With all the planning and arrangements I’ve done for my recent trips, I begin to feel a little overwhelmed and exhausted both physically and mentally and henceforth imagine it would be a great idea to pay for some local day tour packages this round to experience something new. As most of the scenic destinations and tourist attractions are found to be in the suburbs distance away from the City of Dublin, a guided coach tour will definitely be a convenient and prudent alternative.
I would probably grade this trip as the most challenging journey and below is how the story goes:
I would probably grade this trip as the most challenging journey and below is how the story goes:
20th March 2016 (Sunday)
As usual and not feeling surprised, the flight was somehow delayed due to the congested traffic on the runway in the Gatwick Airport. Not being overly concerned about the delay, I managed to arrive at the Dublin Airport around 3.30pm and after a long wait at the customer service kiosk, I finally found my way getting onto the Airlink Express (€6.00) which has a direct service into the city centre.
My one night’s stopover in The Kinlay Hostel was quite awful despite that this hostel has one of the best locations in town. The general layout of the building is comparable to a labyrinth because in order to get to my room, I needed to pass through at least 7 doors (3 secured and 4 none secured)) plus 4 corridors to get to the other site of the building. The surrounding was rather noisy with all sorts of noises and the furnishing in the room is obviously timeworn. Nonetheless I could not ask for more with the price of €54.00 a night hence everything is acceptable as basics.
Once I’ve completed the check-in, I immediately walked the 40 steps to the Christchurch located very close to the hostel. However it wasn’t my lucky day because the Church was closed exceptionally on that Sunday and therefore I could only admire the exterior of the building from the garden.
Having done some research prior to the trip, I am all excited to track down the famous Murphy’s Sea Salt Ice-Cream in town. My first combination was kind of weird having 3 exotic flavours in one go – Chilly Pepper, Dingle Seasalt and Butterscotch. I couldn’t help myself but to return again later that night with my colleague to enjoy 2 more scoops of the ice-cream as my supper.
I have been wondering in town not knowing what I should have for dinner because majority of the Irish dishes are serving red and white meats which would be too heavy as a meal for my appetite at that moment, I finally decided to go for the Japanese cuisine and gratefully Ukiyo serves delicious sushi in an excellent ambience.
As usual and not feeling surprised, the flight was somehow delayed due to the congested traffic on the runway in the Gatwick Airport. Not being overly concerned about the delay, I managed to arrive at the Dublin Airport around 3.30pm and after a long wait at the customer service kiosk, I finally found my way getting onto the Airlink Express (€6.00) which has a direct service into the city centre.
My one night’s stopover in The Kinlay Hostel was quite awful despite that this hostel has one of the best locations in town. The general layout of the building is comparable to a labyrinth because in order to get to my room, I needed to pass through at least 7 doors (3 secured and 4 none secured)) plus 4 corridors to get to the other site of the building. The surrounding was rather noisy with all sorts of noises and the furnishing in the room is obviously timeworn. Nonetheless I could not ask for more with the price of €54.00 a night hence everything is acceptable as basics.
Once I’ve completed the check-in, I immediately walked the 40 steps to the Christchurch located very close to the hostel. However it wasn’t my lucky day because the Church was closed exceptionally on that Sunday and therefore I could only admire the exterior of the building from the garden. Having done some research prior to the trip, I am all excited to track down the famous Murphy’s Sea Salt Ice-Cream in town. My first combination was kind of weird having 3 exotic flavours in one go – Chilly Pepper, Dingle Seasalt and Butterscotch. I couldn’t help myself but to return again later that night with my colleague to enjoy 2 more scoops of the ice-cream as my supper.
I have been wondering in town not knowing what I should have for dinner because majority of the Irish dishes are serving red and white meats which would be too heavy as a meal for my appetite at that moment, I finally decided to go for the Japanese cuisine and gratefully Ukiyo serves delicious sushi in an excellent ambience.
21st March 2016 (Monday)
The breakfast provided by The Kinlay Hostel was absolutely simple having only bread, butter and cereal, and there are all kinds of hilarious sign in the kitchen warning the guests to keep their hands off some shelves and to be cautious not to accidentally consume the foodstuffs that belongs to the other guests.
Since both of us have medium and large suitcases that need to be stored after checking-out from our room, we rented a cage locker at €2.00 before we could hit the town again. While searching for the storage room in the “labyrinth”, we approaches one of the cleaner asking for direction and were told that the storeroom was located at the first floor. Spending almost all our energy dragging the baggage to the first floor, we then discovered that it is actually at the ground floor!
A visit to St. Michan’s Church has been made mandatory in my itinerary after reading some comments that there is a chance for visitors to “shake-hands” with the 800 years old mummy in the crypt and it will be lucky for the person who touches the crusader! But I ended up being very disappointed because there isn’t actually the chance for me to touch them at all! We gave up on The Book of Kells in the Trinity College due to the crowd and went on looking for some local delicacy to appease our hunger. We came to a famous Irish restaurant - The Lotts Café Bar which is highly recommended by Tripadvisor, but unfortunately some famous dishes were not available due to the early hour we arrived before lunch.
After collecting our baggage and checking-in at Hotel Clarion Liffey Valley, I took a 15 minutes’ walk to the shopping mall nearby before meeting up with the other colleagues for dinner. We had our dinner and a long chat in one of the nearby Chinese Restaurant where they serve some Malaysian and Singaporean dishes too.
I just couldn’t wait to return to my room and enjoy a relaxing hot bath before hitting the sack and getting myself ready for the meeting on the next day.
22nd March 2016 (Tuesday)
After spending a long day in the meeting room with participants from different countries and continents, we gather ourselves once more for a group dinner in town at 7.30pm. We visited the famous bar - The Auld Dubliner for some beers and this is indeed the finest pint of Guinness ever! We had our dinner at the Elephant & Castle Restaurant trying out their famous chicken wings before we splited ourselves into 2 groups where one group continues with the drinking sessions and another group heading straight back to the hotel (so which group do you think I am in? Lol…)
23rd March 2016 (Wednesday)
After bidding farewell to all the other colleagues once we’ve ended the full-day's workshop, Ms Liu and I continued our own exciting journey in Ireland. Both of us stayed in different locations and my Airbnb room was surprisingly a value for money. At the price of £166.00, I get to stay in a cosy and comfortable double room for four nights. Not being in the best of my health condition (suffering from sore throat, fever and flu), I simply grabbed some pancakes and muffins from Tesco Express and jump straight into bed praying that I will feel better on the next morning.
24th March 2016 (Thursday)
As expected, my illness is getting worse but I still have to drag my feet 2.3km to the meeting point at 7.30am. Our first stop was to visit the famous and magnificent Cliffs of Moher. The winds were extremely strong and chilly giving us a hard time walking around in the open space. There were no fences or barriers built around the cliffs and out of curiosity, I even searched on the web interested to find out how many cases of accidents were reported in the past years but surprisingly there was almost none!
Next, we make a short visit to The Burren National Park where we walked on the cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone and took some photos before heading to the Galway City. We were given some free time to walk around the Galway City and have our dinner. Being an absolute seafood lover, there is no way for me to resist the idea of having fresh oysters served on the table. While strolling along the high streets, I am so in love with all the eye-catching and adorable souvenirs relating to sheep!
25th March 2016 (Friday)
The journey today took us around 3 hours to arrive at Belfast, and this city looks and feels exactly like any other part of the United Kingdom. The iconic walk in County Antrim - Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge cost us £5.00 each where we get to cross over to the island using the 8 years old rope bridge. The queue was very long and I am quite disappointed with the experience thinking that it would be very adventurous initially. Since we were only given a very limited time before we must return to the coach, both of us were only able to cross the bridge and immediately join into the queue again to return to the main land. A short walk along the coastal footpath is almost killing me with my flu and fever.
The only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland - the Giant’s Causeway is definitely worth a visit. We have to watch our steps carefully on the interlocking basalt columns trying our best not to fall into the water. However the winds were extremely strong and I was literally being blown off my feet, losses balance and fell onto the rock twice. Even the coastal guards were “stuck” onto the wall of limestone struggling to stand against the gales. Being sluggish to return to the visitor centre by foot, we paid €1.00 for a short ride and saving our energy for the next stop. For those fans of the series “Game of Throne”, the last stop at the Dark Hedges will be the perfect ending to the tour (but to me it was just a normal tree tunnel? Hmmp...)
The breakfast provided by The Kinlay Hostel was absolutely simple having only bread, butter and cereal, and there are all kinds of hilarious sign in the kitchen warning the guests to keep their hands off some shelves and to be cautious not to accidentally consume the foodstuffs that belongs to the other guests.
Since both of us have medium and large suitcases that need to be stored after checking-out from our room, we rented a cage locker at €2.00 before we could hit the town again. While searching for the storage room in the “labyrinth”, we approaches one of the cleaner asking for direction and were told that the storeroom was located at the first floor. Spending almost all our energy dragging the baggage to the first floor, we then discovered that it is actually at the ground floor!
A visit to St. Michan’s Church has been made mandatory in my itinerary after reading some comments that there is a chance for visitors to “shake-hands” with the 800 years old mummy in the crypt and it will be lucky for the person who touches the crusader! But I ended up being very disappointed because there isn’t actually the chance for me to touch them at all! We gave up on The Book of Kells in the Trinity College due to the crowd and went on looking for some local delicacy to appease our hunger. We came to a famous Irish restaurant - The Lotts Café Bar which is highly recommended by Tripadvisor, but unfortunately some famous dishes were not available due to the early hour we arrived before lunch. After collecting our baggage and checking-in at Hotel Clarion Liffey Valley, I took a 15 minutes’ walk to the shopping mall nearby before meeting up with the other colleagues for dinner. We had our dinner and a long chat in one of the nearby Chinese Restaurant where they serve some Malaysian and Singaporean dishes too.
I just couldn’t wait to return to my room and enjoy a relaxing hot bath before hitting the sack and getting myself ready for the meeting on the next day.
22nd March 2016 (Tuesday)
After spending a long day in the meeting room with participants from different countries and continents, we gather ourselves once more for a group dinner in town at 7.30pm. We visited the famous bar - The Auld Dubliner for some beers and this is indeed the finest pint of Guinness ever! We had our dinner at the Elephant & Castle Restaurant trying out their famous chicken wings before we splited ourselves into 2 groups where one group continues with the drinking sessions and another group heading straight back to the hotel (so which group do you think I am in? Lol…)
23rd March 2016 (Wednesday)
After bidding farewell to all the other colleagues once we’ve ended the full-day's workshop, Ms Liu and I continued our own exciting journey in Ireland. Both of us stayed in different locations and my Airbnb room was surprisingly a value for money. At the price of £166.00, I get to stay in a cosy and comfortable double room for four nights. Not being in the best of my health condition (suffering from sore throat, fever and flu), I simply grabbed some pancakes and muffins from Tesco Express and jump straight into bed praying that I will feel better on the next morning.
24th March 2016 (Thursday)
As expected, my illness is getting worse but I still have to drag my feet 2.3km to the meeting point at 7.30am. Our first stop was to visit the famous and magnificent Cliffs of Moher. The winds were extremely strong and chilly giving us a hard time walking around in the open space. There were no fences or barriers built around the cliffs and out of curiosity, I even searched on the web interested to find out how many cases of accidents were reported in the past years but surprisingly there was almost none! Next, we make a short visit to The Burren National Park where we walked on the cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone and took some photos before heading to the Galway City. We were given some free time to walk around the Galway City and have our dinner. Being an absolute seafood lover, there is no way for me to resist the idea of having fresh oysters served on the table. While strolling along the high streets, I am so in love with all the eye-catching and adorable souvenirs relating to sheep!
25th March 2016 (Friday)
The journey today took us around 3 hours to arrive at Belfast, and this city looks and feels exactly like any other part of the United Kingdom. The iconic walk in County Antrim - Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge cost us £5.00 each where we get to cross over to the island using the 8 years old rope bridge. The queue was very long and I am quite disappointed with the experience thinking that it would be very adventurous initially. Since we were only given a very limited time before we must return to the coach, both of us were only able to cross the bridge and immediately join into the queue again to return to the main land. A short walk along the coastal footpath is almost killing me with my flu and fever.
The only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland - the Giant’s Causeway is definitely worth a visit. We have to watch our steps carefully on the interlocking basalt columns trying our best not to fall into the water. However the winds were extremely strong and I was literally being blown off my feet, losses balance and fell onto the rock twice. Even the coastal guards were “stuck” onto the wall of limestone struggling to stand against the gales. Being sluggish to return to the visitor centre by foot, we paid €1.00 for a short ride and saving our energy for the next stop. For those fans of the series “Game of Throne”, the last stop at the Dark Hedges will be the perfect ending to the tour (but to me it was just a normal tree tunnel? Hmmp...)
26th March 2016 (Saturday)
Since Ms Liu will be departing from Ireland and back to China today, hence I was left alone for this Ring of Kerry tour despite my very ill health. I’ve tried contacting the tour agency but the refund of £85.81 was not possible hence I still have to go on with the excursion. It was unfortunate that the rain wouldn’t stop throughout the journey and we were hiding from the downpour most of the time (and it was even hailing at some point). I enjoyed so much the choice of my lunch having the seafood soup and seafood salad despite that these were rather expensive at €23.00. Being the slowest eater of all time, the limited meal hours posted a great challenge for me because I have to stuff everything into my mouth and swallows them down the throat in haste. This Ring of Kerry tour with train and coach cost me almost double the price as compared to the other tours but it appears to be less convenient and time consuming after all.
27th March 2016 (Sunday)
This is the day Ireland celebrated their 100 years of independent and the roads in Dublin were shut-down completely for the parade. I have therefore experienced a hard time booking a taxi online and getting to the Airport but fortunately I could still make it on time.
There are quite some additional expenses added to this trip such as the cost of the taxi for a few days since I am not able to walk in the cold weather at night. I even break the record of consuming more than 15 paracetamol doses within 3 days trying to cure myself from the virus (knowing that I have not even taken 1 pill in the past few years). Nevertheless, I am so much in love with the sheep and would love to return again to Ireland for a road trip with the opportunity to touch and cuddle them! I do appreciate the companionship of this sweet colleague of mine throughout the journey and yes, I do love this peaceful land of the leprechauns.
This is the day Ireland celebrated their 100 years of independent and the roads in Dublin were shut-down completely for the parade. I have therefore experienced a hard time booking a taxi online and getting to the Airport but fortunately I could still make it on time.
There are quite some additional expenses added to this trip such as the cost of the taxi for a few days since I am not able to walk in the cold weather at night. I even break the record of consuming more than 15 paracetamol doses within 3 days trying to cure myself from the virus (knowing that I have not even taken 1 pill in the past few years). Nevertheless, I am so much in love with the sheep and would love to return again to Ireland for a road trip with the opportunity to touch and cuddle them! I do appreciate the companionship of this sweet colleague of mine throughout the journey and yes, I do love this peaceful land of the leprechauns.
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