Haggerty In The Hague

Sorry it took so long to write Part 3 of my Ireland travels.  Better late than never, I guess…

On Friday morning we drove from Galway back East towards Dublin.  We arrived to find Daimler had already arrived at our rented apartment, as he flew in just for the weekend.  I tried to handle my passport situation, but was informed that the earliest they could help me would be on Monday - not good for a Sunday flight.

After everyone got into town we settled into our apartment and enjoyed the view of the city.  That night we went to Temple Bar, a district in the center of Dublin that’s known for its bars and lively night scene.  We went around to a few places bar hopping and reviewing our week of fun.  As we walked along the streets we found a band on the street playing Oasis songs, so we all stopped to sing along.

Saturday morning we all went out for a great Irish breakfast at the restaurant named Gruel.  That afternoon did a little touring around before we headed to the Guinness Brew Factory.

The Guinness Storehouse tour was great.  It was a 7 level self-guided tour that told you everything from the history of Guinness to the brewing process and advertising schemes.  The best part was the Gravity Bar at the end - where everyone gets a pint of Guinness in a bar with the best view of the city.  We timed our visit right, as we had views of the city both in the daytime and at nighttime.

After the Guinness tour we headed into the middle of the city, where the guys had rented a sweet room right on Dame Street for us to play poker in.  We had a few beers, some good food, and hung out for a few hours playing poker.  Later that night we headed out to a super pub to continue the fun.

The last day was spent trying to handle my passport and changing flights.  We did manage to get out of Dublin to the seaside town of Howth - about 25 minutes outside of town.  We got this idea after watching Anthony Bourdain eat a seafood shmorgishborg in Howth on his show “No Reservations”.  We found a great restaurant and had a fabulous meal.  We also found an interesting little construction company while making our way through the Dublin train station…

Ireland was great - I’ll certainly be back!

Ireland, Travel, Winter

After a few days of working while Mike was touring around the Netherlands, we flew back to Dublin on Wednesday. Upon arrival we hopped a bus to the Dublin Heuston train station, then took a train to Galway. After an easy 2 hour train ride, we arrived in Galway and walked to the hostel where we were meeting the rest of the crew. We met up with them, caught up on the craziness we had missed while back in the Netherlands, then went out for dinner and drinks in Galway.

Brothers reunited and enjoying a Guinness

Galway was a cool little town with a lively music scene. Walking along the pedestrian only downtown, we saw a few musicians playing outside. We also went into a really nice looking pub and heard some really good music from the live band playing there. We ended up calling it a relatively early night, due to our early morning departure for the Aran Islands the next morning.

Our Ferry over to the Aran Islands

We had a 9am ferry for the Aran Islands from a town about 30 minutes outside of Galway. Luckily we managed to get everyone up and made it to the ferry dock on time. Our destination was Inishmore - the largest of the three Aran Islands. We arrived after about an hour of enjoying the open ocean swells, and immediately set out to rent bikes for the day. Everyone got a bike and we started off exploring the island. We first found a surfing break named “Haggerty’s Left” - the locals told us that groups of 15-20 surfers come over to the island when the waves are really good.

Haggerty’s Left: About shoulder high and reeling

Next, we began our trek to the main attraction on Inishmore - Dun Aengus. This place is an ancient stone fort first built about 3000 years ago. It sits perched above the vertical cliffs that fall hundreds of feet down into the crashing waves of the Atlantic. While I wasn’t too impressed by the actual structure, the view of the island on one side and the never-ending Atlantic Ocean on the other gave you this spiritual feeling that was incredible. We took lots of pictures and spent a while pondering what it was like in 1000 BC when the first people built this fort.

Dun Aengus on Inishmore, Aran Islands

Bill - pondering life while perched hundreds of feet above the Atlantic

Brett and Landon jumping off the huge cliffs (they lived)

On our way to and from Dun Aengus we enjoyed biking around and viewing the scenery. Mike even met an Inishmore local that’s lived on the island his whole life. We climbed hills, gained incredible speeds on the way down, viewed the local goats, cows, and sheep that lived on the island. Inishmore even has a pretty nice beach that faces the mainland Irish coastline. We finished up the day with a pint of Guinness at the local pub. Good times on the Aran Islands.

Mike chatting with his Inishmore friend

Maze of dry-stone constructed walls on Inishmore

Mike, finishing the day up with a Guinness

That night we regrouped back at our hostel and ran into a couple of local Irish women. A little hesitant at first, we were pleasantly suprised at their wit after they joined us and proceeded to roast every one of us. These ladies had come over from Dublin and were heading to some television show cult following the next day on Inishmore - guess we had gone there a day early. They ended up bringing us out with them to a club that night, which was a blast. Unfortunately, later that night, a few of us had our jackets stolen from the local park. It wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but my passport was in my jacket, so I knew I needed to get back to Dublin as soon as possible.

Ireland, Travel, Winter

I somehow convinced 8 of my friends to fly over to Ireland for my bachelor party in early March. Many of them, realizing they’d be spending at least 8 hours on a flight (closer to 20 for Brett), decided to turn the trip into a week long adventure.  I spent the first weekend in Ireland with them, went back to the Netherlands for a couple days of work, then came back for the long weekend and bachelor party.

Landon was the first to arrive in Ireland, so I grabbed a cheap Aer Lingus flight to Dublin from Amsterdam with plans to meet him that night.  Our meeting point was the little Bed & Breakfast in Wicklow where we were staying - about an hour drive from the airport.  So I picked up a rental car at the airport that I had previously booked for a cheap rate online.  Unfortunately I was rudely awakened to find out the price of insurance tripled the cost of the rental, but I soon found out the insurance we well worth it after my first experience driving on the left side of the road.  First mistake: I tried to get in the car on the left side, quickly realizing the steering wheel was on the right side.  I smoothly played it off by pretending I was inspecting the car…  After figuring out how to drive stick with my left hand, I was off and following the Google Map directions.  Having not reviewed them beforehand, I was a little surprised to find step #11 told me to “Take the exit”.  Miraculously, I took a random exit and eventually made it to meet Landon.

Landon and I headed down to the town of Enniskerry for dinner and our first Guinness in country.  There was only one pub open in this sleepy town (population: 2600) and it was packed with locals watching the Wales/France six nations rugby game.  They were all interested in the game because Ireland had a six nations rugby match the next day.  We had a fantastic meal of mussels and Irish Stew, and the Guinness was out of this world.

The next day, we explored the beautiful area surrounding our B&B before heading back to Dublin to meet up with Bill, Brett, and Garcia.  Brilliant shades of green and flowering plants were abundant amongst the rolling hills of this countryside.  The B&B was good (breakfast wasn’t great) and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to get outside of Dublin and go to Wicklow.

That afternoon we walked to Croke Park (pronounced “Crow Park”) to check out the scene and to try to scalp some tickets for the Ireland/England rugby match.  Brett was the only one that was able to score a ticket, while the rest of us had a great time hanging out in the bar watching the game with a Guinness in hand.

The next morning we met up with Mike & Mark for a bit, before everyone departed for Cork, except Mike & I, who were heading back to the Netherlands that night.  We took a quick tour of Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells and the more impressive Long Room.

It was a short weekend, but filled with lots of action and well worth the trip.  It was a great preview for my return in a few days for the bachelor party.

Ireland, Travel, Winter