Since I’ve been slacking on this blog for the past six months, I’ll start going back in time to some of the adventures I’ve had along the way! And even though this was a short trip, I want to do it justice, so I’m splitting it into two parts.

About two weeks into my stint in Leeds (England), I found myself growing weary of the gloomy skies, so I started browsing around flights online. And that’s when I saw it, a $10 flight to Dublin, Ireland! I mean, that’s the equivalent of paying for 2 Starbucks coffees, so of course I seized this opportunity. 

Thankfully with my flexible schedule as a writer, I was able to go from Monday to Thursday and enjoy the Emerald Isle. Of course when I say I, I mean we because my boyfriend also came to help me indulge in the Irish stew and brew, and take some of these lovely pictures!

A 6:00 am flight sounds like a good idea, so you can land, throw your stuff down, and get an early start to a new city. I was sadly mistaken, but thankfully learned from this error! We made it to our hostel, The Spire, early in the morning, but couldn’t check-in until 2:00 pm. That doesn’t sound so bad except we were exhausted from the weekend and leaving our packing up late at night. 

True to its name, our hostel was located right next to the Spire of Dublin, or Monument of Light. The Spire is a monument that looks like a giant needle piercing the sky. It was really helpful when I would pitifully try to navigate us back to the hostel. 

Our first day there was pretty rainy, so we walked around, slept on the hostel couch and floor until we could check-in, and just relaxed. 

During our trip, I was really set on visiting the infamous Cliffs of Moher. I looked at various tours, which would last all day, but would only give less than two hours at the actual cliffs. Renting a car was also a no go because of the steep prices, but driving around the Ireland countryside is definitely on my to-do list. Instead of riding three hours (one-way) across Ireland, we decided to check out some local seaside sights instead.

And I’m so glad we did! Howth is a nearby coastal towns filled with fresh seafood restaurants. It’s actually on the Howth Head peninsula, so the hilly area is completely surrounded by water. 

We were a bit lazy–but also wanted to explore with as much daylight as possible–and took a bus to the top of the village instead of walking.

I couldn’t believe this place was just a short train ride away! It’s a great view from the top, but the closer you get to the ocean, the more you can see all of the beauty that surrounds you. 

Even with the dead brown patches created by winter, the hills were beautiful and still showed some brilliant green amongst the burnt amber splotches. We took a pretty steep (and muddy) path down to the ocean, and spent the afternoon hopping around the rocks.

Even though Ireland was also pretty gray and rainy at times, our hike around Howth was very warm and enjoyable. I even took my coat off to frolic around by the ocean!

Next time I go to Ireland, I will definitely visit Clare, and the Cliffs, but I’m definitely happy I didn’t try to cram it in, and found this local treasure instead!