An Adventure in Ireland
GALWAY
Where to begin. I’ve been thinking about how to write about Ireland since returning…even during the trip. How do I write about such a place? One that felt like a dream, like another world.
I don’t want to be one of those travelers/tourists that romanticizes everything, I just want to tell the truth. The truth of the magic I felt on my first adventure abroad—to another country outside the States. If it comes off romantic and surreal, it’s because it was that, among many other things.
Ireland felt like I was walking into history books I’ve studied, works of fiction and non-fiction that I’ve read, and movies I’ve watched. I could feel the images in my head of what I thought the country would look like come to life, because I was finally there.
A home on Inis Mòr—the largest of the Aran Islands.
After an overnight flight, a taxi ride, a missed train, and a found bus, TK and I made it from Dublin to Galway where we’d stay for the first half of our trip. Running on fumes, we stumbled into a cute, historic hotel called The Hardiman (Fun Fact: it’s been around since 1852 and was even one of the places JFK stayed when he came to Ireland). We ditched our bags, freshened up, and took this new found boost of energy on a walk around town.
We ventured through parks, across bridges, popped into a church holding a wedding ceremony, watched swans swim around, drank our first authentic Ireland Guinness, listened to musicians play in the Latin Quarter, wandered through an old cemetery, cheers-ed to the big football game playing at The Skeff Bar with hundreds of Irish fans, and ended the night watching rugby at our hotel. The first day was a blur of Galway as we absorbed as much as we could.
Ard Bia at Nimmo’s
Homemade bread and butter
We sat near the kitchen to watch the cooks make their magic.
Our adventures continued after a deep sleep. We explored Galway some more, ate an amazing dinner at Ard Bia at Nimmo’s (highly recommend), and experienced two of the most incredible moments we’d have on our trip: Biking around Inis Mòr (largest Aran Island) & hiking along the Cliffs of Moher.
Biking around Inis Mòr was like going back in time. It was quiet—nothing but nature around you. Land was separated by piled stones to create walls. Not a wood or plastic fence in sight. Cows, horses, sheep, and donkeys roamed all over. We were in their domain. Every so often we’d see an old stone house left behind. It made me wonder what its purpose was before—a home, garden shed, shelter for animals?
We made our way around the island to Dún Aonghasa—a prehistoric fort at the edge of a 100-meter-high cliff. It was built during the Bronze Age and dates from 1,000 B.C. (or possibly before). I imagined battles in my head as we trudged through the soft tufts of grass at the center of the fort. What must that have been like for the warriors back then? What was life like before modern technology? It feels so distant yet so close.
We were brought back to the present when we raced our bikes to a local pub for a Guinness before boarding the ferry in time. The magic holding on in our minds and photographs.
And then there was the Cliffs of Moher, the very next day, in a dense fog with wild winds. We wandered past the warning signs to an outlook just beyond the experience. Other locals and tourists found their way over, and we all stared out into oblivion. I was captivated by the rhythm of the waves, the sheer drop off the edge and force of mother nature around me.
The West of Ireland is an adventure I will never forget.
My hair the entire hike, captured by TK on Fuji.
DUBLIN
The famous Temple Bar in The Temple Bar district of Dublin. Where food, music and Guinness are a plenty.
TK and I made it to the train where our names blinked on a digital screen above our seats. From Galway to Dublin we watched the land fly by, admiring all of the sheep and cows along the way. When we made it to Dublin, it felt more like the cities we’ve lived in before, but with more history in the architecture and the cobblestones beneath our feet.
Our first stop was a tour of Trinity College and The Book of Kells—a must in my opinion.
Founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, Trinity College came to be. I won’t recount every story we heard, just a few below. Their campus blew me away with their sculptures, architecture, bell tower, and lore. Being in the presence of something extraordinarily old felt like an honor in a way. I wondered if any of my distant relatives or TK’s had ever attended or been around to watch the construction of the college come to life.
The Campanile: The Trinity College bell tower — where 19th-century history looks on across the sea of modern-day students.
The intricate detail of this historic building was unbelievable in person. On the front face of this building, the artists put their calling card amongst the animal coverings—a monkey (their interpretation of what a monkey looked like).
It is said, if you’re a student and you walk under the bell as it tolls, you will fail all of your exams. The tricky part is that no one knows the bell tower schedule—some students never walk under it their entire college career because of this.
These two buildings look upon each other every day. One is heaven (the church) and one is hell (exam hall). Can you guess which is which?
You may know, you can’t take photos of The Book of Kells, but you can find every page online for viewing. Our tour group was told it took four specialists hours to turn the book to a new page for display—this is only done a few times a year to preserve the life of the book. The pages looked extraordinarily thin, and you could still see glimpses of the annotations left by young Celtic Monks—some of whom were just children at the time.
Beyond the tour, we stepped into the famous Trinity College library where we paused to take in the smell of old books and wood. For the first time, they are doing a redevelopment on the space to help preserve the life of the books—only six or so shelves still had stacks of books, the rest were bare and in progress. It truly was a sight to behold.
THE HEADS
Sir Francis Bacon
Mary Wollstonecraft
Plato
Rosalind Franklin
Our adventures continued from the Dublin Castle to local theatre productions and restaurants tucked away at the end of alleys. We did the Guinness Tour and wandered through the parks and streets stumbling into something new each time.
I could go on and on, but I fear this post has already grown longer than I meant it to. There’s just so much to capture from this one trip and so much more I want to see the next time.
I will say this, it was the perfect first trip abroad. It taught me to open my eyes, take risks, grab hold of the adventure, let the culture guide you, respect it, and wonder about all the lives lived throughout the centuries and the ones to come. It brought me closer to the land of some of my ancestors and TK’s.
It further ignited my curiosity.
Thank you, Ireland. I can’t wait for next time.
S.