The Journey Day 4 Dublin to Belfast

September 6th, 2016 Dublin Ireland

Cell Door

We got up at 8. We had breakfast at Third Space again. We liked it so much the first time! This time, I had porridge with a latte, and Kelsi had pancakes with bacon with a cappuccino. I liked the porridge it was creamy and had fruit, but I like the Full breakfast more. I just thought, that perhaps I should eat such a hardy breakfast three times in four days! Kelsi said she liked the pancakes, but since I think in the end she preferred the granola, because she wouldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the trip!

Kilmainham Gaols

After breakfast, we went straight to the Kilmainham Gaols. Which was an old prison and courthouse. I have visited jails before, notably Alcatraz. However, the tours are different. At Alcatraz the tour is self guided with headsets, this one had a tour guide, she was excellent. She was very knowledgeable and she seemed to like giving the tour. Another difference is the types of prisoners that were at the jails. Kilmainham had prisons that were as young as seven and women many of the crimes included begging and petty theft. Alcatraz was first a military prison and then a federal penitentiary. The Kilmainham Gaols and Alcatraz both had some notable prisoners. Alcatraz housed some infamous criminals, while Kilmainham Gaol housed and excuted Irish revolutionaries! The biggest difference that I noted was that not one time during the Kilmainham Gaol tour was it suggested that the Gaols was haunted.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Shark Bag!

When the tour concluded, we walked across the river to grab a bus to St. Patrick's Cathedral. This time we managed to get off at the correct stop! It is huge! It was also very beautiful. However, there are a lot of full sized informational panels that got in the way! The panels did provide a lot of information, but I thought it took away from the original beauty of the Cathedral. However, one very exciting feature is Jonathon Swift is buried there. I was thrilled to see that. I tried to explain A Modest Proposal to Kelsi, but I think I did a bad job of it. 

Next we went to Dublin's Castle. We got turned around a bit and needed to go back across the plaza to get tickets. We decided to have lunch at the Castle's first. I ate the Irish hot meal of the week which was a beef pot pie with salad and bread. The pie was really very good. I have had savory pies before, but they were all microwavable, this pie and the others on my trip were much better. Kelsi had French toast and bacon, sounds like breakfast. Better than the food was the beautiful view of the gardens! It was a partly sunny day and sitting outside on the balcony was quite nice. 

Dublin's Castle

When we finished eating, we walked across the plaza to purchased tickets to see the apartments. They were very interesting, but a lot like the Cathedral it was more like a museum. The information is useful because then I know what I am looking at, but sometimes it would be nice to just see the room as it is. Also, Dublin Castle was renovated over the years, so it was difficult to know what the castle was like when it was in use as a castle. Of course, I want to take out the carpet in my house, and add hard floor. So I guess understand the want and need to update the castle. There is a walking tour of Dublin Castle, and I think that would have been good, but we still needed to go to Trinity College and see the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is a very old copy of the gospels. It was originally housed at Abby of Kells, but moved to the Dublin and Trinity College for safe keeping. There is a lot of information about the Book before you get to see it. They also have copies of the art and scripture prior to the book. Which is pretty important, since you cannot turn touch the book, there is no way to see all of the art. The Book was written in Latin, and I liked looking at the latin script and picking out words that I know!  

We didn't know that part of the tour included a long room full of old books, bought by the college. I didn't try to count them, the number of books is impressive, I was told 200,000. The shelves went up to the ceiling and they were covered in books! Unfortunately, I couldn't touch any of the books, let alone read them. The room also contains marble busts of many writers and philosophers.  

We also visited the science hall and went to the optics exhibit which was quite an eye opener! Kelsi even had her eyes checked. I guess she may need some glass. Although, the science exhibit changes, but people should visit if they can. It was free and fun.

That was our last stop in Dublin. After that we returned to our room to pick up our stuff. We took an Uber to the Train station. We caught the 4.50 train to Belfast. One last thing to say about our experience in Dublin. Our Airbnb Host Vini was really great. He has a few places in Dublin, and is very professional.

September 6th, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland

We arrived in Belfast in the evening, our airbnb host had contacted earlier that day to say that we could only check us in from after 7pm to 830pm. It was fine with us to have a late check in because we needed the time to finish up Dublin, but it was quite frustrating that we had such a narrow window. She said that her mother was sick and she was going to take care of her, that's why she only had that short time to meet us. This was quite a different experience then our host in Dublin, but we did as instructed. We took a cab from the train station to the house. When we got into the cab, the driver said the house was far from the train station, but it was only 10-15 minutes! I guess living and driving in Phoenix changes the definition of far. 

When we arrived at the room we had to walk up a flight of steep stairs with our luggage. I kept thinking I would fall or drop my luggage, but luckily I did neither of those things. We met our host Yvonne. She laughed at me because I was wearing summer clothes! Well, in her defense it was evening, and cool out, jeans probably would have been better than shorts, but in my defense Dublin was warm that day! She talked with us for a while. She has a lot of rules for her room, not all of them are listed on her host page, however she was very nice and friendly. She provided us with tea and biscuits! (How British, is that?) She also recommended places we should do, see and eat around town. She is familiar with a lot of the fun nightlife things to do in Belfast. She recommended for that night that we walk to the end of the road, pick up a bottle of wine at the store and take it into the Pizza shop. The pizza shop doesn't have wine, but they will allow you to drink it in their shop. So, that's what we did, after I changed out of my summer clothes!

When we went up to the shop, we had a trouble at the store, the door opens out, but we kept pushing! It took us a while to figure out which wine we wanted, and in the end we took the recommendation of the clerk! We may or may not have tried to push our way into the pizza shop as well. The pizza place was called Pizza Works. The waitress was so nice. On the menu there was rocket listed as an ingredient. We didn't know what that was, so we asked the waitress. She tried to explain it to us, but we must have looked even more confused, because she brought out some to show us. It is argula. We ordered bruschetta with rocket, cheese garlic knots, and pizza. Mine was spicy Hawaiian, Kelsi's was new Brooklyn. All the food was very good. I love jalapenos so I like most dishes that contain them. We ate and drank everything! 

After dinner and drinks we went over to the gas station to get pins and band-aids because Kelsi had some very outrageous blisters. I felt bad. We had done a ton of walking over the last few days, and there would be more to come. She said she felt much better after she got rid of them! So hopefully she can enjoy our stay Belfast.