People's Republic of China - Day 2

Exploring Suzhou's Historical Sites - Tourist Day 

Day 2

6:30 AM - Woke up in the middle of nowhere

I'm just kidding, we woke up in a condo. Through my business partner's connections, we were able to settle into a condo the night before and get rested. The condo itself was three bedrooms and two baths and probably less than 800 square feet. I'm guesstimating here of course. While this was not a five star hotel and the walls looked like there was some water damage, the place was alright. Our plan for the day was to visit some of the cultural places in Suzhou, but first our driver picked us up to visit my business partner's manufacturing connection.

10:00 AM – Driver takes us to Tiger Hill in Suzhou

Tiger Hill is a hill in Suzhou, China and it was named this because it looks like a crouching tiger. When we arrived at Tiger Hill, the first thing I noticed was the Yunyan Pagoda. The pagoda was constructed during the later period of the Five Dynasties. At seven stories tall, it has started to lean to one side. At the time there were a lot of traditional Chinese performances for tourists going on at Tiger Hill. Most notably we saw Chinese girls dressed up in traditional clothing dancing to traditional Chinese music. There were also a number of historical spring wells that were marked from periods dating back to 900AD. We saw the "third" most famous spring said to have one of the best and cleanest water at the time. However, now it is just still water with lots of algae.

One thing I noticed while is Suzhou is that the car license plates show the providence plus A,B,C,D,E, which supposedly represents various levels. For example, A would be the capital. In any event, I digress. Tiger Hill had a garden of bonsai trees that looked amazing. I'm pretty sure these trees were pretty old. Suzhou is actually known for their embroideries and wedding dresses. Supposedly the emperor's clothes were made in Suzhou.

12:00 PM - Lunch at the Zen Chinese Cuisine 

Surprisingly eating out in China is not overly expensive at least in the less industrialized areas. For example, for we ordered dim sum for three people at a relatively decent restaurant (comparable to a poor man's PF Chang's) and the total only came out to be 200 RMB, which is about $32 USD. However, the wages at the manufacturing plants are significantly less than what the minimum wage is in the States. For example, our driver makes about 20,000 RMB a year, which is about $3,000 USD. Only executives and management level individuals typically eat out.

1:00 PM – Drive to Humble Administrator's Garden

After lunch, our driver took us to Humble Administrator's Garden, which was nearby Tiger Hill. In fact, from the garden itself, you can see the North Temple Pagoda in the distance. But the garden was said to have been designed to create the optical illusion as if the Temple was a part of the garden itself. There were some ducks and we saw a bunch of lotus plants in the pond. Unfortunately, due to the season (we went in October), the lotus plants were withering.

4:00PM – Walk to the Suzhou Museum and Taoist Temple

Nearby the Humble Administrator's Garden, we entered the Suzhou Museum. This evidently was a more modern establishment with metal detectors and such. We saw a lot of old things and stuff that you would normally see in a Chinese section of a museum in the States or in Europe. Afterwards, we went to a downtown shopping area where there was also a Taoist temple. A street vendor was selling duck tongue. We bought a couple of these and they were okay. I've had duck before, so I wasn't that taken aback. We then walked around the shopping plaza looking at different products such as baby products. In China, because of the one child policy, they want to give their children the best. Therefore, often times they are willing to pay top dollar for good baby products.

7:00PM – Dinner and then retire for the night

We ended up eating at a restaurant that served rabbit foot and had some other Chinese dishes. Nothing else that I had never seen before or was taken aback by.  After dinner we went back to the condo, got ready for bed, and crashed.


My First Experience in China - People's Republic of China - Day 0/1

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Three Day Trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands - Day 3 of 3

Three days in Amsterdam During May

Weather: Windy & Partly Cloudy, 60°F

Day 3 - Wednesday

8:00 AM- Windmills and Museums 

This was our last day in Amsterdam. We woke up around 8:00AM to catch a ferry that would take us up to see the windmills. We took the tram to Amsterdam Centraal and then bought train tickets that would take us to Zaandam. When we used Google maps to find the ferry port, we couldn’t find it. So, I ran into a cellphone shop and asked the locals in Zaandam. Unfortunately, they had no idea. When they Googled it they found out that it was at a bridge. Then I checked that City Card Amsterdam booked and noticed that the damn ferry was not sailing this day. So we went to look for food in Zaandam. It was a pretty quiet town and very different from the busyness in Amsterdam. We didn’t see any tourists and when we stopped by a bakery, they spoke to us in Dutch. Of course we were confused. After walking around for about thirty minutes, we stopped by a café. There were two super gorgeous Dutch white women at the register. I ordered a croissant and a glass of milk for 2€. Finally we headed back up towards the train stop to take it up two more stops to Koog Zaandijk.

11:00AM – En route to Zaanse Schans

The train ride up took about 15 minutes. When we got off, we walked past another bakery, which we would stop by on the way back. We crossed a bridge to get to Zaanse Schans and immediately went into a clock museum. After which it started to rain so we looked for shelter. When the rain died down, we went back toward the clock museum and at lunch at Restaurant de hoop op d’Swarte Walvis. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. The group also split the bitterballens (Dutch meat based snack with a mixture of beef). For dessert we split a slice of apple pie. After lunch we walked through a couple tourist souvenir places and then went to the Zaan museum. It was not very interesting in whole, but there was one part where they showed how chocolate biscuits were made. At the end of the tour, we got a free biscuit. The museums were all very empty; it must have been an off day or not many tourists come up here. At one of the souvenir shops we stopped by at we watched someone create a wooden shoe from fresh wood. He used a machine to carve the frame and then used a machete to create the finishing touches. Finally, we stopped by the bakery museum, which we were sorely disappointed with. It was two rooms and basically had a bunch of old shit. Luckily it didn’t cost us extra and was included in the city card. We went to De Kat Verfmolen, which was a windmill. This was probably one of the highlights. It was interesting to see the windmill grinding the limestone. We took pictures and then went up and down the windmill.

3:00PM – De Bijenkorf and Dinner 

On our way back down to Amsterdam, we stopped by a department store (De Bijenkorf). The department store was located near Dam square. It looked like a regular mall and was five floors. We collected our gift at customer service, which was a voucher for coffee/tea/hot chocolate and a cake. It was a great slice of cake. Then my buddy wanted to head back to the bakery we found the first day. We took the tram and went to the Heineken Brandstore to pick up a third free gift. Lucky for us the bakery was on the way and was open. After the bakery, my buddy and I went to Hema, which is like a Target. I bought some mini Stroopwafels to take back to the States. Then we meet our local friend at a restaurant for drink. After sometime, more of our local friends came and then we ate at a Thai place near Rembrandtplein. It was not that good to be honest. We talked about how to pronounce certain words in Dutch and how to ask for the bill (rekening (ray-kuh-ning) alstublieft (ost-too-blief)– bill please).

10:00PM- Red Light District 

The night before, we walked through the red light district. One of our local friends told us that there were hidden alleys. He took his through the red light district after dinner. We went through several alleys and also what was called the “race track”. Most of them are behind glass doors, but there was a part of the “tour” where they were like literally inches from you. One of them slightly grabbed my arm. I looked back and yes some of them were extremely do able. But, just the social awkwardness of the situation resulted in us not doing anything. Afterwards we just chilled and I had a carbonated ice tea at Leidseplein square. Then we headed back to the hotel.

Day 4 - 5/17/12 – Thursday

Our flight was at 9:50AM. One of my buddies got up extremely late and we were rushing already. First we took the tram 16 to Amsterdam Centraal then bought a ticket to the airport. We checked in to KLM and then checked in our luggage. We barely made the flight with 15 minutes to spare. I’m so glad we booked a direct flight because after 11 hours we arrived back in the States.

Day 1 of 3 in Amsterdam

Day 2 of 3 in Amsterdam

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Three Day Trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands - Day 2 of 3

Three days in Amsterdam During May

Weather: Partly Cloudy, 60°F

Day 2 - Tuesday

9:30AM - Breakfast and then Heineken Experience

We took the tram and went to go look for our Mercure hotel, which is on Noorderstraat. After we dropped off our luggage, we went to Panini for breakfast which was right around the corner. Then we took the tram to Heineken Brand Store via tram stop Rembrandtplein. We collected a gift that was valued at 9€. Then we met up with some of the hostel people we had met the day before and one of my buddy’s local friends at the Heineken Experience. Admission included a bracelet where we had three buttons, two could be exchanged for two drinks and one for a gift at the Heineken Brandstore.

The self-guided tour went through the family run business and its success worldwide. Then we experienced what ingredients went into making the beer. We walked through the stables of where there were horses that pulled the Heineken beer wagons. At one of the theaters we experienced what it was like to feel brewed and bottled. Then we learned how to say cheers in Dutch (Proost, but pronounced Broast) as we drank a glass of Heineken. Finally we walked through a bunch of advertisements.

At the end of the tour, we were given three options. Drink two regular Heinekens, one large extra cold Heineken, or pour your own Heineken and drink one glass. I opted for the pour my own glass. My buddy and his local friend went to the Bulldog to smoke weed, while I went with my friend to the bakery we found the day before and the Heineken Brandstore. Navigating the city and traveling by tram proved to be a good experience. I could definitely feel myself learning a ton.

7:30PM - Dinner and Holland Casino Amsterdam

We met up for dinner at Leidseplein and went to an unlimited ribs place. For 13.50€, we ate six racks of ribs. It was delicious and well worth it. One thing I noticed in the Netherlands is that they charge for drinks including water.

The Holland Casino was nearby, so we checked it out. It was two floors. The first floor had the slot machines and the second were the card games. The rack is a lot bigger and the rules are different. They favor the casino more so. For example, you can only double in Blackjack on certain numbers where as you are allowed to double on any number in Vegas. There was no smoking in the casino, which was something else that I noticed. We went to a bar after the casino to chill and then we walked back to the hotel.

Day 1 of 3 in Amsterdam
Day 3 of 3 in Amsterdam

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Three Day Trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands - Day 1 of 3

Three days in Amsterdam during May 

Weather: Cloudy/Drizzling - 45°F

Day 1 -  Monday

3:00AM – En Route to Dublin Airport to fly to AMS (Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport)

We woke up at 3:00AM and took a taxi to the Dublin Airport. The flight was about an hour and thirty minutes. We arrived at the AMS airport. After we went through customs, we bought each bought a 72 hour Amsterdam City Card for 60€, which gave us free public transportation in the city, free admission to museums, discounts, and some free gifts. We took the train into the city at a cost of 4.30€. We walked to our Flying Pigs hostel. Amsterdam is different from Ireland. Immediately I noticed that there were more people. Everyone in the hostel seemed faded. I guess that is what happens when you legalize weed in the city.

10:00AM – Lunch, Canal Tour, and Rembrandt Museum 

We walked to a lunch place near the hostel, where we ordered breakfast. Two of my buddies couldn't wait and went to a coffee shop and smoked a blunt. It was half tobacco and half weed. We walked towards Dam square and took pictures of the place. Because we knew that it would rain the following day and the day after, we opted to do the one hour canal tour this day. It gave us a good tour of the city and was relaxing to say the least. Then we went to the Rembrandt museum via the tram. It took us a while to find because it was actually just one small four story building. On our way to the museum, we found a bakery shop and that is how my buddies became obsessed with bakeries. We ordered some pastries and they were amazing. At the Rembrandt museum, we learned how to do etching, make paint, and how to make prints. They used three different techniques to carve the metal plate, which was then inked to make a reprint of the picture. We headed back to the hostel to get some rest.

5:00PM – Night out in the city with people from the Hostel 

When we woke up in the hostel, we found people in our 6 bed shared room. I met Nicole who had just come from a cruise with her mother. She lives in D.C. and had been studying Public Policy. Vincent had been traveling for 20 months and sailed for 3 months. He quit his job as a Captain in Pennsylvania. Tatia was from San Paulo, Brazil. We all went to the Red Light District and grabbed a beer at a bar. Vincent had found a guy on Couch Surfing and we all met up at an Irish pub. The guy went by Icee and was half Israeli and half Dutch. He talked about his time in Cape Town and how he left Israel to make a life in the Netherlands. He was 28 and lives with his cousins who are now married and have a kid, so he was looking for people around his age to hang out with. I mentioned to him that he should probably look for people that actually lived in the Netherlands. But, he countered by saying that locals usually hang out with locals and tourists with tourists. There were prostitutes in the red light district and supposedly the ones with blue lights are transgender. Some of them were pretty especially the ones with the school girl glasses. Anyways it was interesting, I headed back early at around 11:00PM.

Day 2 of 3 in Amsterdam
Day 3 of 3 in Amsterdam

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My First Experience in China - People's Republic of China - Day 0/1

Last Day in Taiwan and First Day in China 

Day 0/1

9:00AM - Took the Taipei Metro to the Songshan Airport

This day marked the last day I was in Taiwan for this trip. After spending nearly two weeks in Dongshi, Taichung, and Taipei, it is finally time to embark on a new journey to China. My first time in China!

From the place I was staying, Songshan Airport was about three or four metro stops. It took about twenty minutes to get to the airport and this was including the time I took to walk to the metro station. My flight to Shanghai was at 11:00AM, so I knew I wasn't rushed.

The Taipei metro is extremely convenient and makes stops at the Taipei zoo and even the Maokong Gondola. In addition, it is cost efficient. If you were to travel less than 5KM or more than 31KM, it is 20 and 65 TWD respectively. This comes out to about 70 cents and two dollars respectively.

The Songshan Airport is not the major international airport in Taiwan. The major airport in Taiwan, Taipei is Taoyuan. Songshan Airport is mostly for domestic flights, but includes flights to parts of China and Japan. This two story airport is relatively small and maybe has about ten airplanes on the runway at once.

From staying in Taiwan for two weeks, I had amassed a bunch of food goodies including crackers and dry noodles. In fact, I came to Taiwan with two piece of luggage, but one of the pieces was empty. Now both pieces were full. My intention was to check in both pieces of luggage, but when I got to the front counter, the airline assistant determined that I was over the limit and had to carry one on. Fine, this wasn't a problem.

My aunt was with me and we were extremely early. Check-in only took about 5 minutes, so she decided to head back and pick up some stomach pills for me. If you aren't use to the food in China, you could get a stomach ache or worse diarrhea. She asked that I wait upstairs. It wasn't until I went upstairs and sat down to wait for my flight did I realize that I had some water filled products in my carry-on. These were cosmetic products that a friend had asked I take back for her. There was no way I was dumping this as I went to two different stores to get these.

10:00AM – Rush down the escalator to attempt to check in my second piece of luggage

By now the line for checking in had become long, but I wasn't worried. I still had about an hour before boarding. I explained to the flight counter attendant that I needed to check in my second bag. He weighed it and said that it would cost about 3,000 TWD, which is about $100 USD. Of course I didn't want to pay $100 to check in the bag. So he advised that I go to the airport postal office and pick up a box and fill it with 7KG worth of items. Then I would bring back the box and check-in the box and carry on my luggage.

Luckily the post office was about 5 minutes away. I asked the post office attendee for a box that would fit some of my clothes. He went behind the counter and pulled out a box and I gave him 45 TWD or roughly $1.50 USD. Now, I don’t have much experience with packaging or sealing boxes, so I struggled to tape the cardboard box for about ten minutes. Finally the post office attendee saw my incompetence and helped me by folding in the smaller flaps in then the larger flaps. Then I used the masking tape to seal the bottom of the box. I then began to pull out my clothes from my luggage and began to dump it in the box. When I felt like I had 7KG, I asked him to weight it on his scale. 6.6KG, great it was good enough. In the meantime, I was thinking, is my aunt going to come back and not find me upstairs? What if she comes back before I’m finished? What time is it? Am I going to miss my flight?

By the time I finished packing my box, it was already 10:45AM. I had fifteen minutes to get back and check in my package. It takes five minutes to get back to the check-in counter. So really, I had ten minutes to check in and go through security upstairs. Fantastic I thought to myself. When I got back to the check-in counter, I discovered that the line grew and now looked like a ten minute wait. I’m done for. I’m going to miss my flight and I have no idea if my aunt came back to look for me or not.

I checked-in and then discovered that my flight had been delayed until 12:15PM. That works better for me. I rushed upstairs, but didn't see my aunt. Well she either hadn't come back yet or she came back and maybe saw that I left. I figured I’d wait about ten minutes and see if she comes up. If not, then I’m going to go through security. Lone behold, my aunt comes up via the escalator. After a heartfelt good-bye, I walked to security. Now I had about an hour to kill, so I figured I’d get some chicken and rice for lunch. Surprisingly the meal was not expensive, it was about 195 TWD, which is less than $10 dollars for airport food.

12:45PM - Boarding flight to Shanghai Pudong Airport

The flight gate changed about three times as I was waiting in the Songshan Airport. You can imagine a group of people walking back and forth between Gate 6 and Gate 2 every thirty minutes. Finally the plane comes and we board at 12:45 PM. I actually wished that the flight be delayed even longer because I know I have about a 5 hour wait when I get to Shanghai. My business partner’s flight doesn't get in until nighttime. 

The flight to Shanghai was about an hour and a half. When I arrived I had to go through customs and immigration. Of course they saw the big cardboard box I was carrying and asked that I put it through the x-ray scanner. When I was at immigration, there were two sections. One section of lines was for foreigners and one was for Chinese. The irony of this is that I look Chinese, but I’m actually American. So, I went to the foreigners’ line, which had nobody.

2:00PM – Waiting at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport for my business partner

I found a place to sit at the airport near a restaurant. This would be my campground for at least three hours. My business partner’s flight doesn't get in until 5:00PM or so I had thought. In the time I sat at the airport, I saw a policeman walking around and people sweeping the floors. The policeman looked just as a bored as I was. He walked around and every hour or hour and a half they would switch shifts. They mostly gave directions to people. Two Chinese men sat in the seat next to mine and pulled out a map of the city. Supposedly they picked it up from a car rental company just on the other side of the airport. So, I figured maybe I can get one. When I approached the counter and asked for a map, they said they didn't have any in the rudest tone I've ever heard. What a load of crap.

7:00PM – Still at the Hongqiao Airport

Now I've begun to get worried. My phone didn't have international services and I had no way of getting in contact with my business partner. No idea whether or not he would be able to find me or contact me. It is now two hours after his plane should have landed. What is going on? I got desperate. Hoping to find a phone line that works, I walked over the pay phones. Luckily I had some Chinese loose change. As I was about to put in my coins, an airport sweeper said that those phones don’t work. Great! What do I do now? He asked where I was calling and I told him to a number in Shanghai. Then he offered to let me use his cell phone. I gave him the number I was calling and he dialed it. Turns out my business partner’s flight was delayed and had just landed. For XXX sakes, this is ridiculous. After eight hours, he arrives with his drive and we go to where we will be staying for the majority of our trip. I got settled, showered, had some Subway, and knocked out.

My First Experience in China - People's Republic of China - Day 2

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine

Day 9 - Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine

9:00AM- Breakfast and explored the city

This was our last day in Dublin. The next stop after Dublin was Amsterdam. But before that, I had breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of what you would have guessed (toast and cereal). Checking out at a hostel is typically done before 10:30AM, but the hostel staff were kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage at the hostel while we explored the city. We stopped by Trinity College and walked around campus. You could see the history in the buildings and the cobblestone pavements. We walked past the library. After about thirty minutes, the group went out to eat at Pacino’s. After the group had breakfast, some of us stopped to get ice cream. A couple of us went to exchange dollars for Euros. The exchange rate continued to drop favoring the USD. 

1:00PM – Jameson distillery 

Jameson Distillery - Feints Still

We went to the Jameson distillery. It was slightly different from the Guinness storehouse. There were fewer people and instead of it being a self-guided tour, the Jameson distillery was a guided tour. We watched a film upon the tour beginning of a New York reporter going to meet John Jameson. He takes a horse carriage to the distillery and follows John Jameson’s son through the distillery and ends up finding out that the person he was following is John Jameson’s son. Then we walked through different rooms, which showed how the whiskey was made. The main difference between Jameson, Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels is the number of times it is distilled. Jameson is distilled three times, Johnny Walker twice, and Jack Daniels once, which makes Jameson the smoothest of the three. At the end of the tour, a number of volunteers got to drink and compare the three different whiskeys. One interesting fact I learned is that Jameson is aged in used barrels. They basically would buy new barrels and rent them out and then recollect them and reuse the barrels. This gives Jameson the more natural taste. Interesting enough, the Irish mix Jameson with cranberry juice. This is now one of my favorite drinks. 

7:00PM – Head to the Castel hotel

Castel Hotel - From the Inside

We took a taxi to the Castel hotel, which was basically a castle hotel. From the inside it looked like a smaller version of the Excalibur in Vegas. A couple of us went to work out at the small gym. It was nice to finally have a large bed to sleep in and our own privacy. We had dinner at Knights Bar which was within the hotel and then called it a "night". This is basically because we had to get up at 3:00AM to catch a 6:00AM flight to Amsterdam.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine

Day 8 - Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine

9:30AM – Breakfast and Guinness Storehouse

We woke up at around 9:30AM. That is everyone except me. As usual, I was the early bird. Of course I grabbed breakfast in the hostel. Usually 9:00AM is the cut off for breakfast in the hostel. So my friends went to a nearby cafe. While they ate, I opted to picked up some fruit at a local mart. The fruit was pricey, one banana was 50 cents €. Nonetheless I don’t believe I've had fruit in a long time, so I made the decision to buy 3€ worth of fruit (two bananas and an orange).

Dublin - Guinness Brewery - Poured Our Own Pint

We then headed to Dublin Castle, which is next to city hall. By this time, we were all castled out except for our friend we picked up from the airport. Every city we went before Dublin had at least two castles. We spent about 20 minutes there and then headed to the Guinness Brewery! The Brewery was about a thirty minute walk from our hostel. The cliff notes behind the Guinness brewery tour is that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease and brewed ales at first but later went to brew porter (dark style beer). Guinness gets the dark color from roasting the barley. The brewery basically showed how the beer was made and then at the end we could either pour your own pint or drink a pint at the Gravity bar on the 7th floor with a view of the city. For those who poured your own pint, they gave you instruction on how to pour and a certificate afterwards.

1:00PM – Lunch at Charlie’s Chinese Restaurant

We were craving Asian food and for 6.50€ we got soup, rice, and a meat dish. We walked to Grafton Street, which is one of the main shipping streets in Dublin. This place was like a Santa Monica Promenade. There was live street music and street performers. Someone had used sand to build a dog lying on the ground. Another person dressed up in a spacesuit to ask for money to fund his college tuition. We walked through the mall and looked at their discount outlet (TK Maxx). I ended up getting ice cream at Gino’s Gelato, which is seriously really good ice cream. I got the Nutella ice cream in a cone for 2.5€. For some reason their ice cream is way better than it is in the States. They feed their cows real grass!

Grafton Street - Looks like Santa Monica Promenade

8:00PM – Pub Crawl and Dinner at the Oriental Café

We headed back to the hostel and a couple of my buddies wanted to go on at Pub crawl. You first pay 5€ at the hostel and then the remaining 7€ at the first pub. I thought it was a rip off especially when you could go to these pubs on your own. Before we went on the pub crawl, we stopped for dinner at The Oriental Café. It had good yelp rating and we decided to try it out. Basically it is an overpriced sushi, Chinese, Korean or rather Asian place. The servers were Asian and I felt like we were paying more for the atmosphere versus the food. It was a huge disappointment. 

After dinner, we headed to the first pub crawl. Even though I did not pay for the pub crawl, I easily blended in. They said they would get small discounts at the pubs, saving a Euro on each pint, but I saw that the price was the same for everyone. We met some people from LA and Canada. There were a couple cute girls from Canada. We played "flip cup" and had a good time. I watched golf most of the time and left the group after the third pub. I passed by the city hall and took the same path we took to get to the Guinness brewery.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine

Day 7 - Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine

Blarney's Castle

10:00AM – Leaving for Dublin

Today would end up being a traveling day. It takes about three hours to drive from Galway to Dublin.

We woke up at around 10:00AM and had breakfast at the ice cream shop we went to the night before. No, we didn’t have ice cream for breakfast. Though, I kind of wish we did. They actually serve genuine Irish breakfast. We walked around the streets near the hostel and debated whether or not we wanted to watch a movie. Ultimately, nobody made a decision; so ironically, our default was not to watch a movie.

Then we went to Eynes Square to find Budget Car Rental. There we asked for a discount if returned the car earlier. We had the car for another two days. They wouldn’t be able to give us a discount, but they gave us a parking pass which saved us about 8€. Galway is too busy to drive in, which makes it inconvenient to have a car. On our way to Dublin, we passed by a bunch of toll roads and in total I think it cost us 10€. We stopped by the Fitzgerald’s roost in Maynooth, which is about thirty minutes away from Dublin. I ordered a baguette sandwich. It was mediocre at best, but I was able to collect a couple drink coasters.

5:00pm – Drop off the car at Budget

A group decision was made to drop off the car and pick up our friend at Dublin Airport. She would be joining us for the remainder of the trip. When we got to the Dublin Airport Budget car center, we were advised to fill up the gas tank so that we would get a gas rebate. It cost 72€ to fill up and we got back around 120€. It is almost always better to fill up the car yourself for rentals. We picked up our friend at the Airport and took the same bus into the city. We checked into Abbey Court hostel and then went out for dinner. Then we went to a couple more pubs and explored the city listening to live music. I watched part of the Players Championship and then got back early at around midnight and knocked out.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine

Day 6

10:00AM – Exploring Galway and places around 

We woke up at around 10AM. I felt sick from the night before and actually will blame the weather for my sickness. I had a slight cough, but no running nose. So that was good news.

Our plan today is to go to a golf course. Ireland is famous for its golf courses and I knew that we would not have any trouble finding a golf course. Sure enough when we put in “golf” in the GPS, it came up with three or four golf courses! For convenience purposes, we chose the closest one. It was about three kilometers away. I took a couple pictures of the green Galway Golf Club, walked around the locker rooms, and bought some souvenirs. Of course it would have been amazing to play golf there, but I didn’t Fedex my clubs. We passed by the aquarium, which one of my buddies really wanted to stop by. But, we never ended up going back during operating hours. 

Our next stop was the Burrens, which was about an hour away. The Burren is a national park, which has hills that are composed of limestone. There are crisscrossing cracks where grass will grow. We stopped by a souvenir shop to get directions. On our way to the Poulnabrone Portal tomb, we stopped by a perfumery. It was difficult to find and we had to drive through narrow roads deep into the Burren to find. The Burren Perfumery is the oldest working perfumery in Ireland and they make everything by hand. I bought three soaps for 6.5€ each. The lady at the perfumery said that the popular soaps were cedar and lemongrass and lavender. There was a garden in the perfumery and we walked around to see the herbs and such that were used to make the soap. Originally, I had decided just to buy one soap, but the girl before me had purchased about 90€ worth of perfume and such. So I thought to myself, why not.

Driving Around Ireland

Believe it or not, it was difficult to find the portal tombs, so we stopped by a pub and ask for directions. At the pub, I met the same girl at the perfumery. I ended up striking a conversation with her and she mentioned that she was studying in SF and she had gotten here before her tour group. They were staying for two weeks and she was driving and looking for the tombs as well. We chatted for a bit and then we left to see the tombs. Her name was Liz. We stopped by the tombs and looked at the limestone which dated to the medieval times. One of the highlights of the day was going to the Aillwee caves. Caves formed when steams were sinking underground started to dissolve the channels through lines of weakness in the limestone millions of years ago. It is one of the most ancient caves in the Burren and in Ireland. It was discovered by a hiker who had lost his dog and when he went to go look for the dog he found the cave. He went back to the caves with a candle and walked through the cave. He kept it a secret until a number of hikers asked him about it. The tour of the caves was well worth it. At one point of the tour, the lights in the cave were turned off and we experienced pure darkness.

Aillwee caves

After the caves, we headed back to the aquarium to find out the operating hours and then back to the golf course to see if I could get a tax rebate form. For those who purchase merchandise in the EU and reside outside of it, you get a refund at the airport. However you need to fill out a form or have it electronically recorded on a card. The golf course ended up not having this form, but I was glad we at least tried.

8:00pm – Dinner at an Italian restaurant 

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. I ordered a penne pasta for 6.50€. It was a dim lit restaurant and they used candles for lighting. I felt pretty ripped off because the food we ordered, we could have gotten back home. Also, it didn’t taste particularly great. We then went to get ice cream, but most places close at 8pm and it was already past 9pm. When we went to the ice cream shop, the place was already closing. My buddies asked the girl at the register if we could just get ice cream. She hesitantly said yes, but you could tell that she was ready to pack up and close shop. It didn’t help that my buddies kept asking for samples and then asked whether or not one flavor was sweeter than another. She would reply that they are all equally sweet. I elected not to get ice cream because I started to feel under the weather. My buddies went to go see a free amateur comedy and I opted to stay behind and get some rest.


Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine

Day 5 - Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine

10:00AM – To Galway via Cliffs of Moher and Ferry from Tarbert to Killimer

We woke up at 10AM after a rough day at the pub the night before. We checked out of the hostel and then went to eat breakfast at John Benny’s. Breakfast at the hostels is only served until 9:30AM, so the last couple days we missed the hostel breakfast. I lost credit card roulette that morning. For those of you who are not familiar with this game, the diners will put a credit card in a pile and we draw one after another. The last one standing pays the entire bill. The bill came out to about 40€. After breakfast, we went to the supermarket and picked up some water and snacks. We also stopped by a number of souvenir shops. None of the souvenirs caught my eye.

1:00PM – Drive to Tarbert to Ferry to Killimer and Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

We arrived in Tarbert early afternoon and for 18€ we took our car on a ferry to Killimer. The ferry took about 10 minutes. We then drove about two hours to the Cliffs of Moher. It was raining the day we went, but the view was still gorgeous. It was just amazing to see the naturally made cliffs and the waves crashing against it just below. It was very windy, but it was well worth the drive. I picked up a picture of the Cliffs on a sunny day and a Cliffs of Moher bookmark. Admission to the Cliffs was about 4€. We hiked up to get a better view of the cliffs and at the top of the hike there was a castle tower. To save 2€ we decided not to go to the top of that. Still we spent a good 45 minutes at the location.

4:00PM- Drive to Galway

Roast Breast of Farmed Chicken - fine green beans, cep, cep purée  

We stopped by the Wild Honey Inn to eat dinner. I ordered the chicken breast, while it tasted great, I was left hungry. For one chicken breast it cost 15.50€. When we finally arrived in Galway, we checked into the Barnacles Hostel and were greeted by an Australian chick. On the way to the hostel, we had to drag our luggage on the cobblestone roads. Galway is supposedly a young hip place to be. I could tell that there was more happening here than Killarney or in Cork. It kind of gave me a Santa Monica Promenade feel, but on a much smaller scale. There were many moments when I wished I just had a backpacking backpack, but then I also thought to myself if I would be able to fit my souvenirs or prevent them from being damaged. It had been a couple days since we had done laundry. We paid 8€ per bag to do our laundry.

9:00PM – Lonely Planet meet up

At night, one of my buddies had met a girl on Lonely Planet and we met up. He had met Theresa and her travel friend Brandon. The both of them met Kelsey and Lindsey at their hostel. They all happened to go to the University of Indiana and were about to be seniors. We went bar hopping and drank Carlsberg (German drink), Smithwicks, and Bulmers. We played a drinking game whereby you would draw a card from the top of a deck and then while the card was faced down guess the card’s number. Another person would tell you if it was higher or lower than your guess. Then you would be given a second chance to guess the number. If you get it wrong you would have to drink. The beauty of it is that the cards already used would be put on the table. That information would factor in your guess. At the end of the night, I had found myself with a Guinness cup from the bar. I lost the group and apparently didn't see that they were outside the hostel. When I went around town, I didn't find them. So I just decided to retire for the night.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine

Day 4 

8:00AM – Woke up from an unbelievable night

I woke up at 8AM groggy and also realized that I had slept in last night’s clothes. This is evidence of a great night. My ears were still ringing from last night. I grabbed my clothes and immediately went to go take a shower. The showers were on a timer and I had to constantly hit the water button. Surprisingly, we didn’t experience any hostels that did not have any hot water. For that we were thankful, especially since it was 40 degrees F almost every single day we were there. Did I mention that it basically rained every day we were in Ireland except for the last day?

11:00AM – True Full Irish Breakfast at Cathleen’s Country Kitchen

Half Irish Breakfast

Our trip would not be completed without trying a full Irish breakfast, which consisted of 2 bacon, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, black pudding, baked beans, and half a tomato. Black pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking pork blood. It is difficult to describe the taste, but it tastes nothing like what you would expect (blood). Initially, I wanted to get the full Irish breakfast, but then thought it would be too much, so I opted for the half, which is just one of everything mentioned previously. Little did I know that their portions are a lot smaller than what we are used to in the States. In addition, I also noticed that they usually had milk in a pouring cup and most of us weren’t sure why. Perhaps we are supposed to add it into our coffee or tea. I ended up just drinking the milk directly from the pouring cup. They have great milk!

1:00PM – En route to Killarney National Park

Torc Waterfall

We put in the GPS directions to get to Killarney National Park. The first thing we saw was Ross Castle. There was also a boat tour for 10€ around the lake. However, we opted to do a hike. So we went off and ended up hiking the Mine trail for about 15 minutes and arrived at a really nice huge lake and scenic view. In the middle of the lake there was an island. We stopped to take pictures and skip rocks. The most we skipped was three times. We stopped by the Muckross House. When we found out that they charged admission, we passed on this touristy attraction. Instead I bought a cap tweed from the souvenir shop. Then a buddy of mine caught wind of a gorgeous waterfall nearby from a nearby tourist group. So we decided to go look for it. When we arrived at Torc waterfall, which was about 10 minutes away we were amazed by the peacefulness that surrounded the waterfall. Soon after we went to get lunch and then stopped by at Pennys. Pennys I would say is our Target. They had a lot of inexpensive clothes, but they were not great quality.

4:00pm- Drove towards Dingle Peninsula

View on driving alongside on the R561

We asked for directions to get to Dingle. The receptionist at the hostel mentioned that there was a scenic route we could take, which would take us close to the ocean. Our plan was to take the R561 and then follow it to get as close to the Dingle Bay as possible. While driving towards our destination, we hit a fork in the road and came by the Golden Nugget Hotel, which we were supposed to make a right at. However, we missed the turn and when we tried to bust a U-turn we ran over a curb and popped the driver’s side of the tire. For those of you who have been to Europe, you will notice that people don’t usually make U-turns. Instead there are roundabouts, whereby you will go in a circle and exit when you need too. It was really quite interesting. When we popped the tire, we stopped by the nearest hotel car park (parking lot) and then quickly changed our tire. We called Budget and they told us to go to a garage to get the spare changed. We arrived at a mom and pop kind of garage and then had our tire changed for about 90€. They were not able to patch it up because the hole was on the side of the tire. We took the scenic route and it was amazing. We saw huge cliffs and just gorgeous views. This was a preview of the Cliffs of Moher. At around 8pm, we finally arrived at the Hideout Hostel in Dingle. On our way in, we meet the Canadian girls we saw in Cork. We said Hi, but went inside as it was too chilly outside. You can imagine how chilly and windy it was as we were close to the shore. I met Chuck, who seemed to be the owner of the place and we checked in four people for 72€. I washed some of my more necessary clothing in the sink and left it to hang in the room.

10:00pm – Dinner at Half Door in Dingle

It was getting late and we knew we were risking our chances of getting a decent meal the later we waited to get dinner. After stopped by two places where we were turned away, the Half Door welcomed us in. I ordered the rack of lambs and seafood chowder. They were both amazing. The rack of lambs had no game taste and the seafood chowder had all kinds of seafood in it. I remember tasting salmon, clams, some lobster, and other fish. The chowder by itself was extremely filling. My portion of the meal came out to 38€. Pricey to say the least, but it was worth going to at least once. We walked down John St. and stopped at ‘An Oroicead Beag’, which was a yellow building. There was live music in the pub. We played drinking games and then each of us had an Irish Carbomb, which consists of Guinness, Bailey’s and Jameson. There was even a Hold’em game in the pub, but the rake was too big, so my poker buddy didn’t end up playing.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine

Day 3 

10:00AM – En route to Blarney Castle

We checked out of the hostel at around 10:00AM. Breakfast was toast with jam and tea. We crossed a river to get to some of the shopping places nearby. Some of us looked to buy some souvenirs, but most places were closed because it happened to be a bank holiday. This was the first time I would be driving on the other side of the road. But, I was not nervous at all. After walking around the shopping plaza, we drove to Blarney Castle, which was about twenty minutes away from our hostel. Just before we hit the castle, we saw a “swap meet”. We paid the 2€ fee and started to walk around. Most of the things people were selling were junk from their homes. However, I did see some Germany military medals, old coins, and stamps. We stopped to buy some apple pie from some cute Irish girls. They seemed to be having a bake sale.

12:00PM – Blarney Castle and House

Blarney's Castle 

The castle was about an eight minute walk from the “swap meet”. We debated whether or not we should move the car, but by the time we came to a decision, we had already walked there. For the 12€ student price, we entered the huge ridiculous estate. It had to of been at least 20 acres. The castle and estate have been passed on generation after generation with the intent of never to be sold. Most estates are expensive to maintain, therefore have been converted into golf courses or museums. However, the Blarney Castle’s revenue from tourists has been able to fund the estate. The estate also has a river that runs through the estate called the Blarney River. Rumor is that there is a gold plate in the river, however it has been said that previous owners have tried to drain the river, but have not been able to find the plate. We toured the Blarney house and it was amazing just to think that people still live on the estate. It housed old paintings and portraits of the family. The youngest of the family born in 1991 have gone off to college. It is rather insane to imagine being born with that much wealth. Originally the family received the land from the King as someone in the family had led the country to victory in several wars. Surprisingly the couple prepares their own breakfast and they only have one maid in the house. One of the rooms has a lift that goes to the kitchen. Food was brought up directly from the kitchen. There was also a table whereby you would put money in a drawer and then it would go down into a vault. The house had old antiques that dated hundreds of years. We walked to the castle, which was at least 300M away. It was a legitimate castle made of stone. Then we climbed the narrow stone stairs up to the top and there we kissed the blarney stone. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with great eloquence or skill at flattery. It was pretty difficult to kiss the stone as we had to lean over the edge backwards. Rumor is that the king had put the stone in a difficult to reach place to prevent people being able to reach it.

4:00PM – Off to Kinsale

Kinsale is a small town south of Cork. We had heard from other tourists that there was a terrific seafood restaurant called Fishy Fishy. But, before heading to Kinsale we detoured to the Cork Airport to get our cigarette fuse box fixed to charge our GPS. While at Budget cars, we had to open the control box, which was underneath the driver’s steering panel. Then took out the fuse that was disconnected. It took the mechanic and us a while to find the correct fuse because we were looking at the wrong fuse box manual. When we did find it, it was a quick fuse swap and then we were on our way. We drove to Kinsale. My first impression was that it was similar to fisherman’s wharf in SF. Of course it was a bit smaller and crowded. The people in Ireland have got to be the friendliest people. We stopped a friendly drunk Irish man to ask for directions to Fishy Fishy. He had his arm around one of my buddies and repeated the directions twice to make sure we understood. We ate at Fishy Fishy and it was amazing despite the fact that it was a pricey meal. The group ended up playing credit card roulette and I ended up paying half the bill (45€) Then we got honeycomb ice cream, which tastes like vanilla and caramel bits mixed in. This is my favorite flavor in Ireland. If you do not know already, Ireland’s ice cream is delicious. My guess is that this is the result of the farm animals being so well fed. Literally the entire country is covered in green grass. I did not once see any yellow grass. In any event, I digress. After ice cream, I bought a 2€ scratcher, which did not win me money.

6:00PM – Headed to Killarney

It was a two hour drive to Killarney from Kinsale. We arrived at Neptune’s Killarney hostel at around 8pm. This hostel had nicer bathrooms than the one we previously stayed at. Like most other hostels we stayed at, breakfast was complimentary as consisted of toast with jam and coffee/tea. We immediately went to hit some bars. The first bar we went to was called O’Connor’s Traditional Pub. Evidently it was a touristy location as we saw a bunch of dollar bills hung from the walls. We went to a second dark pub and it had live music, but then immediately went to a third pub. The third pub was more traditional and had live old school Irish music. It was interesting, but we quickly became hungry. As you may have noticed already, in Ireland food places close at around 8pm. The only places still open were fast food places which served oily fries (chips) and burgers. After we ate at the fast food place, we went to another Pub called the Killarney Grand. This pub actually had an interesting mix of people. While there were young people, I also saw some older people. At the end of the pub, there was a nightclub, which went largely unoccupied the entire night. We ordered some Bulmer’s cider beers and then meet a couple other travelers. At around this time, the live band J90 started to play some sick music. They covered all the popular American songs and they were quite good. I met a French girl and we hit it off, so I bought her a Guinness pint. But then I had my eye on this other girl who ended up dancing in front of me. My buddy hit it off with a German girl. They exchanged emails and she even offered to have her cousin show him around in Germany. We finished the night at around 2AM.


Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two out of Nine

Day 2  

8:30AM – Woke up to a chilling 40 degrees F

We are not used to this chilly weather. I surprised myself by waking up so early. Of course the others were still sleeping. I walked down the stairs to get some complimentary breakfast in the kitchen. Don’t get too excited, this is not a five star hotel. Breakfast was cereal with milk and toast with blueberry jam. I met an older man. After speaking with him for twenty minutes, I found out that he is originally from Long Beach, worked in Silicon Valley, and lived in Holland for a while. He was maybe in his late 50s. That is my best guess is based on the fact that he said he had grandchildren. While chilling on the couch, I chatted with a young Australian chick. She had just graduated college and did a semester abroad in Barcelona. She just found a job in the Temple Bar area and has been traveling alone for a couple months now. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her name.

 10:30AM – Pick up our car from Budget

If you didn’t know already, most people in Europe drive manual stick-shift cars. Unfortunately none of us knew how to drive a manual car. We opted for the automatic, but even then we were in for a new experience. In Ireland they drive on the left side of the road and the driver’s seat is on the right side versus the left in the US. We took a taxi to the nearest Budget in Dublin. They have two locations in Dublin; one in the airport and the other downtown. We rented a Ford Mondeo Diesel, which seats five, for about 42€ a day excluding insurance and GPS. The GPS was about $13€ a day. It took us a while to figure out how to drive on the other side of the road. We took turns driving. The issue we ran into was that all of would stay too close to the left side of the road and thereby graze the side of our car against bushes. We picked up some burritos on the way to the Wicklow National Park.

1:00PM – Driving to Cork via Wicklow National Park, Kilkenny, and Rock of Cashel

Did I mention that the weather in Ireland is ridiculously cold? Our plan was to stop by the Wicklow National Park on our way to Cork. Our GPS didn’t have an address for the national park, but we did get an address close to it. The roads were narrow and lacked street signs, so we had one navigator while another one of us drove. We stopped by some scenic areas and even saw ruins of a castle. It was far too chilly and windy to stay long in the national park. We continued on to Kilkenny and stopped by Kilkenny Castle. Our first castle in Ireland! The castle was originally built for a military leader, but later became the house of the Butler family. The Walter families were butlers to the King at the time and were given 10% of all wine tax (imposed on all imported wine) and land. They had changed their name to Butler later on. Much of the castle is now house-like, which included a dining room and drawing room. Most of the items in the castle were from the time, but were not originally from the castle. They had one or two items that were originally from the castle in each room.

4:30PM – Early dinner and food run at The Field Bar

We stopped by the Field Bar, which was located across from the Kilkenny castle. We had a Kilkenny local beer. It was not as bitter as an IPA, I enjoyed it. The waitress was a short cute Irish girl. If I didn’t know any better, she probably must have been 18. We had no idea what to order, so we asked her what her favorite dish was. She said she was vegan and only ate sandwiches. When we followed up and ask her what kind of sandwich, she said BLT. I thought to myself, doesn’t the BLT include bacon. I must have misheard. In any event, we ended up sharing a chicken and steak dish. We met who seemed like the owner of the place and he asked how long we were staying in Ireland. He mentioned that he lived in California for a while and is a huge Portland Trailblazer fan and detests the Lakers. As we walked out of the bar, a band walked in. However, we did stop by another bar for a while to listen to live music.

6:00PM – En route to Cork via Rock of Cashel

By this time, most touristy places are closed. Nonetheless, our journey took us to the Rock of Cashel. As expected, the castle was closed when we arrived. However, we stopped by to see the castle from the outside. Surrounding the castle was green grass and what must have been forty sheep. The castle looked like it was partially under construction. We saw that it had some wooden sticks and plastic coverings at the very top. Like with most trips, they don’t go as planned. We noticed that our GPS was not charging in the cigarette lighter. After calling Budget, we drove to Cork Airport to get it fixed. By the time we arrived, the repair center had closed. So, we swapped our GPS and were told to come back tomorrow to get the fuse fixed. What a bummer!

Rock of Cashel with Sheep

9:00PM – Checked into Kinlay House Cork hostel

We headed to Cork and checked into Kinlay House Cork hostel late. This hostel reminded me of college dorms, except that it was not well lit. That part of it reminded me of an insane asylum. Especially since the doors had small rectangular windows in them. We had two bunk beds and our luggage barely fit inside the room. The sun had set already and it had to have been past 9:00pm. This meant that we would have a difficult time finding good food as most places have closed already. We met two girls from Canada, who were Dutch. Some of us played games this Dutch card game with them. They had already been in Ireland for two weeks now. Incidentally, we also met the old man we saw in our Dublin hostel. We headed out to get some dinner. It took us a while to find a place that was open that still served food. Most places that were open around this time were drinking places. The only place open was a shitty burger place. It started raining, so right after we headed back to the hostel to retire for the night.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine

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Where You Should Visit in Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Zero/One of Nine

Day 0 

12:00pm – Arrived at LAX Airport

2:00pm - Leaving for Dublin Airport (DUB) via Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (4 Hr Layover; 12 Hr flight time)

KLM- Royal Dutch Airlines has surprisingly good airplane food. My first meal on this flight was scrambled eggs with potatoes, mixed fruits and yogurt parfait. Each of our seats included personal TVs, which showed recent movies and stored single and multiplayer games. This is standard on international flights.
Day 1

9:00AM – Arrived in Amsterdam – Schiphol (AMS)

The group debated whether or not to go into the city with a 4 hour layover we thought it was cutting it close to be entering a city we were not already familiar with. Instead we used the time to figure out the train routes into Amsterdam and how to purchase train tickets.

1:00PM – Flown from AMS to DUB (1 Hr and 30 Min flight time)

We exited the airport and immediately searched for public transportation. We took Bus 16A into Dublin downtown, which cost about 2€ (1€= 1.3 USD). We asked someone sitting next to us which stop was O’Connell Street. He said he didn’t have a clue. Luckily for us an older lady was able to let us know when we needed to get off. While in the bus, we saw some interesting restaurant signs. Apparently they call ‘take out’, ‘take away’ in Ireland. The street signs are impossible to see. They aren’t like those in the states. They have license plate sized street signs tacked on the corner of their buildings some three stories up. Who can see that? After we got off the 30 minute bus ride, like the tourists we were, we rolled our luggage to the hostel. This was when I wished I had a true backpacking backpack.

3:00PM – We arrived at the Liffey Hostel (aka Litton Lane)

The hostel entrance was in an alley, which made it extremely difficult to find. My first impression of the hostel was that it was a music studio artsy lounge. When you first enter you’ll see the reception to your left and then to your right you’ll see a common room. The common room held a couple couches, computers, and a TV. It was decorated with records and artsy picture of famous Irish artists including U2. This room led to the kitchen which was a fair size with a couple foldable tables and some chairs. The second, third, and I believe fourth floor had all the room and shared bathrooms/showers. When we walked up the stairs, on each floor you would see murals of famous singers. Incidentally, the receptionist mentioned to us that this used to be a music studio, however because the equipment became a pain to bring up and down the stairs it was converted into a hostel. This was the first time I had lived in a hostel. Generally speaking, people who stay at hostels are nice and outgoing individuals.

5:00PM – Dinner at Messrs Maguire in Dublin

We had skipped lunch due to our flight time overlapping with lunch. Although the flight from the Netherlands to Ireland is technically an international flight, the fact that it was only an hour and a half meant that a meal would not be provided. We asked people at the hostel what were some good places to eat. They recommended Messrs Maguire, which used to be a library, and the Church Bar, which used to be a church, but now is a bar/restaurant. We ended up in both places at the end of the night. Maguire was more of a pub like atmosphere than the Church, which seemed more high-end.

Church Bar 

8:00PM – Walked around downtown Dublin

Nightlife in Dublin is lively to say the least. Everywhere you turn there are packed pubs with live Irish music. People are walking all around. There is constant chatter in the cold air. We crossed the River Liffey to get to famous touristy places such as Temple Bar and the Bank of Ireland (IRE). Temple Bar was packed and has now become such a touristy place that locals no longer go here. Also, their beers are said to be overpriced. In general, beers in Ireland were around 5€ or $6.50 USD. The food was a lot more expensive. Generally speaking, the prices were 1/3 more than they were in the states. For example if a meal was $11.5 USD, in Ireland that same meal would have been 15€. If we adjust for foreign exchange that meal would have been about $19.5 USD.

Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Nine of Nine

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