Dublin for St. Patrick's Day

By the time we arrived in Dublin on Friday, the city was already lit green. The contrast of the bright green lights against the otherwise dark city made it clear that St. Patrick's Day was upon us. Having just traveled several hours from the south of Ireland, we went straight for our hotel in the center of town. From our window, we could look out onto the Liffey River running through the center of town. After a little much needed rest, we headed out to the crowded city.

We walked to Temple Bar, just across the river, to figure out what St. Patrick's Day in Dublin is all about. In short, people from all walks of life were everywhere. Of course everyone was wearing green. The atmosphere was energizing and made me excited to be there even though I frankly had no idea what we were celebrating. Sure, we know the one sentence answer to "What is St. Patrick's Day?" but I am fairly convinced that no one in Temple Bar actually knew what the occasion is signifies. But not to worry, this slight lack of knowledge wasn't a hindrance for anybody. Live bands played at each bar and I swear I heard the songs "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" and "Country Roads" a dozen times each that night. After wading our way through crowded bars for several hours we decided to call it quits before too many more drinks were spilled on us.

Live music in Temple Bar

Saturday was our only full day in Dublin to explore the city. We began by walking though the city on our way to the Guinness factory. The line there was already quite long and the area was teeming with tourists. We decided to come back later after we completed our scheduled tour of the Jameson factory. The tour was interesting but having toured several smaller distilleries in Scotland, it was clear the tour was quite bland. The taste test made up for what the tour lacked. Afterward, we made our way to Christ Church where gourmet food trailers were set up. The fish and chips there made for an excellent lunch. A trip to St. Patrick's Cathedral was the last stop before attempting the Guinness tour again.

Ultimately our attempts at seeing the Guinness factory were a complete failure. Not surprisingly, each time we went back, the line grew longer. We gave up on drinking a Guinness at the top of the pint-glass shaped building in favor of a Hop On-Hop Off bus ride. We figured some quality narration while cruising around the city would be a good alternative. Turns out the tour's a sham. The driver didn't tell a single interesting story about the city or sights we drove by. I was actually falling asleep in my seat.

That night we went out to Temple Bar again and had a great time. There were definitely some wild people. We woke up the next morning in time to see the St. Patrick's Day Parade. On our walk to find the optimal parade viewing spot, we purchased obligatory, silly green hats. The parade itself was fun and definitely quite odd. We couldn't figure out what most of the themes of each group were supposed to be. Regardless, it was really cool to be part of the enormous crowd lining O'Connell street for St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland.

Dingle, Ireland

I'm telling you upfront that Dingle is my favorite place we have been to thus far. Yes, even more so than skiing the Alps or London or Amsterdam. Dingle is a small town in the southwest region of Ireland that has retained the Gaelic culture. So this is the real deal. Spencer (here for his Spring Break), Dan, and I made the best of Dingle in our short time there.

The harbor in Dingle

I knew I would love Ireland from the moment we landed in Kerry, forty five minutes from Dingle. The slogan "40 shades of green" is no joke. It's very green and very beautiful. On our taxi ride to Dingle, our driver told us about the area and filled us in on some history and culture. He also gave the two finger wave to everyone we drove by. If you have ever driven in West Texas, you should know exactly what I'm talking about. The friendliness of everyone in Dingle made me feel genuinely welcome to be there. The slow pace of life made the trip that much better. All in all, I felt relaxed and at home in this quaint old town and no other European city has made me feel that way.

When we arrived in town, we walked around a bit to scope things out. Among other stops was a craft guild that sold local products and a hardware store called Foxy Johns with a pub inside. What's wrong with sipping a local Crean's brew while browsing for power tools? Of the 52 registered establishments in Dingle, 35 are licensed to sell alcohol. That should help explain the slow way of life.

We took a nice walk from the Marina, out along the harbor, and up to the lighthouse that guides ships in from the Atlantic. It was absolutely beautiful on the rocks below the lighthouse where we just sat and stared. There was a dolphin swimming and birds were diving for fish. It was truly unbelievable. I actually feel like I could be writing fiction right now. On our walk, several storms blew through, each only for five minutes or so. Just another reminder of Texas and its unpredictable weather.

The Lighthouse

After checking into our lodging, we ate dinner at a local restaurant. Dingle is known for their fishing so we all ordered a fresh fish dish, straight from the docks. Afterward we enjoyed beer and conversation at a couple pubs, one of which had live local music.

The next day was a 26 mile bike ride around the peninsula Dingle is on. The ride follows the narrow Slea Head Drive out to Slead Head (the westernmost point in Europe and the closest we could get to Austin, Texas) and back around to Dingle. We made many stops along the way to soak in the sights. Among our stops was a beach where we played with a dog, some 4,000 year old buildings, some great lookouts, and a local pottery store. It was a long day that may or may not have included some uphill bike pushing for a particular unnamed member of our group. Cough Spencer Cough.

We recouped back in Dingle with some delicious ice cream. I chose to mix the Guinness and Bailey's ice creams at which point Dan blurted out that my ice cream was like an Irish Car Bomb. You have to assume that saying such things is sort of taboo while in Ireland.

Murphy's Ice Cream Shop

Our trip to Dingle came to an end sooner than I hoped for but it was time to drive over to Killarney, near the Ring of Kerry. The next day in Killarney, we took a few hikes in Ireland's largest national park. From there, we headed off to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day.

Everyone knows baby sheep are adorable

St. Anton - Austrian Alps

It's been forever since my last post and I need to fill you on our ski trip to Austria before I blog about last week's trip to Ireland. 

Going back awhile, late in February, we finished our Munich/Prague trip with a few days in the gorgeous Austrian Alps. Getting from Prague to the mountains turned out to be quite the adventure. It was actually fine and dandy until we arrived in a small town outside the resort where we planned on staying before our first day on the slopes. The directions we had to our hostel were completely off track. It was dark on arrival and long story short, a ten minute walk ended up being an hour walk or so. It was miserable. Cold. Dark. Lost. Heavy luggage. You get it. Finally, we found a generous soul to help us out. It was fortunate that she did because most people would not get out of their car at night in a deserted parking lot and talk to two strangers like Dan and me. Her husband drove us to our hostel and told us about his daughter who studies in Utah. Let me just say that their act of kindness restored a little faith in humanity.

 We were sort of delirious after 12 hours of travelling

 Dinner. Yes, dinner. We were in the middle of nowhere. 

Now to the good stuff, the skiing. St. Anton am Arlberg is a supposedly one of the best places to ski in the Alps and I now understand why. The place is absolutely amazing. Up above the clouds you can see for miles and miles. Bright blue skies, fresh powdery snow. Here's a picture that doesn't do it justice.

 

Three days of skiing in this weather was too good to be true. At St. Anton there is lots of skiing 'off-piste' which is basically an avalanche-free area that is not groomed. Thicker snow and tougher skiing was a thrill. It really put my average skills to the test. I noticed that on the tougher trails, everyone was very conscientious about keeping the runs free of traffic. Periodically down each run, people would stop and wait for it clear out. This kept things safe and more enjoyable than what I expected. 

If you haven't been here, St. Anton is worthy of your bucket list. 

 Obligatory Texas Flag pic

Prague

After a long bus ride from Munich, we made it to Prague. It was clear from the old communist zone we went through first that Prague would be a little unlike any other city we've visited. From the bus station we took a short bus ride to the Charles Bridge and our hostel. I think this was the nicest, most friendly hostel we've been to. The cup of tea during check-in might have sold me. After settling in and orienting ourselves to a new city, we took off to explore.

The Charles Bridge was literally outside our window. There is a long story about the bridge that is pretty interesting but what you need to know is that the view from this pedestrian bridge is very nice. Actually, if you've seen Vin Diesel's XXX, you have seen this bridge. From there we grabbed a snack in the main square before heading north to explore the Jewish quarter. (Side note: the first cafe we walked into was full of cigarette smoke. We couldn't believe that they still allow smoking inside in Prague. Sorta bizarre, huh?)

 Charles Bridge at night

The Jewish Quarter is the home to a handful of  beautiful old synagogues and important Jewish sites. We made the decision to explore the Spanish Synagogue. The Moorish architecture was complete inside with gorgeous gold engravings. It was getting late by then so we headed back to the hostel for a free walking tour.

Spanish Synagogue

Our friendly hostel receptionist led the tour. She told us interesting stories about one of the Charles Bridge statues, the extravagant National Theatre,  the Lennon Wall and a spot where part of Mission Impossible was filmed. Afterward we got a great recommendation for a nearby restaurant with excellent goulash. This dish is a Czech staple sort of like soup with tender beef. It's served with their version of dumplings which are really more like moist bread. That night we met some students from Vienna. Most notable was this German kid who wanted to know if we thought the German language sounds angry. The ensuing conversation was pretty comical.

Lennon Wall

We started off the morning on Tuesday by taking the tram up Petrin Hill to the look out tower. It was a very snowy, windy day so visibility wasn't exactly stellar. Actually, we couldn't see a thing. Supposedly the tower is their version of the Eiffel Tower and the city takes great pride in having such a structure. Having seen the Eiffel tower, I think they could have done better but who's judging? The Prague Castle, which is enormous and easily the best site to look at, was our next stop. We made our way through a couple exhibits about the story of Prague and then checked out the intricate St. Vitus Cathedral.

Prague Castle entrance

We spent our final afternoon exploring Wenceslas Square on the other side of town and making arrangements to travel to St. Anton the next day. We actually had other plans but we lost our map and when we finally made it to this church famous for a WWII spy story, we realized it was closed for the day. It just wasn't meant to be I suppose. Overall, Prague was a nice city to visit with hearty food perfect for cold snowy days. 

Munich

The nine day escapade began two Fridays ago (Feb. 15) in Munich. They spell it Mϋnchen by the way. After stepping off our Easyjet flight and trekking through customs, we took the S-bahn into central Munich. Our hostel was literally down the street from the train station but naturally it took us about twenty minutes to find it. At the hostel we met up with Holli, our friend from UT who is studying in Paris this semester. After settling into our room, we set off to explore Munich.

It was nearly evening so we decided to create our own walking tour which basically consisted of pointing in a general direction and assuming something cool would be around there. It was snowy, cold and generally bleak outside yet it was beautiful all the while. Somehow it was exactly how I expected to find Germany in the winter. We made our way east through the central square, through some posh shopping area, and ended up on a snowy island on the Isar River. This was the Texans' first chance to play in the real snow. 

The Texans, Holli and I, not sure what to do with so much snow

From there, we trekked north to Munich's main park called Englischer Garten. To make a very long story short, we got lost a lot, played with snow, and fortunately ended up at the Augustiner Brewery on the complete opposite side of town. Augustiner is the local brew of choice at the Munich beer halls. This hall was way bigger than you can imagine. Think huge building with heavy wood tables and benches filled with loud, beer guzzling Germans. It was quite the sight.

Saturday morning was spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp which is only a twenty minute train ride from the center of Munich. There isn't much need for explanation here I don't think. Being there was very moving and impossible to fathom.

We made up for our depressing morning with food from the market near the center of town. Pretzels, sausage, and pastries had already become pretty regular foods for us so Dan and I went for the kebab shop. Let me tell you, this was easily the best kebab I have ever had. It even rivaled the best stuff we found in Israel just a month earlier. And for UT people, think Verts on steroids.

Saturday afternoon was spent checking out the BMW museum near where the 1972 Olympics were held. The museum was actually really cool. BMW, along with the other German car makers, are dominant in Germany. Most of the cars on the roads are BMW, Mercedes, or VW. I've also found the answer to question I have wondered about forever. BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works. This revelation was slightly anticlimactic. 

On Sunday morning, the three of us headed out to the Nymphenburgh Palace which is an enormous estate that is more or less open to the public. We took a walk through the wooded snowy trails, snapped lots of pictures, and enjoyed the morning. 

After Holli left that afternoon, Dan and I headed to the Deutches Museum. This science and technology museum is massive and covers everything from petroleum exploration, to old ships, to aircraft, and space exploration. My fascination with airplanes kept me occupied in that section for a while. 

By our last night in Munich, we were completely exhausted. It's difficult to convey just how much walking we do on these trips. With a bus ride to Prague the next morning, we decided to try and get some decent sleep after going our for a glorious schnitzel dinner. 

Overall, Munich is a cool city with plenty to see. Munich is clearly an economic hub as evidenced by it's modernity and efficiency. Would I go back though? Well, I think there are plenty of other places to see.