Ireland 2021

 Kaz and I planned a trip to Ireland and England over Christmas. The itinerary is:

1. Eindhoven --> Dublin (flight)
2. Dublin --> Donegal (bus)
3. Donegal --> Dublin (bus)
4. Dublin --> London (swim)
5. London --> Eindhoven (flight)

Originally we had planned to rent a car from Dublin to Donegal. This would have been convenient because it would have allowed us to travel up North where we could access a lot of remote hikes, and also see some of Karen's ancestry. Ultimately, however, we went with the bus option because all rental cars require a credit card: something neither of us has. The bus option turned out to be extremely ideal, not just because it was cheaper and dropped us off exactly by our hotel, but because the small, windy, dimly lit Irish roads would have been very stressful to drive through for 3 hours. This bus ride was a small taste of things to come...

Donegal is extremely rural. The whole town is really sandwiched on the outskirts of a large roundabout. There are 2 supermarkets, 2 hotels, 1 school, 1 castle, and 34 bars. 

Day 1 - Donegal

Unsurprisingly, we spent a lot of the first day jumping into and out of bars drinking Guinness & eating hearty pub food. The food was fantastic; a very welcome change from Dutch bread and cheese. In addition to this, we also toured the abbey. The abbey was nothing more than a pile of overgrown rocks in a graveyard. At one point it was intended to store gunpowder to fight off the British before it exploded. We also saw a graveyard commemorated to all the Irish that died in the famine in the mid-1800's. 

Day 2 - Donegal

This day was a lot less morbid. We took 2 busses to Slieve League - a wonderful hiking region on the west coast. The hike was fantastic. The weather was perfect and it was completely empty as well. I might tactically organize more hikes in Winter. Because the town was so empty, we really got to have long personal conversations with our bus drivers. Fortunately, we had been in Ireland for ~ 24 hours at this point so the Irish were somewhat understandable to us. The bus drivers spoke fluent Gaelic and were very passionate about preserving the language the culture. To finish the day, we had a spa in our hotel and went to a pub for another Irish dinner. 

Overall, I had a really good impression of Donegal. There was a very peaceful vibe and the people are extremely friendly and great talkers. The customer service is outstandingly good (at least compared to the Dutch). The only downside is that the town is so small that there really isn't much to do except drink.

Day 3 - Dublin

After another 3 hour bus ride we arrived in Dublin. Within the first 10 minutes I was greeted by a giant Guinness truck zooming past, and the stench of weed in the air from some teenagers smoking in broad daylight. Later on, I walked around the city and noticed thousands of people crammed shoulder to shoulder attempting to do last-minute Christmas shopping. Everyone was quite vigilant about wearing their mask and using hand sanitizer but seemed completely sanguine about crawling over each other to buy some jewelry or a board game. Despite this, it was nice to see such liveliness. There's a very young, artsy vibe in Dublin which can be seen everywhere. 

Day 4 - Dublin

We walked to the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced "jail" (and also means "jail")). While walking there, we passed a bunch of crack heads. These were a group of people (probably homeless) that were openly smoking crack cocaine at 8am in broad daylight in the middle of Dublin. It was creepy to see how low a human life can go. Once we arrived at the Gaol we were lucky enough to squeeze into a tour. The tour guide was excellent. He walked through a lot of things but there were a few main takeaways: 1) The jail flip-flopped from Irish to British control several times, 2) It housed the main leaders from the IRA that staged the 1916 revolt against the British. They all got executed in the end. And 3) During the famine in the mid 1800's, the gaol became flooded (x12 capacity) with people. This was partially because the jail had the obligation to feed its prisoners, and people who were on the verge of starvation would deliberately commit crimes to get fed. Kaz was fed up from walking after the tour so we took an overcrowded tram back to the city center to rest up at our hotel. In the evening we went out for pub food again and made friends with some Irish women in their 50's. They were extremely nice but very critical of Americans. Kaz resisted the urge to correct them. 

Day 5 - Dublin

We went to Trinity College. Kaz went to the book of kells museum. I want to the archeology museum. No regrets. The museum was great. There was detailed evidence about Irish history. You got to see how Irish culture and art changed as they were influenced by the Romans in the period between 100AD - 400AD, the Vikings in the 800's - 1000's, and the British in the 1300's onwards. I found myself most interested in Viking history in Ireland. Over 200 years, the Vikings had slowly merged with the Irish despite frequent battles. The Irish started using coins thanks to the Vikings and changed their art and language. I liked this history because it begs important philosophical questions. Obviously, from the perspective of the Irish that were first invaded by the Vikings, our moral intuitions are tuned to think this is an unspeakable moral tragedy. But when you zoom out to the perspective of centuries (rather than months or years) things become much more gray. Was Ireland better off being enriched by the culture and technology of its invaders in the long term? What is the best definition of Irish culture on this time scale and is it something worth preserving?

Overall I liked Dublin a lot. It's messy, chaotic, lively, and friendly. I don't think I could live in Dublin, but I could certainly visit again.