Category: Overseas

Zooks Welcomes Herself Back to Dublin, Ireland!

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

After enjoying Galway and Mayo in Ireland, my boyfriend and I came back to Dublin. We randomly or accidentally set the date and time of the 27th of June, 2022 to return the rented car in Dublin, hence we had this kind of schedule, but honestly I agreed with him and actually wanted to stay in those counties more…

However, I was still personally satisfied in Dublin because I could see my friends as well as sightseeing. By the way, in addition, it seemed to be noisier in Dublin than before. In this article I summarised what we did in Dublin.

Table of Contents

     1. Harry Styles’s Love on Tour 2022 at Aviva Stadium
     2. If you drive a car in Dublin…
     3. Exhaustion and irritability
     4. Dunnes Store
     5. First-time meet up in six years
     6. Churches in Dublin
          a. St. George’s Church
          b. St. Michan’s Church
          c. Christ Church Cathedral
     7. Need to print out something?
     8. Hello again in a more proper way
     9. Metal bar in Dublin recommended by a local
     ★Summary

1. Harry Styles’s Love on Tour 2022 at Aviva Stadium

The original reason why I decided to go to Ireland was because of Harry Styles’s concert.

Further originally, Harry Styles’s concert that I was supposed to go to was planned to be held in 2020, and it was 2019 when I bought a ticket. It was planned in Oslo, Norway in May, 2020. However, owing to COVID, his tour in Europe had been postponed without any new dates determined, and eventually everything was cancelled. Instead, they expanded the tour itself, and made a new list of the tour dates.

Then I found one in Dublin.

“If I go to Harry’s concert, Dublin is the only option!” I thought. In addition, I wanted to go to Northern Ireland, and I invited my boyfriend as I thought it would be more fun if there was any travel companion. Since in Ireland the traffic side is opposite (to Estonia or the US), he wanted to try (to drive there) and agreed to my suggestion. (Of course, I told him “There will be a moment that we will need to do something separately as I will go to the concert” at that time!)

The concert was held on our first day on our trip in Ireland.

When I was an exchange student in Dublin, I went to lots of concerts and gigs in Dublin, and I have watched Gaelic sports live, so including that, I know Croke Park, 3 Arena, The Academy as well as The Olympia Theatre.

This time I went to Aviva Stadium. Aviva Stadium is located a bit far from the centre, and it’s not too simple to access there. Aviva Stadium is gigantic. As a Japanese person, I can tell you Aviva Stadium is as huge as Kyocera Dome.

Unlike Japanese artists’ concerts, non-Japanese artists’ concerts always have opening acts, so if you are not interested in them, (and if you have a selected seat not General Admission) then you can go there later, which shouldn’t be a problem. (The merchandising might be sold out though.)

Until the time I should be at Aviva Stadium, I spent time with my boyfriend, and eventually I didn’t stay at the concert til the end. We were going to sleep at my Japanese friend who I met in Dublin in 2016 (called friend A)’s place, and I felt bad, leaving him alone in an unfamiliar city, so I left Aviva Stadium earlier, but I perfectly enjoyed Harry’s music even at the DART (train) station while waiting for it.

By the way, as for the transport to and from Aviva Stadium, I used Luas (tram) and DART (train). I knew how often I would need to use transport in Dublin before hand, I bought a 24-hour Leap (8 EUR) at Dublin airport beforehand.

While it seems Aviva Stadium is one of the top 10 sightseeing places in Dublin, personally I wouldn’t go there unless there is a concert again. If interested, then maybe you should go there.

2. If you drive a car in Dublin…

On the trip to Ireland in June 2022, we used a car as a main transport, and yet since the flights were to and from Dublin, the beginning and the ending of the trip was in Dublin.

Therefore, the origin of the main trip was Dublin. Dublin is a capital city in Ireland, and though it is not as congested as London, it’s still crowded enough and noisy, and there are lots of cars and buses. Bedies, there is Luas the Dublin tram which is an unfamiliar transport for the Japanese when it comes to driving.

Furthermore, there are a number of traffic lights, and for drivers for sure it’s time-taking.

What is worse, if you encounter drivers who don’t really follow the traffic rules or who are not really good at driving, it’s irritating.

In Dublin the driving progress wasn’t smooth so my boyfriend seemed to have a tendency to get stressed out.

3. Exhaustion and irritability

When we went to Galway from Dublin, the final destination was Barna which was located beside the country roads along the sea, so there was not so much traffic, and it was comfortable, and even if we got tired, we still had some more mental capacity.

However, when we went back to Dublin from Mayo, the situation was the opposite. It takes around three hours on one way both between Dublin – Galway and Mayo – Dublin.

We left our accommodation in Mayo in the morning, heading to Dublin, and we were all good until we entered County Dublin. After driving for a couple of hours, my boyfriend exploded.

What was worse, we wanted to change the route in Waze, but since he was driving, his Waze accepted only voice. However since my English isn’t American English, Waze didn’t recognise my English. Then I was guiding him based on Google maps on my phone, but perhaps because he was not able to check the map with his eyes, he got much more stressed out.

When arriving in Dublin, we still had some more time to check in the accommodation, so we returned the car, and I took him to a cafe, and I told him:

Can you please stop using swear words to me. I don’t care when you use to others, but not to me.

😅

After this, we checked in the accommodation, and I had him take a nap. I knew if he took a nap, he was able to recharge himself physically so he gets better mentally.

However, in general, you should be careful with going to Dublin from somewhere in Ireland. It was daytime during a weekday, and yet there was a lot of traffic, and I repeatedly wished I had been able to take a turn with him if I had been able to drive…

4. Dunnes Store

Dunes Store is a retail chain in Ireland, and you can buy fashion goods, groceries, houseware, and so on. I bought a green turtle neck sweater in 2016 when I lived in Dublin, and it lasted for 4 or 5 years. If it’s a capital town in a county even like Castlebar in Mayo, there appeared to be Dunnes Store even in the countryside. (Not very sure, but there was, in Castlebar.)

I knew there was Tesco (British supermarket chain) in Jervis shopping centre in Dublin, but it was a bit far for us at that time to walk there, so we grabbed something to eat in Dunnes Store. So the purpose of the use of Dunnes Store for us was just to get food. 😂

On the contrary, I personally think Dunnes Store isn’t satisfactory as a supermarket.

If I needed to use a supermarket in Dublin, I would go to Tesco, Lidl, or Aldi. (And when I lived in Dublin, I literally always went to those supermarkets.)

5. First-time meet up in six years

In Dublin, I met my Dublin friend for the first time in six years. I pinged him before travelling but there was no reply, and no answer when I called him on the first day. It seemed he was sick, and after his recovery, he met us.

We talked a lot. In Europe, even if you don’t really have degrees, you can still get some proper jobs, but Ireland seems quite similar to the UK, so he said it was difficult to get a job in a company if a person does not graduate from a university. Also in his case, there was a company which responded to him after he had been waiting for six months. Overall even for the Irish, it’s very difficult to get a job in Ireland (or maybe in Dublin).

In my personal experience, I have had a first interview with a HR person from a company in Manchester, and she indeed asked me what I had done and what I learnt in the university. This is real.

Besides, Ireland is getting more and more expensive. Of course the rent has been increased, and if you live in a shared flat near the centre of Dublin, around 1000 EUR would be gone every month. (I searched.) In addition there are utilities. Even if the salary looks good, depending on an occupation and a company, the whole salary can be gone for only the cost of living.

Since salaries in general don’t give us an opportunity to save money, I thought Dublin might no longer be a place to live in my life. (But maybe it’s okay to live in the suburbs. As repeatedly said, if I have a car.)

It was great to see my friend again. We also asked him one question as my boyfriend was spoken to by homeless people who thought he was Irish multiple times while he was wandering around Dublin on his own. Though I didn’t agree, my friend said

“You don’t look from Dublin but Galway.”

😂

He appeared to be Galwayan.

😂

We were talking in one cafe in Dublin, and yet as for the cafe, there will be a separate article.

6. Churches in Dublin

I’m more like a castle lover than churches whilst there are multiple churches in Dublin. (Based on my bias, Irish castles seem to be located in the middle or the west in Ireland like Glaweay.) We visited three churches, so here is a list of those churches that we attempted to visit.

a. St. George’s Church

St. George’s Church is a church that we coincidentally found while we were looking for a cafe for breakfast in Dublin. My boyfriend constantly said “This is not a church”, and indeed it didn’t look like a church. However, when we looked at the map, it was marked as a “church”, and he said “This is pagan. (Because there are something like Greek letters) this is not Catholic.”

As I googled, St. George’s Church appeared to be a hybrid of Gothic and Greek Revive.

His mum is Cathoilc, but he himself doesn’t like Catholicism as it’s mentally not good (according to him). Also he has rich knowledge about religions. That’s why he was commenting like that.

You can visit St. George’s Church by walking if you stay in the centre of Dublin as this church is located in the Northern part of the city centre.

b. St. Michan’s Church

St. Michan’s Church was a church that I wanted to go to if we had time. There are mummies, and I wanted to see them.

However, when we visited St. Michan’s Church, it was too late to see mummies. We were 30 minutes late. So given that you wish to see mummies at St. Michan’s Church, you should go there earlier maybe.

You can go there by walk in Abbey street to Smithfield (to the west side of Dublin).

c. Christ Church Cathedral

Friend F recommended us to go to Christ Church Cathedral. I’m not sure if I’m just not interested in remembering names or not good at remembering names, but I was like “where the heck is that”, and yet when we arrived at Christ Church Cathedral, I thought

I have come here before.

😂

However, we couldn’t enter again and only the choir members were allowed.

Christ Church Cathedral is located in the south of the city centre of Dublin after crossing the River Liffey, and just beside the main road.

7. Need to print out something?

I wondered if I needed a printed visa check paper for Ryanair’s visa check, so we went to a stationery shop (Kings Stationery) just in case. This shop is also located in the city centre. You can walk there.

However, in order to print a stuff out, I needed to use an incredibly super old computer (with Windows 7) in the shop, and it cost 1 EUR for 10 minutes. We both didn’t have a 1 EUR coin, and the machine didn’t accept smaller coins, so my boyfriend asked the shop owner to exchange, and she did. (We exchange a 2 EUR coin or two 0.50 EUR coins, but if you have only 5 EUR note, then it might be difficult.)

In addition to the old computer, the mouse didn’t work properly either. (It froze frequently.)

Since there was a 10 minute time limit, I rushed myself, and mistakenly printed out an unnecessary part too. However, it cost only 0.10 EUR for two one-side papers in black and white. 😂

I tend to get stressed out when a machine is super slow, so I peson;ally don’t recommend this shop. (Besides, you probably don’t need to have paper stuff for Ryanair’s visa check.)

In this shop, they accepted a card payment only when the total sum is over 5 EUR. This is a different point than Estonia. In Estonia, even if you print something out in a small stationery shop, and the payment is only 0.10 EUR, you can use a card. I was lucky that I had coins (as I knew I would need for Dublin buses).

I googled several places in Dublin, where I might have been able to print out beforehand, and coincidentally King Stationery was located in a walkable distance, so I chose there, but there are more options if you need to print out.

However, there are still lots of machines that accept only coins, hence I would recommend bringing coins anyway.

8. Hello again in a more proper way

We also met friend A and her husband who helped us on the first day again.

My boyfriend said he wanted to have Korean or Vietnamese cuisine, so we went to a Korean restaurant for lunch, and a Vietnamese restaurant when we met them again. (There’ll be a different article about this too.)

Friend A is around five years older than me, and my boyfriend asked me “Isn’t she your ‘Senpai’?”

“Senpai” means students or colleagues usually who are older than you. Sometimes they can be “senpai” even if they are younger than you but if they join your company or enrol in a university earlier, or if you failed yearly admission exams, decided to study more for your ideal school and enrol in in one year or more. Or if you study further like for a master’s degree, and then join a company.

Friend A is none of them, so she’s not “senpai”.

When I was an exchange student in Ireland in 2016, I joined an independent film shooting team as a crew, and we met there. When I visited Dublin in 2019, we went to a cafe with another post crew who is friend K and lives in Dublin now with her husband and son. However, she got COVID after her business trip, so we couldn’t meet. She’s as old as friend A. Since they are not my “senpai” in a company or school, I use the word “friend”. (And I don’t think it’s wrong.)

My boyfriend was always withdrawn in Tallinn, but perhaps because it was a different place, he met my friends without any disgust. (I often want to meet people who I hung out with a lot in the past when I travel to a place where they live now.) I’ve never been a person who wants to meet new people a lot, and yet I rather want to avoid such occasions, so I understood him, but I’m a person who wants to meet old friends a lot.)

9. Metal bar in Dublin recommended by a local

I was wondering if I should have written about this place in an article where I talked about restaurants and cafes in Ireland, but since this place was the only place for both of us just to have pints, I decided to list it here. I included this place in the other article.

As we met my Irish friend F, due to the fact that my boyfriend likes metal, he was asking the demand of metal in Ireland to friend F. Then friend F recommended us Fibber Magees. It was located just across the Vietnamese restaurant that we and friend A and her husband went to.

The prices of alcohol were normal I guess. They had Asahi beer (Japanese beer). We had Guinness, Asashi, Smithwick’s and Bulmer’s (Irish apple cider).

I asked my boyfriend if he liked Fibber Magees, and he said “Normal”, but his face looked happy. 😂

It seems they had many songs that he knew too. (I don’t really know metal. If we talk about music genres, then I prefer (Japanese) rock.) Therefore, if you are a metal fan, maybe you should go there.

★Summary

In this article at some points the stories weren’t really about sightseeing, but I included them as this article’s topic was most suitable for those stories.

Maybe because I lived in Dublin before, I feel Dublin is no longer a bucket list country to travel to, and on the other hand, I still want to visit Dublin because I want to see my friends. I thought maybe it’s a good idea to go to Ireland for a year when I don’t go to Japan (as both countries are pricey).

Although the duration of staying in Estonia is much longer than in Ireland, Irealnd is still my second hometown. Estonia can never be.

😂

Aitäh! 🙂

Do You Know County Mayo in Ireland?

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

On the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, our next destination after Galway was County Mayo.

It’s a where-the-heck-is-that place, but presumably the trip in terms of the contents is better than Galway? More enjoyable maybe in my opinion? Here I also include some tips on how to drive in the countryside in Ireland.

Table of Contents

     1. Where the heck is Mayo
     2. Zooks wanted to visit a castle
     3. Small but cute town: Westport
     4. Mayo’s county town: Castlebar
     5. Do you know Achill island?
          a. Never use Waze
          b. White Cliffs of Ashleam
          c. Keem beach
          d. Appendix
     ★Summary

1. Where the heck is Mayo

When it comes to towns and cities in Ireland, you may think of Dublin, Galway, and Cork, and if you have a bit more knowledge, then you may think about Limerick, Donegal, Sligo, and Wicklow.

However, do you know a county called Mayo? I knew only the name but didn’t exactly know where geographically it was.

County Mayo is a countryside county more northern than County Galway. There are train tracks, and yet as repeated mention in this Ireland trip series,

it’s more convenient to have a car.

You may think “There seems to be nothing”, and yet it was a surprisingly fun place to go, hence maybe Mayo is better than Galway in terms of sightseeing, actually.

2. Zooks wanted to visit a castle

Between Ballinrobe where our accommodation was and Westport which I will talk about in the following chapter, there is a castle. I am personally fond of this kind of abandoned castle. In fact when I travelled to Scotland or Siegen in Germany, I dropped by such abandoned castles whenever I found them.

Nonetheless this time I also wanted to get close and see it, I found out that that castle seemed to be a private property while we were looking for a car park, so I gave it up.

It sounded like we could have gotten closer if we had asked the owner, but we didn’t have time to check who the owner was, so we just passed by.

In Galway there are lots of castles too, and yet it was rainy when we stayed in and we couldn’t go, so I think castle fans can enjoy Galway and Mayo when it’s sunny. For this reason, I want to revisit Galway.

3. Small but cute town: Westport

We went to Westport due to my boyfriend’s request.

At that time he wore a pair of three-year-old shoes, and those got flooded inside owing to the rainy days in Galway, hence we were looking for shops where we could buy some trainers.

While wandering around Westport, we were simultaneously looking for shoe shops, but since it was Sunday, almost all of the shops were closed, and the only shop which seemed to sell trainers was also closed. Therefore we couldn’t buy any in Westport.

However, in Westport there are a number of cafes, and it might be a good idea to drop by there for a break on a long trip. It was a small but cute town.

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The trademark is a clocktower. When we went to Westport, it sometimes rained but sometimes stopped raining, which is typical Irish weather. This is why my photo doesn’t look marvellous, but the town was really pretty, so I was glad to go there.

My Japanese friend A’s husband also later said “Westport is good.”

4. Mayo’s county town: Castlebar

Before going to Westport, we were searching the destinations, and I told him “There is Sports Direct in Castlebar!”. However, later I realised that perhaps he thought I was talking about some kind of bar. He looked “???” when we were about to leave Westport. I told him “It’s 30 minutes away from here (Westport)”, and he finally understood.

Castlebar is said to be a county town in Mayo, and it was bigger than Westport indeed.

Castlebar has a big parking area in the centre of the town, and it’s shown on the map too. When we went to Castlebar, since it was Sunday, it cost nothing. (Probably this is because of the countryside. I’m sure as I’m from the countryside inJapan.)

We of course went to Sports Direct.

He bought a pair of trainers, and it costs less than 60 EUR.

If you have lived in Estonia, you would feel “That’s so cheap!”. Fashion stuff (particularly shoes) in Estonia should be estimated to cost 100 EUR when buying. He also estimated that price. As he was wondering if he should buy shoes, he said “I would spend too much money if I bought shoes here…” (On the other hand I said “wherever you buy, it’s still an expense.” 😂

Due to the price range in Estonia, he was happy about the inexpensiveness in Ireland. 😂

I’m happy that he found good trainers too.

After that we were just walking around in Castlebar.

Although it is called a country town, as Castlebar is surely much smaller than Dublin, it doesn’t take time to see around. (I felt my hometown might be more satisfactory. 😅)

5. Do you know Achill island?

We went to Achill island via Newport from Castlebar.

Again, it’s a where-the-heck-is that island, and yet the Irish seemed to know there.

I personally like the idea of going to an island by car, so I agreed to it. Achill island is more countryside than Ballinrobe where we stayed in Mayo.

a. Never use Waze

I will write in more detail, but we were heading to White Cliffs of Ashleam by car at that time. We were using Waze which is an app with a map and traffic information, and yet it led us to a weird countryside road. What was worse, there was no way in real life unlike what Waze showed us.

Me: we got to go back. We can’t go forward.

My boyfriend: But where are we going.

Me: If we don’t go back, we can’t do anything.

Therefore, once we went back, and landed on a properly paved road, we were able to go to White Cliffs of Ashleam by using Google maps.

This time we were able to travel on the proper roads indeed!!

I guess Waze works well only in cities.

b. White Cliffs of Ashleam

White Cliffs of Ashleam is not just a cliff. You need to go up the mountain quite a lot. Besides, the roads are pretty winding, and the height is great. At that time it was very windy, and we didn’t have any idea when the sheep would pop in front of us, and the inline was steep too. Hence I was a bit scared.

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However, the view from the top was beautiful. It was my first time to see the Atlantic Ocean. “It would be greater if it was sunny”, I wished again… 😅

c. Keem beach

After enjoying the view in White Cliffs of Ashleam, we went to Keem beach weather my boyfriend wanted to go. Achill island is located in the westest part in Connaught. (I get fascinated with something like the most XX.)

The way to Keem beach was safer than going to White Cliffs of Ashleam. The view from the car was also beautiful, so we stopped somewhere, and took some pictures. (On this website or on social media channels related to this website there’s a new profile photo that was taken on the way to Keem beach by my boyfriend without telling me beforehand.)

From some points on the way to Keem beach, there are signboards like “Attention! Sheep crosses the road”. (It wasn’t like “Attention, There are wild animals”, but really like “Sheep may cross the road”.)

The road was for both ways, and because the traffic was nearly silent, we were able to avoid sheep, and yet they didn’t care about us at all. 😂

Keem beach was quite beautiful too. Perhaps the water is clean. It looked a bit greeny, which is my favourite colour of the sea. Since it was a bit rainy and cold, and additionally we didn’t bring our swimwear in the first place, I do not know how deep Keem beach is unless we swim, but it is definitely worth going.

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On Google maps Keem beach is marked as a sightseeing place, but even in June when generally there are lots of tourists in Ireland, the tourists in Keem beach seemed more or less locals, so a hidden sightseeing place, I guess. It didn’t seem to be buses from and to Keem beach, so having a car… (again)

d. Appendix

When we were going back to the mainland from Keem beach, on the other side of the road near Keem beach, one sheep was very chilled.

Not even about to escape from or avoid us. Very majestic. 😂

★Summary

You may have a tendency to think that there is nothing in the countryside but in famous counties and cities in Ireland whilst now you know how unexpectedly enjoyable County Mayo is.

In order to live, it is probably hard without a car in my opinion, and yet since you can take a distance from noisiness in Dublin, you might be able to live a relaxing life in Mayo. However, if you spend every weekend, you might get fed up.

Perhaps it was a trip, and therefore I thought it was good. I might also want to swim in Keem beach next time… Not sure it’s grand though.

Aitäh! 🙂

Let’s go to Galway in Ireland!

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Sightseeing is a must-do on a trip! On the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, since my boyfriend and I stayed in a few different towns, I decided to write articles about sightseeing depending on the county where we went.

In this article, I focus on County Galway. This is about Galway as a county, so it’s not just about the city centre of Galway.

(By the way, because it was Galway, I played Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” on YouTube for my boyfriend who didn’t know this song at the accommodation. He immediately disliked it, but enjoyed Galway itself. 😂)

Table of Contents

1. Around Barna where we stayed
2. Village called Tawnamachugh which I chose just because of the name
3. Long-cherished dream: going to Gaeltacht
4. City Centre of Galway
     a. Galway Cathedral
     b. Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland
5. Moycullen
6. Connemara National Park recommended by an Irish man born and raised in Galway
★Summary

1. Around Barna where we stayed

First of all, let’s talk about Barna. Barna itself has nothing. There are only a few supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. However, there is a wharf called “Barna Pier”, and you can take a walk near the bay. The wharf faces Galway bay, and if you can see some land in the opposite of Barna, that’s the mainland of Irelnad. It belongs to County Clare. Unfortunately, it’s not Aran Islands…

2. Village called Tawnamachugh which I chose just because of the name

Since my boyfriend said he wanted to drive somewhere not around Barna but a bit far from Barna, I randomly looked for a place on the map, and selected a town called Tawnamachugh.

The reason why I chose this area is because

Its name didn’t sound English.

It took us 20 minutes by car from the accommodation in Barna.

You will suddenly see more countryside, so if you feel you don’t have enough fuel in your car, I would recommend you fill the tank before going there. Hydration for your body as well. When you look at Tawnamachugh on the map, you can guess there is nothing from some point, so be careful.

Also, something very inconvenient in Tawnamachugh was that we could not connect to the internet!!!

Often in this area, either of our devices was connected with the internet, but because of this, even though I wanted to help him while he was driving, I was not able to do that.

The seaside in Tawnamachugh was like a combination of the grass field and beach with rocks. There were few people, and if you see someone, they are probably locals, not tourists.

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After a while, one idea crossed my mind….

3. Long-cherished dream: going to Gaeltacht

I had this idea on the way to the accommodation from Tawnamachugh;

we were in Gaeltacht.

Gaeltacht is an Irish-language area, where signboards and so on are written in Irish. Hence surely the mainly spoken language there is Irish.

If you look at the map below (marked in green), you see some parts of Galway and county Mayo are Gaeltacht.

Reference

I noticed that signboards are written in Irish only in Tawnamachugh, and since I had some knowledge about Ireland, I wondered “we were in Gaeltacht weren’t we?”.

In fact, I wanted to visit Gaeltacht once in my life, so it was pleasant to go there though it was so sudden.

I wished I could have tried my Irish. (I remember only “How are you?” and “I’m good” in Irish though. 😂)

4. City Centre of Galway

When you go to Galway, most likely you will go to the centre of Galway won’t you. In our case, we went to only two places in the centre of Galway.

a. Galway Cathedral

I found the Galway Cathedral on the map, so we decided to visit there.

The Galway Cathedral was quite big, had beautiful stained glasses, and was more gorgeous than I thought. There is a car park in the Galway Catherdral’s area, and it didn’t cost us at all as we didn’t stay there so long.

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Next to the Galway Cathedral there is another car park, but it seemed to be for those who stay there for a long time like a few days, so we didn’t use it.

b. Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland

Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland is technically located not in the centre of Galway but in Salthill which is around the centre of Galway.

Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland has a free car park, but the vehicle height is limited.

A ticket for one adult at Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland was 16 EUR.

If you imagine splendid aquariums like what we have in Japan, you will be shocked. 😂

This is because this aquarium just looks like a collection of fish in a bunch of water tanks. Only the jellyfish section had similar stuff to what I imagined.

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I enjoyed Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland though. ✌️

5. Moycullen

We were discussing where to go after Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland, and we decided to go to Moycullen. I reckon it took us 10 to 15 minutes by car from the centre of Galway.

My boyfriend decided to go to Moycullen, and this is a very small countryside town. There seemed to be some small museums, but he was not interested in such things in general. Instead, he likes taking a walk in the woods, etc. However, at that time it was showering unfortunately.

I found a place called Fairy Trail, but we had no idea where it was. He was just randomly driving, getting tired, so he stopped a car in a pub’s car park.

Then I took him for a short walk as his tiredness provoked his irritability. 😅😅

However, we eventually realised that the area seemed to be private, so we went back to the centre of Moycullen, and took some break in a cafe there. I think there is nothing to do if it’s raining and you don’t want to spend more than 15 EUR or something for activities in Moycullen.

There are outdoor activities and something fun, but it quite costs.

6. Connemara National Park recommended by an Irish man born and raised in Galway

Connemara National Park was our first destination on the way to the accommodation in Mayo from Galway. My Japanese friend A’s husband is from Galway, and he told us about Connemara National Park.

There is no admission fee, and the area is impressively vast. I think it will take a few days for hiking there. It was not very easy to find the entrance for parking, but not too difficult either.

It was raining, and chilly, so we didn’t stay there long, but we took a short walk. The we found:

Goat!? 🐐

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We stepped forward, and found another one.

Later googling, the animals appeared to be Irish goats. I’m not 100% sure though. I’m not sure if they belong to some farmers or they are wild either.

Perhaps given that you go more forward, you might encounter more animals. (It seems there are livestocks in Connemara National Park too.)

Personally I want to go there again.

★Summary

In conclusion, these are places in Galway that we went to on the trip to Ireland in June, 2022.

Again, personally I enjoyed Connemara National Park best. It’s a national park located in an area without anything, but I believe it would be more fun when it’s sunny. I don’t like camping, but I realised I pretty much like hiking. Of course it depends on who I go with though.

There might be some buses to and from Connemara National Park as it is a national park, but it’s good to drive a car…

Aitäh! 🙂

3 Accommodations for 1 Week Stay in Ireland.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

When it comes to travelling, accommodations are important of course. Otherwise you will be a homeless traveller. As some of you might already know, I usually use a hostel on my solo trip. This is just because it’s cheap. Sometimes I’m very sensitive to sounds that roomates make, voices and foot sounds by other stayers who come back from clubs and bars in the middle of night when I sleep near the room door, and bathrooms with way less cleanness, but since I want to spend more money on other activities as well as foods, I tend to choose inexpensive accommodations.

On the other hand, my boyfriend needs privacy a lot, and cannot definitely share a bedroom with strangers or other people. For this reason, he didn’t go to his company’s event either.

I have had rough sleep multiple times at airports, and used a shower in Sheremetyevo international airport in Moscow, so I’m not very very serious about this point, or you can say I’m a type of a person who is satisfied with minimum things I can do in a daily life during a trip. Therefore, I was adjustable. (Yes, I adjusted to him, but it wasn’t hard for me at all, and yet rather I felt good because it was more luxurious than usual. I actually thought maybe I should do the same even on my solo trip.)

Table of Contents

1. Day 1 (Dublin)

2. Day 2 and 3 (Barna, Galway)
     a. Where is Barna?
     b. What is “eircode”?
     c. Seaclusion B&B

3. Day 4 and 5 (Balinrobe, Mayo)
     a. Small mistake in terms of the accommodation location
     b. “Journey”
     c. Devenish Lodge B&B

4. Day 6 and 7 (City Centre, Dublin)
     a. ”Student accommodation” for the first time in a while in Ireland
     b. Kavanagh Court – Student Accommodation

★Summary

1. Day 1 (Dublin)

As written “I adjusted to him” above, when we were talking about accommodations before going to Ireland, he said “a hostel would be good, and it’s cheap”. At that time I thought “?? He can’t share a room with multiple unknown people, but a hostel in a travel destination is fine?”

Then I searched some accommodations in Hostelworld and Booking.com three weeks before the trip, made a list, and asked him to choose one and decide. (This is because I had no idea what was necessary and what was important for him at that time.)

The list included one cheap hotel room, but he chose a hostel called Generator Hostel, where we were required to stay at least two nights.

As we arrived in Dublin, we checked in, entered our room, and saw five beds. Although I booked two beds for the two of us together, it was not like bunk beds were for us but just vacant beds were for us. (I have travelled with a friend from Japan a few times, and we always had one set of bunk beds or our beds were next to one another. Hence it was abnormal for me.)

Then he saw those multiple beds and asked me “This room is only for us, right?”, so I said “It’s a hostel, there are other people.” Then he panicked saying “I can’t sleep here!”

I told him “You mentioned a hostel was fine”, and he said “In the US (where he travelled in the past) a hostel wasn’t like this…!”

I thought:

I bet that was a motel.

After a while he said “I guess what I meant was a motel…”

I thought:

I knew it. 😅

If he was not able to sleep, we could not stay there, so I searched for a temporary accommodation with privacy in Booking.com, but everywhere cost over 300 EUR for one night in Dublin. That was way too expensive just for one night.

However, where we were was Dublin. I gave it a try; I called three friends in Dublin… but no one answered right then. The first one was a friend who said something like his family member or someone had an accommodation in Airbnb a long time ago, so I recalled it. I also messaged him, so I called him again when he replied to me, but nothing was available. The second friend had no responses. (Later he told me he had been sick.) The third one is Japanese, whom I saw again when I travelled to Ireland in 2019. She called me back, and I explained the situation. It was so kind of them – she told me that she can let us stay at their place as her husband’s friends stayed there once too. But only one night. (This was because it was so sudden and happened in the middle of the week. We so appreciated their kindness.)

I asked her to explain to my boyfriend directly on the phone, and she gave us some time to consider. Later I told her that we would like to have stayed at their place.

That day, since I went to a concert, my boyfriend and I had separate activities, and at the end of the day when we met again in the hostel he started saying “I’m too tired… I’m okay with the hostel…”, and yet my friend already prepared a bed for us, so we took a taxi, and headed there.

To be honest, in the plane from Tallinn, I felt “This too smoothly going… there will definitely be something…!”, and indeed it happened. 😅 (I feel something happens whenever I travel.)

On the next day of the stay, both my friend and her husband had to work from home at 9, we promised to leave there by 9.

Whilst I feel we were lucky because we were in Dublin, I reckon “Well I’m blessed with people in the end.” 😂

I’m not sure if we will travel together again, but I will definitely avoid any hostels. 😂

2. Day 2 and 3 (Barna, Galway)

After leaving my friend’s place, we rented a car, and decided on the next destinations and an accommodation in the next destination at a cafe in Dublin. The very first destination was Wicklow, but we just dropped by there, and the final destination of the day was Galway.

We decided to stay at a B&B at the coastal areas in a town in Galway called Barna.

a. Where is Barna?

Barna is located in Galway 15 to 20 minutes by car from the city centre of Galway. It was a B&B, so we stayed in one room in a house for two nights.

From the B&B accommodation we could see the Galway bay, and also the mainland in the opposite direction due to the geography.

It was challenging to find an actual accommodation in Barna, but when we called the owner, she came to the nearest supermarket, and guided us to the accommodation by car.

b. What is “eircode”?

The reason why it was challenging for us to find the house is because we were unable to find the exact place even in a map searching by the address, and we arrived somewhere as a destination which was on the opposite of the road, and the road ended.

When ringing her, she told us “The eircode is in the confirmation email!, but I had no idea what it was even though I have lived in Dublin because it was possible to find places by their addresses like in a regular way. (When we went to my friend’s house, we used the actual address in teh amp.)

Googling what the eircode was, it seemed to be an Ireland-specific thing, and if we enter it in the map, the exact location was shown.

You may wonder “Why didn’t you check the confirmation email”. Although it was me who paid, the email address used was my boyfriend’s, so I had no idea.

c. Seaclusion B&B

The accommodation we stayed in Barna, Galway is called “Seaclusion B&B” which also has a room with a private bathroom. In our room, there was only a double bed and some furniture, and we needed to use a shared bathroom.

In Booking.com the score of the accommodation is pretty high marking 8.7 out of 10. Without a car it would be hard to go and stay there, so I wouldn’t choose it on my usual solo trip in terms of its location, we (both) didn’t care that much how far it was as we rented a car.

This accommodation is a B&B, so you can have a buffet and Irish breakfast in the morning. It was good as the menu slightly changed daily.

In the morning when checking out, the owner asked us where we were going next, and she gave us lunch (sandwiches, jelly and cupcakes). It was really appreciative.

3. Day 4 and 5 (Balinrobe, Mayo)

The next destination after Galway was Westport. It’s a small town in county Mayo. Therefore, I booked one accommodation somewhere around there while staying in Barna.

a. Small mistake in terms of the accommodation location

Westport in county Mayo faces Galway bay, and the B&B we booked was also close to the water area, so we both thought the B&B was in Westport, and yet searching the actual location in the map, we realised the accommodation was near a lake in county Mayo. 😅

We kind of made a mistake, but as we rented a car, it wasn’t a big deal. (However, he as a driver was really tired, of course.)

b.“Journey”

He always uses an app called Waze that shows the traffic information as well even when driving in Estonia, but it seemed that it didn’t work properly in the countryside in Ireland.

On the way to the accommodation, Waze told us to go straight to the one way road which width was for just one car, so went and kept going forward as we were not able to go back, and we encountered

sheep!!!

Besides there were two sheep!!!!

We laughed a lot together. 😂

I knew that it was normal to see sheeps in the west in Ireland, but all the sheep I saw from a car were inside of the fences, so it was so beyond expectation.

Really, I wondered where they came out of. 😂

What was worse, even if our car went forward a bit very slowly, the sheep didn’t care at all. 😂

Perhaps they thought our car was some kind of a huge animal. 😂

My boyfriend was like “Oh my god 😅, what should we do”, but as I can think relatively fast, I said to him “Just a sec,”

“Uwaaaaaaaaa—–!!!”

I screamed and simultaneously was running toward the sheep, and they ran away too.

I dashed so it didn’t last long, and I went back to the car, but then the sheep stopped in front of us again as well. 😅

I opened the car’s window and screamed “waaaa”, but they didn’t seem to be afraid of the voice.

So, I got out of the car, and chased the sheep. 😂

I was unable to keep dashing, so from time to time I was walking, but when I showed myself as if I would start running and chasing them again (I just made foot noises), they escaped. So I repeated this a few times, and finally the road was separated into three directions, and fortunately the sheep went to one of them which we didn’t go to.

Zooks the shephers dog.

In addition, it was showering at that time, so of course I got a bit wet. But it was one of the fun and good memories. 😂

Also I realised again that I don’t have any femininity. 😂

c. Devenish Lodge B&B

After going through the countryside road, we arrived at an accommodation called Devenish Lodge B&B.

There was a gate, and we were wondering about how to enter, so I sank or swam, pushed the gatebell, the gate was just open without any voice.

Then we saw

sheep!!!

The sheep were staring at us (and our car).

That was a funny scene in a way though. 😂

Those sheep seemed to be moved to another field from time to time, and on the second day at Devenish Lodge, the sheep were in the field which we were able to look down from our room windows. (Also their voice was my morning alarm. 😂)

Devenish Lodge was also a B&B, so we could have some breakfast. In this accommodation there were two choices of Irish breakfast: full Irish breakfast or vegetarian breakfast, and during our stays, we both had full Irish breakfast.

As a buffet, there were also some cut fruits and muesli.

Our room was for three people at maximum with a private bathroom. (This was just a coincidence that such a room was available and cheaper than other rooms.) It was spacious, but the TV in our room didn’t work properly at all. In Devenish Lodge, the kitchen was not for guests, so in the room there was an electric kettle, instant coffee, some team bags, and biscuits.

As we were not allowed to use the kitchen, we could not buy microwave meals at a supermarket either. Therefore, we took away some Chinese dishes, and dined with dinnerware in the dining room for breakfast the next morning.

Moreover, there were bottled water which number was the same as the number of people who could stay in a room, and yet when I asked the owner if we could drink water from the bathroom, she said no. However, she had got a good head on her shoulders, and gave us a pitcher of tap water separately. (It was really great as then we didn’t have to buy extra bottled water.)

Devenish Lodge scores 9.2 out of 10 in Booking.com. (Something like a certificate was decorated in the dining room as well.)

However, the location could be problematic, so without a car it would be very hard to go there and stay.

I really felt that a car was so convenient…

4. Day 6 and 7 (City Centre, Dublin)

By 3 pm, on the 27th of June, 2022, we had to return the car in Dublin. After checking out, we immediately headed to Dublin from Devenish Lodge.

The accommodation in Dublin was of course more expensive than Devenish Lodge. (In addition, it was because the accommodation was in the centre of Dublin.) Anyway, it was a private room, he agreed, and I booked it, but later I found that that accommodation was used as student accommodation on regular days.

a.”Student accommodation” for the first time in a while in Ireland

In Ireland you can start living in student accommodation in September, and stay there until the entire academic year ends, but right after that you will be kicked out. It might also depend on accommodations, but during the summer accommodations not in a campus are offered to travellers for temporary stays. (Literally travellers use, and in 2016 when I used Shanowen Square, I needed a place to live as I extended my study-abroad period.)

The best point in the student accommodations in Ireland is that you can have your own bathroom in your room!

Personally this is the biggest pro. In Estonia there is no such a thing.

b. Yugo Kavanagh Court – Student Accommodation

We stayed in a “double room”, but the bed was too small for two people. (I felt it was like a bit wider single bed. My own semi double bed in my flat might have been bigger.) Besides, I always wonder why the beds are so small in Ireland although the Irish (guys) are quite tall. I’m 162 cm, and my boyfriend is much taller than me, so I thought he might not be able to rest enough in a bed that is supposed to be used for resting as the bed’s length was a bit shorter than him.

Yugo Kavanagh Court seemed to be relatively a new building, but as a travel accommodation, it was not satisfactory.

First of all, there was nothing in the kitchen! I saw a few plates and one pan in the dishwasher, but there was no cutlery. Since there were no mags and glasses, we were not able to make tea even though there was a kettle. In Shanowen Square where I stayed in 2016, there were mags.

Furthermore, although the outside temperature was around 20 degrees, astonishingly the heater was turned on, so I went to the reception to complain. There was some kind of switch that looked like it was for the AC or something, and I reckoned maybe that one was a switch for the heater, but I wasn’t 100% sure. When I told this at the reception, one of the staff members kept saying “There is no AC” for a while. So I said:

Whatever it is, the heater is turned on!

Then a female staff member called technicians for repair.

I didn’t care whether the switch was for the AC or the heater, or whatever. That was not my point.

After that, we also realised there were no linens for the duvet. I went to the reception again, got one, and was putting it on the duvet before going to bed. Then we found some kind of dirt-looking dirt whilst the linen seemed to have been washed. What was worse, that dirt was on the head (upper) side, so I asked my boyfriend to go to the reception this time. Then when he came back to the room, he said

“They said there was no linen, so they gave me a bunch of linens for the mattress. 😅”

😂

Again, I thought “Shanowen Square was better in terms of this point as well…” 😅

Eventually we just slept with two linens as it was hot although I liked that heavy duvet.

Yugo Kavanagh Court scorers 6.2 out of 10 in Booking.com. I doubted personally if it was worth 6.2.

Besiddes, you cannot check in Yugo Kavanagh Court before 3 pm. If you need to come earlier, they take care of your luggages though.

If I looked for an accommodation in Dublin, I would choose a better place. (If you plan to book way beforehand, then definitely there are more options.)

★Summary

To sum up, here were the accommodations that we used on our trip in Ireland in June, 2022! I personally praise myself a lot due to my actions that I took on the first day when we encountered the sheep. Also, really what you should have is friends! Since my friend and her husband helped us, I told her that I would thank her later, though it might be quite late.

Also, so far whenever I travelled by myself, I used hostels, but now I reckon that it doesn’t have to be expensive, but accommodations with a private space like hotels called business hotels in Japan could be my options. Honestly, I felt more relaxed in such an accommodation. A good sleep is important on a trip. While I believe I would still use hostels on my solo trips in the future as it’s cheaper, it’s physically hard to plan what to do and research something in a narrow space in bunk or triple bunk beds.

Due to the low JPY value, I was planning to visit Japan being a bit wealthy, if it’s affordable, I thought I wanted to stay in a hotel too.

Aitäh! 🙂

Let’s Rent a Car in Ireland.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

In 2021, I planned to go to Northern Ireland and Sweden in March, 2022. Although I have been to Northern Ireland before, I spent only a short time in Enniskillen that is just beyond the border of the Republic. Therefore, I wanted to go to the eastern coastal area, Giants Causeway, etc on the trip in 2022. (The purpose of going to Sweden was to go to a gig by Louis Tomlison from One Direction, by the way.)

At that time (in 2021), I also planned to go to a concert in Oslo, Norway by Harry Styles from One Direction too. However, the tour in Europe had been postponed without any certainty due to COVID. Thereinto, he cancelled all the concerts in the tour in the end, and yet extended the tour itself, so I had to buy a new ticket for a new date. Then, I found one day in Dublin in June! In addition to it, I wanted to visit Northern Ireland, see my friends in Dublin, and to try to travel with my boyfriend, so that was a great timing, and I decided to go there. I suggested to him to travel together with my solo plan to go to the concert, and he agreed “I want to drive a car in Ireland (because in Ireland it’s left-hand traffic opposed to the right-hand traffic in Estonia)”.

Well, eventually we didn’t go north but went west, but as planned we rented a car anyway, so here I’m going to talk about a car rental in Ireland.

Table of Contents

1. In Ireland: manual transmission vs. automatic transmission?
2. Car rental vs. car sharing
3. How many days and where to rent a car?
4. What is “Pay and Display” in Ireland?
5. Petrol price display in Ireland
★Summary

1. In Ireland: manual transmission vs. automatic transmission?

First of all, you may be curious which transmission type is more common in Ireland: manual or automatic. In Ireland, the manual transmission is more common. It seems few people use cars with the automatic transmission.

On the other hand, according to a staff member in one driving school in Estonia, it’s fifty-fifty. There are of course the manual transmission-cars, but personally it seems more cars with automatic transmission are sold in Estonia. Unlike Japan, in Estonia it costs the same in a driving school for both driving licence for the automatic transmission and the manual transmission. In regards to the hand traffic, similarly to other Continental countries, it’s the right-hand traffic (the American way) in Estonia.

Therefore, my boyfriend constantly said “I need a car with automatic transmission if I drive in Ireland” (because he had to change the speed with the opposite hand). So we were looking for a car with the automatic transmission when I suggested to him to book a car, but in April 2022, the prices for cars with the automatic transmission got twice as expensive as before. (It seemed to cost around 500 EUR at the end of March given that we rented a car with the automatic transmission for one week, but after that the price increased to 1000 EUR with the same conditions and period.)

We both were just saying “this is too expensive”.

2. Car rental vs. car sharing

Later on, one Estonian that I knew suggested to me “Perhaps it’s cheaper if you choose something like Bolt Drive or Citybee (car sharing)”, hence I googled, and found a car sharing service in Ireland called GoCar. I shared this information with him.

A few days after that, I happened to check GoCar’s FAQ, and found a sentence like “We are trying to verify you within 48 hours”, so I shared this information with my boyfriend one week before leaving for ireland. However, he really didn’t like planning (and was not very good at planning either), so it seemed he didn’t do anything… (Also, his mental condition wasn’t great at that time.)

Eventually we decided to rent a car, and didn’t choose car sharing, but at the end of this trip we concluded that renting a car was actually cheaper, maybe if the travelling type was like ours. If you have a specific destination, and no plan to drop by anywhere, I guess you may choose car sharing.

3. How many days and where to rent a car?

I have also heard that if you rent a car on site, it could be cheaper than booking one beforehand, but from the perspective as a Japanese person, you can never do this, especially in Japan…. Basically you need to book everything in Japan, and otherwise you will be necessity-less…

The following morning after arriving in Ireland, I searched for a car on a comparison website like Skyscanner or Google flights as a car rental version called Carhire.ie. (In other words, on Skyscanner, you can see flight schedules and airlines or travel agencies that offer, but on Carhire.ie you can see some car options and which car rental company offers those options.)

I have a Japanese driving license, and it does allow me to drive a car with the manual transmission, but I had never driven a car since I got the license, and moreover, due to the Geneva convention, I was not able to apply for an international driving license as I lived in Estonia more than one year, for whom it required to get a driving license in Estonia by going to the driving school and taking exams like a local person. Plus, I had no idea or knowledge about cars, so I completely asked him to select a car. (He loves cars and driving, and he does watch some YouTube channels about cars, so he has a lot of knowledge.)

Then, we decided to rent a car from the 23rd of June until the 27th of June, 2022.

Why did we select this time period? I was searching on Carhire.ie, looking at his searching filters, so I just put the same period as he did, and it seemed he just kept that filtering, and booked a car.

Well, please check the filtering before deciding.

😂

On Carhire.ie we chose a car rental company called Europcar, and rented at the office in Spencer Dock in Dublin. (The place to return the car for us was the same as well.)

When going to Northern Ireland (since it is the UK), probably the rules are different, and in such a case you need to check further.

When booking a car, it cost around 500 EUR, but at the Europcar office in Spencer Dock, he customised a lot (a car with diesel, a screen that shows the back side of the car, Bluetooth connection, etc), so around 400 EUR was added, and the total sum was approximately 900 EUR.

Also, he eventually decided to drive a car with the manual transmission. (Well it made sense as cars with the automatic transmission were too expensive.)This is why the initial payment was around 500 EUR.

By the way, according to my Japanese friend’s husband in Dublin, the reason why the cars with the automatic transmission were so expensive was probably because they reduced the number of cars with the automatic transmission due to less demand affected by COVID, so at that time, there were fewer cars with automatic transmission available in Ireland.

4. What is “Pay and Display” in Ireland?

Our flights for this trip were to and from Dublin, so our car rental started from Dublin too, but it seemed very difficult and stressful to drive a car in Dublin. I was just sitting next to my boyfriend, but I felt it.

Driving in Dublin.

When we rented a card, we did in the morning so we hadn’t eaten anything yet. Hence we agreed to have something somewhere a bit outside of the city centre, and we were looking for a car park, but

no car park was shown in Google maps!

We randomly went to some street, and temporarily stopped a car there as we could see “P”, and noticed there was a description “Pay and display”. When I searched, it seemed to be a system with which you can pay for parking via its app, by call, or at the ticket machine in that parking area. In our case, the app was not downloadable (in Estonian app stores on both Google Play and iOS), and calling didn’t work, so I had to look for an actual ticket machine. Then I found one.

There the ticket machine accepted the exact amount of coins. In Dublin, unless you have a Leap card, you need to pay in cash when getting on a Dublin bus, and since I knew they didn’t give any change, I had and bought a bunch of coins separately. Therefore, we were able to pay the exact amount of the ticket.

In this system, you need to pay for parking first, and you need to put the ticket in the front glass until you get back there. (The detailed explanation can be found at the ticket machine.)

In Ireland many places had this system, so I got used to it while travelling. In the countryside, some were free on Sundays.

However, the problem is that it is not shown in the map, so it’s hard to find one.

5. Petrol price display in Ireland

My boyfriend drives a diesel car in daily life in Estonia, so I often checked the price for diesel from the Tallinn bus in the days when the petrol prices were rising. In Estonia, the price is shown like “1.99” per litre. This means one litre of petrol costs “1 euro, 99 cents”.

On the other hand, in Ireland for some reason the price was shown in cents, the display was like “219” per litre.

This one shows “216” cents per litre.

In my opinion, if we want to calculate on our own, the Estonian way of display is better.

This section is just for your information. It does not mean “219 EUR” per litre.

★Summary

I really appreciate my boyfriend who drove a car for such a long long time in Ireland, and yet while travelling by car I wished I would have been able to drive a car, many times. Because if I had been able to, I would have been able to take turns with thim. (After that I seriously planned to go to a driving school in Estonia.)

One way took three hours at maximum, so even though he loved driving, it was physically exhausting to drive in a different land and in a different system, I believe.

Also, what I can say for sure is that a car is convenient. (I know it’s taken for granted.) You know we often want to go to places we want to go to while travelling. I reckoned that with a car I could use my time more freely, and visit any paces I wanted to almost without any compromise. However, next time when travelling by car, I definitely want to book one in advance. Even if it would be a solo trip.

Aitäh! 🙂

Hostels that I stayed in Stockholm and Gothenburg

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

I don’t basically choose hotels on my solo trips. Since I came to know using hostels when I was about to go to Ireland in 2015, fundamentally the accommodations during my trips are hostels. At that time, I happened to tell my Irish teacher in my university in Japan “I can’t move into the student accommodation right after arrival in Ireland, I think I need to book a hotel room for a few days” and he suggested to me “Why don’t you stay in a hostel? It’s cheaper”, which was the beginning. Since then, I have used hostels wherever I have travelled. (As a student, due to the flight schedules or airports’ locations, occasionally I had no choice but to stay in B&B.)

In the countryside there are more B&B accommodations, and it’s hard to find a hostel whilst in cities (almost) always there are hostels. Of course, there are hostels in Stockholm and Gothenburg. (Of course of “of course”.) In this article, I will talk about the hostels that I used on a trip to Sweden in March, 2022.

Table of Contents

1. Stockholm – Crafoord Place Hostel
     a. Super long on-hold booking
     b. Dusty?
     c. Overall review on Crafoord Place Hostel

2. Gothenburg – Backpackers Göteborg
     a. Location of the Backpackers Göteborg hostel
     b. Facilities in the Backpackers Göteborg hostel
     c. Overall review on the Backpackers Göteborg hostel

★Summary

1. Stockholm – Crafoord Place Hostel

Firstly, I’m going to discuss the hostel in Stockholm. In Stockholm I stayed in the hostel called Crafoord Place Hostel. This was my fourth visit to Stockholm. Depending on dates, times, and situations, the reasonable hostels vary, so this was my first time staying in Crafoord Place Hostel.

a. Super long on-hold booking

I booked Crafoord Place Hostel so as to go to a gig by Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, and yet the gig had been postponed owing to COVID, I had to change the booking dates in Crafoord Place Hostel as well. Initially I booked a bed via Hostelworld, but I directly communicated with Crafoord Place Hostel about putting off the booking.

When changing the booking details, I explained to them “I booked a bed because I planned to go to an event in Stockholm, but the event was postponed, and I don’t know the new date yet” and then they gave me a due date for rebooking for some months.

Before reaching the due date, I contacted Crafoord Place Hostel again, and they gave me another due date for rebooking as it was still in the middle of the pandemic.

After a while, I finally rebooked in 2022. Although it’s Crafoord Place Hostel’s business, they had been waiting for me very patiently. However, since the three-year waiting time made me forget the details of the booking, I thought I would stay in a mixed dormitory, but actually it was a female dormitory. (I was betrayed with my expectation in a good way.)

b. Dusty?

Crafoord Place Hostel was kind of dusty. Or maybe the room where I stayed rather than the entire Crafoord Place Hostel hostel? The room window was always open, and my bed was just under the window. At that time, in Stockholm due to its season, the city was so dusty, and I saw sandstorms several times. Hence, it was dusty in the hostel because of the city environment rather than the uncleanliness of the hostel.

In the hostel I shared a room with some other girls, so while I was out, they opened the window, the dust constantly came into the room. Ah….

c. Overall review on Crafoord Place Hostel

As an overall review to Crafoord Place Hostel, the hostel was okay in my opinion.

The biggest con is that there was no microwave in the kitchen. Also, there were few mags and cutleries either.

The bathroom was not problematic though. There was hot water, and it was clean. However, I needed to look for a hair dryer, but there was anyway.

It was neither good nor bad. However, if a location is crucial for you, maybe Crafoord Place Hostel isn’t for you because Crafoord Place Hostel is located in the centre of Stockholm, but not very close, and moreover, Crafoord Place Hostel is quite far from the old town (gamla stan).

2. Gothenburg – Backpackers Göteborg

In Gothenburg, Istayed in a hostel called Backpackers Göteborg, and yet I honestly don’t remember why I chose this hostel. However, overall the hostel was good, so it was not a bad decision.

a. Location of the Backpackers Göteborg hostel

The Backpackers Göteborg hostel’s location is pretty well. It’s in the centre of Gothenburg, and there are three supermarkets within walking distances. What is better, there was a pharmacy, electronic appliances shop for a rainy day (where I had to buy a cable for my iPhone as it suddenly broke), and tram and bus stops near the hostel.

The con is that it might be hard to find this hostel.

I saw a description like “The address is this, but the location is a bit different!” when I booked. Looking at the map, the Backpackers Göteborg hostel looks like being built together with the next building, but I believe both are the same. When you go to the actual address, you will see the sign board anyway, and you can ask the reception if the building is the Backpackers Göteborg hostel, so it shouldn’t be a big problem anyway.

b. Facilities in the Backpackers Göteborg hostel

The Backpackers Göteborg hostel’s facilities were pretty good too. In the kitchen, there were microwaves, ovens, cookers and lots of dinnerware. (And I accidentally broke one plate…) However, the dining area didn’t seem to welcome a solo traveller in my opinion. The furniture was placed as they had said: please share with other travellers in a friendly way or use it in a group.

The bathrooms in the Backpackers Göteborg hostel were sometimes good and sometimes not so good. In most of the times, it was okay though. The bathroom itself was spacious, which was a good point.

The room I stayed in the Backpackers Göteborg hostel was a female dormitory for 8 women, and each bed had a reading light, socket and curtain. In addition, under the lower beds, there were lockers with the numbers that correspond with each bed’s number. Although having a locker itself was convenient, it seemed like an older (type of) locker, so whenever I or someone opened or closed it, I heard the locker was with

with a creak…

It was very frustrating when I heard it during the sleep.

By the way, the point that a female traveller might be worried about, a hair dryer, was in the dormitory.

c. Overall review on the Backpackers Göteborg hostel

The Backpackers Göteborg hostel should score high in my personal opinion. Hostels can barely have perfect or very high scores, but if there are a couple of or some pros, your evaluation of the hostel would rise. Also, the cleanness of the bathroom is crucial. It affects our opinions and evaluations a lot, I believe.

Personally the biggest advantage was the Backpackers Göteborg hostel’s location, so perhaps those who wish to stay in hostels around the centre of Gothenburg could consider the Backpackers Göteborg hostel as an option.

★Summary

Whilst I don’t have any records or data about Crafoord Place Hostel anymore as the initial booking was too long ago, in the Backpackers Göteborg hostel, it cost around 25 EUR per night. (Yeah, it’s expensive…) Considering this price of a hostel room, hotels cost more, so for budget travellers as well as students hostels are better I guess.

This is kind of out of the topic, but occasionally there are people who think about their ages, and reckon “I’m too old to stay in a hostel”, but I’ve seen a bunch of Russian middle aged old men and women in a hostel in Dublin before, so age doesn’t matter. 👍

Aitäh! 🙂

5 Restaurants, Cafes in Stockholm, 3 Swedish Sweets You Should Try

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Even though my travel is a budget trip (as repeatedly said), I don’t always eat foods from a supermarket. Since Stockholm is still expensive, and I didn’t stay there so long, I didn’t try many restaurants and cafes in Stockholm. However I will introduce a few restaurants and cafes, including some Swedish sweets in this article, so have a look!

Table of Contents

     1. Restaurant
          a. Hawaii Poke
          b. Le Kebab Odenplan
     2. Cafe
          a. Kaffeverket
          b. Gast Café
          c. Vete-Katten
     3. Swedish sweets and tea
          a. Dammsugare
          b. Princess cake
          c. Havreboll, pärlboll, chokladboll
          d. Bilar
          e. Garant
     ★Summary

1. Restaurant

In Stockholm, I went to only two restaurants. This is because; on the first day, I went to a gig, on the third day I had a flight back to Tallinn at night, and I didn’t have anything I specifically wanted to eat. (I’m talking about meals and savouries, not sweets.)

a. Hawaii Poke

First off, Hawaii Poke is a chain poke restaurant over Stockholm. Truth to be told, as I had been on a ketogenic diet since the end of February, and while travelling in Sweden I was taking a break from the diet, I wanted to eat some rice. Also because it was warm in Stockholm, I wanted to eat some raw vegetables. Therefore, I chose Hawaii Poke.

After wandering around the islands such as Djurgården, I went to a Hawaii Poke place in the mainland but close to Skeppsholmen.

I ordered Hula Sunrise. Because the rice was warm, in terms of rice Hawaii Poke’s bowl was better than the ones available in Tallinn, but overall I personally prefer the poke with shrimps and kimchi available in Tallinn. (The restaurant is called Poke Bowl.)

This Hawaii Poke restaurant is so small, and there were only a couple of seats. Perhaps their main business is take-away. I actually had an impression that there were more takeaways.

b. Le Kebab Odenplan

Before going to Sweden this time, I had a “goal” that was “I will eat kebab in Sweden!”. In Estonia, of course you can eat kebabs but always the selections are chicken, pork and vegetables. Yes, it’s Estonianised. (I mean, although pork is often eaten in Estonia, kebab was mainly developed in Islamic culture.)

But what I want is a beef kebab!!!

Then I found a kebab restaurant called Le Kebab Odenplan. Their rate in Google map is good, and Le Kebab Odenplan restaurant was close to the hostel, so I chose there. It was a pretty fancy restaurant. (Either it didn’t look like a regular kebab place/stand or they didn’t have regular kebab menus.)

The order style was; order first, and then take a seat. I arrived there at 6.00 pm on Saturday, so it was full of people. Due to this, it was difficult to find a seat for even one person.

I ordered a kebab wrap, but there are meal menus too. (I ordered just a kebab wrap.)

Once I ate it, it was much more different than I expected, and it was disappointing. Additionally, the meat’s texture was like minced meat. To be honest, I thought kebabs available at a kebab stand on the street would be tastier. My order cost 139 SEK (around €13) though. By the way, I really liked kebabs at the kebab stand on the street in Siegen, Germany…

Le Kebab Odenplan restaurant can be an option for those who want to eat fancy kebabs, but if you really want to enjoy the tastes, I wouldn’t recommend Le Kebab Odenplan restaurant.

2. Café

Whilst I wonder “what’s the point of café-hopping?”, “the taste of coffee is almost the same everywhere unless it’s really bad?”, I do like going to cafés. In Stockholm, I visited two cafés. One of the cafés was something I decided to go to right before going there. The other one is a café that I wanted to go to for a specific purpose.

a. Kaffeverket

I went to Kaffeverket for brunch when I arrived in Stockholm. I arrived in the centre of Stockholm at past 11.30 in the morning. I found one more cafe that looked good, but since Kaffeverket seemed to close earlier than the other cafe, I chose Kaffeverket so as to prevent me from regretting when I would have felt like going to Kaffeverket later. 

In Kaffeverket, there were lots of people, but it wasn’t too crowded. Kaffeverket is a small cafe, and yet there are some more seats in the inner part of Kaffeverket.

I ordered filter coffee and a tuna sandwich because the sandwich appeared to be spicy. However, the tuna sandwich was different from what I expected:






Huge.

This tuna sandwich was like an Asian fusion sandwich, and it cost around 130 SEK. (It’s approximately 13 EUR.) As for the coffee, I wanted them to serve a hotter one to me. It was a bit lukewarm for me.

In Kaffeverket, I could not find any sockets. Their Wi-Fi seemed to require a password. (Since I hate communicating with strangers a lot, I kept roaming on my phone in Kaffeverket, so I’m not still sure whether you can get the password even if you ask the clerk there.) The Wi-Fi’s password could not be seen even in a receipt either.

As the food portion is big, if you wish to go to Kaffeverket, you should go there for the purpose of brunch or lunch rather than breakfast, in my opinion. Also, it might not be good for working or studying unless you are sure that you can get Wi-Fi.

b. Gast Café

In the morning, on the final day in Stockholm, I went to Gast Café after checking out of the hostel. This is because I had breakfast at the hostel, and just wanted to have some coffee at a café.

Maybe because it was Sunday, when I arrived at the Gast Café at past 11.30 am, it was so crowded. Hence it was pretty hard to find a seat for myself, and I had to choose a stool around which there was no space to put my backpack regardless of the size of the backpack. I really felt that the disadvantage of a solo trip is that you cannot keep a seat before ordering…

Plus, the Gast Café seems popular simply as a café. It was a lovely café, so if you want to try café-hopping in Stockholm, you may want to include Gast in your list.

c. Vete-Katten

I went to Vete-Katten for the specific purpose which was

I wanted to try princess cake!!!

I found information that Vete-Katten is highly evaluated, and surely you can have princess cake. That’s why I decided to go there in advance.

Vete-Katten was also crowded, but luckily I was able to keep a seat first. But if your accommodation is close to Vete-Katten, you may consider a take away too. (At Vete, it’s said that there are lots of pickpockets so be careful.)

I’ll write more about princess cake later in this article.

3. Swedish sweets and tea

Although it was my fourth time visiting Sweden, I was a poor student at the first visit, and I went there only for the purposes of concerts, I didn’t research almost anything about Sweden beforehand every time I went there. However, I resumed learning Swedish on my own, through the contents in the textbook, I realised there are more Sweden-specific things.

One of the Swedish things is Swedish sweets. There should be more in Sweden given that you research further, but here I’m going to talk about only three sweets. I chose something you will (never I think) be able to obtain in Estonia.

a. Dammsugare

The first Swedish sweet that I picked up is dammsugare. At a confectionery, I tried to pronounce “Dammsugare”, trying to remember the pronunciation in the textbook, the clerk didn’t understand. (Or maybe I misremembered the pronunciation.) so I said “damm…su…gare”. He understood what I wanted. 😂

If you are curious, Google “dammsugare” online. You will see a bunch of pictures of hoovers. You may think

”What???”

This is because “Dammsugare” means “a hoover” in Swedish. At the confectionery that I went to (the name is Ritorno Konditori), they sell dammsugare named “Volta” which is a hoover brand.

It’s a chocolate sweet, and although it’s small, you will get satisfied as its texture is heavy.

It’s tasty though.

As dammsugare was available at supermarkets too, I bought one for my boyfriend who said “What is something Swedish that we can’t get in Estonia lol” before going to Sweden. However, I understand his point because we can get Swedish products such as coffee. I happened to know about dammsugare this time, and yet if I didn’t research like the previous trips in Sweden, or hadn’t bought a Swedish language textbook with Swedish culture, I wouldn’t know dammsugare even now.

b. Princess cake

This is the cake that I briefly mentioned above.

Princess cake is a Swedish cake. The sponge cake has cream inside, and it’s covered with a light green marzipan. You can buy a whole princess cake or just a piece of the princess cake.

It tasted lighter than I thought. You can get the princess cake at a supermarket too, but of course it’s displayed at a cake corner, not at the counter for regular sweets.

FYI: the princess cake is suitable for black tea!

c. Havreboll, pärlboll, chokladboll

The last sweets are ball sweets. They are called havreboll, pärlboll as well as chokladboll (boll means a ball in Swedish), so I personally call them “ball sweets”. It seems there are basically those three types, and yet all those three are almost the same, containing oatmeal. Their size is like a mud ball that we used to make when we were kids at a nursery school.

Havreboll looks whitey, and contains coconuts.

Pärlboll doesn’t contain coconuts.

Chokladboll seems the most common and ordinary one among these three. In addition to oatmeal and coconuts, chokladboll’s another ingredient is cocoa powder, so it tastes literally like chocolate as in its name. Beside chokladboll is the best among these three types in my opinion…

You can for sure buy those balls at a green-coloured supermarket called Coop!

d. Bilar

Bilar means “cars (indefinite)” in Swedish, and it’s a gummy sweet. Since each gummy shape is like a car, it’s called “bilar”.

I bought a bag of bilar before going to Liseberg in case my friend and I would get a bit hungry there and could share bilar, but we didn’t eat at all, so I brought it back to Estonia and it turned into a souvenir for my workplace. 😂

Bilar

Bilar has two types: normal one and sour one.The normal one didn’t look tasty, so I bought the sour one, which was the right decision.

You can buy bilar anywhere in Sweden.

e. Garant

Garant is a Swedish food brand. As far as I know, based on my activities in Sweden, in Gothenburg, I found their tea series only in one supermarket called Hemköp.

What I bought were

  • Camomile, lemon balm and lavender
  • Mint and chocolate
  • Earl grey
  • Black tea with rhubarb and vanilla flavour

For my boyfriend as a souvenir (as a birthday gift), I bought camomile, lemon balm and lavender tea. (It’s because he sometimes works a lot to compensate for a no-work day.)

Two flavours of tea: camomile, lemon balm and lavender as well as mnt and chocolate
Upper: camomile, lemon balm and lavender
Lower: mint and chocolate

As of now, writing this chapter, it’s already summer, so I haven’t tried all the flavours but mint chocolate that I tried while staying at a hostel in Gothenburg. The mint chocolate one didn’t have strong flavours, but it was extraordinary and changed my mood.

Hemköp where you can buy Garant’s tea series in Gothenburg I know is only here:

★Summary

The restaurants and cafés above that I went to were for the purpose of something Swedish or something properly unavailable in Estonia. There are many many more in Stockholm of course. It might be fun to find one on the map too. (I personally want to try a meatball restaurant that I found in Google maps. Also I want to find a better kebab place.)

As for the chokladboll mentioned at the end of this article, you can Google some recipes so why don’t you try to make them on your own if you’re interested in them? The ingredients are nothing hard to find, and if what a Swedish YouTuber said is correct, people make it at home in Sweden.

Enjoy tasty and sweet Stockholm.

Aitäh! 🙂

SL App – Stockholm’s Public Transport App

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

While travelling, I usually walk a lot (to save money and to prevent myself from lack of exercise), but it does not mean that I don’t use public transports at all. Especially in Stockholm, three out of four times of the visits were for the purpose of concerts, I always used the public transports after the concerts.

In addition, this time I took a ferry just because I was interested in it.

The story here is nothing special, but maybe for some people the information is useful.

Table of Contents

1. App on public transports in Stockholm
     a. Check routes in the SL app
     b. Buy tickets in the SL app

2. How to take a ferry within Stockholm

★Summary

1. App on public transports in Stockholm

a. Check routes in the SL app

First of all, I’m gonna introduce a transport app called “SL” that you can use in Stockholm. It is just like the Västtrafik app in Gothenburg.

Here is how to use the SL app. Once you download the SL app, open “Travel”. Then you will see your current location in the SL app. (I had turned on the location access on the phone, so the map in the SL shows even Estonia.) From that page, you can check any routes.

Here I set the gig venue as a destination and the hostel’s address as an origin.

Then the SL app shows the route.

On the top right corner, there is “Journey settings’” from which you can set which transport type you wish to use. In default, I think everything is turned on. Also, when you go back to the previous page, you can set the date and time.

Once you select the route, the SL app shows the route in detail. In this case, from the hostel to the gig venue I just needed to take only one underground.

b. Buy tickets in the SL app

In order to purchase tickets in the SL app, open the SL app, and tap “Tickets” in the middle at the button. Then a blue bottom is shown, so tap that button.

Then you can see the page where the ticket types are shown.

If you tap “Other app tickets”, you will see some other tickets like the ticket valid for 24 hours, so select one that suits your trip. There is also a transport card called SLcard in Stockholm, but I never needed it, hence I just purchased a single travel ticket every time I needed.

Once you select the ticket, the SL app shows the price in the blue button again, so tap it and go to the payment page.

There are two payment options: Swish or card payment. I reckon almost all of the non-Swedish residents/travellers would have no choice but the card payment. This is because Swish seems to require you to connect your Swish account with your bank account.

Here the SL app shows my card as I have purchased tickets before, but for new users, or those who wish to use another card, you can simply add a new card from “Add card”. Enter the necessary information, and Confirm it. Then the payment is done.

Once you purchase a ticket, the SL app shows it to you. Before taking a transport, you need to scan the ticket at the machine, but unlike Västtrafik in Gothenburg, the ticket won’t be activated on purchasing it. I personally prefer the system in the SL app so that I don’t have to pay attention to the time, and can purchase tickets at any time beforehand.

2. How to take a ferry within Stockholm

While travelling in Stockholm, I suddenly wondered:

“Stockholm basically consists of several islands, so maybe there are ferries as a regular public transport option?”

So I searched, and I found there are!

If you look at one of the screenshots above, you may notice, and yet the SL app includes ferries as a transport option.

However, in reality, it was a bit cumbersome when travelling from Djurgården by ferry.

The ticket counters were closed, and there was some information about ferries, but it wasn’t well-explained… (It didn’t mention the ticket price for a ferry either.)

So I decided to ask a staff member when a ferry comes, and asked her, and she said

“You have a card!!??”

Um, yes…?

“Here!!!”

??????

“Here!!!!”

I realised she was not able to speak English that well… Anyway I just followed what she said, and scanned my debit card at the machine, and then immediately the payment was executed. I looked at the price shown in the machine and it cost only 1 SEK. It’s like 10 cents in EUR.

I’m not sure if this is because the distance is pretty short, or whatever, but still it was cheap even if it were not Stockholm. I would recommend using a ferry in Stockholm just as an activity there. To me a ferry as a regular public transport option in a city is extraordinary.

View from the ferry

The travelling time in the ferry was short as described, but I enjoyed myself from the perspective of a different type of public transports within a single city.

★Summary

In my opinion, Stockholm has many activities and museums in the main areas, so maybe you don’t need to take public transports that often, but it can be too far to walk depending on the destinations and where you are. Hence probably it’s good just to know they have the SL app for that in Stockholm

Also, as repeatedly mentioned, I really recommend the ferry travelling within Stockholm. If you love seas and ships, or have kids, you can probably enjoy it too.

Aitäh! 🙂

6 Places in Stockholm for Your Budget Trip

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm, is more urban than Tallinn, and has lots of museums. Among tourists the old town in Stockholm (called Gamla stan) is very popular. (People call it “Gamla stan” specifically, but “Gamla stan” actually means “old town” in Swedish. I often wonder why then the old town in Tallinn is not called “Vanalinn” among the tourists.)

Also, as written in the related articles repeatedly, my solo trip is basically a budget trip. However, I found a way to enjoy this expensive city as a frugal traveller, so you could refer to this article if you feel “I want to visit Stockholm, but I’m worried about my budget…”.

Table of Contents

1. Gig venue: Fryshuset

2. Djurgården
     a. Blå porten
     b. Villa Lusthusporten
     c. Skansen city quarters

3. Skeppsholmen
     a. Moderna Museet
     b. Gilded Crown on Skeppsholmsbron

★Summary

1. Gig venue: Fryshuset

In the first place, this trip to Sweden was planned for a gig by Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, which I had been waiting for three years since I bought a ticket (due to COVID). Unless you go to such an event, you may not visit a gig venue like Fryshuset, and yet I decided to include this place in this article.

As I already mentioned in some articles, this is my fourth time to visit Sweden, and three times were for concerts, but it was my first time to go to Fryshuset. I went there to queue with a relaxing plan as I took a nap because I couldn’t sleep well at the previous night although I arrived in Stockholm in the morning. Also, I thought “Meh, I don’t have to keep the front row”.

The closest station to Fryshuset is Gullmarsplan, and you would think:

Freaking hard to get out!

I walked everywhere in the Gullmarsplan station, and then finally was able to get out. (I could see the outside just over there from the Gullmarsplan station, but the exit was hard to find.) Once you get out of this station, it’s not complicated to reach the venue, Fryshuset.

Fryshuset is a regular gig venue. If you search on the map by its name, it might be difficult to find, but if you use Fryshuset’s physical address, maybe it’s easier. However, in reality, the area isn’t complex, so you can reach there more easily than you imagine.

Reference

At the cloak check in Fryshuset, there was no payment option such as by card or in cash available, but only by Swish. Swish seems to be a payment app by connecting a Swish account with one’s bank account in Sweden. I found out that at least a girl who appeared to come to Stockholm from outside of Sweden and I were not able to ask them to keep our bags at the cloak check, so we had to bring our bags and coats while watching the show. (She’s not my friend. I found she’s not Swedish as she was queuing in front of me speaking English to other people.) It was still March, so I wore a coat, but I went there with a backpack, so I could put everything in the backpack and hold it in the front, enjoying the show.

If it had been a small shoulder bag or something, I would have had no choice at all.

2. Djurgården

Have you heard of Djurgården? Me? I hadn’t.

I don’t know why, but suddenly I thought “I could take a ferry like an underground or a city bus because Stockholm consists of multiple small islands, couldn’t I?”

So I googled, and found out there was a ferry from Djurgården to the island next to Djurgården. I thought I wanted to try, so I decided to go to Djurgården.

For your information, ABBA The Museum is located in Djurgården.

a. Blå porten

Djurgården had more interesting things than I thought. For example, there is blå porten. Given that you go to Djurgården from the mainland (?), you will see a gate in super blue, and that is blå porten. To me a blue gate is atypical, hence I wanted to see it.

b. Villa Lusthusporten

Villa Lusthusporten is said to be a merchant’s house built in the 19th century. When looking at pictures online, the house looked nice in terms of its design, so I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

I’m not sure if you can go inside.

c. Skansen city quarters

I also saw Skansen city quarters in pictures, and looked nice, so I wanted to visit, and yet I found that it is in Skansen which is like a theme park and zoo, so I needed a ticket. One ticket costs around 20 EUR even for a student.

Strictly speaking, I didn’t go inside of Skansen’s area, but I saw something a bit from the outside, therefore I included this in the article. I’m still interested in this are. I might want to visit Stockholm for the fifth time…

It was a moment that I found Stockholm was more interesting if I searched about it more.

3. Skeppsholmen

Skeppsholmen is an island that I went to from Djurgården. I will talk about a ferry connecting these islands in a different article regarding public transports in Stockholm, so please check that one.

a. Moderna Museet

In Skeppsholmen, there is a museum called Moderna Museet. Partially it costs, but there are areas where you can go free of charge, and even only there you can see lots of art works, so I believe even a poor student can visit.

However, you cannot bring your backpack or a plastic water bottle. (A staff member ran to me telling me not to do it.) There are lockers behind Moderna Museet’s reception and the shop, and you can use them. There is a cloak check, but they told me to use the lockers for some reasons. (Then what’s the point of a cloak check…) It doesn’t cost to use those lockers by the way.

As a museum I enjoyed the Moderna Museet since there are Soviet-related works too. (I felt strange but interested as for me Sweden does not seem to be as much relevant as the Baltic countries to the Soviet.

b. Gilded Crown on Skeppsholmsbron

The Gilded Crown on Skeppsholmsbron is in the centre of the bridge that connects Skeppsholmen and the mainland.

There was nothing special, but I thought it sounded so Swedish just because of the crowns. If you walk to Skeppsholmen from the mainland, or vice versa, you can see them. The Gilded Crown on Skeppsholmsbron is decorated on both sides of the bridge, so you can choose whichever side you want.

★Summary

This article reveals how stingily I was travelling in Stockholm I believe, but I honestly think I should give myself a bit more reward after this trip. (But I’m so frugal, which prevents me from doing that.) On the other hand, my experiences might be useful for those who think their travels may be a budget trip, so it’s not in vain.

If you can spend more money, you can experience more, such as at ABBA The Museum, the Vasa museum, etc. Therefore I rethought and changed my thought; Stockholm is not boring as long as you have money.

😂

I realised I used to think “Stokcholm is boring, Gothenburg is more fun” because I “don’t have money”.

😂

Aitäh! 🙂

Sweden’s Aircoach: Flygbussarna

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

When it comes to travelling to the city centre or somewhere from an airport, in my opinion an aircoach is very useful at many airports. On the other hand you don’t need to take an aircoach when using an airport such as Tallinn airport or Dublin airport because those are not too far from the city centre. (As for Kansai International airport, depending on the origin, I sometimes use an aircoach, sometimes a train.) At airports in Sweden (at least at Arlanda airport in Stockholm as well as Landvetter airport in Gothenburg), an aircoach is more useful. In Sweden they have an aircoach called Flygbussarna. In this article I’ll talk about Flygbussarna.

Table of Contents
1. Flygbussarna’s website and mobile app
2. How to buy Flygbussarna’s tickets
3. Flygbussarna’s mobile app is convenient when travelling
4. Can you buy Flygbussarna’s tickets on site?
★Summary

1. Flygbussarna’s website and mobile app

Flygbussarna has both a website and a mobile app. The way to use either platform is almost the same as one another, so in the next chapter, I will talk about the procedure on only the mobile app (although I personally prefer using Flygbussarna’s website when purchasing a ticket 😅).

Unlike booking an accommodation on Booking.com or Hostelworld, Flygbussarna does not discount just because you use the mobile app. The ticket prices are the same on both the website and the mobile app.

2. How to buy Flygbussarna’s tickets

Here is a procedure of purchasing a ticket on Flygbussarna’s mobile app.

1) Once you open Flygbussarna’s mobile app, select an airport and Flygbussarna’s bus stop that you will or want to use. Here I selected Ladvetter airport and Flygbussarna’s bus stop in the city of Gothenburg called Korsvägen that I used when travelling there.

2) As you select the airport and the Flygbussarna bus stop, tap “BUY TICKET”.

3) Then the app shows you only the one-way ticket price first. On Flygbussarna, Youth is for those who are from 8 to 17 years old. Unless you know the return flight or a flight to a next destination, you can buy only one-way tickets of course, but if you know you will use the same airport, then it’s better to buy a round-trip ticket as the price is 20% cheaper. (This description can be seen only on the Flygbussarna website, and yet the price is still the same even if you use the Flygbussarna mobile app.)

4) Here’s a payment page. A traveller would use a card or PayPal payment. Here I choose a card payment.

5) Once you purchase tickets, your tickets will be shown in the “Tickets” section accessible at the bottom of the Flygbussarna mobile app. Moreover, you will receive an email with the tickets in PDF from Flygbussarna after purchasing, so you don’t need to worry if you cannot download and/or access the Flygbussarna mobile app.

Also, since the Flygbussarna tickets are valid for three months after purchasing, as long as the valid period covers your travel period, you can purchase Flygbussarna tickets earlier.

3. Flygbussarna’s mobile app is convenient when travelling

On iOS whilst you can save a PDF file in the “Apple Books” app, I personally prefer having the Flygbussarna app because it is faster for me to show the ticket (QR code) in the Flygbussarna app as described above, and I just need to scan it with the scanner in the Flygbussarna bus next to the driver. This way I don’t have to open the Apple Books app and look for the PDF file (as I sometimes have other documents that I need for my trip).

Of course, I don’t have the Flygbussarna app on my phone all the time. When I want to use apps specifically for the country or city that I travel to, then I download them temporarily, and use them only while travelling.

4. Can you buy Flygbussarna’s tickets on site?

Of course you can purchase tickets with the ticketing machine at each Flygbussarna stop. In the case of use of Landvetter airport, if you purchase an Adult one-way ticket at the machine, it costs 139 SEK, and tickets for a round trip costs 249 SEK, which are a bit more expensive than purchasing online beforehand. (This logic is not applied for only the use of Landvtter but in general when using Flygbussarna.) Also, the prices can be different depending on which direction you go.

You can check the Flygbussarna ticket prices on this page.

On the top of the screen, under the header, there is “Show prices for”, where you can select the airport.

★Summary

It’s easy to purchase a ticket on the Flygbussarna platform, isn’t it? You may use a train or a taxi if a Flybussarna bus does not arrive at the airport by the time you should be, or it’s too early to leave for the airport. If not, I would recommend you to try Flybussarna. (In the Flygbussarna bus, you can get Wifi and a USB charging port too!)

Aitäh! 🙂