Alright, here it is! Finally, I give you the long-awaited Dublin post.
Two weekends ago, I travelled to Dublin with Anne and Judy (my Strasbourg travel buddies). We left our respective apartments at about 5:30 am...to get on the metro...to get on an hour and a half-long bus to Beauvais (an airport outside of Paris). We arrived in Dublin around 11 am Ireland time and found our hostel, which turned out to be more like a bed and breakfast. The woman who runs it is adorable, and her accent is so thick, we could barely understand her. We had signed up for a 4-person MIXED room, meaning, we could've had another person with us, and what's more, it could've been a random guy. Luckily, there were no single travelers at our hostel that weekend, so it was just the three of us in the room. *Sigh of relief*
Anyway, this weekend served as a wonderful getaway from Paris. Dublin, the city, is much smaller than we envisioned, but it's very quaint. It was nice to be somewhere where everyone spoke English (even if we could barely understand their accents...they're much thicker than in the movies), and basically, it was just nice to be away from the Parisian attitude. The people are kind and helpful...like they actually want you there!! (what a novel concept!) In Dublin, no one ignored us when we asked for help. No one shot us disdainful looks as we ordered food or shopped. No men gave us the creepy elevator eyes sweep, followed us around, or harassed us. All in all, it was a breath of fresh air.
Anne and I on Friday night at the pub...this is out of order (sorry!), so read about it down a little bit farther...
Grafton Street, a popular shopping area.
Grafton Street, as well
views from a bridge as we explored the city on our first day
the other side of the bridge
Friday night, we went out to the popular Temple Bar area, where there a ton of bars and restaurants. However, even though the drinking age in Ireland is 18, several the bars in Temple Bar are 21 and up. We were incredibly frustrated, but we eventually found this pub that had live music. It ended up being a really good time, and the musicians were pretty good and played a lot of traditional Irish music.
The next day, we bought tickets for the Guinness Factory tour. We found out the best way to get there was to walk. However, the Irish, like the French, aren't terribly specific with their directions, so that, mixed with our poor sense of direction, resulted in us getting lost. However, we wandered through a suburban-looking area with some cute architecture.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
more views...
There is a really pretty courtyard area in the back. We almost missed it, but luckily, Judy wandered around and stumbled upon it.
On our long walk to the Guinness factory, we encountered several other churches...
...churches complete with more adorable gardens :-)
I liked the flowerbeds in the middle of the city...
No explanation. I just had to snap the picture. I have no idea what these are...
We finally made it!
...and then still had to follow a bunch of signs
hops!
Arthur Guinness
The current owner?? of Guinness...he was in all of these videos that were playing, and he couldn't refrain from flailing his hands around constantly as he talked...pretty amusing.
an old ad
the famous signature. (I wish mine was this pretty.)
views of the city from the Sky Bar at the end of our tour
At the end of our tour, we ended up on the top floor, the Sky Bar. They give you a free pint of Guinness at the end of the tour, but Judy and I don't like beer, so we kept Anne company as she drank hers and found some cute, friendly English boys (don't worry, they were too old for us) to offer our tickets to. It turns out we picked a good bunch of them because we ended up chatting for like 45 minutes as Anne finished her beer. :-)
Kilmainham Jail...After our factory tour and lunch, we ventured to find the famous jail. Sadly, we got there at 5:30, but they had closed at 5. Sooo, we took a few pictures from the outside.
on our way to/from the jail...wandering around some sidestreets...
Our cute little hostel! At night, [sometimes] they light up the neon sign...yes, we thought it was pretty cool.
On Sunday, our flight wasn't until the late afternoon, so we went to Dublin Castle. (Yes, that's it's name...creative, right?) As you'll see from the following photos, it was a bit bizarre in terms of location. Essentially, there are some very modern buildings right next to it...let's just say, an interesting juxtaposition...
from inside the courtyard
looking into the garden
The garden wall...but do you see what I mean?? This is just strange to me...
the back of the castle, taken from the garden, of course
the little door makes it look like a *secret* garden :-)
the [somewhat] friendly feline we encountered in the garden.
There's an Irish design in the grass; it's hard to see though.
I'm thinking this was added several years after the castle was built...
Finally, we stopped at a little cafe for some hot beverages and lunch before departing for the airport. 'Twas a good way to end our Irish weekend.
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