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 |
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? |
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:
This is our statue friend |
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! |
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