Saturday, June 29, 2013 @ 5:19 PM in 2013 Europe
Day 3
Last night was another late night. My bunkmates (the two Swiss guys and 3 of their friends) and I played some card games in the lounge over drinks and then headed down to Temple Bar area for some beer and live music. That area was extremely crowded but it was a fun time hanging out there. After we all had a few pints we decided to head to Workman's Club (the same club we were at the previous night that had a good DJ). We stayed there for an hour or so and I had another drink. I started to get tired and checked my watch to see that it was close to 2am. I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.
I got up around 9am and went down to get some breakfast. After eating I decided I'd go do some hiking and sight seeing in Howth. It's a fishing town to the north east of Dublin. After showering and getting ready I headed to the Tara Street train station and got a ticket to the Howth station. I only had to wait about 10 minutes and then jumped on the train. The ride only took about 40 minutes. I headed to the tourist information office to ask about the hiking paths. Along the way I passed a bunch of fresh fish markets.
I got the information for the hiking areas and made my way to them. The main hiking paths follow the coastline up and along some very tall cliffs. I was starting to get hungry so I had an apple and a candy bar that I brought with me. It was just something to hold me over until I got back into town. I continued my walk and saw some really nice views (check out the photo gallery link under the teaser pics below).
I made my way back to Howth and walked around trying to figure out what I wanted to eat for lunch. I saw a sign for a stand that was selling seafood chowder for 5 euros so I decided to do that. I knew I wanted something with seafood in it since everything there is caught fresh daily. The chowder fit the bill. I took it over to the docks and ate it while watching the boats come in and out.
There was still a little more walking around I wanted to do so I headed out to a big pier and took some photos of Ireland's Eye and some sailboats that were racing. By now the sun was trying to break through the clouds and I figured I saw everything I wanted to so I headed back to the train station and got on the train back to Dublin.
When I got back into Dublin the sun had finally broken free from the clouds (the first time I've actually seen the sun in the 3 days I've been here). I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and walked east along the River Liffey for a little while and took some photos.
Afterwards I headed back to the hostel to upload some emails and try to decide what to do tonight. I've got to go get some ingredients for dinner tonight. I tried making some curried potatoes, peas and baby corn last night but it wasn't really as good as I was hoping for it to be.
Howth was definitely worth going to. It was the typical seaside town and cliffs that I had always pictured Ireland to be like. Hiking along the cliffs was also the first time I felt like I had space to breathe and I wasn't surrounded by people.
Teaser photos:
Tags: daily journal, ireland, dublin, howth
Posted from: Ireland