I deem this day "hey, we walked around the entire island of Howth" day because we LITERALLY DID.
After a delirious morning of jet-lag and old coffee, we decided to jump on the dart for a day trip to one of Ireland's port towns. The dart is a great way to get around surrounding areas, and only costs 4 euros for a round trip.
Howth is a quaint little town known for being a fishing and yachting port. It's north of the city center, and gives breathtaking views of Dublin Bay, the Wicklow Mountains, and Boyne Valley. Tourists come to enjoy the cliff walk and take pictures of Baily Lighthouse.
Upon arrival we walked around the docks and took in the beautiful weather. It was rainy most of last week, so we truly cherished the sun for some much needed "after Barcelona" tanning. Some of the group members took it upon themselves to save a dying starfish that a seagull had left on one of the fishing boats. Yes, they trespassed on the boat for this brave act of kindness.
Managing to not get arrested, we ventured down the docks towards a group gathering. Baby seals were in the water, entertaining everyone with what Steph calls their personalities. My favorite of course was Sammy the Seal (yes, after Samantha) who kind of waded in the water by herself, soaking in all the attention.
A quick stop for some much needed ice-cream and we were on our way.
The tourist information desk told us directly that the cliff walk was about 1.5 hours. We started our journey dressed in bathing suits and some in sandals, thinking it'd be a nice, relaxing day on a beach after our cliff walk.
Boy, were we wrong.
FOUR hours into walking, we realized that the 1.5 hour time span that she told us probably meant it TAKES 1.5 hours to get to the main part of the cliff walk. At this point we weren't sure if we should try to keep walking or turn back. With no map in sight, we decided to keep walking, praying that the island wasn't thaaaaaat big.
Exhausted.
Sun-burned.
Almost dehydrated (ok, I'm exaggerating a little bit).
We ALL felt like we were walking the jungles of Vietnam!
The views were GORGEOUS, though, and despite our hours of walking, we decided to venture further to see what was ahead. The group separated as some decided to stop for some picturesque moments. (We walked the cliffs below...)
We kept walking and found ourselves on the shores of Suton. This is a little outside of the center of Howth, so we rang a friend and asked a few locals how long it'd take to just keep walking (by this time we'd walked for about 6 hours).
Realizing it was STILL quite a ways and that we'd not only FALLEN OFF the cliff path but that'd we walked beyond it, we flagged down a taxi.
After a wonderful dinner in town of fish and calamari, we headed back to the dart, exhausted but overall pleased with our daily adventures.
Here's to the beautiful town of Howth, heel blisters, and of course cliff walk maps.
No comments:
Post a Comment