The Green Escape: Dublin, Ireland

Guinness Factory: "Everyone's Irish on March 17th"

Last week I ventured to Ireland and England with Mac and Kate. We were all thrilled to spend our week-long break in colder climate (we're slightly tired of Rome's humidity). We spent five days in Ireland, three in Dublin, two in Cork, and three in London. Least to say, we had a fantastic vacation. I took an obscene amount of photographs during our trip, so I'm breaking up our week long journey into three blog posts, therefore, please bear with me as I get them all up. But first, Dublin!

Best Friends Reunited in Ireland! Mac and Jen

During our Dublin stay, I had the honor of meeting Jen, one of Mac's best gal-pals from high school. Jen is currently studying abroad in Seville, Spain. Jen and one of her good friends Allyson, both UCLA students, were great travel buddies during our three-day Dublin adventure. I personally enjoyed seeing Mac and Jen reunite. Prior to our trip, Jen messaged me a long list of restaurants to check into, I knew I would love this girl, since she does justice to the title of being a die-hard "foodie!" 

Cornucopia: Delicious Vegetarian Food

When I booked my trip to Ireland, I had no expectations for the food. The only traditional "cuisines," I considered Irish people to possess were lots of carb-filled foods made with lots of potatoes, pork, and beer (which in Irish people's mind, is probably a food group). I was correct with my assumptions, but least to say I was pleasantly surprised with the huge gastronomic scene in Ireland. We ate extremely well on this trip (much to Jen's awesome research). I'm only featuring a few places, and easily my favorite was Cornucopia as photographed above.

Cornucopia is a whole food and vegetarian restaurant.  It was unbelievably delicious. This great cafe reminded me so much about cuisine offered in California, in particular my home-base Marin County. The food is all organic, the restaurant follows green values, and they easily make some of the heartiest Vegetarian and Vegan food I've ever had. I feel that Vegetarian food easily has a stigma that the only thing offered is raw fruits and veggies, to the contrary there are so many things that can be made! This place really satisfies any person's taste buds and stomachs. 

On our first night in Dublin, we had dinner hear. I ordered a delicious Roast Squash casserole, accompanied by two salads: white bean, and sprouts. All of my food was packed with lots of flavor. The squash casserole was extremely filling, which was perfect for how cold it was. We ventured to Cornucopia the next morning (we all wanted more), where I had a sweet potato omelet with side of grilled onions, roasted tomatoes and a veggie sausage. Next to my breakfast you can see Kate's delicious tofu stirfry with spicy mushrooms. Kate and I were giddy with the fact we could order soy milk with our coffee. Least to say, we are all definitely from California when soy milk makes you happy.

Jen and Allyson; Kate and Mac; Dublin Castle; Awesome Tour Guide

Post-Cornucopia breakfast, we went to City Hall to attend our free walking tour. Sandemans New Europe walking tours are the most ingenius things around. Modeled by the philosophy that every person should be able to view a city for what it's worth, and not have to pay a fortune, this company gives free walking tours! Mac and Kate had previously taken them in other countries, but Dublin was my first. It was a glorious three hour walking-tour. We hit up all of the hot-spots in Dublin, and strolled through famous areas such as Temple Bar and Dublin Castle. We were so fortunate to have such a humorous tour guide. Essentially, she made fun of the Ireland's innefficient history the entire time. She kept us entertained and on the move in the freezing cold temperature.

Prior to our tour, we snapped some photos. Above you can view the gorgeous faces of Jen and Allyson, as well as the freezing faces of Kate and Mac. Let's just say by the end our tour I couldn't feel my feet!

My (Viking) Glory Moment 

Mid-way through our tour, our tourguide stops us to view a cobblestone mosaic on the ground. She explained the model was to depict the layout of a Viking household. Although Vikings are romanticsed, apparently Irish Vikings were small, ugly and not very robust looking. I was picked at random to demonstrate how vikings used to sleep together. My thought process as I was standing there changed from, sheer interest, to utter shock (photograph one). Onward to complete hysterics, and many thoughts of, "I can't believe I'm lying on the freezing ground wedged between strangers in a dress." Basically, our tour guide explained that Vikings invented the art of "spooning," and all of us lucky volunteers should be glad to tell all of our friends and family back home that we got to lay on the ground in Ireland, while spooning a complete stranger, as a fake-viking! 

Yes, it was an experience. There are even more embarrassing photographs thanks to Mac's epic play-by-play shooting with my camera, but those will refrain from the blog. 

Trinity College

Trinity College is the most well-known and oldest University in Ireland. Modeled after Oxford and Cambridge, it is one of most well-known colleges in the world. It's over 400 years old, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Enamored by its beauty, our tourguide heard us joking about studying abroad at Trinity. She then informed us  it would cost us Americans around $60,000, whereas citizens only have to pay about 5,000 Euros...Least to say it's a beautiful campus.

Fun Fact: George Lucas used Trinity College's Library as the model for the Jedi Archives in Star Wars. He did so without getting approval from Trinity College. Apparently he sent over 7-8 people from his team, who paid the visitors fee, and proceeded to photograph every inch of the library. Lucas got away with this because he changed the statues in the library to be modeled after Jedi's. Trinity was slightly outraged, but soon they hushed up and started selling Star War figurines in their gift shop, so some money probably came into play during that argument.

St. Stephen's Green

The tour ended at the gorgeous park of St. Stephen's Green. We took tons of photos while the lighting was still gorgeous, and enjoyed the festive Fall Colors we have yet to see in Rome!

Pre-Guinness Munchies: Queen of Tarts Blueberry Scone

Guinness Factory: Storehouse Entrance; Museum Display; Barrels; Beer Settling; 

Gravity Bar View; Mac and Kate; Me and my Guinness; The Irish Beer

After our three-hour walking tour, and snapping photos in St. Stephen's Green, Mac, Kate and I left Jen and Allyson to head toward the Guinness Factory. We pre-booked online, and your online booking allows you to skip the line. The nice part is you can go in at anytime. The factory is more-like a museum, and it's a self-guided tour. I personally loved the interior, it was an even mix of modern and rustic design. It was also extremely easy to follow and read. The museum has about seven levels, with tons of visuals and info (as well as a tasting along the way!). The displays did a great job of explaining the production of beer, and science behind it.

 We redeemed our vouchers at the top level in the Gravity Bar. I've decided my taste buds have completely changed, since I actually loved Guinness (I ended up having it again during a later part of our trip). I doubt I'll ever have as good of a pint as I did at the factory. 

Wild Wicklow Tour: First Stop Jame's Joyce's Tower: Mac and I; 

The View: Kate and Jen; UC Roma Classmates: Jessica, Sarah, Abby and Corrine

On Sunday we ventured into the mountains. When we were planning our Ireland trip, Mac had the great idea of exploring the countryside for the day inbetween Dublin and Cork. We realized this would be quite difficult to do on our own. Luckily, her researching skills pulled off and she found this wonderful guided day-tour of the Wicklow Mountains called Wild Wicklow Tours. She passed the memo onto Jen and Allyson, as well as our fellow apartment mates/classmates who were also in Dublin at the same time. Everyone jumped in and signed up for the tour as a result, and we all had a great day.

The first stop was at James Joyce's Tower. There was a little museum inside the tower. We crawled up a very steep and narrow staircase to the top to take some photos (my lens got a few raindrops on it, which is why they are slightly smudgy).

Avoca Pit Stop; Avoca Goodies; Mac Modeling our Treats!

This tour knows me too well. We stopped at a wonderful cafe/store called Avoca for a quick coffee break. Avoca had a storefront, a deli, and a small restaurant. The storefront is very similar to cost-plus with the array of trinkets. It was the food that enticed us of course. I couldn't stop taking photographs of the beautiful displays. Mac joked that we should just stay there all day so we could eat all three meals there (which, if we hadn't booked this tour, I would have put it into higher consideration). We settled for some delicious coffee and baked treats to keep our bellies full and warm.

Wicklow Mountains

It was cold, extremely windy, and wet, but that didn't stop any of us from hopping off the bus to get a nice look of the scenery. The Wicklow National Park is where one of the scenes from the movie P.S. I Love You was filmed. I have never seen the movie, but as our tour guide noted it's a "chicky-flick," which is probably why I did not have an interest for it. Regardless, we were blown away by the beauty, but definitely found ourselves running back to the bus as quickly as possible.

Shots of Jameson on the Bus

Usually, the tour provides a complimentary shot of Jameson outside during this pit stop. However, the wind and rain were too much for us non-Irish folk, so our tour guide gave it to us on the bus before heading out. 

Guinness Stew

I was definitely craving some local Irish Food, and that's what I recieved during our lunch stop. Kate was informed to order Irish stew, and I easily obliged. Mac and I shared a bowl of this delicious creation. Although I couldn't taste the Guinness, the broth definitely had a yeasty-thick body to it. The massive ball of mash potatoes was a nice touch too. I'm happy I shared, otherwise I would not have been able to finish this! 

Ready for Adventure; Cementary; The Future Home of Mac and Adrienne

Our last stop was at Glendalough Monastic Site, another gorgeous national park. We were guided through the old cementary and temples, and then instructed to take the gorgeous path to the upper lake where the bus would pick us up. Despite the chilly weather, I think the cold made the colors of the voliage even more vibrant. I was blown away by the beauty. I definitely was hit with homesickness, as the trail reminded me of hiking through red-wood trees along Mount Tam. 

Upper Lake

We reached the lake with ease. I considered our Wicklow adventure to be one of the highlights of Ireland and our entire trip. The beauty of Ireland's nature was overwhelming. It was great to have a glimpse of what Ireland looks like outside of the main city. 

We all loved Dublin, and I have yet to meet someone who has disliked any part of Ireland they visited.  Many people didn't believe me when I told them that I'm half-Irish, but I felt very comfortable in this country. We did so much, I already miss the live Irish Pub Music, gastronomic restaurants, gorgeous nature and warm-hearted people. If I had the opportunity to study abroad in another country, I would hands-down pick Dublin. 

Stay tuned for posts about Cork and London!