Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, Dublin & Edinburgh

April 4th, 2015: My tour guide yesterday suggested a trip to Howth (the tour from their company is about 6 hours long), and seeing as I had no plans, I figured why not. I'd get to see a bit more of Ireland, and more than just Dublin city centre. Explanation for all the Spaniards: It's Holy Week, so they travel with their time off. This means that there were two giant tour groups of Spaniards, and a group of three Americans for the English tour. Having a small group was awesome; we got to know each other and our guide, made a few friends, and when Sinead gave us suggestions of other things to do, she could tailor them a bit to suit us.
     Anyway, after the short train ride from Dublin centre, we made our way to the pier. It's been so long since I've smelled fish! Made me a bit home sick, but I've yet to find ocean that smells like home, which ruins the sensory connection. The Howth pier has these footprints marking where King George IV landed, got of his boat, stood to make a speech, staggered around due to his inebriated state, and proceeded to head immediately back to his boat to sleep it off.

    Above is the gate to the St. Lawrence Castle. The doors on the gate haven't been closed in nearly 500 years. Grace O'Malley came to visit the St. Lawrence family but was denied entrance because they were at dinner. Not used to being told "no", she kidnapped the St. Lawrence heir and held him until she was seen, where she struck a bargain with the head of the family to return young St. Lawrence, provided the gate was never closed and an extra place always be set at dinner in case of unexpected guests. They agreed and both traditions are kept today.

     Here is the entrance to the St. Lawrence Castle, and as we passed a couple members of the St. Lawrence family came out on to the porch to let the dog out. Many portions of the castle, as well as the furniture and paintings with in them, haven't been moved since the castle was moved uphill in the 17th century.

 Heading up Muck Rock, we passed the spot in "Ulysses" by James Joyce were the proposal takes place. I learned that the entire book takes place in a single day, July (June?) 23rd. Huh.

View overlooking Sutton & Dublin

 After lunch at the pub we headed 'round the cliff walk filled with heather. Why did I always think heather was purple? Does it smell like coconut to anyone else? Pictured in the background is the Old Bailey lighthouse.

Wales... somewhere that-a-way

Thirty years ago, the Dublin Zoo's wallaby population had grown out of control, breeding like rabbits as dem wallabies were. So they were trying to find somewhere to put them. They ended up on this island beyond Ireland's Eye. No one lives there, though apparently there is one house. One house and a ton of wallabies. 

 This house has been placed in a state of "dibs" by our tour guide. The wall that runs along the property exterior is the wall from the original St. Lawrence castle built in the... 12th century? We also passed W.B. Yeats house from 1880-1883. Much of the day was spent in the sun wandering the Howth area, which is how I ended up with a sunburn. Anyway, we returned to Dublin centre and my new friends and I parted ways. I headed for a bookstore, and managed to finally find a copy of Harry Potter in Irish. Apparently, only the first was ever translated, and it never made it out of hard back. Either way, I have one! 

Pretty good hot chocolate, but I didn't find it outstanding.

     From there I headed to this chocolate shop chain that apparently has some of the best hot chocolate in the world. Depending on what you order you also receive a chocolate sample, so at the suggestion of the guy behind the counter I tried the white chocolate praline. It was fanastic, and that (combined with my favourite Estonian chocolates) made it finally dawn on me that I really like pralines. The holiday tomorrow means that I won't spend all the money on chocolate...

 There were still a couple of things to do on my list, so I set off in search of a shop I'd asked my guide about. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. On my way back to the hostel I picked up Atlantic Hake fish & chips from Beshoff Bros. with salt, vinegar, tartar sauce, and lemon. Salt & vinegar is not a combo in Estonia, and there are moments I desperately miss salt & vinegar chips.
     Both one of the girls on my tour and our guide suggested "Once," a movie/Broadway play about a  Dubliner musician, so I turned that on while I ate. All I can say is "meh," though I do find it interesting that neither of the main characters ever receives a name.
     Post-dinner, I was off to Tesco to find some sunscreen/lotion, since I'd left my stick in Tartu, thinking I wouldn't need it. However, the containers were bigger than I could take on the plane and crazy expensive so... that was a no go. It did, however, mean I was in Temple Bar. Night life had definitely picked up from alcohol-less Good Friday night.


From there I just wandered the darkened streets of Dublin. Some Easter-related services (I assume) was going on in the courtyard of Christ Church Cathedral. To me, it looked awfully cultish...

And, of course, once a Masonic youth, always a Masonic youth. I headed for the Grand Lodge of Ireland, conveniently located adjacent the National Library (which is flippin' gorgeous) and the National Archaeology museum (which I wanted to visit, but opens at the same time I need to be at the airport tomorrow). It sits amid completely normal houses/buildings. It looks like there are apartments on either side of this tall stone structure, emblazoned with the square and compass on the top. 

     Since, at home, the cornerstone of our new Masonic Temple was laid today, I feel this visit was pretty kismet.

Little island off the coast of Ireland

April 5th, 2015: Hostel checkout was at 10am, per usual, so I waited until then to check out, that way I could have charged electronics for the day, unsure when I would next have access to an outlet. Then the search began for souvenirs with names on them. I'd received several suggestions of places to start, and began. Because of the holiday, most of them didn't open until noon, something I had forgotten, and instead spent two hours walking around in circles. I had the nagging feeling that there was something I wanted to do/see that opened at noon, but couldn't remember what it was and never did. I picked up some gelato along the way and came out with a new flavour high up in my "favourites" list. Unfortunately, it's only made by that company. :( It was a vanilla (?) with hazelnuts, caramel, and white chocolate. At least, those were some of the flavours I could ID.

Crowd outside the barricade at the
Easter Rising celebration

I ate my ice cream in St. Stephens Green, since there are only a few places with public benches. This is where we came across this man and his pigeons. He had a giant shopping bag full of bird seed and would give out handfuls to whomever wanted to help feed the birds. He was attempting to get a girl to overcome her fear of birds, but she was not having any of that. Kids were all pretty excited.
The search continued but to no avail, and eventually I had to go catch my shuttle to the airport. Dublin airport is pretty nice, since I only saw it in the dark last time. I ate my Easter hot cross buns in the food court and read until it was time for my Visa check and trip through security.


The flight is pretty short between Dublin and Edinburgh. (The concerning part was the kid behind me while we were boarding who turned to tell his mother he was "having a queue poo.") And the bus system into the city is pretty intuitive. Unlike many of the other journeys I've taken from airports to city centres, the distance between Edinburgh and the airport is residential. Lots of little cute houses that I would totally live in as willingly as I would live in a gorgeous mansion. The age old adorable vs. expansive.
     As soon as I got off the bus, I was greeted by a bagpipe. Along the way in search of said piper, I saw an add for chili cheese dogs... we may be getting one of those in the next couple of days.
    I checked into my hostel (8 flights of stairs between me and the front door), dropped my bag & swapped shoes. Weather said it was likely to rain in Dublin to I brought boots, and then received a sunburn while I was there. It's much easier to just wear them than to pack my big winter boots into my backpack on travel days. Post-shoe swap, I repacked my purse and explored the Royal Mile, seeing both ends before returning to the hostel.

Arthur's Seat. Hopefully, I'll make the trek to the top before I leave.
This photo didn't look as dark when I took it...

Holyrood Palace

As I meandered, I followed little streets as well, and ended up walking through a cemetery. It was too dark to read much of what was carved into the headstones, but they were beautiful. Conveniently, the cemetery is directly in front of the US embassy, which I wouldn't have noticed if a tour hadn't been walking past and pointed it out.

Edinburgh Castle

THERE IS SO MUCH TARTAN! I hadn't fully grasped that this would be the case when I planned this trip. This tartan girl is going to have to use all her thrifty willpower to avoid leaving Edinburgh broke. Suitcases, shoes, dresses, skirts, scarves, purses, hats... *breathe, breathe*.
     I made it back to the hostel and grabbed my computer to write this up and play catch-up with everything I've missed. I even have some homework that should be done, but that's just not going to happen tonight. The wifi is only accessible in the communal portions of the building, so that's how I ended up in the bar with my diet Pepsi.

Aaaaaand as I'm writing this I just saw my first bar fight. The exciting international life. Followed immediately by a Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long by those of us left in the bar.

I have a bit of a plan for tomorrow, but we'll see where the day takes us. Hopefully, it'll include haggis.