Ireland: the promised land of leprechauns and gold diggers

Good evening,

A story about our four-day mini vacation to the charming Dublin with a road trip to see the cliffs of Moher and Galway town. We spent our first two nights in the Dublin city centre and our final night a little north from there in an area called Swords. Dublin is a very expensive place to stay in so I would recommend booking very early and looking into booking airbnbs with more people. The prices drop significantly outside the city, however; you must then be prepared to spend some time in the public transports. There are plenty of airport buses taking you to the city centre for about 6 or 7 euros. The journey takes around half an hour depending on traffic. If you have already booked your hotel, you should check which bus link takes you closest to it.

It goes without saying that you simply cannot be bored in Ireland: after all, it is the homeland of people who invented Guinness and who are filled with brilliant dry humour. Furthermore, the landscape is untouched and stunning. Pack with your favourite green outfit and head out to Ireland to find some leprechauns. Or just fun people, good food, pints and cosy old school towns.

On our first evening, we headed out to the Temple Bar street to find some food and to get the feel of the city. This is a very touristy area but somehow at the same time, they are very keen on showing you some truly Irish things: live music in all the bars and tasty beers in all the selections. Price of food isn’t too high compared to any other semi northern European city: you can get your belly easily filled with delicious food for 20 euros. The bars in this area are more expensive than elsewhere: pint could cost you anything from six to nine euros. Regardless, it is well worth the money and I would highly recommend a bar hop around the area.

Our second day was reserved for Dublin exploring. We started off with the famous Trinity College and its library where the book of Kells is. They say you should book your entry tickets well in time to avoid queuing but I guess we got lucky. The campus is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and the weather was perfect in a very non-Irish way so we spend ages enjoying the place. The library was stunning; we actually asked some questions from the staff about the books and their placing. Could you imagine that they are purely located based on size and that you must find exactly which row and which book you are looking to find just the one? Some of the books were tiny like pocket bibles and the bottom self-held the world atlases.

Then we strolled past some adorable street restaurants and the beautiful church into the city park. The park is huge and the pond in the middle is filled with bird whilst the surroundings are full of playful dogs caring only about their games.

On the way back towards the river, we stopped by a café we had seen on our way called the Beanhave. It is super vegetarian and gluten-free friendly and the food was the best we had during our journey! We also found the best bakery in town right by the river.

Close to the Temple Bar area is a hotel bar and restaurant called the Bank. From the outside, it looks very fancy and is ready to turn away the backpackers. However, we decided to give it a try and actually found the cheapest white wine in town in a gorgeous dance ball hall filled with live piano music. The restaurant also serves some traditional Irish meals that looked very tempting.

That evening we expanded our radius further and found some amazing Irish music. Just let your ears lead you around Dublin.

On our third day, we rented a car and drove across the country (three hours) to see the cliffs of Moher. I just managed to say to my friend in the morning that nothing could have gone better during our trip when we got fully scammed by Easy rental cars and were forced to pay double for a car that we had already booked (and paid) beforehand. Not only did the staff get quite nasty about our complaints, but they also got quite aggressive and told us that we were lucky to even get a car since they actually have more customers than they have cars. Since they had already wasted our time and money, we figured that the easiest thing to do is just to get the car as quickly as possible and get out of there. I would definitely recommend only using the big, well-known companies and always reading the reviews with care. Don’t pay any insurances or extras online: this is a money for the agency that advertises the car, not the rental firm (who will re-charge you) where you get the car from.

I know some of my friends recently did this trip with an organised tour (mostly because none of them held a European drivers’ licence nor knew how to drive on the left) but I am very glad we drove the journey ourselves. Once we arrived at the cliffs we discovered that the day was so foggy the visibility was a zero. Since we drove all the way there and had paid our tickets already we decided to go see for ourselves (6 euros admission fee (includes parking)). Besides the benefit of car karaoke, we were able to freely leave as soon as we had checked out the area. I am not kidding; you couldn’t see a meter past your nose. Though we weren’t the only lost optimists around and there were some local musicians playing the flutes which brought a beautiful atmosphere.

From the cliffs, we slowly drove towards Galway. We finally got to enjoy some of the seaside views as the fog faded away later. Galway is actually a big city surrounded by the water and some ancient castles in the countryside. I would definitely recommend going into the city for an authentic Irish meal and a stroll around the busy shopping area. We really liked Galway! Dark came quite early so we didn’t have a chance to see much of the countryside on our way back towards Dublin but next time I would stay the night on this side of Ireland as well. Also might be beneficial in case you won’t be able to see the cliffs on your first try. Well, I must just be back one day.

We spent our last night in a town called Swords which is just North of Dublin. The room prices for Saturday night were ridiculous (over 100 e a hostel bed!) and we still had the car. My friend flew out earlier than I did on Sunday and drove the car back to the garage. I spent my morning strolling around Swords, went to the castle and the park. It is a cute town and quite close to the airport (bus 41/ 2.7e/ 20 min).

Overall, as much as I loooooove Budapest (been twice this year!) Dublin, and all of Ireland, was perfect. Between these two, I don’t know which one is my favourite. The trip to Ireland would have probably been my absolute favourite holiday had I seen the cliffs I had so much been looking forward to for months.

Love,

Mira

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