The Emerald Isle

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My trip to Dublin couldn’t have got off to a worse start, the taxi I was in broke down on the way to London Gatwick, they had no spare taxi so I had to wait by the side of the motorway and the breakdown down people took ages. Net Result, I missed my flight

Anyway, Arrived at Dublin Airport 4 hours later and £104 odd lighter. Jumped on a bus which took me as far as Connery Train Station in the city centre where I jumped in a taxi to take me to my hostel, Abbey Court

The Taxi driver started to tell me about his fear of flying and asked me to write a letter to his travel agent to cancel a flight to Orlando, which i thought was a tad weird but did it anyway.

I checked into my hostel, dropped of my bag and I was off. With only a list of places to visit and no street map I decided that the best way to see Dublin was a tour bus. Now usually I wouldn’t do tour buses but i have no map, I was 4 hours late so I thought I would see what it was like; a 24 hrs ticket cost me 14 Euros and claimed to show you all the main attractions...

My first stop was stop 3 - Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells, which is a 9th century book containing some of the Gospels. I made my way to the main attraction but in the end didn’t see it cos the queue was massive ... Back to the tour bus and my next stop!!

My next stop was Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral ... Stop 10. This castle wasn’t as grand as others I have seen on my travels but that may be because it was destroyed. I had a wonder around and then made my way across to the Cathedral. I paid my 5 euro "donation" and went in. Now, the only problem I have with cathedrals is that they all look the same. I walked out a little disappointed with both attractions and got back on the bus

My next stop, Stop 13 was in my belief one of the highlights of Dublin. I mean you can’t go to Dublin and not indulge in a pint. Yes, you guessed it a Guinness Tour. It was a walk round tour that you could do in your own time. It highlighted the brewing process of the black stuff. It was really interesting but what was the best thing was the free pint, which, though I am not a big fan slipped down quite nicely!! "When in Rome do like the Romans" Jumped back on the tour bus and it was getting late so I decided to call it a night on the tour bus. Whilst driving around the brewery premises the tour driver provided some really interested facts such as the brewery maximum capacity is 5 million pints a day but usually produces somewhere between 2 to 3 million pints a day and the average daily consumption in Ireland is 440,000 pints!!!!

Anyway, I got the tour bus back to my hostel as it stopped right outside my hostel and relaxed a bit as I was planning to do a ghost tour in the evening

8 O’clock came around and i jumped yet again on another tour bus. The ghost tour took as round Dublin showing as the darker side of Dublin. Our host for the night told us tales such as Bram Stoker was actually born in Dublin and based his Dracula novel on the cholera epidemic of the time. We stopped in a grave yard to be told stories of body snatchers and treated to a lesson in bodysnatching (so if i every need money ... 😉 no, only joking.) Anyway back on the coach we got and treated to more stories then not much later we got off again at the most haunted place in Dublin. That was at St. Auden’s Gate. The gate was set into the wall that protected the city in 1275. This gate is the only gate that has been left in place; behind it were 40 steps, which to this day people have claimed to see a ghost. The tour ended and it was a very enjoyable evening.

The Wednesday started with more booze. To be exact a tour of the old Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour. It was exactly the same but the only difference was that it was a guided tour which was great and again ended with a free shot of Jameson whiskey. After I decide to get a bit of food, I went across the road to The Brazen Head ... the oldest pub in Dublin; it was established in 1198. After this i walked down the road to St. Michans Church. The church is the oldest in Dublin's north side being founded in 1095. I walked in and it did appear to be another church and then a person appeared and asked if I was here for the vault tour. Under the church there are 5 long burial vaults and the most amazing thing about this is that due to the consistent dry atmosphere has caused mummification of the bodies and preservation of the coffins. It was great. Anyway that pretty much the end of my adventure, after i went shopping and then jumped back on a bus and made my way to the airport......

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Photos

Guinness ... Yummy!
Me Standing outside the brewery

Whiskey Tour
More Alcohol

Clardon Hotel
Partly Owned by U2's Bono and The Edge