On June 7th, we were back in Dublin! Our hostel was centrally located in the Temple Bar area - perfect spot! I really liked Dublin - mainly because the people are so stinkin' nice :) Well, actually, every single Irish person I met was exceptionally nice and welcoming. Dublin was our last stop in Ireland prior to heading back to England and I was kind of sad to be leaving. We really had a great time touring around Ireland. The beauty of the country was warmly expressed by its people and I look forward to returning to Ireland at some point in the future.
On a side note, the one thing I will not miss about Ireland though is that it was so expensive! Just to do laundry cost €9. Lettuce....simple green lettuce was €2 for a few leaves. Minor pitfall due to the economy - but I will be back to Ireland!
Here are some pics from my time in Dublin:
Temple Bar area
While walking, we saw the former home was Oscar Wilde.
Dublin City Centre - O'Connell Street (You'll find the Savoy Cinema along this street which was mentioned in a previous post)
The Irish love their whiskey and beer
This monument on O'Connell Street is a ......can you guess? It's a knitting needle!
The River Liffey runs through the city of Dublin. There are many pedestrian only walkways to cross the river, as well as bridges for vehicles.
View of Dublin from the Guinness Factory - yes, yes, yes, I did a tour of the Guinness Factory. I wasn't interested in the beer itself, but I heard the tour was actually quite fascinating and historical, so I suckered myself into it. The Gravity Bar on the top floor though had impressive views of the city!
When you visit the Guinness Factory and take the self-guided tour, it includes a pint of the dark stuff. Oh man, I don't know how people down that bitter solution. I drank probably about 1/10 of the pint and then left the glass on the table. It was far too bitter for me and made me want to belch. Not pretty! On the other hand, I was introduced to Bulmers while in Killarney and that stuff is good!
Update: Matt's pic of the oldest pub in Dublin:
Ok! Wow Dublin! It seems like such a long time ago! I need to sit down and remember. I new from the first time i was in dublin i wanted to see the night life. I do perfer the traditional scene from other cities in Ireland, but was dublin!
ReplyDeleteWe will come back to that though. I was talking to my dad on the phone and he was telling me that one of the ushers at my parents wedding; last he heard was there. We are talked 20 years ago. My dad remembered that he owned the oldest pub in dublin! So i was on a mission to find this pub! So with a little help from google i found where it was; The Brazen Head pub! Est 1198! Turns out it is also irelands oldest pub! I went inside and asked if Eugene Hefferty worked there. The young waitress didnt know and asked around another waitress came over and said that he had sold the pub about 7 years ago and she did not know where he was now. Sorry dad i tried! I asked Jane to post a picture of the pub but internet has been slow so keep checking for a photo update.
I didnt make it in the guiness factory. I dont drink and dont feel the need to tour yet another brewery. Other than that dublin was a very modern city for the most part lots of shopping. The temple bar area was interesting but did not have the traditional music that we had growen to enjoy in the small cities of ireland.
So the last night we were there i met some girls from california. They met some people from dublin and we also met some people from New Zealand, France and Vancouver. So this was also a night of one of the Canuck games and you can imagine that we were looking to find a bar that would stay open for us to watch the game! We were unable to find one :-(. So everyone started drinking all kinds of booze trying to out drink the irish! It was very entertaining! At one point i saw a Dubliner drink red wine and captain morgan spiced rum mixed in a single through back of the head! Wow! At this point i think there was around 20 of us. We all treked down to a club where emo seemed to be the dress code for those that dont know emo is guys wearing girl cloths that are 2 sizes too small needless the guys that were in our group stood out! That was a good thing! Haha! We were there until about 3 am and left to come back to the hostel at this time but not in this order i saw so crazy old guy in his tighty whitey do sit ups at 330 in the morning, i saw a 6'6" dutch guy get yelled at by 5 foot nothing california girl for being an a$$hole, and a guy from chilli salsa dancing byhimself! All in all met some good people in dublin and some interesting ones too! Did sleep that night as we had to be up for the ferry to holyhead at 6am. Haha! Thats my short little blurb of Dublin!
Malia greece is coming up! :-)