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Published: January 30th 2007
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So dawned our last full day in Ireland (sniff sniff). Jenn and I didn’t have to catch our bus to Dublin til 11:30, so we lazed around this morning, trying to get some food into our hungover bodies and listening to some Counting Crows while we packed up and got ready to head out.
We called a cab to take us to the bus/rail station - this cab only cost us 4 euros, and the one the night before that had taken us a much shorter distance had cost 7 euros. Hmmm. We had a bit of a wait at the station, but boarded our last bus of the trip to Dublin, with help from some French guys also travelling on the bus. They eagerly put our luggage in the storage under the bus for us, including the bag I had planned to take on the bus with me, before I could even say a word. I had to retrieve it, but I thanked them anyway - everyone we came across was so friendly and helpful. This bus was supposed to take 2 hours and 15 minutes, but ended up being closer to 3 hours because of the traffic coming into Dublin. Neither of us wanted to deal with finding the hostel on our own, so we got a cab at the bus station, and it dropped us off right at Avalon House hostel on Aungier Street.
We didn’t spend much time there, but this hostel seemed to have a good atmosphere and plenty of stuff to do. Our room, however, was probably the tiniest we’d had on this trip and I couldn’t imagine having to stay there more than one night, with all of our luggage. This was also the only time we had to share a bathroom, but we’d both had showers in Kilkenny before we left, so it wasn’t a big deal. Our room had a sink and mirror, so we were good to go.
Both of us were absolutely starving, and we’d planned to visit our old greasy standby, Harcourt Diner, for some lunch, but we didn’t make it that far. Instead, we had a decent lunch at a café near our hostel, and set off to the Grafton Street area to pick up some last minute souvenirs. It was nice to be back in Dublin - felt like meeting up with an old friend - and we knew our way around much better this time around. We were both pretty exhausted from the late night we had the night before, so we didn’t last long walking around and headed back to the hostel for a looooong nap, which took us into the evening.
Since we were so sleepy, we wondered whether we should go out on the town. If you actually believed me there, my trip report has not given you an accurate picture of how we do things. Haha. It was our last night in Ireland and we weren’t about to spend it sleeping. We thought it would only be fitting to go back to the first pub we’d visited in Ireland - the Bleeding Horse - so that’s exactly what we did. Jenn and I enjoyed a few drinks there and got someone to take a picture of us, toasting our trip. Eventually, we made our way over to Flannery’s, because we’d had a fun time there the first time around as well. There, we got treated to a ‘dance-off’ - wow, these guys had moves - and then it was off to Copper Face Jacks on Harcourt Street. I had heard terrible things about this place and great things about it, so I was eager to see what is was all about. Well, let me just tell you that it was brutal. We paid our 10 euros each to get in, only to discover that it was full of creepy-looking guys and maybe 10 girls. Strange. We were there for maybe 2 minutes and then hightailed it back to Wexford Street.
By this time, there was a huge line to get into Flannery’s, and Jenn was pretty exhausted, so she headed just up the street to the hostel. I’d read about Whelans while doing research for the trip, so I went over there to cap off the night. It was really crowded, and you have to fight your way through a maze to get to the washrooms, but I enjoyed it. The crowd was really lively and friendly, especially out in the patio area, and some new friends walked me just up the street to the hostel, where I settled in for a refreshing 4 hours of sleep. All in all, a fun night to end a fun trip.
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