Today I’m on a ferry leaving Dublin to a port in Wales called Holyhead. Â I’m not doing too bad with the motion sickness, but I am glad that it’s only a 2 hour trip.Â
I checked into the hostel yesterday morning, it was pretty smooth. The place was basically like a small version of a dorm from college… a bunch of rooms that have nothing but beds, and then a couple of common areas with tables and tv’s… a kitchen as well. Nice to finally have accessible internet for free, although it was a little slow. I ended up getting my own four bunk room, and I guess traffic was light enough that no one else ended up there with me. I was still careful with my stuff, but it was nice to have my own space!
After I checked in, I grabbed some traditional Irish stew at a pub down the street… it was fantastic! It was full of flavor, but surprisingly heavy considering it’s basically just lamb, potatoes, and carrots in some herbs and broth. After stuffing myself, I headed to Phoenix Park, which is supposedly the largest city park in the world at 26 square miles. The waitress at lunch suggested I hire (rent) and bike for the day, so I did. That turned out to be an excellent decision and I ended up riding around the entire thing. You can imagine how tired my legs were! The park was fantastic though, gorgeous ponds and greenery, some nice hilly areas, a couple small castles, and an old fort that was blocked off so no one could go inside and have the building collapse on them. Cool!
When I was done with the bike I headed back to the hostel on the tram, which is actually pretty smooth running every 5 minutes. I spent some time trying to plan out the ferry ride and the trains, it was actually pretty difficult given the timing… either get in London around midnight and then try to find a place to stay or chill out in Holyhead, the port town, until tomorrow. Logistics, bah!
I ended up at an Indian restaurant for dinner, pretty good but expensive. Gotta go all out on the last night though! After dinner I met some German folks and an American in the lounge… one of the Germans told me to check out this town on the way to London called llandudno (the double L is actually pronounced like sl). Apparently there is a great hostel there, much better than Holyhead… problem was, I had already booked the ferry for today and the train for tomorrow from Holyhead. So I’ve booked a roundtrip train to llandudno from Holyhead and I’ll check out this place, then tomorrow it’s back to Holyhead and on to London. Phew!
So what did I think of Dublin? One of the things that really struck me about Dublin was the friendly atmosphere… back home, if you were to start talking to a group of guys at the next table over, they’d probably give you a funny look like you’re disturbing them in their private little world… over here it’s hard not to talk to the people around you. Another example of this is the wait staff. It might be due to the fact that I ate out alone a few times, but I’ve had more actual conversation with waiters/waitresses out here than I have ever had back home. And the best part is that these folks don’t get regular or very large tips… One waitress I had was extremely pleased to get a little over 10%, and yet they are friendlier and more attentive. I also got the impression that when they were chatting with me, they were actually interested in me instead of just being nice to get a better tip. This might be due to the fact that I was eating alone, or from America, but it still made dining out a much nicer experience.
We’re coming up on Holyhead now, cheers to solid ground again!