Recent holiday to the British Isles, Part 5 - A Pilgrimage

I deciced that since I was in England, I ought to go have a look at Ireland as well, since it was so close. So on the 3rd of January that's what I did.

I made my way (with some assistance from Gillian) to the MK Coachway, and then went by National Express to Luton Airport. I then flew by Ryanair to Dublin. They squish so many chairs on Ryanair planes that it is quite claustraphobic, and the day-glo yellow and navy decor does not help. But the flight is only an hour, and since I essentially paid pocket change for the experience it was still excellent value.

I caught the airport flyer bus into Dublin. I wasn't sure where to get off, so I ended up at Busaras (the main bus terminal) which was not near my hotel at all. So I decided to walk across town and get a first close look at Dublin. I thought I remembered the general direction my hotel was in from a map I had been looking at before, but I was worried that I would get horribly lost. I needn't have been. I managed to walk right across town and through the Viking/Mediaeval part of town without taking a wrong turn and found my hotel by looking to the right and there it was. Previous life's memories, mayhap?

My hotel was called the Harding Hotel. It was more expensive than the hotels I usually stay in, but because the flight had been so cheap I decided to treat myself. It was a very nice hotel. It was on Fishamble Street, which is one of the oldest streets in Dublin. I saw a model of it in the Viking section of the National Museum. An alley runs through the middle of the lobby. It is called Copper Alley. It was also a Viking street. In the middle ages and through to the 1800's it was famous for dangerous taverns and brothels run by infamous characters (said the information in the folder in my room). The hotel was also across the road from Christchurch Cathedral, so there was a nice view from the dining room/bistro.

I really liked my room. It was tucked into an awkward part of the building where it crosses over Copper Alley so it was a funny shape, almost a triangle. It had a proper bed with a nice wooden post-style headboard, a nice desk, plenty of tea-making supplies and was very spacious. The window looked down into Copper Alley. It was so well heated that a window had to be left open at all times despite the fact that it was winter.

That day I went to the Tourist Information office hoping to book a bus tour, but the counter was closed. Then I went for a walk on Grafton Street and bought my dinner at the M&S supermarket section.

The next day after having an Irish breakfast I went back to the TI and booked the bus tour, then to an internet cafe. Then I spent quite a while looking for a place which, I eventually found out, had closed down. Then I got on the hop-on-hop-off bus and stayed on for most of the route. I tried to take pictures, but it was difficult. I got off at St. Stephen's Green and went to the National Museum. I spent hours in there, looking at all the Celtic, pre-Celtic, Viking and Mediaeval artefacts. They even had some stuff from Cyprus and Egypt. After that I went to the Natural History Museum. I didn't spend long in there. Mostly I was looking at the incredibly alive-looking wolf, and then the Irish deer skeletons. Those things were huge! I would not have even come up to an Irish deer's shoulder; nowhere near. The males' antlers spanned about 4 metres!

I got back on the bus and went to Dublin Castle. I only went inside the church part, not the castle itself (click on the title of this post to see a picture from the church). I took a lot of photos of the outside of the castle.

On the 5th I went on a bus tour to the Boyne Valley in County Meath. There was a Japanese guy on the tour who didn't understand the tour guide, so I was translating for him (yet again Japanese comes in handy outside of Japan). First off we went to the Hill of Tara. It was difficult to see what you were standing on at Tara, probably because the hill was occupied for millenia after the monuments were built. Later on I bought postcards with aerial photographs of the hill.

Then we went to the Bru na Boinne Visitors Centre (Boyne Valley). There was time for a quick lunch, then we were bussed out to Newgrange. I was in the first group to go into the tomb. It was very hard to feel the atmosphere of the tomb/temple/whatever. This was due to the electric lights, the crowds of stupid-question-asking tourists, the tour guide's endless rambling and the tacky re-enactment of the Winter Solstice. The hundreds of years of grafitti didn't help either.

But nevertheless, it was amazing to be standing inside a 5,000 year old building.

Because the day was short (being winter) we did not get to visit Knowth. After looking at the exhibits in the Centre, we headed back to Dublin.

Despite the lack of scenery, I quite liked the look of County Meath. It was more like NZ than England is. Next time I'm in Ireland I want to go look at the area around the Wicklow Mountains. I bet that is even more like home.

On the 6th I headed back to MK by retracing my outward-bound route. And then I had very little rest time before heading out on another holiday the next day.

Next time on Randomness, by Togiren: A Lot of Time on Busses