Castle Grounds and Libraries combined with Asian Food

Dear all,

after my small night crawl on Friday, I went to Malahide with my two fellow room mates to explore it's castle.

Malahide castle was pretty much always inhabited by the Talbots in it's 800 years of existance.
It is a rather small castle (or at least I expected it to be bigger) but it is nonetheless impressive!

One can get oneself a ticket for both gardens as well as a guided tour for the castle for less than 10 EUR which is an appropriate price. Especially if one considers how expensive it is to maintain the castle and to restore it ( we have been told that they spent about 12 mio. EUR just for the four rooms on the upper floor!).

Malahide Abbey

Malahide Castle

Talbot Botanic Garden

You can grab some really nice desserts at the Avoca Store located at the Visitor Centre of Malahide Castle & Gardens (see picture above).

After that we made a, more or less quick stop at the Korean Restaurant to which I wanted to go last time. The Bibimbap was good, though I have to admit that it was also my first time trying it.

On Sunday we went to see the Book of Kells, to the Zoology Museum and to a few comic bookstores and vintage clothing stores around the Temple Bar area. We also went to a lovely Japanese restaurant called Eatokyo.

Until then,
F

A Fragment of Infinity

Dear all,

Today was the last working day of the second week, how fast time flies by!

I was finally able to finish the scanning task and am now taking care of entering all of the oh so many business cards details in an excel spreadsheet at work, yay.

After making a short stop at our apartment, I decided to explore Dublin at the early evening/night by myself. The reason for that was basically that two of my fellow room mates stayed at home and the rest went partying.

After reaching the city center, I wanted to drop by at the Korean restaurant called Hailan. In the end I went to Stir Crazy, as the other one was too crowded. The food was quite good, they sort of have a similar menu card as Wok to Walk (I had been there last year in Amsterdam). It basically means, that you pick up the basis of the dish, then some additional ingredients and lastly the sauce.

Here's my variation of udon noodles, tofu, pak choi, broccoli and sweet chilli sauce.

As soon as I finished my dinner, I continued my tour to Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patricks Cathedral and it's park. Sadly the day was rather cloudy compared to the super sunny weekend from last week...

As it slowly began to get dark, I headed to the Docklands.

The Custom House

Samuel Beckett's Bridge

The Conventions Centre

I'm really into night walks on vacations/in foreign cities. It's always so pretty when all the buildings start to get illuminated. And all these reflections on the water! Though it's always quite a pity that most cameras aren't able to capture the atmosphere as it is in reality...

Oh, did I already mentioned, that my girls group got super lucky when we moved into our new apartment on Tuesday? We somehow got a Penthouse and can even see the ocean from our terrace! :D

View from our terrace

We will probably be at Malahide tomorrow, though we haven't made any plans for Sunday yet. 

I'll keep you updated!

F

Roaming Through Howth and Delving into Megalithic Tombs

Dear all,

The first week was a rather busy series of events, though this will probably apply for the upcoming weeks as well.

I took care of the accounting area at our office and mastered our scanner completely, but I will have to carry on some of my current tasks at the beginning of the second week.

A few of my room mates and I decided to end the week in a pub stroll in Dublin's Center. We first went to Kennedy's but went to Dicey's Garden after that. Although I have to admit that it was nice going to Dicey's, I'd rather doubt that I will go there again during my stay, simply because House music isn't much of my cup of tea.

We spent pretty much of our entire Saturday at Howth - a definitely must-go if you're staying near Dublin! You can easily catch a DART to Howth and get off at the final station (Howth). You'll be directly at the heart of the peninsula.

We had splendid weather and choose the longest hiking tour that covers up most of the area. After exploring some of the small port's area and walking up the pier, we started to head off. Although the info at the visitor centre said that the hiking tour should be approximately 3 - 4 hours, we needed about 6 hours, since we took loads of pictures. And trust me every single one of them was worth the additional time.

You should stop at the small market area close to the DART Station. They offer homemade sweets (as in the pictures), other foods and souvenirs as well.

We spent our Sunday at Knowth, one of the megalithic tombs near Brú na Bóinne. You can easily pick one of the Bus Eireann's to Drogehda and get on the one that stops on the parking lot of the Brú na Bóinne's visitor centre. You should keep a close look on the bus operating times though, as we missed the return bus to Drogehda. It's still possble to get back by foot, though we had to walk around 7 km back.

There are two megalithic tombs open to the public around that location. You can either choose to visit both of them or just one. We picked Knowth, as it seemed more interesting and we hadn't had that much time. The guided tours take about an hour and are quite informative, at least for me, as I was rather unfamiliar with the tombs and Ireland's history. The visitors centre itself offers a great café and a few arts and crafts shops which sell unique souvenirs. It's worth a visit!

Just a tip if you're usually travelling with Dublin Bus using a leap card: you can also use your leap card budget to buy Bus Eireann Tickets, but you will only be able to buy single cards. I guess it's better to pay for a (day) return ticket in cash if you're not going to take the Bus Eireann on a regular basis.

      

Until then,
F