Weekend Trip // Howth

01 February 2015

Chris, Sascha, their flatmate Kenza and I left for Howth at 10 am. We caught the LUAS from Smithfield to Connolly Station. Connolly is a 40 minute walk from our area but less than 10 minutes  on the LUAS. From Connolly we bought roundtrip tickets (for the DART) to Howth and ran to the train because we only had a few minutes to catch it. That cost us €3.40 from Smithfield to Connolly and €6 from Connolly to Howth. Howth was supposed to be less than a 30 minutes journey but the train stopped and restarted several times. I'm not too sure what that was about.

Kenza got looks from other commuters for sitting on the floor

We eventually got to Howth at around 11 am and decided we wanted to see some old castles and the cliffs. But first we got cash out of the slowest ATM and bought postcards and maps. We saw the Howth Castle but I wasn't too impressed with it. We left that, walked around and came across an 80+ year old woman walking six dogs who told us there was nothing interesting in the direction we were walking and suggested we turn around, walk up a hill and then make our way up the mountains for a view. So that's what we did!

Walking toward the mountains

Leading the way

About to climb the mountain

Halfway up

Kenza and Sascha. To the top!

Overlooking Dubin City!

I was trying to do a photo shoot hahahha

Kenza and myself

That was way too much fun. I had no idea Howth had mountains until she suggested that but surely they exist and the view was in fact amazing. We'd wandered around the top and didn't really think about how we were supposed to get back down but luckily we bumped into other people on the mountain. I forgot her name but she said she and her boyfriend usually gives tours in the mountains and would lead us down the other side of the mountain closest to the cliffs for our next adventure.

Chris, Kenza and Sascha

Sascha and Kenza are king and queen of the selfie.

There are no animals around

Almost to the bottom

I had more fun than expected in the mountains. It was tricky climbing rocks and sliding around, trying not to fall in the mud or destroy my camera but I had a good time. By the time we got out we had only a 3 minutes walk up a hill to see the cliffs. 

When we got there we weren't exactly sure how it worked but apparently you pick a path on the cliffs and start walking. I don't remember what color we chose but we started around 2pm and ended 1.5 hours later. There are longer/shorter paths, though.

Here we go!

Walking along the cliffs

Sascha!

These signs are everywhere.

 

Here are some more photos from the walk

I regret not bringing my zoom lens. Ha!

This reminded me of the house Bjork has on a random island in Iceland.

Kenza struggling to make her way down.

The cliffs aren't as massive as the ones at Moher seem to be. We bravely made our descent down these cliffs closer to the sea but I doubt that would be possible at Moher since those cliffs are so sharp. There's still maybe ~100m from where the guys are located in the photo to the ocean.

Quick photo break.

It was a perfect day. The sun was out, it wasn't raining or cold or windy at all. (Dublin gets a bad rep when it comes to weather because it's been really nice so far!)

We were all starving when we reached the end of the path back to sea level. Howth is a fishing village so many restaurants along the ports serve great seafood (or so I hear). I don't eat anything that comes out of the ocean so I settled for a burger at Jamie's Cafe. It was cheap and tasty! The guys had fish and chips.

We got back to the city center around 5pm. Definitely a great day!!! Ireland is beautiful!!!

-SX