The Dubliners (Remix feat. Sarah and Family)

Hey Everybody,

I know it's been a while but well, it's finials time and that's my only excuse. This is the first of my backtracking posts and it's all about my little family adventure to Dublin. My Dad came for a 10 day Irish adventure and my brother Rob joined us for his last five days in Dublin. Side-note: this all happened April 3rd-7th.

My dad traveled ahead of me after a weekend in Galway because I had a final (and I obviously couldn't skip it to see more Irish countryside) so on the 3rd I departed for the Dublin International Airport to pick up Rob. This I did almost successfully seeing as I was at the arrivals gate looking right at it but didn't see him walk out but don't worry, he saw me and we headed into the city to find our hostel - Dad was staying in a hotel in another part of the city. We located the hostel after only walking in a circle twice - a major feat - and checked in only to learn that there were about a million kids staying in the hostel on school trips and the like so we'd have to switch rooms after the first night. We weren't really bothered by this (yet.) so we dropped our stuff and headed out.

Rob, having visited for St. Patrick's Day, was well aware of the appeal of Irish pubs so it was super convenient that there was one right next to our hostel. Naturally, we decided to head in for a pint before meeting up with Dad - he's a very bad influence. I think Malley's must've been the oldest pub I've been in since getting to Ireland. Everything looked and felt ancient - except for us and the bartender - but it was a good kind of ancient, the kind with woodwork the likes of which I had never seen before  and it was beautiful. So we had our first pints of the trip, watched a little horseracing and then headed out to find Dad's hotel. This proved to be more than an adventure than it should have been. We spent two hours walking in circles trying to find our way to the LUAS which is like a cable car system in the city - except we didn't know it was a cable car we were looking for, the lady at the hostel said we should look for the "train station" right around the corner. So naturally we were looking at the tracks that were overhead and trying to follow them to a station.

We found our way into the back entrance of a train station and walked straight onto the platform - a security risk if I ever saw one! Realizing the error of our ways we walked through into the main part of the station - no one asked us why we were on the platform and the security guard just smiled in typical Irish fashion as we walked past him out of the 'tickets only' area. We then were trying to figure out if this was where we got tickets from or not we stood in line to talk to a teller. The guy behind the glass looked really confused when we showed him a map and were like "We're trying to get here" *pointing to area of the city*. He told us that we wanted the LUAS which had a station a short downwards escalator ride away from where we were. We finally got onto the LUAS and after only one confused hop off (which was totally my bad) we got to the hotel feet hurting and tired.  We ended up having a relaxed dinner and pints at the hotel with Dad and planned for what we wanted to see over the course of the next few days. Deciding to get a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket in the morning we parted for the night.

Taking the LUAS back was a much easier process considering there was a station right at the end of the street our hostel was on. Before heading to bed Rob and I stopped in another pub - a Galway Bay Brewery one to be exact, I was a little 'home'sick. After our pints we headed back to our hostel to catch some Zzs which sorta worked until like 3am when our roommates (we were in a 10 bed room) came in drunk and rowdy. We eventually got back to sleep looking forward to the free breakfast in the morning. However, when we woke we were greeted with the free breakfast of cornflakes and toast - yummy. We checked out of our current room (like I said we had to switch cause of the kids of which there were A LOT) and headed out to Dad's hotel - which was a lot easier this time around.

Once we picked up Dad and got two-day passes for the hop-on-hop-off bus we headed out to get on the next bus (which conveniently had stops across the street from the hotel). We got onto the second floor of the double-decker bus and sat back to enjoy the beautiful learning experience.

Our Sweet Ride

As we were riding we decided the first place we wanted to go to was the Guinness Factory so that's where we hopped off. The story behind the factory is that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the brewery (yeah you read that right, nine thousand years). The inside of the place is shaped like a gigantic Guinness glass - sounds weird but it's super cool. While I wasn't expecting the tour to take as long as it did I learned a lot about Guinness - how it's made, how it came to all parts of the world, how to taste it, and more importantly how to pour it (you are reading the post of a Guinness Academy graduate).

We had lunch at a café at the factory - named Arthur's Café after the creator of the black stuff we love today. Dad ordered a Guinness but Rob and I were too full of our academy pints to head down that road so I ordered a Carlsberg and Rob ordered a Black Velvet. Rob was unaware that this was a champagne-Guinness cocktail and upon his disappointed look I offered up a trade - the Black Velvet was really good! We were very impressed with the bartender's clover in the head of Dad's Guinness which we were quick to snap pictures of before bringing it back to the table. We had some great food and shopped a little downstairs before heading back to Dad's hotel.

Super cool huh?

After a little R&R at the hotel we headed out for some dinner. The first place was super busy so we went across the street to a smaller pub. Rob got a stew which could've fed an entire third world country (I exaggerate but really the bowl was bigger than his face), Dad got a pie, and I got a sandwich. After good food and pints for each we took Dad back to his hotel and Rob and I made our way back to the hostel. After checking into our new room and freshening up we headed out for a few drinks at a bar close to our hostel and had some great bonding time.

We were woken up again in the middle of the night by a different group of drunken people but this as slightly made up for by the appearance of some kind of granola and hardboiled eggs at breakfast the next morning. Having it be typical Ireland it was drizzling as Rob and I made our way to the LUAS to pick up Dad. It was definitely not a second level of the bus kind of morning. Things cleared up a little by the time we got to Trinity College which is good because we had about an hour of standing in line in out future. The line was for the Book of Kells exhibit which was all about this magnificent illuminated version of the Gospels. Google it, you won't be sorry. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there though so I have nothing to show you in regards to the amazing things I saw but I now know a lot about paper back then and how books were bound.

After getting through and seeing the Book of Kells we got to go into the great library. This was like stepping into heaven for me and I can't think of proper words to describe it so I'll just show it to you. Future husband take notes:

 

 

After spending time marveling at the library we headed down and out of the college. We ended up having lunch at what was probably the coolest pub I've been in since I got to Ireland which is no surprise because it's famous, that's right people we had lunch and lunch pints at the Temple Bar.

 

After walking around the Temple Bar area a bit more we headed back to Dad's hotel to chill out. My mind fails me when it come to remembering what we did for dinner that night, all I know is that we had it and then went back to our hostel. We knew that the hostel offered this on all nights but that night Rob and I decided to take them up on their pub crawl. Every bar we went to we were greeted with free shots and different discounted drinks and there was even one in which we could play beer pong. We met two sisters that night and the pong quickly turned into an older siblings vs. younger siblings game and I have to say - the younger siblings lost. Twice. And it wasn't even close. But what did I expect going up against Rob King of Pong? The last place we were taken to was a club and I'm not a club person in general but it was not my favorite spot. Rob looked very uncomfortable bobbing back and forth to the loud techno that was playing, I wasn't much better off so we left in search of a previous bar we were at. We never found it. I got us lost. Rob got us back on track and to the hostel. Big brother for the win!

This is our statue friend

I am happy to announce that we were not woken up that night and breakfast remained the same as the previous morning which gave Rob another chance to mock how bad I am at peeling hardboiled eggs. It was a warm morning as we headed to pick up Dad and scandalously use the hop-on-hop-off bus even though our tickets were expired. Our first stop was Dublin castle and once we got there it started to rain. Good thing we went inside for the tour, there are worse things than taking shelter in a castle after all. Inside the castle was beautiful and we learned a lot about Irish history along the way. This is probably going to sound weird but this place has the most amazing ceilings I've ever seen. Don't mock me but I'm totally a ceiling fan. Did that make you laugh or am I the only one who thinks I'm funny? Just me? Okay let me just show you some pictures.

After we finished up at the castle Dad wanted to rest a bit and Rob and I wanted to see some churches so Dad went to a pub and we went off. By now, in true Irish fashion, it was sunny and - dare I say it - hot out which made the walk to both Christ's Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral enjoyable. Because it was Sunday and masses were going on we didn't really get a chance to poke around inside but we did really enjoy sitting in the gardens of Christ's Church and getting ice cream in St. Patrick's Park. Fun fact - St. Patrick's Cathedral is not surrounded by grass, it is surrounded by shamrocks!

Christ's Church Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Ice cream cones in the park!

See? No grass here!

After we had our super-fast melting messy ice cream we made our way back to the pub Dad was at and had some lunch/early dinner. We then headed back to Dad's hotel where we hung out for the remainder of the night and enjoyed the pints of our last night in Dublin. Rob and I went back to our hostel and slept almost completely through the night.

The next morning we had our last meager breakfast, checked out of our hostel and went to meet Dad at his hotel. We all then took a cab back to the airport. Dad was the first one to go into the departing gates, his flight was first and I had to wait for the next bus. Rob and I got parting pints and played a couple card drinking games - it's never too early in the day for us. Then it was time for me to get back on a GoBus to Galway so we hugged and said see you later - seriously though I'll be staying with him in Scotland after the semester is over.

It was a great ending to a great trip and I will hold onto the fond memories forever.

Until next time,
Sarah