My Weekend Trip to Ireland

This last weekend, my cousin and I flew to Ireland for a four day weekend trip. We flew in Thursday night to Dublin, checked in to Ashfield Hostel and went right to bed because we had to catch a bus early in the morning. It was my first time in a shared room hostel. To be honest, it was a little weird, but it was fine in the end. It’s definitely cheap and easy.

After we got on the bus, we realized we were matching 🤣.

Cliffs of Moher/Doolin:

We took the CityLink bus from Dublin to Galway, which was about two hours. I couldn’t stop staring out the bus window because of how beautiful the country was. It was so green, I couldn’t believe it. We got dropped off at GMIT in Galway and had to wait an hour for the next bus, which we took with Bus Eireann, that would take us to The Cliffs of Moher. This bus ride was about two hours and it made me sick because it is in the country so the roads are bumpy and windy.

The Cliffs of Moher was absolutely spectacular. If you go to Ireland, you have to go there. Every step I took, I wanted to take a picture because the view was different than it was a second before. I could not believe how beautiful it was. I was in awe the entire time. I can’t describe the feeling it gave me to be standing on the cliffs looking at such a masterpiece of nature. God is an amazing artist. I wanted to capture everything. The sound of the waves crashing again the cliffs. The sound of the seagulls flying overhead. The smell of the fresh ocean air. It was all just a perfect moment.

We went during the off season for tourists, it being winter and all, so it was pretty windy and cold but worth it because there weren’t a lot of crowds. The bad side to this was that they didn’t have shuttle buses going very often. We got there about 3:15. After about 1.5 hours of walking on the cliffs, we went to look at the gift shops, which closed at 5:00. When the visitor center closed, we went to look at the bus schedule to see the bus we could get and the next bus wasn’t until 6:15. The bus, we would later find out, usually ran about 15 minutes late as well. So we had to wait about two hours in the cold wind as it was getting dark for our bus. If I was to do the cliffs again, I would either rent a car and drive, or I would go during the tourist season when there are more shuttles, or we found out that there is a path from the cliffs to Doolin, where our hostel was, that takes about 2 hours to walk, so we would have just done that instead of waiting for the bus. But of all the places to be stranding, The Cliffs of Moher was the best place.

We stayed that night at The Rainbow Hostel in Doolin. Doolin is a quaint little town about 15 minutes from the cliffs. They only have one hostel, but they have a lot of B&Bs. Since it wasn’t tourist season, a lot of the B&Bs didn’t seem to be open. There are two pubs pretty close to each other that switch off having music and serving food each night so each can get the crowds that come during the winter. We ate at McGann’s pub. Kevin got the lamb roast which was really good. I got the fish and chips, which was pretty good. Our hostel was very quaint. It is run by a middle aged couple who are very nice. I liked them immediately. The scones for breakfast were delicious. The only downside was that the water was a little cold. Also my phone wasn’t connecting to the WiFi. It was my favorite hostel of the trip, though.

We woke up and took our time because the bus wouldn’t come until 11:30 to pick us up. We asked the hostel owner where would be a good place to walk to and she suggested the little graveyard about ten minutes walk away. We walked over there and looked at the old headstones. I think the oldest one we found was from about 1840. It was pretty cool. Kevin decided he was hungry, so we went back to McGann’s for him to eat breakfast. It was so quaint because they had their fireplace going. Also their WiFi was the best. After breakfast we caught the bus back to Galway.

Galway:

After the two hour bus ride back to Galway, we went to the Celtic Tourist Hostel and checked in. Our host there was kind of weird, but very nice. It was our second favorite place to stay. Then we walked around, mostly taking in our surroundings. We had heard about Charlie Byrne’s bookshop, so we went there. It was definitely my favorite place in Galway that we went. All the books were really cheap and they were all so beautiful. I bought two of them. We walked around the shops a little more, walked to a church that they had, and mostly just took everything in. We went to the cathedral there, the organist was practicing. It was a really cool experience. It was very beautiful.

For dinner, we went to The Pie Maker where they serve savory and sweet pies. I had the chicken and mushroom, which was delicious. I just was a little sad that my gross cabbage seeped into my potatoes and pie a little bit. We were completely full, so we didn’t order dessert.
 We walked around some more and ended up at the college rugby game. We only stayed about 15 minutes because it was about to end, but it was a lot of fun. Being in Ireland and not being someone who drinks alcohol is a little hard. There’s nothing really to do at night when the shops close because you don’t want to hang out at pubs if you don’t drink. Luckily, we were able to find The Secret Garden cafe. It was my second favorite place in Galway. It had a very chill atmosphere. I ordered a hot chocolate and some sort of pastry. They both weren’t the best I’d had, but they were pretty good. I mostly liked the place for the vibe. You could sit there for hours and no one would bother you.
The next day, we got up early to catch the bus back to Dublin. We stopped at Cafe Express to grab a muffin before our bus ride and it was one of the best muffins I’ve ever had. I got the raspberry one. Not only did it have little raspberry chunks in the muffin top, but the muffin bottom has two full raspberries in it. I was in love.

Dublin:

We got to Dublin about 11:30 am on Sunday. A lot of the things we wanted to see didn’t open until later because it was Sunday, so we went to walk around and try to find where Bram Stoker had once lived. We found a cool mural someone had done of Dracula in his honor. At 12:30, we walked to Trinity Library where they had The Book of Kells exhibit and we could see The Long Room, which was the inspiration for the Hogwart’s Library. It was definitely the highlight of Dublin for me. It took us about 10-15 minutes to wait in line to get in then about 1.5 hours to look around. The Book of Kells was pretty cool. I didn’t actually know what it was until we got there, though. It is a really cool exhibit. I learned that it is a manuscript in Latin of the four gospels in the New Testament.

After that, we dropped out stuff off at Abigail’s Hostel then headed to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Evensong. I like going to catholic church every once in a while. We heard a great sermon about being positive and trying to say “yes” to good things more often. It’s also free to go to Evensong whereas it is not free to go into the cathedral when church is not happening.
After church, we went to the Chester Beatty library. We could only stay for a half an hour because church went until 4:15 and the exhibit was only open until 5. I wish we could have stayed longer. There was a really cool collection of books from different countries and time periods. We practically ran through all three exhibits so we could see everything. After that, we decided we were finally hungry for dinner. The waiter at McGann’s had told us to avoid Temple Barstreet because it was super touristy and to go to Middle Ashely street, so we walked over there but there wasn’t a lot and most of it was closed. We went back to Temple Bar street and found The Vat. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs because we ordered wa too much. Kevin wanted the deep fried Brie, which was pretty good but a lot. I wanted the deep fried mushrooms, I was a little disappointed. I’ve had better ones at UVU. I ordered the Irish Stew for my main dish and was not disappointed. It was delicious, but super hot. I definitely burned my mouth.
We were super full and decided to walk around a bit to make room for dessert. Temple Bar is definitely touristy, but it’s still pretty fun to walk around in. We wanted to try and find another quaint cafe to eat dessert in and we were in luck. We found a place called Accents. It wasn’t as quaint as The Secret Garden, but it was still pretty chill. This is where I had my life changing hot chocolate. When you order, you can pick the type of chocolate you and. I ordered milk chocolate with a shot of caramel. They brought me a cup of milk chocolate chips and a bowl of. Milk with my caramel making a sloppy on top. I then dumped all my chocolate chips into the cup of milk and melted them. It was so good. I love this because you can decide how much chocolate you want in your hot chocolate. Also because the chocolate literally melts right there. It’s not just a packet of Swiss Miss. The lemon and raspberry bar I got there was yummy too, and I usually don’t like lemon bars. It was a fun place to people watch. A lot of couples were there and we were deciding who was interested in who, who would make it as a couple, and who wouldn’t. I loved it.

We went to our hostel afterwards and thus began one of the worst nights. The hostel itself wasn’t bad, but there was one person in the same room as us that was the WORST. He was loud coming into the room late at night, then he very loudly snored all night ( I get that he can’t help it, but it was really bad). He then was the first one up, at 4:30 am, and was being VERY loud. He also kept turning lights on and not turning them off. For about three hours he was doing this. Everyone in the room was fed up with him.
After we checked out, we walked around a park that I don’t know the name of. It was under construction but still very pretty. Then we went to Marsh’s Library which holds some of the rarest and oldest books in the world. It’s also where Bram Stoker used to hang out. It was really cool. Then we walked around for forever trying to find a place to eat our last meal in Dublin. We finally decided on the  Kingfisher Restaurant. I got a traditional Irish breakfast and added a fruity scone. It was absolutely delicious. I’m so glad I picked it. It was also one of the cheapest restaurants we ate at (my meal there was about 11 Euros). Then we walked back to Temple Bar street where there’s a place called The Bubble Waffle Facory. They looked and smelled much better than they tasted, but it was still a fun treat to try. We then hopped on a bus back to the airport for our flight home.

If I had to do this trip over, I would maybe rent a car for Doolin/Cliffs of Moher. We got around great in Galway and Dublin just on our feet, though. I would not want to drive in Dublin. I would also try one of the donuts I saw everywhere in Dublin. They looked amazing. I would also maybe splurge for a hotel/B&B in Dublin because both the hostels there were our least favorite on the trip. Also, I would definitely stay longer and travel to more places, but we only had four days and I’m more than happy with what we did. I really had an amazing time.

Overall, I loved Ireland. It was so beautiful, and I felt pretty safe the whole time. I definitely want to go back. I bonded with my cousin a little bit more, which was good. He taught me how to read people’s body language better and helped me understand myself a little bit more. I’m a terrible decision maker. I usually look out for other people’s feelings and wants/needs over my own. Kevin made me plan the whole day in Dublin. Every time I asked him what he wanted to do, he wouldn’t say anything. He would just make me keep picking things. I learned that it’s okay to not have to sacrifice things I want to do for someone else. Obviously, we need to keep others in mind and compromise on things, but sometimes it’s okay to say you want to do something and then do it. You don’t have to be self sacrificing all the time. I also learned that confidence is key. I’ve always heard it, but this weekend I learned it.I also realized how much I love libraries. I feel bad dragging my cousin to all of them, but I absolutely loved every second of it. That’s what he gets for making the book geek plan everything.

I’m really grateful for the time I had in Ireland, and I can’t wait to go back and see what it has in store for me next time.