Day in Dublin

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The next day trip we decided to take was to Dublin. We got on the bus around 9:00 and got to Dublin around 10:30. When we got there, we decided that the first thing we wanted to see was Trinity College and the Book of Kells. When we got there, we found out that the Book of Kells was not on display that day, so we'd have to come back another day to see it. After leaving Trinity College, we decided to split up into smaller groups because we were all interested in seeing different sites in the city. I went with Brittney and Erin to see Dublin Castle and then the Guinness Storehouse. The castle wasn’t as interesting as we thought it would be; we couldn’t find where to get tickets for a tour, so we just took a few pictures and then moved on. We weren’t exactly sure how to get to the Guinness Storehouse, so we wandered around the city a little, walking up and down hills and along the River Liffey. We eventually did find the Storehouse, and, after waiting in the long line for tickets, started on the tour. The inside of the Storehouse is set up like a giant pint glass. My strange fear of high ceilings made me uncomfortable at times, but overall, it was an interesting tour. My favorite part of the whole day was going up into the Gravity Bar at the end of the tour, which is a circular bar on the seventh floor of the Storehouse with windows all the way around. We got free pints of Guinness with our tickets, so we drank those while we admired the amazing view of the Dublin area. Luckily, it was a nice, sunny day, so we could see pretty far. Inside the bar, things were a little crazy; it was the day of the Ireland vs. France rugby game, so there were a lot of obnoxious, drunk French people in there.
After the Guinness tour, we headed back into the main part of the city to get lunch. We hadn’t eaten since we got to Dublin, and it was already the middle of the afternoon, so we got a big lunch of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. With full stomachs, we went outside and met up with Leigh and my mom and then walked around town a little. We went into some gift shops and then walked through the Temple Bar area, and then decided to find the bus station. Since we had gotten off the bus in the middle of town instead of at the bus station, we didn’t know where to go. We ended up getting there earlier than we needed to, so we spent about 45 minutes looking through the shops in the bus station and watching the rugby game.
Overall it was good day in Dublin, but unfortunately it ended with me leaving my cell phone on the bus on the way back to Carlow.

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