Dublin, Ireland- Part 1

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After a 18 hour flight with an unexpected layover due to weather I have finally touched down in Dublin's airport. Whew, when I say that that was the worst/scariest flight I have ever experienced, I'm telling you the truth. Oh well, I'm in Dublin now, who needs to complain? This is my first time out of the states, and me being ecstatic is an understatement. After I meet up with my friend, Bailey we head to catch the bus outside. It's about 4 o'clock now, and the airport is buzzing due to the time and all the layovers that were rerouted. So we walk outside and can you say freezing rain? Holy moly, I really have never felt this type of weather before being from the great humid state of Louisiana. But what the hell....im in Ireland, who cares about the weather. I walk up to the man who is taking giving out tickets and he asks me "what's the craic?" now, I am officially in Ireland, and I am really head over heels for this country and the accents. woohoo. *For those of you who don't know craic is, it basically means "what's up?"

Alright so we get on the bus and head to meet our friend at his apartment right on the outside of the center of the city. After we let out a few squeals of being where we are we muster a few chuckles that the bus driver is sitting on the opposite side of the car. Am I ever going to get over this? Probably not. We drive through the city, and it isn't what I thought it would be like. It's better. And people are driving on the wrong side of the road! *teehee* We take our stop, and start walking down the street to our friends place. I'm amazed at the amount of people walking on the roads (where I'm from, walking and bike riding is almost nonexistent) so this is cool right? Anyways, long story short for the night, jet lag hit us hard and we had a quiet night in discussing what we were going to do the next day along with some AMAZING Irish whisky (can't be in Ireland without some amazing whisky).

Next morning we woke up and walked down the corner to get an Irish breakfast roll, which is entitled of a sandwich baguette, egg, sausage, and some sort of delicious sauce. ayiyiyi, first Irish food, I'm excited. Oh and the weather is freaking phenomenal. So we catch a bus into the city and our host is going to show us some of the greatest areas Dublin has to offer.

First stop is St. Stephen's Greens, which is this huge park/garden that has the most vibrant shades of greens I have ever seen (hence the name greens). We walk around that for a while, all the while I am still extremely giddy still in awe that I am in Europe finally. There is a good amount of people there, but not in any means excessive, its really nice and super peaceful. After that we walk around to Grafton Street, now this is where the masses of people are. But it's still not overwhelming, I've also never heard so many different languages coming from ever angle *cue giddiness. Grafton street is just chock full of shopping, anything you could think of, they probably have it. We didn't do any shopping we just decided to walk around, we ended up signing a couple of different petitions for different groups and stopped to listen to a couple of Irish folks playing some traditional Irish music. That was cool. We then went to Trinity College, and walked around the campus. Uh....so beautiful. I cannot imagine going to a campus this beautiful with this much history behind it. I actually stood in the same spot that Bram Stoker stood while he gave his speeches *cue EXTREME giddiness, super huge fan of Dracula. Unfortunately the book of kells were closed so we didn't get to see that, which was a bummer. After that we walked down to Temple Bar area, which is on the other side of the river liffey. Ah....the river also, SO BEAUTIFUL. as we were walking to the opposite side we came across and area that have a bunch of locks on it and people throw the keys into the river as they make a wish.

After walking around temple bar, we decide to walk down to phoenix park (which is the largest park in Ireland....and I think maybe Europe, but don't quote me on that) where we are going to rent some "cycles" and ride around. We get there a little late just because the walk was pretty far, and only get an hour to ride the bikes. Whew, okay I'm not the most experienced bike rider and trying to ride a bike uphill and against the wind, kicked my butt. Both me and my friend, while our hosts were cruising the hills like it was their jobs. We yelled we would meet them back downhill and decided to go at our own pace. The park was incredible. The sun was setting also, so it was just breathtaking. Am I really in Ireland? Is this really real life? I am just so happy. But I'm hungry too....we decide we want some IRISH food, and were talking traditional as it gets. When we get back to turn in the rentals we ask the guy what he thinks and he tells us this awesome pub area that serves the food were looking for. We make the walk over and it looks great. I order fish and chips and my friend orders Shepard's pie. wait.....yum, I am in heaven. Oh, and we ordered a pint of Guinness. If your a Guinness fan, you can't be a fan until you had it in Dublin. Dear God...it was like heaven in my mouth. After our meal we ended up heading back home, and jet lag still is gnawing at me, and I'm exhausted.

The next day is another beautiful day (were getting lucky on this weather) and we head down to see a castle that's just really on the side of this hill. We get out and I really am struck by how awesome this is. Okay first off....this castle was built in the 1st century and secondly its on a hill that's just rolling in green and its just beautiful. How cool is this??? So we get to go into the castle, and you can tell how old this place really is. I LOVE IRELAND. So after that, we decide were going to continue with our touristy things and we head to the Guinness Storehouse, because you can't fully to Dublin without visiting this place. I really recommend doing this place also, it really is cool. Especially if your into the beer, because at the end of the tour you get to go up to the Gravity Bar, that overlooks the whole city of Dublin and you get a free pint of beer. I mean you can't get a much better Guinness than one made SERIOUSLY RIGHT IN THE SAME BUILDING. So yeah, moral of the story....I love Guinness and I loved this place. Yay beer and Dublin!

After this awesome adventure we decided to hit some of the pubs in Temple Bar, yeeeeey more beer. Another point. If your in Dublin, please go down to Temple Bar. Your going to meet some INCREDIBLE people and have really maybe the time of your life, depending on how much your into meeting awesome people and drinking awesome beer. Long story made short, I had an awesome time there, but the ending of the night didn't end so well with our host....so we decided the rest of the time would be spent sleeping in a hostel. Which before you knock it, hostel's are GREAT. I mean I can't vouch for every hostel, but the ones we stayed out (that were moderately priced with great reviews) were awesome!! More of that to come.....

So the next morning we took a bus to our hostel, and there we checked in and took showers, and then head out. Also to make a note on that, our hostel was literally in the center of the city on Merchants Quay, can you get any better than that? If your willing to share your space with complete strangers for a little while, there's really no better way to travel. You meet new people, you make amazing memories, you get a lot of free stuff, and it's steps from what you really are in the country for. But anyways, the day was yet ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY. I think maybe I just have luck on my side. So we headed out, and we decided to start our day with lunch at another awesome restaraunt and then we went to Dublin Castle.

Okay so I'm a HUGEEE history buff, and I love anything that has any sort of incredible history tied to it, so Dublin castle was SPECTACULAR to me. I also highly recommend going to see this, and also taking the free guided tour that comes along with it. There are so many cool background stories and pieces in the castle that has so much history behind it, my mouth was permantely open the whole time. After the castle we headed to Christ Church. I am not the most religious person in the world, but seriously after entering that church I felt a sense of calm and peace that I really have never felt before, and that itself was pretty freaking cool. And talk about beautiful and intricate.....you won't see any of this back home, that's for sure. I really enjoyed our visit to the church, and it was awesome to be standing in a place that so many people have turned to for comfort and relief throughout the years. The crypts underneath the church grounds was really pretty cool and kinda eerie also! After the church we decided we were going to grab a drink, because what else do you do at night in Dublin besides get alcohol? 😉 We stopped at a pub that had great happy hour specials (I honestly think every night and every hour in Ireland should have happy hour, but that's just me).....the night ended good with great food, great people, great music, and great drinks.....



And this is only the third day in Ireland....I may have found my happy place. 😊

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

1st time out of the states
Congratulations! I found your blog this morning and I'm happy to read about your adventure. You are beginning a wonderful time of your life and travel will enrich it. Your joy and happiness comes out in your writing. We've traveled a lot but have not made it to Ireland yet and we may go in March so I'll be looking to see what you have to say about things. Looking forward to reading some of the history and our impression of the country and the people.