Well, sometimes life gives you those extra special, delight moments and one should always be ready to revel in them. That moment came up for me when I applied for the UK Visa for my first international, first solo, first backpacking trip (read up on them here, London and Scotland). I wanted to see more than the just UK after I read about the British Irish Visa Scheme (BIVS) that allows you to enter Ireland on UK visa without the hassle of applying separately for Irish Visa and the additional cost for the same. Luckily, I was among the ones whbecame eligible for BIVS. Next thing was to get, set, and plan for the Emerald Isle.
Since Ireland was part of my trip starting from London via Edinburgh, I chose to fly into Dublin from Edinburgh with Ryanair. Ryanair is one of the best low-cost airlines on the route. The only thing that one needs to be careful about is their baggage allowance policy. Try to stick to the bag size measurements in order to avoid paying a hefty amount for check-in baggage. After an exciting night of friends, drinks, and dance in Edinburgh, I took an early morning flight to Dublin so that it would allow me to have an entire day to explore the new city.
The best way to reach the city from the airport is the Airlink 747, an express bus that runs from 04:45 -00:30 at the price of €7.00 for a single and €12 for a return trip. I bought the return ticket as I was flying out to London after some days.
Having stayed in 3 different hostels in the past 4 days, I picked up the hostel culture and was really looking forward to my new abode for the night in Dublin. Having spent hours in researching hostels, I finalized Abigails Hostel. Abigails was my choice because of its proximity to the city center, my next backpacking tour start point, and the famous Temple Bar Street.
Since I reached my hostel before the check-in time, the guy at the reception advised me to take the free walking tour of the city to optimize my time. I quickly skimmed through the city map that he gave me and rushed to the City Hall, the starting point of the tour. These walking tours are the best way to get the glimpse of the city. Our tour guide was 100% Irish-funny guy who showed us most of the places of interest like Trinity College, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, among few others. Dublin gives you the feel of a fun, small city that you can easily explore it on foot. After the 3-hour long tour, I checked into my hostel and chose to rest for few hours.
The best thing about solo travel is that you meet so many new people, makes so many friends. I coincidentally met a fellow traveler in Edinburgh a few days back, a student of English from Mexico studying English in Dublin who offered to show me around. Nadya became my favorite person in Dublin later.
When you are traveling solo, every day is an adventure in itself. My adventure for the day began with the 3-day Southern Ireland backpacking tour with Shamrocker Adventures. We started the tour from Dublin in the morning at 8:30. It was time to meet more new people. The group had around 16 travelers from Canada, Australia, US, Germany, Chile along with 100% local guide Becks (Rebecca) and our bus driver Mr. Noel.
Becks made sure that all of us knew each other and arranged for a just-a-minute sort of a session for everyone en route our first stop Rock of Cashel. After our introduction session, Becks took over with the overly fascinating Irish folklore full of faeries and leprechauns, local history and funny stories of AFCs (read locally as Another Fecking Castle).
We visited the Blarney Castle in the hope of getting the famous ‘gift of the gab’ before heading to our hostel for the night Neptune’s Hostel in Killarney, a beautiful, cute little party town in the Kerry county.
Becks took us to Killarney Grand where the night was long and full of real Irish ‘dishco’, Guinness, traditional Irish music and dance, Irish rock band Ruaile Buaile, and hot Irish men. As they say in Ireland, the craic was ninety.
The next morning started on a calm note when we headed towards the gorgeous Dingle Peninsula with its beautiful beaches and rugged coastline.
Few of you might recall the name from the movie Leap Year. Mind you, its just one of the beaches of Dingle that was shown in the movie that was actually Dingle. Star Wars fans may also get to see few filming locations of the movie.
We stopped at Valley of the Mad and then at Coumeenoole Beach to enjoy the perfect sunny day before heading to the cute port town of Dingle. There are lots of places to eat but don’t forget to try the amazing ice creams at Kool Scoops.
Since it was the last day of our tour, Becks added few other places to our itinerary like Brigid's Well and a Leprechaun Wish Well on our way to the mighty Cliffs of Moher.
Cliffs of Moher-nearly 8 miles of length and 702 feet of height. Cliffs of Moher is quite a popular spot for all Harry Potter movie fans. Check out the cave scene where Dumbledore and Harry apparate to destroy a Horcrux.
Later, we explored the eerie moon-like landscape of the Burren county, with folklore of fairies and leprechauns waiting to be found.
Our last stop for the tour was the popular Irish city of Galway. Galway was bright, vibrant, fun-filled stop. One amazing place to eat in Galway would be the wood-fired pizzas at The Dough Bros. The rest of the time back from Galway to Dublin was spent exchanging each other’s contact details, Facebook profiles, unlimited photographic memories.
And before I could know, I was back at Abigails in Dublin. The remainder of my evening was spent walking around the city and at Carrolls Irish Gifts for freakishly cute souvenirs.
Back in Dublin, I had half a day with me to spend before flying back to London. The most awaited attraction for me that day was the Guinness Storehouse. I would suggest you buy tickets online to get some discount.
My friend Nadya joined me for the rest of the time; I bought my very own Daisy sheep (a soft toy), Celtic jewelry from St. Stephens Green Shopping Centre.
It was soon time for me to bid adieu to the good ol’ Ireland. It was time to board Airlink 747, again but with a promise to come back again.
Well, sometimes life gives you those extra special, delight moments and one should always be ready to revel in them. That moment came up for me when I applied for the UK Visa for my first international, first solo, first backpacking trip (read up on them here, London and Scotland). I wanted to see more than the just UK after I read about the British Irish Visa Scheme (BIVS) that allows Indian and Chinese nationals to enter Ireland on UK visa without the hassle of applying separately for Irish Visa and the additional cost for the same. Luckily, I was among the ones who became eligible for BIVS. Next thing was to get, set, and plan for the Emerald Isle.
Since Ireland was part of my trip starting from London via Edinburgh, I chose to fly into Dublin from Edinburgh with Ryanair. Ryanair is one of the best low-cost airlines on the route. The only thing that one needs to be careful about is their baggage allowance policy. Try to stick to the bag size measurements in order to avoid paying a hefty amount for check-in baggage. After an exciting night of friends, drinks, and dance in Edinburgh, I took an early morning flight to Dublin so that it would allow me to have an entire day to explore the new city.
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