Good day. I'm back from my trip! As I mentioned on my last entry, I travelled to the capital of Ireland.
Was I missed? Part of me wishes so.
It's so interesting how different a culture can be. No matter how much you prepare yourself, you never are truly prepared until you experience things yourself. Some of the stuff that stood out to me were:
✦Verrry cold! For me, at least. Going from my town where it was around 30º~35ºC most days to a country where the warmest was at 16ºC was a big impact for my body.
✦ I barely saw any stray cats or dogs. However, there were a lot of seagulls all around the city. And swans, too! I never saw swans in real life before.
✦ Curious meal times. Having dinner at 7pm instead of 9pm was verrry strange at first!
✦ Gaelic everywhere. I knew it's another of the languages there, but it was cool to see the difference between English and Gaelic! Similiar to what we have here (but wih Valencian and Spanish instead).
✦ The traffic was... not good. Everyone drives so fast! The green in the traffic lights only last 0.5 seconds, and zebra crossings are practically non-existent. Crossing the road was verrry scary.
We stayed there for 5 days, 3 if you don't count arrival and departure days. A short stay as I mentioned, but we had quite the busy schedule. This is going to be a verrry long entry, so I'll just start. All aboard!
After staring at clouds and land masses for almost 3 hours, we arrived at the hotel around 6pm. We left our suitcases and left to explore a bit. I took the Luas for the first time, their tram system. As someone who uses the subway often, I was surprised how similar they were. It was just like the subway, but on the surface! I was absolutely enamored, I looked through the window during the whole ride.
We didn't do much on the first day, arriving so late to go anywhere and just being plain exhausted. But we did visit some places, such as The Hungry Tree in King's Inns, as well as Oscar Wilde's statue in Merrion Square. Lots of walking in a verrry short time, lemme tell you. We had dinner somewhere in Grafton Street, and I could see some of O'Connell Street and Trinity Colllege on our way back to the hotel- places we'd visit in later dates.
I also just remembered: during the drive to the hotel, our taxi driver said that we brought the sun with us due to how unusually sunny it was. It was a joke, I know, but wanna know a fun fact?
It didn't rain a single day during our stay.
During our actual first day on Dublin, we had a 3-hour tour in the morning. It was in Spanish, and we were showed some of the famous spots in the capital: the GPO, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral, etc. A very informative tour, I enjoyed a lot!
However, this is where my problems began.
Shortly after the tour was done, I started to feel extremely sick. Particularly, my stomach and head were hurting real bad, so we had to go back to the hotel. We didn't bring any actual medicine besides my father's heart medications, so he gave me a couple of aspirins. After an impromptu nap, my stomach was better and my headache weakened, but it didn't vanish (remember this fact for later).
Our next stop that day was the Guiness Storehouse. Even with my persistent headache, it was lots of fun to learn about such a popular brand. The place was huge, and there was a sweet smell lingering in the air. We even had a free taste of Guiness at the end of the visit! I greatly dislike alcohol drinks (says the former bartender/waitress), and to me it just tasted like bitter beer. But at least I could proclaim that I drank some Guiness from the factory itself lol.
After this, we had dinner at a nearby pub before going back for the night- my first pub! Verrry exciting. As well as a relief to my throbbing headache. I deduced that my headache could be a result from hunger (I had a light breakfast and ate nothing else for the rest of the day), so perhaps eating something would ease my pain. It didn't, but at least I had some awesome BBQ chicken wings.
Eating didn't help me and I was exhausted. Hopefully sleeping would cure me.
The original plan for this day was to visit the Cliffs of Moher.
Alas, this plan could not be.
I woke at 2am, not being able to sleep due to what was now a migraine. Laying down was painful, sitting down was painful as well. So I just sat on the bed, in tears due to the immense throbbing pain in my head. Crying only made it worse, but I was so tired and I just couldn't sleep. I felt frustrated.
My father doesn't know English, so even in my status, I had to be the one to do the talking and ask the hotel staff for any kind of help (not fun, verrry stressing). No 24-hour pharmacies nor any stores open where we could buy ibuprofen, I was rushed to the nearest hospital. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me tweet about it back then.
Hello yall, still on the trip but currently Im at the ED in the hospital :] fun (<- eternal pain)
— Yomiel✨ (@AstraleStella) September 17, 2022
The waiting time was long as hell, but after a nurse finally could give me some ibuprofen, we went back to the hotel. At 7am. I was sad that we weren't going to the Cliffs of Moher after all, but I was too exhausted to ponder over it. Now that the pain had weakened, sleep came to me. I didn't wake up until midday.
At some point during my sleep, my father left and went to a nearby shopping centre to buy medicine. I was both surprised and amused when I heard this: he actually went there on his own despite not knowing the language! As I took some ibuprofen and waited for it to do its magic, it was deduced that my migrain was a result of so much happening in so little time: the plane trip, the big shift in weather, my light meals, the long walks, the overall stress of a city- all this and more overwhelmed my body.
If you didn't notice by now, I've got a rather fragile health (°ー°〃)
When I felt better, my father insisted of taking me to Penney's to buy me an actual coat. It was still pretty hot in Spain and I packed clothes that were fitting for Mediterranean weather, so I wore around 2 layers everyday to keep me warm lol. There I bought a cool long, black coat with a matching hat! It made me think... about certain someone... anyway.
Our original plan of visiting the Cliffs might have not been possible, but that doesn't mean the day was ruined nor boring. We visited the statue of Molly Malone on Grafton Street and we managed to have a drink at the Temple Bar. It was so crowded, it's a miracle we could order anything! Verrry fun.
Lastly, we had dinner in a pub (with live music!) and took a walk around St Stephen's Green before heading back. What a beautiful place, I loved it. Romantic, even! Perhaps my heart was starting to miss certain characters after all... The craving of something familiar and warm.
Last day in Dublin. How fast time flies! But a new eventful day was ahead of us.
In our last day, we first visited Trinity College. What an impressive place! Verrry big, too. We even could briefly witness a chorus rehearsal. There we visited the Book of Kells and the Old Library. I was verrry excited about visiting these places, perhaps deep down I'm a bit of a nerd lol. But the history behind these two were interesting to learn, specially the Book of Kells. Verrry impressive how such an old book has survived after such a long time and so many tragedies!
After lunch, we went to St Patrick's Cathedral. Another beautiful place. I'm not a religious person, but cathedrals are always such a pleasure to visit. There's certain peace in those places, even when there are tons of people there. Apparently Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) was a Dean at the Cathedral for more than 30 years! If this was common knowledge, I wasn't aware until then (。﹏。*).
Later in the day we visited Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison where many Irish revolutionaries were imprisoned and executed by the UK Government. The tour was in English, so I had to translate to my father during our walks from zone to zone. There was a somber feeling the whole time we stayed time, bordering on just plain sadness. I know prisons are never going to be happy places, but after learning about the stories of some the prisoners, there was a heavy feeling in my chest. For some reason, the story of Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett's marriage really strucked me. Verrry nice to learn about all of these people, as well as an interesting building from an architecture POV.
Yet overall, a heartbreaking place.
After the tour, we took a walk around Phoenix Park, where I just kept thinking about all those long-gone prisoners. I think my father sensed my sudden mood change, because for our last dinner in Ireland, he took me to a pub we were recommended the very first day and I told him about: The Old Mill. It was utterly crowded with customers, but we had a wonderful meal- I ordered fish n chips, and turns out I like cod. We even got a postcard for free before leaving! A great night to end our trip.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♡ ⋅.} ───── ⊰The next day was just my father and I going taking the long flight back home, nothing eventful during the 19th so this is where I announce I am finished.
I'm still sad we couldn't visit the Cliffs... from now on, I'll always bring ibuprofen with me. A lesson learned to hard way. Yet despite the pain during the 2nd and 3rd day, I enjoyed this trip greatly! It was so much fun to experience all these places and little culture differences. As well as being a great way of testing my English skills. It was difficult at times, due to how fast some people talked, but luckily I didn't have too much trouble communicating with others. Truly an impressive place, I hope everyone is doing well.
Thanks for your company!