Ireland Travel Experience - Part 12

                       Our next halt in the Connemara tour was Kylemore Castle. The first sight of entry was near Kylemore castle or Abbey. Also it was surrounded by the Church and Victorian walled garden.. Along side, we saw the snowy mountains, rivers and sheep which was painted on the back with different colors by the sheep farmers to be identified. 

Then we went to the Killary sheep farm where we got a demonstration of turf cutting and we were standing on a place which was 5000 years old. It was really surprising when the trained dog of the sheep farmer was riding the sheeps by just hearing the signals and words of his master. When he just tells come by, it starts and then when he tell stand by it stops... It was really cool, and then by hearing the whistle sound, it starts moving... Really well trained.Then he showed us feeding 2 young sheep calves with a feeding bottle. Then we signed off back to the Galway city and enjoyed a city tour for an hour there... All along we saw mountains, rivers, valleys and lakes - It was a natural visual treat... River Shannon was one of the biggest river and Phoenix park on of the longest park (11 km walled) in Europe itself.

Then it was good to know about the Number plates in cars of Ireland - The first 2 digits start with the year and the next is an alphabet which denotes the city e.g: D for Dublin, G for Galway etc.. Starting from 2013, the car owners changed it as 3 digits as 13 is considered as unlucky or bad omen in many parts of the country... So they changed it to 131 and 132 (131 - first half of year 2013 and second half of year as 132) Then if you see a car with 141 - D- 299124 - then its a brand new car released now in the year 2014. That ends the Connemara tour and lets talk on another tour we went later on..

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 11

                                                             Connemara Tour - We started @ 6:50 am from Tourist Office Dublin. Weather was normal and it took 2 and half hours to reach the entry of Connemara. It was almost 9:30 am when we reached there.  The tourist guide as well as the driver of the bus was an old lady with 25 years of experience as a tourist guide. She was from Switzerland and been in Dublin for last 3 years now. She was providing abundant information on Irish history, music, games, sports etc as well as on places such as Connemara, Galway, Dublin and Northern Ireland (Belfast). It was really interesting to learn about historical kings, queens and intellectuals such as Henry the Eighth, Anne Boleyn, James Joyce. She even talked more about the history of Gaelic and Irish languages.

                                                   Irish having spoken rarely now a days which contains 18 alphabets. The reason for Irish to be spoken less was it had become old fashioned and not in use among the youngsters. Also it was difficult to learn.She also shared some personal stories happened to her when she reached Belfast the first time and told Irish people are so nice. 

The examples were from Irish Garda being so nice to her serving cookies and tea to her without any panic signals and to find her lost car back to the multistar hotel persons helping her to pull her damaged car which was out of battery with a beautiful Rolls Royce car. With all these narrations and natural view of snowy mountains all the way, the adventure still moved on ...

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 10

                                                                Once more we started to explore more Dublin on the areas which we missed in the beginning parts of Ireland tour. This time it was Dublin Zoo. This largest zoo of Ireland is located in Phoenix park, Ireland. The zoo is composed with a variety of animals, birds, snakes, amphibians etc. To name the major animals which we saw there - Tigers (Sumatran, Indonesia), mandarin ducks, snow leopards, penguins, panda, peacocks, zebras, ostriches, elephants,monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees, swans, cranes, flamingos, seals, snakes, crocodiles, tortoises, deer, giraffes, wolves and so on.. But we missed to see the king - Lion :)

Zebras, Giraffes, Ostriches etc were put under the same region of the zoo in an open wide large space. It was also funny to see the cranes and penguins fighting for the fish which have been fed to them by the zoo keepers. The seals were swimming with full joy in the pool. It was also good to watch the peacocks roaming near you eating the rice grains.

Once we were done with the Dublin zoo, we went again for a long tour the next week after the zoo visit. It was to Connemara located west of Ireland - Will update on that tour in my next post.

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 9

Reached the main tour location Giants Causeway at 1.10 pm after finishing lunch . We had vegetable lasagne and potato chips for 8.95 pounds.  There we spent 90 min with a trekking over mountain and then to sea coast where we saw hexagonal rocks black, brown and grey in colors with ocean waves splashing over our head. These rocks were also formed out of volcanic eruption.Took some photo session and it was raining all the way back.

Reached Belfast City back at 4.10 pm and wandered around the streets and caught a glimpse of river Lagan, Victoria street, Victoria square and Titanic memorial garden along the city hall. Then we started our way back to Dublin city at 5.15 pm. It took another 2 hours to reach Dublin . Belfast is around 170 km from Dublin. Also it was drizzling in Belfast too. The rain was due to the storm effect  in Ireland coastal areas.

That brings an end to our Northern Ireland tour but not to my travel experience with Ireland..

To be continued...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 8

Northern Ireland - which is part of UK and north east of Ireland is one of our tourist spot when we were in Ireland. Belfast is the capital city. Currency is Pound Sterling. We reached Belfast by 9.00 am. Travelling around the coastal area, the tourist guide explained about how Ireland was split into Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland had civil war between Catholics and Protestants in 1912 till 1960. The protestants wanted some part of Ireland to be formed under part of England. So the country was split and 6 counties came under Northern Ireland and 26 counties for the rest. 

We passed the sleeping giant mountain near Belfast city main road which was the inspiration for Jonathan swift to write Gulliver's travels.. Then we passed over the north channel where we saw Scotland 10 miles away from the northern most point of Ireland. Sea farming is famous over the coastal regions..Lime stones and black stones were seen all over the coastal way which were formed due to volcanic eruption some million years ago. 

We stopped at rede rope bridge at 11. am. where entrance was 4.5 pounds per adult. And last admission ticket was before 2.45 pm.We had to do a 15-20 min walk to reach the bridge. Took some snaps and we dropped at white bay view point for some more quick snaps..

The tourist guide also mentioned a funny incident happened in the rede rope bridge. During the visit of this bridge, a lady was so much afraid to cross it. But somehow she crossed it and was not able to cross back again. Then she was accompanied back with the help of a helicopter :)

After we finished exploring the bridge, we started heading to our main tourist spot of the day. Let that tourist spot wait until my next post....

To be continued...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 7

                                       The next day trip which we planned was to Howth Harbour - Howth is a village located in the outer suburb of Dublin. We took the Dart service from Tara Street to Howth. The ticket costs around 5.20 euro. By 10:40 a.m we got the Dart and reached Howth by 11:10 a.m. Roamed around the harbour and took some scenic shots. Saw some mini ships sailing around as well across the sea. The weather was as usual - cold and windy. Finished our lunch by taking burgers and potato chips from Fish N Chips. There were so many sea gulls flying, walking and echoing around the Howth harbour. We fed some potato chips to few of the sea gulls and soon we were surrounded by so many. Then walked back to the Howth dart station @ 1:40 p.m and reached back Tara Street.

Then we went to the Trinity College - the place we always used to pass by while going for lunch during office hours. Though we have clicked some basic snaps inside Trinity College, this time we had gone inside to visit Book of Kells containing the four gospels of Christ from Bible. Book of Armagh, Book of Mulling, Book of Dimma were the other manuscripts displayed.

All alphabets forming words, sentences and languages were so different that time. Then we entered the long room inside the Trinity college library and was awestruck by the books aligned up and down as a treasure. Statues of all time great personalities like Socrates, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Plato were present beside the book shelves as two straight rows. After that we went to the National Library exhibition center to know more about W.B.Yeats and his collections of poems, articles and books. A list of poems read by famous friends of W.B.Yeats were shown in the audio visual room. Books are always our companions. It gives us more insight into different topics, thoughts and aspects of life. After visiting those libraries in Dublin, you will get interested in knowing more about Irish history, culture, art , language and places. Stay tuned to get more updates on my Northern Ireland tour as well...

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 6

                                                    We continued the day tour of Dublin by heading back to Phoenix Park - one of the largest city park in Europe. Our main aim was to cover Dublin Zoo here - but again we were disappointed as the last admission to the zoo was closed by 3 pm itself.

Though we were not able to visit the Zoo that day, we have seen the zoo another day - will explain more on that in the upcoming articles. But we did some more walking around the phoenix park exploring the green beauty of nature.

We were totally tired, exhausted and finally grabbed a taxi back to National Wax Museum to wrap up our day tour in Dublin. The wax museum was fully filled with wax figures of all celebrities, Hollywood stars, movie characters, political and historical figures etc. I particularly liked the wax figures of Smeagol or Gollum from Lord of the Rings and Yoda from Starwars. They were looking so real.

Other wax figures included Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw,Michael Jackson, Frankenstein, Dracula, Pierce Brosnan, Harry Potter & team and so on.. 

You would have already guessed that we would have stood beside these wax figures and completed our photo sessions. Yes you are right :)

By the end of day, we would have covered the major visitor attractions of Dublin. You can make use of all the major transport in Dublin if you are up to do a day tour. 

Other than walking, you can go in double deck Dublin bus, or tram (which is like a mini train between the roads) or dart (Dublin Area Rapid transit - It is same like the metro train between small stations). 

Also there are Hop on Hop Off buses, Dublin tour buses, Viking bus / splash tour, Dublin Ghost bus tour etc. 
Though we have not taken all these transport there, I guess the viking splash tour is fun and adventurous. 
As I have seen the visitors feeling the Viking effect by putting on the Viking helmet and roaring with enthusiasm all the way from road to water. 

OK, I will explain on our next day trip with a different location in my next part of the article.


-- To be Continued.....

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 5

                                                Tourist offices in Dublin offer a Dublin pass which is very helpful to cover the major attractions in the same day avoiding the rush in getting entry tickets. We took that pass for 35 euro per head from the tourist office in the old stone church in Dublin. They gave a tour package guide and maps for visitor's attractions. By 10:30 a.m in the morning, we we went to Christ church cathedral - unfortunately it was closed due to some security tightening schedules. So it is better to plan your day tour by checking the timings - opening  and closing hours of the sights you are going to visit. 

Then we entered into the DUBLINIA and started taking snaps with the historical and medieval Ireland culture, people and environment. It was a fun ride to get the viking and medieval exhibition experience @ Dublinia. You get a feel like you are visiting a viking warrior by wearing those viking armors and holding the weapons.By 11:00 a.m we went to St. Patrick's cathedral and spent half an hour there exploring the history of cathedral and Saint Patrick.

After that we were headed up to the Guinness Store house where we saw a big queue lined up. After waiting in the same queue for about 10 minutes, we came to know that for the guys who had Dublin pass, there was no need to stand in the queue. Then we rushed inside soon and reached the first floor. Taking few snaps, we started exploring the store house built by Arthur Guinness. Every where it was Guinness only - Guinness T-shirts, Guinness cups, barrels and then Guinness beer. We were able to see the process of making a beer - brewing, meshing, fermentation etc.

Source was mainly barley and yeast. There were tasting rooms for whoever wish to taste 1 pint of Guinness beer.Then we were moving on to the next floor by escalator as it had 7 floors in total. Once we reached the top floor, there was a gravity bar which gives 360 degree view of the entire Dublin city. We did a lot of walking on the same day to reach Kilmainham Gaol - it is an old prison in Dublin. But as we went after the closing hours of visiting the jail, we were not able to enter it. The day tour is not yet finished here...

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 4

                                              After finishing 2 tours , it was time for us to know more about the city we stayed -Dublin - capital city of Republic of Ireland. Almost all the major places in Dublin gives us a treasure of Ireland history, knowledge, culture and so on... To list the places we have visited in Dublin are: National Gallery of Ireland, National Library, National Art , History and Animals Museums, Stephen's Green, Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo, Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, The Naughton Institute science gallery, Trinity College - Book of Kells, Dublinia, St. Patrick's cathedral, Howth Harbour, Temple Bar and Guinness Store House. I will just start explaining in the order I visited these places.

National Museum of Ireland is divided into 3 categories - Animals, Birds and Art or History museums. 

When I was visiting the museums full of birds and animals, I felt like watching all animals and birds staring at you at the same time. They were looking so real.Then we entered into the art museum which was categorized into Ancient Egypt, Chinese, Prehistoric, Medieval and Modern Ireland. During prehistoric times of Ireland, Latin was the most spoken language.In National Gallery of Ireland, it was full of 18th and 19th century paintings and sculptures. It was also filled with European and Irish paintings.

Stephen's green shopping center is one of the beautiful shopping mall in Dublin. Here you will find a collection of all major shops. It is a good choice for shopping dress materials from TKMaxx and Dunne's stores, perfume from The Perfume Shop, and showcase and Irish gifts from Caroll's.

More interesting information about Dublin to follow in my next article.. Soon I will update with more and more Irish beauty in the form of photography from my website.

To be continued ...

Ireland Travel Experience - Part 3

                               Though you can get more information on the history of cork from internet, I will just explain here what the tourist guide explained to us during my second tour to Cork city and Blarney Castle.  Cork which means a "marsh land" was set up as a monastery in the beginning of the 5th to 6th century by St. Finbarr. 

This monastery was built on the hill beside a river. Some cathedrals were also built beside the monastery in the medieval times. The monks will ring the bell and were involved in different activities. They believed creating objects of worship is the real worship in God. Vikings started to arrive in Ireland to trade the objects of worship in monasteries from the monks. They setup trading settlements with local tribes. English in 1100's pushed the vikings out. Both English and Irish markets are present in the Cork city. Along with the history explained by the tourist guide, we reached the city @ 11:50 am. The accent is different in Cork. They used to add a boy/girl at the end of the sentence. E.g: How is it going boy ? Where you want to go girl?

After finishing our lunch in the cork city, we headed to Blarney Castle - one of my favorite castle in Ireland. Those who kiss the Blarney stone in the castle, will gain the eloquence and persuasiveness - in short they will get the gift of the gab. The castle was really unique and I felt like I am there in the same historical time period when the castle was built (600 years ago).All the steps inside were spiral to reach different levels of the castle - courtroom, family room, priest room, kitchen and the blarney stone at the top. 

Though we missed to watch the Blarney house and fern garden there, we were proud that we kissed the blarney stone - hope there is an improvement in the eloquence of my speech now ;) Also we spent some time watching the poison garden, caves etc. Gaelic and Irish languages are spoken in some parts of Ireland with English being spoken the most. The county championship for players is arranged by GAL - Gaelic Athletic Association. We were wrapping up our second tour @ 3:55 pm and headed back to Dublin and reached home by 6:30 to 7 pm.

To be continued ...