Ending it in Dublin

Even though I'm sitting at home typing this out and no longer in Ireland, I still need to wrap up my last few days of this amazing adventure. Writing this is helping to stave off the "Post Trip Depression Blues" (I'm not making it up, it's a thing) and just wait until I start posting all my pictures too. hahaha. My obsession with this trip will never end.

Dublin - Reunions with Old Friends

My trip into Dublin was awful. If you recall from my last post - I was incredibly hungover from the Cork Pub Crawl the night prior. So I didn't think I would be up for much of anything the first night. However, f-it. I only have three days left, might as well make the most of it.

I met up with Sam and Luke (and their girlfriends: Laura and Lily) for dinner and drinks. When I traveled to Dublin six years ago with my best friend Dan, we stayed with his cousins and aunt/uncle. So when I was coming back, I reached out to the boys to hang out. I was a bit worried it would be weird without Dan there, but we transitioned into chatting and drinking rather seamlessly and had a great night.

Reunions and Cider

We started off at the Porterhouse in Temple bar for some dinner and fancy Espresso cocktails (I needed a bit of a caffeine push to continue the night). After that we headed to the Brazen Head which is Dublin's oldest pub. It had some awesome ambiance, a variety of rooms and live music and we sat on the patio and drank cider to my hearts content. A fantastic first night in Dublin!

Security at The Brazen Head

Wandering Around the City
The next day was a bit of a disaster -- Super Organized Susan wise, I mean. I had planned on waking up early and going to Kilmainham Gaol for the morning --- but I slept in. Then when I finally got my ass in gear, I found out that the tickets for the day were sold out and I'd have to return tomorrow at 9am to try to get tickets for Tuesday. Ah well, I'll just move on to something else. Maybe the museums? Nope, closed on Mondays. Okay... Maybe the cool crypt with mummified bodies? It doesn't say they are closed online. Nope! When I got there, the gates were closed shut. Hmmm... what to do? Oh look, The Jameson Bow Street Distillery tour is right beside me. I don't even like Whiskey... OH WELL.

Whiskey for You, Whiskey for Me

The tour was pretty informative and interactive which I enjoyed. There were a lot of cool audio visual tricks and we saw the entire process of distilling whiskey. We had a taste test where we compared a Scotch Whiskey (Johnnie Walker), An Irish Whiskey (Jameson) and an American Whiskey (Jack Daniels) and while I am not a whiskey connoisseur in the slightest -- the Jameson WAS the smoothest to drink. I didn't particularly like the shots, but after the tour I had a glass of Jameson with Gingerale and lime which was delicious.

After the distillery, I needed a nap to recoup before heading out to meet up with Séamus, a travel friend I had met in Derry. As we were both a little rough from the previous nights before, we decided to have a chill evening of pizza, coffee and wandering around the city. Séamus had no idea of my love of loose leaf tea but nevertheless took me to a fantastic little coffee/tea shop where we caught up and learned more about each other. He then took me to St. Stephen's Green and walked me back to my hostel where we had a fantastic view of a rainbow. It was a great way to spend the twilight hours.

Found me a Leprechaun at the end of the Rainbow

When I got back to my hostel, I met up with my two Taiwanese roommates from Cork who were ironically also staying in the same hostel as me. We went down to Temple bar to find some live music and hit the jackpot at the Quays. We had a fantastic guitar player, totally catering to North American audiences, play "irish" versions of various pop songs. It was lively, packed and wonderful. I'm pretty sure that one of my favourite things in the world is listening to attractive men with accents play music in pubs.

Reunited for some live music!

The Gaol and One Last Hurrah

I was much more prepared and left really early to make it to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) for a tour. I grabbed a day-of ticket and because I had an hour to kill beforehand, I wandered around a park nearby. It was the Irish War Memorial Gardens and with the exception of one other tourist and a man doing gardening, completely empty. Gorgeous and relaxing, it was a gem to find. That's been my favourite aspect of this trip so far, stumbling across beautiful places and experiences that I had not had planned. Maybe I need to rethink my organized nature to allow for a little bit more of this happenstance beauty.

Ireland War Memorial Gardens

Kilmainham Gaol was incredibly interesting. It was a former jail, used up until the mid 1920s, housing "criminals" during the famine years and up to those involved in the Easter Rising. There was a touching story about Joesph Plunkett and Grace Gifford who got married mere hours before he was executed for his involvement in the rising. We saw the jail cells of various important figures involved in Ireland's independence and even saw the spot where they were executed. I apparently have a fascination with morbid history. But honestly, I think everyone should visit places like this (or concentration camps or the killing fields, etc) because only then can you understand the magnitude of what happened here. Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it, no?

Kilmainham Gaol

After the Gaol, I walked over to a museum recommended to me by Séamus: The Museum of Art & Design. I was getting a little museume-d out, but I did check out the beautiful portrait gallery, some information about Ireland's involvement in WWI (Including a life-preserver from the Lusitania -- the "pretense" for American involvement), and an entire section devoted to the 1916 Easter Rising. As I didn't have time to do a walking tour of Dublin, this was a nice encapsulation of that era of history.

My final night in Dublin consisted of meeting up with Luke, Lily and Hugh (the other brother who couldn't make it out the previous night). Luke, Lily and I enjoyed some bubbily with our traditional Irish sushi? haha, Luke had suggested it and I couldn't believe it. I had been talking to my fellow travelmates how much I had been craving sushi! It was quite delicious and afterwards we met up with Hugh and went to a bar off the obvious Templebar path. Can't for the life of me remember the name of it, but I enjoyed some Guinness and Cider before retiring for the night. I really hope the boys come visit me in Canada soon!

Goodbye Drinks!

Stop-Over in NFLD
My flight left at 8 in the morning, but I had a long layover in St. John's, Newfoundland. My Dad has a lot of family still over there, so I met up with some of his cousins and was toured around for the day! I was surprised by how similar the landscape is to Ireland!

Ireland or Canada??

My Dad's cousin Gail drove me to Cape Spear and we watched some whales. I had lunch with more relatives in honour of my Great Aunt Lee and Uncle Bruce 's 54th wedding anniversary (what good timing I have!). Aunt Lee was my Nana's younger sister. We also met up with Aunt Silvia and Uncle Bruce.  Then my Dad's cousin Jan took me to Signal Hill for some hot chocolate before dropping me off at the airport. It was a whirlwind tour, but so kind of everyone to be excited to see me for even just a few hours.

Happy Anniversary, Uncle Bruce and Aunt Lee!

Welcome Home
And now I'm home. Don't get me wrong, I had missed so many of my friends and family when I was over there, but its a little strange being home. I missed my dog and cat. I missed my bed and shower and the heat of the city. But I feel a little changed and I don't think its very noticeable upfront. I went on this trip not sure if I would make any friends nor have any fun. I was worried I would just want to be back in London with people I knew. I thought I was a little crazy to decide to do it myself.

But after this trip, I realized how fantastic it is to travel alone. You can choose when to wake up or what to do. You are forced out of your comfort zone to make friends and those friends want to be friends with you just as much as you do with them. I used to be sad when no one wanted to go to a festival or event with me. Now? I'll just do it on my own and make friends there. I've developed the confidence to eat in a restaurant alone or to just spend time with my own thoughts and that's no longer a bad or scary thing. I still LOVE being around people and actively search for things to do with others, but this trip helped restore my confidence in myself. And for that, I will be forever grateful to Ireland.  To its friendly people, it's amazing scenery and my fellow travelers on the road.

Sláinte!