May 10: Day Trip to Howth
Howth is only a 30-minute train ride away from the city of Dublin that I am residing in. I was excited to learn how to travel via train, since all I have done thus far is take the bus. I was excited to venture into a new part of Ireland since up to now, I had spent all my time in Dublin. The train wasn’t nearly as stressful as they had made it seem during orientation. I was terrified I was going to mess something out since I was half asleep during orientation. Getting off the train, we had no clue what trek we had ahead of us.
Howth is on the coast so there was a boat harbor you see right as you get off the train. We saw some seals in the water surrounding the boats. A lot of the food places around sold fish, so that is all I smelled. I hate the smell of fish, so this was not super pleasant for me. Once we were done exploring, we followed our tour guide to The Hurdy Gurdy museum. This is where my joints started to turn against me. We missed the turn to the museum which led us up this huge hill. I had no clue we were going the wrong way nor where the end was. We had been walking up the hill between 5-10 minutes before our tour guide stopped to ask someone where the museum was. I was not prepared for us to simply turn around and go all the way back down the hill I just struggled to climb. On top of that, we still had like 10 minutes to walk before getting to the actual museum.
Whenever we pulled over to the side of the sidewalk waiting for the others to catch up, I had no idea what was in store for me. I looked to my right and saw what appeared to be a hiking trail. My legs could not do that right now. “Too bad” said the Universe as my tour guide led us up the steepest hill I have ever had to walk up. My lungs were screaming, my joints were about to pop out of my body, and there was no end in sight. The pain was even worse since we had just finished walking down the hill, we didn’t even have to walk up in the first place.
‘This is it?’ I thought whenever I saw the museum. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it made perfect sense as to why we had to enter in 2 groups. Me and Mel had to be in the first group. We did not feel like waiting around after the climb we had to endure. Thankfully, we were able to join the first group. Lucky us because we got to be filmed for a Swedish Game Show. They wanted to get some shots of the museum and wanted us to be like background actors. We didn’t have to do anything but stand and listen to the guide for the museum talk to us about all the radios. Turns out the guy who owned this bunker was a hoarder and turned everyday objects into radios. It was pretty cool getting to listen to a coke bottle ramble for a little bit. This museum was pretty cool, minus the fact we couldn’t move more than an inch at a time because there was zero space. Me and Mel couldn’t even see half of the radios due to the lack of space.
Whenever we left the museum, we got to stare at the beautiful overhead view of Howth. The water was so pretty with all of the birds and boats. After all of us went through the museum, we got to explore on our own for the rest of the day. After the terrible walk back down the hill, me and Mel got lunch at a little ice cream shop. Mel got a sandwich, and I got a thing of mini pancakes covered in Nutella and powder sugar. Then we walked over to a little bridge across the bay. It was super cute and awesome for taking pictures of the birds and water. After we checked that out, we found a hidden gem. The Transportation Museum is off to the side of a castle which is also used as a school. It was only 4 euros a person since we got a little student discount. We spent about an hour there, which is pretty good since there are only 2 small rooms. The volunteer there was also amazing so shout-out to him. He talked to us for about another 30 minutes before we had to leave. I felt bad we couldn’t continue in conversation, but Mel had to get to her tour.
When our day was coming to an end, I got to try the Irish version of a drumstick ice cream. On the way home, me and Paula accidentally got lost when navigating the train system. We accidentally passed our stop but got off since we thought we were heading in the wrong direction. Then we almost got back on going the same direction. Overall, I had a blast learning and trying new things!
