This morning, I woke up at 6AM, showered and then walked over to the O’Connell Bridge area. I ate breakfast there and left my luggage at Abigail’s hostel for the day.

After hearing about the Cliffwalk at Howth Village from Dani last night, I decided to do a web search, and noticed it was just 45 minutes away via public transportation.

I walked over to the Dart train station and boarded the train for the 45-minute train wide. Howth seems to be a retirement community with mostly senior citizen residents and tourists. It’s a scenic, oceanfront town with many amenities, attractions, and restaurants. After arriving there, I walked over to the visitor kiosk and picked up a map of the cliff walk and inquired about the trail. It turns out there are a few overlapping Cliff Walk trails which are classified by orange, purple, blue, and red. The purple trail is the longest trail at 10KM for the entire loop.

About fifteen minutes after arriving in Howth, I was already walking the Cliff Walk trail. The Cliff Walk trail is very scenic, with the elevation varying from just a few feet above sea level to 30 feet above sea level to over 100 feet above sea level. The trail is surrounded by lush greenery, and the ocean is a distinctly light, aqua blue color… much different color than the color of the ocean at Cliffs of Moher. One of the interesting things along the trail was an old cement/brick wall. When I looked closer, the cement, brick, and mortar were blended with plenty of ocean shells.

 

After completing the hike, I walked through Howth Market, an outdoor market with many vendors which is only open on weekends. After the long hike, I indulged in a double chocolate cupcake, a cheesy Jalapeno Hungarian street food which seemed to be similar to fry bread, and a fish & chips. I also listened to a busker who was singing in a public square in the City, before taking the train back towards Dublin.

I missed my stop on the way back and ended up heading all the way to Killaney, a high-end, oceanfront resort town on the other side of Dublin. By the time, I took the train back to O’Connell bridge it was already 4:00PM.

When I arrived back in Dublin, I walked over to a bike rental kiosk and rented a bike. The plan was to take the advice of the travel receptionist at Generator Hostel and to bike along the canals in Dublin. I started by heading toward Dublin Port, then following the canal south, and continuing to make a loop ending at O’Connell bridge.   The bicycle ride ending up being very beautiful and taking about a couple hours. It was nice to be able to bicycle ride through more authentic, local areas which aren’t filled with tourists.

Another memorable part of the bicycle ride is the undergoing transformation of the area along the Liffey River near Dublin Port. This area is undergoing a transformation similar to the Seaport District in Boston, where 100 year-old warehouses are being replaced by 50-story skyscrapers. (Example: http://www.dublinlandings.com/) There are dozens of cranes in the area and it will be exciting to see how the area will be after all of the development is completed.

By the time I finished the bicycle ride it was about 6:30PM, just under two hours until the boat ride to the UK.  Because I thought I had plenty of time, I thought it would be nice to walk the 30-45 minutes to Dublin Port. Before I knew it, I had walked extremely fast-paced for almost 90 minutes. It was a very long walk and was definitely not meant for pedestrians.

Now, I’m sitting on a ferry en route to London, where I’ll be arriving Sunday Morning at 8AM.