Our final destination on this backpacking trip is Dublin. We've visited 8 countries in 4.5 weeks, which has given us a taste of each place we've visited. In so many cities we've wished we had more time, though the snapshot we have gotten of each place has enabled us to visit a variety of places in both Western and Central Europe, showing us the similarities and differences between them and compared to life in the United States.
We decided to take a bus into Dublin instead of a train, since we had already used up our 10 trip Eurail train pass. By taking the bus, we saved 70 euros! It was about a 4 hour bus ride, though the time passed quickly as we gazed at the lush green rural Irish countryside. While on the bus, I was reading the 'Dublin and Surrounding Area' section of our Lonely Planet Ireland book. I was reading about this picturesque wealthy seaside town called Killiney (south of Dublin), where the Irish elite like Bono of U2 and Enya live. I was telling David that we would defintiely have to visit Killiney during our stay. Turns out that the hotel we are staying at IS IN KILLINENY! I did not even realize that when I made the Internet booking! Everything has just fallen perfectly into place on this backpacking trip...
Upon arriving in Dublin, our first stop was dinner at Cornocopia, another veggie buffet. David thoroughly enjoyed it-especially the portion sizes! We walked along Grafton Street, south of the River Liffey, and from there we decided to embark on our Southern sojourn to Killiney. We were happy to learn that the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) had a stop at Killiney, though we had to station hop to actually find a DART station with trains departing. Thank goodness we chose southern lodgings instead of northern ones, because it turns out that the DART has no northbound weekend service this summer. Our Irish luck continues!
The DART ride was really gorgeous; we traveled right along the coast and got a lovely view of the Irish sea. David and I both spent our childhood summers seaside, so we both love being in close proximity to the sea. The train dropped us off in Killiney, and then it was like, so where do we go from here? The hotel we were planning to stay in is actually a CASTLE (we decided to live it up the end of our backpacking trip and for our 2 year anniversary), called the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel. As such, it has no address, so we were a bit stumped as to where it was located in Killiney. We exited the train station, headed up the hill (which seemed logical), and took in our surroundings (named estates enclosed by high walls!) David took out the GPS unit, which had only limited success up to this point in the trip. It did find the castle though, and we headed in that direction. Not trusting advanced technology, we decided to ask a passerby, who ended up turning us around and leading us to a dead end! So much for human technology! We stopped a car, and spoke to the woman driver...we must have made quite a sight with our backpacks strapped on, asking for directions to a castle! She offered us a ride, so we ended up hitching a ride to the castle! (kinda like when we took the cab to our campsite!)
The castle has perfect accomodations for the end of our European backpacking trip...our room is enormous, equipped with tea service and a modern bathroom. The best part, according to David, is that it is PRIVATE...no sharing bunks with hostelmates or bathroom facilities with fellow campers! Sharon's favorite part is the balcony with a view of the Irish sea. We both went out on the balcony and witnessed a beautiful Irish sunset.
The next day we spent touring Dublin. Our first stop was Trinity College, which was founded by Elizabeth I in 1592 to spread Protestantism, though her efforts in that regard can be considered largely unsuccessful because 88% of the student body at Trinity is Catholic. The main attraction at Trinity College is the Book of Kells, which contain some of the oldest writings in existence, dating from around 800 AD. We got to see the illuminiated manuscripts from the gospels acoording to Luke and John. We also saw the Long Room of the Old Library, which houses 250,000 of the Library's oldest volumes. The Long Room's length, adt 65 m, makes it the longest library in the world. A midafternoon rainshower greeted us while we were having a picnic lunch at St. Stephen's Green, though we found a bench under a tree that kept us dry. From there we snuck into some churches (for free!) at closing time and joined a tour of Dublin Castle (13th century), where we saw the remnants of a moat. Dinner was at Taste of India, where David was brave enough to try the very spicy vegetable madras (the waiter kept coming over to check on David and make sure steam was not coming out of his ears!) David always loves to spice things up a bit!
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