Toura-loura!

Ireland is, most definitely, a beautiful place.

You can go from a cosmopolitan landscape to a rural paradise in a minute flat, and from picturesque countryside to stunning seaside without blinking. With the addition of a substantial dose of genuinely nice people, Ireland is pretty much what you expect it to be-- a land of green hills and creative types that vie for your attention throughout your stay.

At the risk of sounding like a guidebook (I can feel it coming on!), I absolutely loved our four-day trip to Ireland this past week. I’d heard good things about both Galway and Dublin, and I wasn’t disappointed by either. My friend Crystal and I flew to Shannon airport from Leeds and took a two hour bus ride to the grand old city of Galway:



Galway’s recent cultural reinvigoration has people talking, and you can see the result of their efforts all around the city centre and docks. Lots of new buildings and shops line the cobblestoned streets these days, and the city attracts enough backpackers to warrant a whole slew of hostels near the downtown. Our hostel was great… small enough to cook your own meals while easily meeting other travelers.

Once we met Johanna at our hostel (she had been travelling on her own in Dublin for a few days), we got to talking to an Australian backpacker named Lisa, and we all agreed to take a ferry from the town of Rossevaal to visit the Aran Islands the next day.

What we ended up doing was absolutely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Upon arriving at the main island’s town of Inishmore (pop. 800) on a sparsely-populated ferry, we noticed a sign advertising bicycle rentals. It took about two minutes for us to decide to rent them for the day and bike to the island’s main attraction: the ruins of Dun Aengus, an ancient fort.


The view from Dun Aengus is spectacular, and it was made even more special by the absence of any other tourists. It was just the four of us at the top, and the crashing waves at the bottom of the sheer cliffs.

We spent the day blissfully sailing down the coast, wandering up hillsides to explore a lighthouse and then the ruins, drinking tea in the company of a sleepy cat, and searching for the island’s elusive seal colony. We were even led around for an hour by a local dog named Yuki.

After our amazing trip the day before, our next day spent seeing some of Galway was a bit more low-key. We then took a four hour bus trip to Dublin, where Johanna left us to fly home to Leeds. Crystal and I were in for a surprise, however… after we found our hostel and wandered around Temple Bar (the touristy bar/restaurant area in Dublin) for a bit, we decided to try a restaurant we spied on the main drag.

We enjoyed our Irish stew and brown soda bread (amazing, by the way-- I’m trying to find it in Leeds!!) and settled back to enjoy the last of our Guinness. Then, by amazing coincidence, three of our international friends from Leeds walked into the restaurant! We had no idea they were in Dublin, and we had just been talking about getting in touch with them after getting back to Leeds. So we were incredibly tickled to see them, and spent that night as well as the next hanging out with them at the most touristy of tourist traps, the actual Temple Bar. The place had great Irish music and endless Guinness though, so we had a great time :) .



Our next couple days were full of tour-taking, visiting the Guinness Brewery and receiving our free pint at the end (in the bar on the 7th floor, which gives an amazing view of the city), seeing the Book of Kells and the Old Library at Trinity College, and exploring the Dublin Writers Museum. Dublin itself has such an interesting literary and political history that it never gets boring.


It’s incredible how Ireland has overcome the crippling poverty it experienced during the 20th century to become one of the richest countries in the EU. You can see it too; everywhere you look, there have been measures taken to improve the city. You could hear the note of pride in our Dublin tour guide’s voice as he explained the change.

We were happy to get back to Leeds, however, if only to be a bit more ready for classes, which started today. Now it’s on to planning our next trip, wherever that may be!

Here are the rest of my pictures from the Aran Islands, and here are those for Galway and Dublin. Also, if you’re interested, here’s the link to my latest article (it's page 5). Thanks so much to the A&E editors at the Gazette for making it look so amazing :).

Happy early birthday, Bryan! :) Have an awesome day!! And I’ll talk to you all soon!