We were determined to be conquerers. Nice ones, though: we weren't trying to get fined for vandalism or burning down city walls or stealing children to start a new community with. That's frowned upon.
Day 1 highlights:
- cab driver's quotes. On his thoughts on Northern Ireland, "Don't care, cut em off an' let em float to Ang-lind, ya know?"
- "Full Irish" Breakfast at Wuff (Smithfield): two sausage, two bacon, black and white pudding (black = made with animal blood), two eggs, toast
- watching Ireland vs France on Smithfield town square's big screen
- Audeon's - Dublin's oldest church. We think. I also think they all claim that. Refilled our luck supply by touching our 3rd good luck charm of Europe, the 1000-year-old Lucky Stone. It's worked so far. Felt good to acquire some more luck, just in case.
- St. Pat's, Christ Church: 1300s churches that are a) amazingly still standing and b) amazing in general
- Dublin Castle and gardens: we're pretty into the Castle and Gardens scene across the continent. This one wasn't so majestic, but a historic site full of info on the 1916 Easter Rising which was a triggering event that led to Irish independence, finally, in 1949
- Leo Burdock's Fish N Chips: a foot long cod cooked in lard and a tub of grease with a pile of wet fries...and it was unreal. Aside: the place now brings in over $2 million per year and serves about 1,000 customers daily despite being just a corner shop with no seating. Part of the reason: the owner signed a lease for a 500-pound down payment and 100 pounds per year... For 100 years. Yes. 100. They still pay that price, even with the country gaining independence in the meantime.
- Lord Edward: tiny, vintage Irish pub, complete with old timers singing Irish drinking songs toward the end of the night. This is where we met an employee of Leo Burdock's next door. He polished 4 Guinness on his 1 hour break as we talked, and headed back. A bit different from the U.S., yes.
Some highlights in pictures
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| Aaron blow drying his socks...far more efficient than air drying |
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| Smithfield watch site. Nice work, thanks for keeping us safe fellas |
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| Lucky Stone |
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| Ireland to-do list |
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| Christ Church |
Day 2
We awoke early for our pre-booked Wild Rover tour of the West Coast. Not 8 hours early as Aaron preferred, but early enough. Again, we were attempting to expand our conquered area to all of Ireland within 3 days, so this was very necessary. And very worth it.
Stop 1: Moneygall
This is a rest stop built along the Highway in the tiny town of Moneygall. Unbelievably, it was titled Barack Obama plaza. You can leave America but America never leaves you. Obama's great great grandmother was from the town, so he made a voyage here in 2011, and they love the guy so much they titled it "the most historic day in Moneygall history," and built a museum to him and Irish American presidents of the past upstairs in the stop. Seems a bit much, seeing as he was only there for less than a day. Also, the choice to honor the day with an interstate rest stop if anything? Questionable, at best, but a nice gesture?
Stop 2: Cliffs of Moher
Well, now I've seen it all. Actually not even close, and we only got two hours here which wasn't enough. BUT, we did see land masses popping out of the ground that I previously didn't believe were possible. Aaron and I couldn't figure out how something so gorgeous could form. 700 foot cliffs erupting from the ocean? So we took a bit closer of a look. While the girls screamed. Unbelievable. There are sites in the world too unbelievable to capture on camera, let alone in words. The scale is just too large, and the beauty too surreal. Sorry. So here's an effort:
Stop 3: The Burren
Translation: big rocky place. They were right. Limestone cliffs and terrain galore. I felt like I was walking on the moon, but there was a disappointing amount of gravity.
The bus continued along the gorgeous Atlantic and everyone around us slept despite paying 50 Euro for the tour and missing our tour guide dropping hugely useful knowledge bombs about Ireland as we cruised past Norman castles and vast blue ocean views. They might have missed half of a potentially life changing experience, but at least they caught up on sleep and got some good Instagram pics out of it. I didn't sleep for one minute thank you very much. My fellow travelers had some struggles, but ultimately came through strong after 4.5 naps each.
Stop 4: Galway
Ireland's colorful cultural hub. We walked the cute little town and ran into a couple thousand other tourists looking for some cute quaint little towns to devour more greasy potatoes in. As an aside: we totally ended up doing the same. I might have put Ireland into another 1850s potato famine single handedly
Ended the day at The Cobblestone. Shout out to my Irish hooligan and total goon of a friend Connor Phelan for the recommendation - figured he would be a degenerate drunk at this point after witnessing his amazing ways in college for his year abroad at BC. Turns out he's a functional human with an amazing job. This was what we'd been seeking. Off the beaten path, totally vintage. We entered and I was entirely under the impression that I accidentally walked in on a traditional Irish music club meeting. But we were in Dublin. And it was real Irish music. And there were others in the bar. And they all went silent with shushing from the crowd as they played quiet acoustic, acapella, strings and flutes, and resumed talking during the upbeat background music. Never seen anything like it. No microphones, not even a stage to grace the band with, probably a decent amount of Guinness supplemented with some smiles.
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| First of 6,000 cliffs of moher pictures I think |
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| Power couple |
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| edge of glory |
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| Pretty much |
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| The Burren |
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| broken picture frame |
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| Galway all the way |
Day 3
Had to take this day by the horns to leave Dublin properly in our wake. The grand finale. I think I might tear up writing this.
Started at Kilmainham jail, which closed in 1924. This place was home to the executions of 13 leaders of the Army of the Irish Republic who fashioned the Easter Rising, dank cellars of revolutionary solitary confinement (as opposed to grouped prisons where they'd all just beat the crap out of each other), dank cellars, diseases upon diseases, and probably some bad people during its hay day. Aaron and I spent a solid half hour breaking down the Easter Rising into it's moving parts. Going to need a return trip to tie up some loose ends. We then got depressed as pretty much everyone involved was slaughtered. We enjoyed starting our day with a sobering experience within a place representing death and punishment.
So we fixed that with an American lunch. Meaning, we just went somewhere and over-ate until we almost exploded. Trinity College followed. That night, we met up with Connor who explained that they're the longest standing college in Europe to never expand. This really just puts them amongst the best in the world at never doing anything.
We hit Stephen's Green and some more signs explaining the surreal history of the 1916 rising, which they didn't realize I majored in as recently as 4 hours previously. From there, a mandatory stop at the Guinness Storehouse was made. For some reason, it's better here. We needed to get to the source and figure out why. Basically, the whole experience is a giant willy wonks factory except alcoholics not children have found the golden ticket. It's an incredible operation that only takes place at St James Gate, and Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease to keep it there. 9000 years. This happened in the 1700s, so the Guinness factory's lease on the acres of land in the heart of Dublin is currently the equivalent of 45 pounds per month, and will continue to be that until the year 9,700, or if the world ends, either or. This definitely surpasses Leo Burdock's 100+ year lease, but the Irish really aren't afraid of commitment.
We learned the secret technique of producing this nectar, and promptly forgot it, then met Connor out at Bull and Castle. This is a lovely spot with a brewery and, seriously, a craft hot dog truck within the bar. So, obviously that needed to happen. The night was finished with another craft bar and a tour from Connor who turns out to conveniently be a part time tour guide. He threw knowledge left and right and probably made up 90% of the rest between memories of our days as BC Ultimate (/parties) teammates. Thanks again Connor - you're welcome in Omaha any time you feel the desire to come to Omaha.
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| Kilmainham jail cell. Cozy, no doubt. |
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| LITTLE COLDER HERE |
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| Stephen's Green |
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| Proper wafting technique on display |
The trip home
Just to throw a little last minute travel anxiety in for fun, here's tour second Dublin airport experience in brief: flight delay -> Irish delta agent says we missed our flight despite being 1 hr 45 min early for 11 am flight -> customer service says he's wrong and we are fine , prints boarding passes -> up to immigration -> no forms -> I run back down to grab them -> united agent -> useless as usual, send me to delta -> same delta agent says they give the forms only if they check passports -> back upstairs -> get Becca -> back to dumb Irish gate agent -> checks passports -> alright you're good to go! -> can we have our immigration forms please?! -> oh, we don't have them here -> you literally just told me to come get them from you -> oh! let me check -> checks -> nope we don't have them! they are upstairs -> ok I hate you bye -> line to scan boarding pass -> front at 10 am -> boarding pass won't scan -> back downstairs -> reprint -> back upstairs -> scanner works -> security -> through at 10:20 -> panic -> run to US pre-clearance -> line -> through by 10:28 -> feel like the dream is over -> downstairs to customs -> line -> filling out the customs forms we originally were seeking while walking -> through line by 10:33 -> agent says we will for sure make it -> no idea who this prophet is but I like her -> passport control -> line -> gate by 10:40 -> last ones on plane.
I get that they are a tad new to the "independence" thing, but a bit of work could be done on the efficiency of the aviation of Ireland as a whole.
Tonight, The Victory Lap comes to an end. It's been an absolute joy and we have to thank our parents for inspiring (and partially funding) this trip and making it possible in my 19-day summer. Aaron, Katie, Connor, Billy, random Irishmen, French waiters that couldn't understand us, etc., thanks for putting up with me. Becca - sorry, you're going to have to deal with that the rest of your life. Fans and friends, I hope I've kept you entertained in this blog which has turned into a long form journal and memory book of the ridiculous, the beautiful, and the ridiculously beautiful areas of the world. I enjoy this creative outlet, and seeing such sites expands what I thought was possible in the world, opens my eyes to the fact that life extends far beyond just your city - I love the feeling of knowing no limits and recognize I am fortunate to feel it (shout out to the government for funding me!), and I hope all can join at some point and do the same. Maybe this blog will inspire you to get out of the comfort zone and go somewhere. Anywhere. If so, then my overly sarcastic writing has certainly been validated.
Thanks again for reading! Next post: my 2017 honeymoon updates.
