A weekend in... Ireland

I knew I would kick myself if I didn't take advantage of Bristol's proximity to Ireland and Wales to explore the west side of the British Isles. We didn't manage to get decent flight prices last year because we always remembered to book flights when it was too late but this year we were prepared. Now planning a city break in Easter isn't very easy and with the added conservative nature of Ireland's Catholicism, it's necessary to plan your stay ahead of time. 

The weekend away began with an early flight from Bristol's airport to Dublin on Thursday. Our first stop was Beanhive Cafe for some brunch: I had the vegetarian brunch and James had the standard Irish breakfast. Both of us struggled to finish the meal, but only because they were excessively generous with their portions. We headed straight to Trinity College to walk around the college grounds (and to walk off our breakfast). I couldn't help but be surprised how small the university felt, like the size of just one college in Cambridge University, but I had to remind myself that the whole university was still spread across the city. Nevertheless, it felt a little familiar while walking around. We also went ahead to see the Book of Kells and the beautiful Old Library Exhibition also hosted in Trinity College. 

We wandered around Temple Bar area a little, crossing the River Liffey via Ha'penny Bridge and stepping into Temple Bar itself for a drink. We were still too stuffed from our brunch to have any food (that's how generous the portion was!) so we took a bus to Kilmainham Gaol. The jailhouse itself cannot be explored without a tour and as it is so popular, I strongly recommend booking ahead of time. We completely overlooked this and as I was scrolling through top sites of Dublin on the Tripadvisor app on our bus from the airport, I saw the warnings from previous tripadvisor reviewers. We instantly went on the Kilmainham Gaol website and saw that the next four days were booked out and only a few places were available on Thursday. Lesson learnt. The tour itself was excellent and gave us so much insight into the independence and partition of Ireland. On our way back to the city centre, we took a stroll through Phoenix Park.   

No one can escape Dublin without a night in the Temple Bar area so we went back there for dinner at a Spanish tapas place The Port House Pintxo. Now if we fell in love with one thing in Ireland, it was this place. From the cheese and honey dishes, the burgers and especially the empanadillas... We couldn't get enough of the menu. The restaurant itself had a pretty cool vibe to it, perfect for a date night. James was convinced that we had found the place and that we should have all our meals here. Even though we didn't return, because I'm pretty strict on trying as many different places as I can on a short city break, my tongue still dreams of this place.  

We started promptly on Friday as we were driving up to Belfast. Good Friday is considered a "dry" day because of a ninety year old law banning alcohol on particular christian holidays. This meant that all the pubs, and restaurants serving alcohol, would be closed and all the other restaurants and museums were likely to have shorter opening hours. Northern Ireland doesn't have the same laws and any information we found online suggested that everything was going to be open as normal, so we thought we would be making the most of our time spending the next two days in Belfast and around.

We couldn’t leave without having some breakfast and the cute little bakery Queen of Tarts near the Temple Bar area was on the top of our list. I opted for the smoked Irish salmon with free range scrambled eggs and toasted home-made brown soda bread and James tried the smoked bacon and leek potato cakes with poached eggs and roasted cherry tomatoes. Of course we needed something sweet from the bakery and we had the chocolate pecan tart and apple crumble to complement our savoury dishes (both were double YUM).

I wish I could say more of the drive up to Belfast, but in all honesty, I was asleep for most of it. We drove straight to the Titanic Belfast museum for the “Titanic Experience” exhibition. We originally planned to stay there for two hours…. Three at most, but we ended up staying til 6 pm (four hours!). It’s a very detailed museum, giving you details from how Belfast changed as a city during the industrial revolution to what the different class of rooms looked like on the Titanic. We drove a little around the harbour side to see the famous port that made Belfast what it is today.

The city still faces strong tension between the Catholic and Protestant communities and one of the ways this manifests is through the Peace Walls that have been built in a number of cities to separate the two and reduce "inter-communal" violence. The first Peace Wall was built in 1969 as a temporary solution to the Northern Ireland Troubles and the 1969 riots. However, they've only increased in number and size since then and approximately 109 Peace Walls are thought to exist across the country. The biggest and longest Peace Wall separates Shankill Road and Falls Road, which is the one we went to see. Although a poll in 2012 showed that 69% of residents believe the Peace Walls are still needed, the first Peace Wall was broken down in 2016 on Crumlin Road. The Northern Ireland Executive Committee has promised that by 2023, all the Peace Walls will be broken down (with permisson)! Alongside the Peace Lines, many murals and other street art can be seen around Northern Ireland as a result of the political nature of the city.

In the evening, we walked around Cathedral Quarter to find a place for dinner. A few places were already pre-booked, which again we didn’t expect for Belfast as it never looked busy, but they had a table for two in The Strip Joint where I tried the Hannon 35 day Himalayan salt beef steak. We stayed in Cathedral Quarter in the evening especially as I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful this area looked. We walked across the alleys and popped into Dirty Onion for the live music.

Saturday started with us walking around Dublin’s town centre. We went past the infamous Europa hotel, which is supposedly the most bombed hotel in Europe, on our way to breakfast at the Harlem Café (sorry, but the decor here put me at constant unease) and then strolled around the City Hall. Then in the late morning we visited Stormont Estate to see the Parliament buildings. 

We headed to Giant’s Causeway in the afternoon and had a little lunch at the National Trust café before enduring the harsh winds and rain on our walk to the rocks. Around 50-60 Ma, the region experienced intense volcanism. Basaltic magma intruded through the older chalk beds which formed part of the Thulean plateau, Europe's most "extensive" lava field. As the lava cooled, they contracted horizontally forming the polygonal pillars that makes the Giant's Causeway famous. The large igneous province that was broken up during the opening of the North Atlantic ocean making Giant's Causeway one of the few remants of the Thulean Plateau. I’ve seen many volcanic columns around the world but the best part of Giant’s Causeway is that you can climb the columns and see the actual polygonal features up close. 

A quick drive from Giant's Causeway is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge that is famous for its small 20 m rope bridge that connects the mainland to Carrickarede. The bridge was first built in 1755 to help Irish fishers to catch Atlantic Salmon. Since then, it has be altered and reconstructed several times to make it safer. Salmon fishing has stopped in the region because of the dwindling population of the fish and now the bridge is solely a tourist site. Sadly, there were high winds on the day we visited and so the bridge was off limits to cross. As a compromise, we didn't have to pay an entrance fee, so we still committed ourselves to seeing the little rope bridge and the stunning geology that continued on from Giant's Causeway.  

I was feeling a little down on Sunday so I ended up having a lie in while James tried to find breakfast. I didn’t leave the hotel until after midday but we knew it was the only day we had left to visit the Chester Beatty Library on the grounds of Dublin Castle. While Lonely Planet likes to boast that this is one of the best museums in Europe, one cannot help but feel wary that this is just a white man's obsession with the orient during the late British Empire.

The rest of the late afternoon was spent exploring St. Patrick's Cathedral. We had dinner at the "mexican" restaurant 777, where every item of the food menu was unsurprisingly priced at £7.77. From the outside, the restaurant looks closed, we even walked away to find another restaurant because it looked shut down but we saw people coming out. We were lucky not to have missed out because everything on this menu was great (James recommends the Bisrec Tostados)!

After breakfast at Lemon Crepe on Monday, we meandered through St. Stephen's Green. You cannot have a city break without a tour of one of its brew houses or distilleries. Never a huge alcohol fan, we chose to go to the Guinness Storehouse on Monday as it seemed the more bearable one out of whiskey and beer. Even if I didn't consider the expensive price of the ticket, I would say that I felt a little disappointed, I expected to see a part of the actual factory but all you see is a replica of a few of the machines in a tour very detached from the actual brewhouse and very basic information about Guinness itself. There's an exhibition on the history of Guinness's advertising but even that feels limited. I would say a tour of the whiskey distillery would probably be more worthwhile. 

James insisted we visited Smithfield Square, the Hipster neighbourhood of Dublin, but the Cruinniu na Casca event had taken over the Smithfield Stage so we were pretty much getting a different vibe from what we expected. I wish we explored all the street food (we found a Stormzy mural just hidden behind them!) that was around but we decided to give ourselves a challenge at Meat Wagon. The late after noon was spent walking through the city centre, past the General Post Office (the headquarters of the rebel leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising) and Grafton Street. Of course we thought the best way to tie up our Ireland trip was a drink at the Stag's Head and an Irish Stew at Hairy Lemon. 

Prague, the sightseeing continues: Day two

The plan was to wake up at 7:15 am to see the magnificent Charles Bridge at Dawn (you see why we wanted to go this early later). Now how likely was it that we'll be able to get up and ready that early? Breakfast wasn't being served yet and it was still dark outside... more reasons to stay in...! We made a compromise and made sure we left by 8am no matter how hard it was to get out of bed.

The Old Town Square Christmas tree, just a little less blinding

The snow has settled from the night before: too little for it not make the scene pretty but too much for it to make the streets slippery and annoying. It doesn't help that the streets are cobbled and it was so early that that they just started laying grit. Luckily my new boots managed to pass the grip test and I didn't slip once (Nuz 1: Snow 0).

First view of Charles' Bridge. Doesn't it look inviting?

As a person who can't stand snow or the cold, I was lucky that we lived in such a convenient location. I can roll out of bed and into Old Town Square and I'm only 10 minute walk away from Charles Bridge and the Jewish neighbourhood. I'd definitely recommend Central Hotel for anyone considering going to Prague.

Now why did the guide book suggest we see the Bridge at Dawn? Because a couple of hours after, it becomes this:

Most blogs tell you to avoid this bridge during the day. Yes, it's too crowded to take pretty photos but its not busy that you can't cross the bridge as it would normally take you without the tourists, though this might vary during the year.

Our next stop was the Prague Castle, though not without a detour by the Gingerbread museum (which is really a shop...)!

Another tip for visiting Prague is that if you are a student, bring your student ID with you! You don't need an international student ID to get the student discounts and literally all the attractions we visited were happy with it.

I just found out Prague Castle is apparently the biggest (coherent) castle in the world and hence a UNESCO heritage site. Though it was founded in approximately 880 by a Prince, it's evolved continuously under different rulers which you could tell from the diverse range of architecture. 

There are so many buildings to see, we could have spent half a day there... or at least to see the Change of Guard. Sadly, I just don't like staying indoors to long when I'm travelling and off we went again.

We went back to Old Town Square via Wenceslas Square, which had its market in full swing. Two parallel lines of food stall lined the path, trying to entice all the passer-bys. I'll admit, I was starving at this point and the point looked tempting, BUT every dish had some sort of pork added to it. My stomach did grumble in defeat. 

Luckily Old Town Square has other meaty alternatives! Actually... just one, chicken shish kebabs. Damnit Prague, you need some more street food options!

Prague, the Winter Wonderland: Day One

It hasn't been 24 hours since I've arrived back from Prague but I couldn't wait til I got writing about it, telling my friends and family what I've been up to and sorting the photo. I'm use to thinking that 2 months of travelling passes quicker than the blink of an eye, imagine how quick this weekend felt!

Such a pretty view despite the weather below the clouds!

 The journey started at about 5am on Friday morning. I have to admit, waking up and getting to the airport was easier than I expected, though as I've always aimed for the cheaper flights, this isn't something new. We weren't in Prague until 1pm, where we had the most unpleasant greeting from the winter winds blasting our face along with the snow. I already think that I'm not made for the british climate, I can't handle the winter here, so I had my doubts spending my winter in east Europe. The minute I stepped out the airport, I thought I was going to give up: "I'm going to spend the rest of this trip in the hotel" I thought. I guess it's unsurprising that the first thing we did was snooze in our room...

Attempt at wrapping up warm without looking like Bibendum (the Michelin Man). Look at how warm and toasty my room looked, wouldn't you rather be in there than the cold?!

Guilt crept in when we woke up at 5pm. How could we waste our trip already? Fortunately, we were living close to the Old Town Square. It wasn't long until we were greeted by the Square's sparkling Christmas Tree (from afar, we were wondering if the tree had any leaves or if it was just made out of christmas lights) before we indulged ourselves into the warmth of the Christmas Market.

The image doesn't capture how much of a monstrosity/legendary this Christmas tree was. From afar, you'd doubt there were any leaves (and if there were, how have they not burnt off?).

Mulled wine, crepes and roasted chestnuts stalls surrounded us but no complaints there! It didn't take us long to try some Czech delicacies. We began by trying some Trdelnik, which is made by wrapping some dough on a stick which is then grilled and sprinkled with a walnut and sugar mix. Alright, my mouth is watering just by describing the way this is made!

Can these Christmas stalls look any cuter?

Rolls of Old Czech Cake being grilled (more like roasted?). Sprinkle it with my spices, they taste amazing served warm!

I was a little disappointed with myself for not trying enough Malaysian and Singaporean food this summer. I've been reading some food blogs just to make sure I don't miss out on the Czech side. Now three days isn't a lot of time to try enough delicacies, but one thing we couldn't stop having is fried cheese. How could you have a main dish of just cheese?! I think the fact that we had it every day that we were in Prague suggests how tasty (and addicting) they are.

Never thought I'd miss Prague food!

Pilsner beer and hot chocolate to accompany our dinner. Quite thick for a hot chocolate but not as sweet as I expected (to my disappointment).

 We decided to check out Wesceslas Square. It didn't compare to the atmosphere back in Old Town Square, especially the Christmas market. It reminded me of a tamer version of Oxford street with either side of street lined with boutiques and western chains. Other than the impressive national museum at the end of the square, I wouldn't say there's much here other than for shoppers. Surprisingly, this is the first trip I've made where I wasn't enticed to go shopping. Shock! Horror!

Not as blinding as the Old Town Square tree...

 By the first night, I was already in love with the Christmas market (couldn't wait to hit it again), addicted to taking photos of the Town Square and surprisingly took a liking to my experience with Czech food. Couldn't ask for a better start to the trip (:

Next stop... Prague!

The last time I went travelling during the winter vacations was probably... back during my GCSEs? Back then, travelling meant visiting relatives. If it wasn't Bangladesh or India I was travelling to, it was certainly to visit relatives who lived elsewhere in the world. Sometimes we'd be lucky to go somewhere else for a few days before hitting BD, in the past it's been Saudi Arabia or UAE, a country that's en route.

However, after starting Cambridge, it's been really hard to take vacations as a "break". Like a former student once told me, vacations in Cambridge means "to vacate Cambridge", they still expect you to continue working. My 2nd year Director of Studies told me that I could only take Christmas Day off (even if I don't celebrate it). See how seriously they take it? Realistically, that's not going to happen. You catch up on your favourite series, take up a temporary job or SLEEP (finally). For those who can afford it, they travel. I've never considered it before because I rather save up for the big summer freedom, but I need to save up for the places I want to go to. Thailand, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Madagascar, Fiji, Kenya.

This year, I'm doing things differently. While I've opted for Asia, a few of my friends have opted to travel closer and know the rest of Europe pretty well. Some of them prefer to take city breaks for a few days whereas I prefer to travel all over a country over weeks. We've enjoyed the way we've done it so far but I want to see why they enjoy their city breaks, what's the pull with Europe?

Initially our plan was to go to Dublin, Ireland. It's close-by and more affordable in the short term (I'm still saving up for summer!). But then someone suggested that Prague would be a better Christmas time destination. I'll be honest, if any European city (other than the mediterranean countries) interest me, it's Prague and that's because of all the hype behind it. One of my friend said it's the most beautiful city in the world... although she's not been there. Another couple I know said they loved their time there, not only do they want to go back but they prefer it to Paris.

So, I want to go to Prague to see what the hype is all amount. I know it's not the best reason to go travelling (I've always had a natural pull to the countries I've travelled to independently) but this is an experiment. I want to know if I'll enjoy this short break, will I feel satisfied even though I'm only scratching the surface of a country? Is Prague that beautiful, a word that people constantly associate with the city? I'll find out in December!