book of Kells, which is an illustrated version of the four gospels of the Bible from around 1200, and the Trinity Library.
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| Trinity Library-- I'm told it looks a bit like something from Harry Potter, but I'm not much of a Harry Potter fan (don't hate me) |
We then headed over to the touristy-est of tourist attractions, the Guinness Factory. Certainly a must do while you're in Dublin, but to both of us it really seemed like a money trap for tourists with not a ton of educational or entertainment value. On the plus side though, I got these pics of Dana with some interesting Guinness marketing campaigns...
The next day started out with another hotel breakfast (honestly probably the best one of my life) (like they had smoothies) (and homemade bread) (still thinking about it, obvs), and then a trip to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Again, a cool tourist attraction, but really apparent that it was a tourist attraction. There was a literal gift shop INSIDE of the cathedral. Something about that seemed a little wrong to me. Nonetheless though, very beautiful.
This trip (similar to my Hamburg trip) was also pretty cool for me because my grandparents lived in Dublin for a couple years (they're so ~worldly~) right before I was born, so I was able to get some recommendations from then on places they liked while they were living there. We checked out one of the pubs they recommended and I got some (probably not that traditional) bangers and mash. Yum.
And then a walk down Grafton street. Was REALLY hoping Ed Sheeran would be there (Dana can attest to the fact that I sang Galway Girl THE ENTIRE TIME we were in Ireland), but, alas, he was not.
A quick break for some (Irish) coffee, and we were on our way to Edinburgh.
Another fun fact for you all-- Scotland is part of the UK (I really have issues with the whole UK/Great Britain thing and like if Ireland is at all involved with either of them) (they're not, btw) and so therefore they use pounds, and not Euros. Which I thought about riiiiight before we got on the plane. Similarly to how I realized that we probably brought the wrong plug converters riiiiight before we got on the plane to Dublin. Wasn't super prepared for this trip in terms of those little logistics.
So, anyways, we landed, realized that we were in the most beautiful country in the world (again, picture Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, anything old time-y and medieval), dropped our bags at our beautiful hotel, and went to meet my friend at a pub. Talking to her about her time studying abroad in Edinburgh was really cool because even though we were living in different countries, there were still a lot of elements we could connect on and lots of similarities in culture, especially when it came to university culture vs that of an American university.
Sunday was our only full day in Edinburgh, but it was enough to convince us to come back. We walked the Royal Mile (a road that connects the two castles), saw both castles, climbed Arthur's Seat (where Dana unexpectedly became a couple's engagement photographer!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! They asked him to take their picture and then the guy got down and proposed!!!!!! I was freaking out), and went to a random little (literally) underground comedy club. I think Edinburgh is best described in pictures, though.
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| View from our hotel window |
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| The street our hotel was on. Literally in love. |
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| Princes Street Gardens |
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| Princes Street Gardens |
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| Princes Street Gardens |
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| Are you understanding my love for this city yet.... |
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| The Royal Mile |
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| Arthur's Seat |
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| Arthur's Seat |
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| Arthur's Seat |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
So yes, I'm in love with Edinburgh. We picked out our apartment building already. It's currently being renovated from what I can only assume was once a castle. Apartments go for a measly £250,000 to £2,500,000.
As always, a wonderfully successful trip.
Next up, GREECE! Aka the top of my bucket list for as long as I can remember. And I'm literally leaving tomorrow. Gotta go pack, once again....😁
Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing!
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