Michelle Travels the Globe: Hello from The Republic of Ireland!

I arrived in Dublin on May 14, 2013. I took it easy, not really attempting to do much the first day. I was very tired and I have to admit one of my bad habits... It is staying up way too late to chat with my close friends at home and watching some shows here and there. It gets me in trouble sometimes on my travels. Anyways, we all need rest so taking a day or two to not accomplish very much is something I am very used to now. The following day I also took it pretty easy, leaving in the afternoon to have a nice walk along the River Liffey and have a look around. I made my way over to the docks in order to pick up my ferry ticket to go to Wales.

On May 16th, I did a tour group to the Cliffs of Moher. It was an incredibly early start and I almost missed it. I had to be at the tourist office at 7:40 AM and I woke up at 7:05, showered, ran down, grabbed a taxi and made it with about 5 minutes to spare. The tour group I took is called Paddywagon Tours famous for their guides being 100% Irish and full of character. When I first got there, our guide gave me a hard time about coming to a different meeting point than the one I had said I was going to online. Little did he know, I changed my pick up point in person at the office a day before. It was a little rude, but seeing as I had read about the nature of these tours, I figured it was his "Irish Charm" and didn't think much of it.

Our bus was very nice. It even had wifi on it, amazing to keep me occupied during the long drive. The journey was very beautiful. Ireland is so green! We made a few stops along the way, but they were very short because from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher is quite long. Apparently the cliffs have the worst weather in all of Ireland, so I feel really lucky as it was perfectly sunny and I could see everything.

Cliffs of Moher

The following day, I did another one of the free walking tours in Dublin. It was really nice walking around in the sunshine and hearing about the history of Ireland. The Irish have had a really difficult past and I definitely want to make the effort to study it a bit more when I find the time. Their population has never recovered from the famine in the 1800's decreasing by at least 2 million. Worth some more studies for sure! After this tour, met up with a friend for lunch, had a walk around and enjoyed the sun.