#TBT: My First Time Abroad
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day week, I'm bringing to you my first Throwback Thursday, where I'll be throwing it back to July 28, 2011, or my day of arrival to my FIRST foreign country, Ireland! Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on March 17, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland (Wikipedia).
My friend, Nick, expressed interest in heading to Italy, following his study abroad in Ireland, and he was just looking for people to go with him. Another friend, Nikki, and I decided that those people would be us. Planning began in February 2011, and my love for travel was born in July that same year. Being new to backpacking/traveling/everything (I was about to start my senior year of high school), I was obviously stepping into a whole new world. And since this trip was five and a half years ago, it's not exactly fresh in my mind. SO, I snatched my trusty Travel Journal out of my closet and got to reading.
Disclaimer: My 2011 photography does NOT represent my present-day photography. I'm embarrassed.
The Problems
Boy, oh, BOY. Every trip will have its snags, but for three unexperienced travelers, this one takes the cake. Let's just start by saying that I ran out of cash by the second day. My dad had given me a credit card to use for purchases (I had to pay him back, don't worry), which I was unable to use in an ATM because he didn't have a PIN number. And I couldn't go into any bank because the whole country closes their banks on Saturdays and Sundays.
What is one of the main things that you think of when you hear "Ireland"? Castles, right? Well, we wanted to see some. Thanks to not planning ahead, however, we arrived at several travel agencies on the day that we wanted to do a tour (nicely planned for our last day in town), only to be told that it was too late in the day, or that every tour was fully booked. They generously drew our attention to instead doing a pub crawl! Which was also fully booked for the day, but she gave us a list of popular crawl locations for us to follow on our own. We made it to one before deciding we that should head back to the hotel for our early flight the following morning.
So, these things, in addition to 1) getting lost, 2) getting off of a bus too early and being charged to re-enter, then going farther than you should have, 3) Nick only having actually booked one of his two flights, and 4) not arriving early enough to make your flight, which was apparently over-booked, and being told that your seats were sold, were just some of our first-timer mistakes. We wouldn't have run into this string of bad luck if we had kissed the Blarney Stone...
The Pubs
Ireland put pubs on the map. In every country I've visited thus far, I've been able to find a specifically Irish Pub, and that's how you know that Ireland's pubs are something special. They're something so cozy and unique that places all over the world want to replicate them. And they're all different! This is, perhaps, what left the biggest mark on me in Ireland (since we didn't see any castles).
Of course there are the traditional pubs with all wood finish interiors, and usually brick exteriors, but one place in particular left a lasting impression on me. Gilbert & Wright, in Dún Laoghaire is a pub that I've dreamt of replicating many times. This soothing space serves all of the same drinks you're used to, but allows you to settle in one of their many rooms on any of their mix matched couches. With vintage vinyls and posters of '80s artists ornamenting the walls and ceiling, this was truly a neat place to sit down and relax over a few drinks, without the blaring music that clubs and bars feautre. Gilbert & Wright even provided boardgames for us to play during our visit! Jenga is always a fun one, but we did have to be careful of our drinks.
The Guinness
Did you know that Arthur Guinness, the founder of the Guinness brewery business, signed a 9,000 year lease for his original brewery? This giant relic is housed in the floor of the atrium at the present-day Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse is Dublin's tallest building, with their highest structure being the Spire of Dublin (completed in 2003 in celebration of Ireland's confident future in the third millennium). In honor of my arrival to Ireland, I had my first ever glass of Guinness at the aforementioned Gilbert & Wright. It wasn't until my second to last day in Dublin, however, that I visited the Guinness Storehouse and really got to appreciate Guinness for what it is.
Arthur Guinness' 9,000 year lease
The Guinness Storehouse features seven floors that will tell you everything you should know about this thick stout. The ground floor features a unique display of each of the beer's four ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. Other floors taught us about some of Guinness' history, packaging, and distribution, and all lead us to the seventh floor "Gravity Bar," a room with 360 degrees of glass windows overlooking the city of Dublin. On this final stop to the Gravity Bar, we were able to take in the city views, while enjoying our own pints of Guinness. And though it isn't my favorite beer, I do make sure to have one every Saint Patrick's Day to fully celebrate my Irish heritage.
