Visiting the Emerald Isle

So I could make excuses for this taking too long- I moved countries(twice), didn't have internet connection(and still sometimes it cuts out now that I do have it), and I have been busy working.... but the simple truth is I forgot!

In August I went to Ireland for a week. Ireland is a country I have wanted to visit for a long time. As luck would have it- my friend was getting married there and I was invited.

I spent the first 2 nights in Dublin as well as the last two nights and the 2 nights in between were spent in County Clare near Dromoland Castle.

Ireland I discovered, is a friendly country. It is also very green... and as my luck would have it- very wet.

I arrived in the evening and so didn't see much the first day. I found my hostel with some help from the locals, and I have to say it was probably the best hostel I have stayed in. It's called Jacobs Inn. The staff were great, the rooms have their own ensuite bathrooms(so no need to worry about running around the halls with just a towel around you and being locked out of your room because you forgot your key), and I was lucky enough to get a room that almost shared a wall with the reception area so I didn't need to go to the lobby to get internet.

But enough about the hotel.

The first full day we actually had some sun in the morning, and I did a free walking tour of Dublin with a lovely guide whose name(if I remember correctly) was Ashley. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the company that runs the walking tours, but it was a good tour. The guide straight up told us that she liked history, and if people were looking for a tour guide who would talk about architecture, then it wasn't her. It was great to get to learn a bit about the history of Dublin and Ireland in general including conflict with England. The tour started at the hostel and we got to visit the Temple Bar district, the Town Hall, Dublin Castle and gardens, St Andrew's Cathedral and Trinity College. I realised that I knew more than I thought and less than I would like about Ireland. Unfortunately it did start raining on us about halfway through the tour but we persevered and made it to the end... albeit a bit soggier than when we started.

That evening I did a pub crawl run by the same company. We visited 5 pubs and one club I think it was. I was unfortunate enough to encounter the one unfriendly person I can recall from my trip, in the form of a taxi driver who when it started raining wouldn't take me to the pub where it started. Luckily I also met one of the nicest people in the form of a elderly gentleman who offered to show me what direction I needed to go and then walked with me through the rain to the pub itself. Wherever you are, sir, I can only hope that good fortune comes your way!

The second day was a bit more boring. I didn't do much except catch a train cross-country to Limerick to get to where I was staying the next two nights.

The hotel I stayed at is located on the Dromoland Estate in County Clare, which is also home to Dromoland Castle. I did a bit of walking around both the estate and the castle where my friend's wedding reception was also held. It is exactly what I imagined castles to be when I was a child. It was grey stone with crenellations and towers and corridors inside that were more than a little confusing without someone to guide you. It is GORGEOUS! The grounds were amazing too. They have a very nice walled garden as well as some fabulous views if you are willing to go for a little bit of a walk. It is somewhere I would love to visit again, and hopefully next time I visit I can stay in the castle instead of the inn.

Back in Dublin for the last two days and nights I had an amazing time. After making friends with some other hostel guests, I did my own exploration of Dublin that involved touring St Andrew's Cathedral and the crypts beneath.

I also visited the Dublinia museum which covers Viking and Medieval Dublin. Here I was in my element. I am fascinated by certain parts of history- Vikings and medieval history is something I cannot get enough of. The museum starts off with a section covering the founding of Dublin as a settlement by the vikings as well as a bit of general viking history. We had a very friendly guide for a free tour of that section, but the whole museum is amazing.

 The exhibits are excellent. Often when you visit a museum, everything is behind glass and very boring. Dublinia uses bright colours realistic and/or lifesize reconstructions- want to see a privy(toilet) or a viking burial? They have it. You can walk inside a room made to look like the inside of a viking round house or even down a street of medieval Dublin and past a busy dock scene. The best thing of all is that it is really interactive. There are little games and tests set up through the exhibits so you can test yourself after you read the information- or before if you are like me. There are flaps to flip to explain exhibits. What's this shoe about? Flip it to the side and you can read about it underneath.

There is also a section right at the top of the museum called the History Hunters Exhibition which is about archaeology and how it, history and science are working together to uncover Dublin's past. As I had just finished an online archaeology course it was very interesting for me. I understood a lot of the information included and could guess what things were in exhibits without needing an explanation- like why archaeologists use toothbrushes.

Overall I would highly recommend Dublinia museum to people who love history and are travelling with kids- I think it is hard to be bored when you can get a bit hands on with things.

In the afternoon we also managed to get over to Trinity College and have a bit of a look around when it wasn't raining. Unfortunately we were unable to see the Book of Kells as the library was closed already, but in our wandering around, we encountered a fox. That's right. A fox! In broad daylight in Dublin it was just casually wandering around areas where people were sitting and enjoying the view. It was my first encounter with a live fox and it was pretty awesome.

My final day in Dublin involved what could possibly be the most history laden and awe-inspiring moment I have had ever. Maybe I overstate it, but it really was amazing. I did the Mary Gibbons tour of Newgrange and Hill of Tara. With the aforementioned Mary Gibbons as our tour guide I learned a lot about both sites and the history of the area.

Hill of Tara is the ancient Royal seat of the Irish high kings. 142 kings were crowned here. It is said that on a clear day you can see half of the Irish counties from atop the hill. walking on the hill, you can easily see evidence of structures that would have stood on the hill in the mounds, ditches and other earthworks that cover the area.

Newgrange is a neolithic passage tomb. It is older than both the Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza in England. It is particularly well known for the winter solstice, during which time as the sun rises it shines down the passage of the tomb to illuminate the chamber inside for about 17 minutes. I was lucky enough to go inside the tomb which only limited numbers are permitted to do each day, and although it wasn't the winter solstice, it was still awe-inspiring. To think that people 5000 years ago somehow managed to move these stones and build this structure that still exists to day is mind blowing. It may not have the spectacular look of the pyramids or Stonehenge, but in it's own right, it deserves to be experienced

All in all, I can say Ireland is a country that I truly did not have enough time in. I will definitely be visiting again to see all the things I missed.

Sláinte!

~~Random Logic~~

Beautiful Tallinn

I really meant to write this a few weeks ago! Better late than never!

Last month I went to London as mentioned in my previous post, but I also got the chance to head back over to Tallinn, Estonia for a trip the following weekend. It was the fifth time I had been there and definitely a different experience to previous trips there.

First off I went over with a friend and fellow au pair who was leaving the country the following week. Her original planned stay in Finland had been cut short and she had definitely been planning to visit Tallinn before that happened. As a result she decided to spend her last full weekend in Finland in Tallinn. As I love the ciy I volunteered to go along and show her around and stuff like that.

Now I have played tour guide to people in other cities including Turku, Finland and Sydney, Australia where I have spent significant amounts of time and lived but I have never lived in Tallinn so for me it was just as great to go and show her the things I love there as to visit places I hadn't been. It's also the first time I've been any kind of guide in a place where there is so much history.

We stayed with my cousins in Tallinn. They live about 10-15 minutes walk from Vana Linna or in English the Old Town. It is a medieval town centre and not much has changed in the buildings since that time.

By the time we got to Tallinn on the Friday, we had actually already been travelling for over 6 hours by bus and boat. We ended up spending most of the first day in the Old Town wandering around, looking at churches and trying not to get too confused in the sometimes maze-like streets.The best thing about getting lost though, is that you get to see the amazing architecture that has survived to this day and the many buildings that have been restored. There are also some amazing doors!

There are many churches in this part of Tallinn, including two Orthodox churches, and at least one Catholic church not to mention several Lutheran churches. One of the Lutheran churches (St Olav's/Oleviste Kirik) was actually the tallest building in the world for a time when it was constructed with a spire that stood at 159 metres. It burned several times however, after being struck by lightning, and the current spire stands at just 124 metres.

For lunch on this day we decided to stop in at the Reval Cafe in the old town centre. I have been to at least three different Reval Cafe's in the time I have spent in Tallinn and I have to say that every time the food has been fantastic, as well as the service. I also think that it is extremely reasonably priced.

We also spent some time in Tallinn City Museum (Tallinna Linnamuuseum). It is definitely a museum worth visiting. Whilst not so large as many museums it tells the story of the history of Tallinn quite well and in an easy to understand fashion. I definitely learned things I hadn't known about the Hanseatic period(Tallinn was a major city and trading port for the Hanseatic League and was known as Reval during this time).

Saturday we got up fairly early and decided we would walk into the Old Town. It is a nice walk and the way we went took us up and over part of the walls that still stand to the top of Toompea Hill which is the upper part of the old town. You end up with some fantastic views of the old town from there and it's great for taking photos.

First thing on the agenda for the day was to head up onto the city walls. One of the fantastic things about the Old Town and the fact that it has been so well preserved is that it actually means you can get up onto the town walls where they still stand at some points. It is interesting to see the town from this perspective and makes me glad that I'm not a guard for walls and living in the middle ages. The walkway is not actually very wide and there is never anything pleasant about looking straight down to the cobblestones below when all that stops you if you slip is a wooden railing.

After the wall we took the opportunity to do a sightseeing bus tour of a bit of the rest of Tallinn. My cousin had been amazing and bought us some 24 hour bus tickets for a sightseeing bus that goes around Tallinn on three different routes. We took the green line tour which took us to the Pirita beach district where there are the ruins of Pirita Monastery(dedicated to St Brigitta) and past the area which was built for the 1980 olympics when Tallinn hosted the yachting events for the olympics.

In the afternoon we decided we would try to see some more museums. First we headed off to Kiek in de Kök, which is situated in one of the towers along the wall. We also wanted to visit the Bastion Passages but hadn't realised that we had to pre-book so we ended up missing out on that part. It was the second time for me to visit the museum however and I loved it just as much as the first time. It has changed a fair amount in terms of the displays and I think the quality is even higher. It covers a lot of the history of Tallinn and in particular focuses on the military history and the fortifications of the city.

We also ended up visiting the Estonian National Maritime Museum (Eesti Meremuuseum) in another tower known as Fat Margaret (Paks Margareeta).

For dinner that night we went to a restaurant know as Olde Hansa. It is a medieval themed restaurant and it definitely has some great atmosphere. It isn't somewhere I would recommend anyone go to if you are a picky eater, nor if you are trying to save money. The most expensive single dish on the menu is Bear and it costs 55€. We both went for something a bit cheaper and split the dessert which was a sort of apple pie with almond milk. It was amazing. So was the Warm-Up drink which we had. It was some sort of spiced apple cider type drink. Om nom nom!

Sunday was our last day in Tallinn and we did our best to enjoy it. We took one more of the sightseeing bus tours, this time around some of the older suburbs of Tallinn. Afterwards there was some more wandering around the city for some last minute photos, souvenirs and postcards which resulted in me finding a Star Wars babushka doll, as well as a stop for lunch once more at the Reval and a hot chocolate at the Chocolaterie de Pierre Cafe in the Old Town. My cousin first introduced me to the Chocolaterie in 2007 when I visited. It is a cosy cafe that makes you want to do nothing more than sit down and relax with a nice warm drink and maybe a bit of dessert too.

All in all it was a fantastic, jam-packed weekend in Tallinn and it definitely made me realise how much I haven't seen and want to see when I next visit.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral with Tallinna Toomkirik in the background.
Taken from Kiek in de Kök tower.

View of the lower part of the Old Town from the viewing platform on Toompea Hill.

 

Where would you like to visit?

Entrance to the Old Town.

 

The old Town Hall.

Photo credits go to my friend Christina who took some great photos whilst we were there.

~~Random Logic~~