Days 126-127...Dublin, Ireland

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The flight into Dublin was very cool, we were amazed how flat the countryside surrounding the city is, it was also extremely green - which of course reminded us of home!

However once we landed it felt like we were back in London - a murky, drizzley day and about 15 degrees colder than Portugal! We were both hugely amused hearing the airport announcements in the strong irish accent, it sounds like someone is taking the piss - but then you realize, no no, thats how they ALL talk - heeheehee!

We caught a couple of buses to our Hotel in an area just outside the city centre called Ballymun. The hotel was lovely, virtually brand new, but the surrounding area was quite surburban without too much to see of interest - which was probably just as well, as we had only enough time to explore the centre of Dublin central during our brief 2 night stay!

We got up nice and early the next morning to make the most of our only full day in town, and headed off to the city to do an hop-on-hop-off open-top bus tour - these are really a great way to make sure you see all the sights in a city, especially when you have limited time. A lot of people talk down about these sort of bus tours as being too 'touristy' but that's bloody stupid - especially as we're tourists!

The bus tour was great, especially because of the occasional showers! We took in all the major sights: The guiness brewery, Trinity College, Temple Bar, the cathedrals and ancient roman walls etc etc. There is certainly a lot to see in such a small city, the plus side being the city is soo small you can actually see it all quite easily 😊 We stopped and had a pint of guiness in the 'Brazen Head' - the oldest pub in Dublin, 12th century (well, I had Guiness, Kristi had a weird berry cider called 'Druids' - how appropriate!).

We managed to find time to visit the museum of natural history and see all the stuffed animals - actual stuffed animals - not soft toys as Kristi intitially suspected! and also had a look around the Irish History Museum with all the amazing Celtic artifacts - which also had some pretty cool egyptian stuff too.

Considering the brief time we had in Dublin, we certainly made the most of our time and saw a huge amount of interesting sights and places. However it must be said that my lasting impression of Dublin wasn't great, I enjoyed our time there but don't think I would go back - it just so similar to london in so many ways - I would much rather explore other areas of Ireland when we go back, perhaps sticking to the remote rural areas.

After an exhausting day tearing around Dublin we went to bed at a decent hour, as we had an insanely early flight home to London - we had to get up at 3.45!

Next stop, back to London for another 8 weeks of work - uuuurrrrrggggghhhhh.

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