This was my first experience on a Ryanair flight. It was definitely the scariest plane ride I have ever taken, though it was likely because of the distance rather than the fault of the airline. The flight was a bit less than an hour long. It felt like we had taken off, stayed in the air for 10 minutes, and began our landing. This meant the whole flight hadn’t reached a high enough altitude that the plane would stop shaking so much and my head would stop spinning. When it took off, it made this awful alarm-like sound, and it kept feeling like something was wrong. But alas, we arrived safe and sound. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the line for non-EU arrivals to be much shorter than EU arrivals–though I suspect most Ryanair customers are Europeans.
One strange part of the flight was the ongoing advertisements. There were constant announcements telling passengers about what they can buy, including non-smoking cigarettes. When we landed ahead of schedule, the intercom played a victorious sounding trumpet melody. Very strange airline, but I’m not complaining since it cost us less than a bus ticket from Ottawa to Toronto.
The next morning, we woke up fairly early and headed down for the complimentary “Irish continental breakfast.” It was pretty much what I would expect from a continental breakfast in North America: eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, fruit, coffee, tea, and juice. The only part that made it different was the beans. We then headed out on a free walking tour of the city.
This is the second New Europe Tours free walking tour that I’ve done. They’re really great. Our tour guide, Chris, emphasized the historical side of telling stories, rather than stressing the entertainment value.
Some of it focused on the humour behind some aspects of Ireland, such as their statue of Lady Justice. Apparently, the artist decided it would be a good idea to have her hold working scales, meaning that when it rains, one of the sides fill, the balance is off, and someone gets executed for speeding.
The tour guide talked a lot about why there is so much animosity between Ireland and England, emphasizing the potato famine. This is when Irish workers were forced to live in mountains mostly living off potatoes because the English farm owners found it was cheaper than allowing them to live off the farm on which they worked. When potatoes became infected and died, the English did not allocate funds to help the Irish people, and continued exporting their crops. Almost a third of Irish people died, some of whom tried to emigrate and were often denied entry, for example when they tried to enter Canada through Montreal. There was a monument to this famine that showed a group of people starving and withering away.
I really enjoyed this tour, although it was almost four hours long. I think I might switch my courses next semester so I can get into the history of Northern Ireland after 1916. I don’t know much about the history, so it could be interesting!
Next we took the all-important tour of the Guinness Brewery. It was not so much of a brewery as a museum depicting the history of Guinness and how the beer is made. There were past advertisements and even one doctor’s letter prescribing Guinness. They say it cures insomnia!
This is Alessandra and me in the room devoted to barley. It was almost like a sandbox but filled with barley instead. There were areas dedicated to each of the four ingredients in Guinness: barley, hops, yeast, and water.
At the top of the brewery was the Gravity Bar, where we got a pint of Guinness and saw a view of Dublin from quite high up. I kept hearing about the amazing view and that this would be the best part of the tour, but it was much too crowded. We could hardly stand there, let alone sit and enjoy our pints, so we took a couple pictures and headed into a room where we sat with the sound of old Guinness commercials that proceeded to stick in my head for the rest of the trip. “Guinness is good for you!”
That evening, we went to a restaurant with traditional Irish food, where I ate some Irish stew. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not worth the £18. It almost tasted like Campbell’s beef chunky soup, including that overly salty taste.
The next day, we woke up early, ate our Irish continental breakfast, and began our day. The highlight was the Old Jameson Distillery, which took a former distillery and converted it into a type of museum, demonstrating how Jameson whiskey is made.
At the end of the tour, they gave us each a glass of the whiskey and we could choose if we wanted to mix it. I had mine with Canada Dry ginger ale, which was actually quite good. We also got to taste three different whiskeys: one from Scotland (Johnny Walker’s black), one from the US (Jack Daniel’s), and Jameson. We had a taste of each and told the guide that we all preferred the Jameson whiskey (although in reality, the Scotch was better) and received little certificates designating us whiskey tasters. Saori and I purchased “Jameson-infused fudge” to bring home to our flatmates, and we moved on.
One strange part of the flight was the ongoing advertisements. There were constant announcements telling passengers about what they can buy, including non-smoking cigarettes. When we landed ahead of schedule, the intercom played a victorious sounding trumpet melody. Very strange airline, but I’m not complaining since it cost us less than a bus ticket from Ottawa to Toronto.
We arrived at our hostel, Dublin Globetrotters Hostel, close to midnight. We checked in, put our bags away, and headed into Temple Bar to see Dublin nightlife. My first impression was that it was a lot emptier than I had pictured, especially considering it was a Friday night. We ended up walking around the main pub area, though we quickly decided it would be wiser to head back to get rested so we’d be ready for a long Saturday.
The next morning, we woke up fairly early and headed down for the complimentary “Irish continental breakfast.” It was pretty much what I would expect from a continental breakfast in North America: eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, fruit, coffee, tea, and juice. The only part that made it different was the beans. We then headed out on a free walking tour of the city.
This is the second New Europe Tours free walking tour that I’ve done. They’re really great. Our tour guide, Chris, emphasized the historical side of telling stories, rather than stressing the entertainment value.
Some of it focused on the humour behind some aspects of Ireland, such as their statue of Lady Justice. Apparently, the artist decided it would be a good idea to have her hold working scales, meaning that when it rains, one of the sides fill, the balance is off, and someone gets executed for speeding.
The front of Dublin Castle. Not much of a castle. The tour guide joked about how miserable it is compared to something like Edinburgh Castle.
The back of the castle, however, was a bit more grand.
The architecture is very interesting in Dublin, with such a range of styles. On the right is neo-gothic, the middle is more modern, and the left is what the tour guide said could only be described as lego blocks.
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| Temple Bar during the day. It's essentially a small area filled with many pubs. |
This library is part of Trinity College, which apparently holds every book ever published in Ireland. It's also the filming location of the Harry Potter movie library scenes. Unfortunately, it was closed to the public when we came about on the Sunday, so we weren't able to get inside.
The Irish painted all of their mailboxes green to differentiate themselves from the iconic red English mailboxes. Unfortunately, they did not chisel off the sign of the crown.
The tour guide talked a lot about why there is so much animosity between Ireland and England, emphasizing the potato famine. This is when Irish workers were forced to live in mountains mostly living off potatoes because the English farm owners found it was cheaper than allowing them to live off the farm on which they worked. When potatoes became infected and died, the English did not allocate funds to help the Irish people, and continued exporting their crops. Almost a third of Irish people died, some of whom tried to emigrate and were often denied entry, for example when they tried to enter Canada through Montreal. There was a monument to this famine that showed a group of people starving and withering away.
I really enjoyed this tour, although it was almost four hours long. I think I might switch my courses next semester so I can get into the history of Northern Ireland after 1916. I don’t know much about the history, so it could be interesting!
Next we took the all-important tour of the Guinness Brewery. It was not so much of a brewery as a museum depicting the history of Guinness and how the beer is made. There were past advertisements and even one doctor’s letter prescribing Guinness. They say it cures insomnia!
This is Alessandra and me in the room devoted to barley. It was almost like a sandbox but filled with barley instead. There were areas dedicated to each of the four ingredients in Guinness: barley, hops, yeast, and water.
At the top of the brewery was the Gravity Bar, where we got a pint of Guinness and saw a view of Dublin from quite high up. I kept hearing about the amazing view and that this would be the best part of the tour, but it was much too crowded. We could hardly stand there, let alone sit and enjoy our pints, so we took a couple pictures and headed into a room where we sat with the sound of old Guinness commercials that proceeded to stick in my head for the rest of the trip. “Guinness is good for you!”
That evening, we went to a restaurant with traditional Irish food, where I ate some Irish stew. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not worth the £18. It almost tasted like Campbell’s beef chunky soup, including that overly salty taste.
The next day, we woke up early, ate our Irish continental breakfast, and began our day. The highlight was the Old Jameson Distillery, which took a former distillery and converted it into a type of museum, demonstrating how Jameson whiskey is made.
At the end of the tour, they gave us each a glass of the whiskey and we could choose if we wanted to mix it. I had mine with Canada Dry ginger ale, which was actually quite good. We also got to taste three different whiskeys: one from Scotland (Johnny Walker’s black), one from the US (Jack Daniel’s), and Jameson. We had a taste of each and told the guide that we all preferred the Jameson whiskey (although in reality, the Scotch was better) and received little certificates designating us whiskey tasters. Saori and I purchased “Jameson-infused fudge” to bring home to our flatmates, and we moved on.
Our group of travellers split up from here. I stayed with Saori and Alessandra, and we wandered around a bit until settling on a Starbucks, where we chatted and people-watched until it was time to head back to the airport.
This flight was much smoother, and it only took about 35 minutes of flying to touch ground in Glasgow.
All in all, Dublin was lots of fun. Once again, it was no Edinburgh, but it had its charm and I enjoyed learning about the history.
And now, back to reality. I'll try to get another post up this week covering Thanksgiving dinner and a few other little events of the week.
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