Back in March I went to Dublin. I started writing this back then but stopped because of reasons. I went through and edited the best I could before writing out the rest so please forgive me if there's a weird mixture of verb tenses. I'm not really one for editing so I probably missed some things.
In March Becca, Tiffany, and I made the trek to Dublin, Ireland. Getting there was quite the event in itself. We left Swansea on the afternoon of Friday the 21st via Greyhound bus to Bristol airport. We were cutting it close with how close the bus was scheduled to arrive at the airport to when our flight was supposed to take off. The bus was supposed to get there with us having 35 minutes to spare. Well, the bus ended up being 45 minutes behind schedule and arrived after the gates to our flight closed. As you can imagine, our entire bus ride was stressful once we realized we were behind schedule. Once the door to the bus opened we ran off the bus and did a lot of running back and forth in the (thankfully small) airport. Eventually we got our passports stamped and the man at the beginning of security let us through saying that, “maybe” we could get onto our flight. Becca went through security first and got through fine. Tiffany and I on the other hand, were so worked up that we forgot to take the liquids out of our bags. Because of this, security took our bags and put them to the side for what seemed like forever. During this time Becca ran to our departure gate to see if she could talk them into letting us on our flight. Eventually a second employee came to help the one employee, who spent an inordinate amount of time arguing with one idiot who had a bottle that was much more than 3oz, check bags. Once we finally got our bags back, we sprinted through the airport. Of course our gate was at the furthest end of the airport so running that far with all our stuff was not fun. Once we got pretty close Becca came running towards us telling us to run faster so we could get on the flight. When we got to our gate, the men working radioed the plane and got the okay to allow us through. After checking our passports and tickets we were off running again down to the tarmac. This was exciting for two reasons: 1. WE MADE OUR FLIGHT AND WERE ONE STEP CLOSER TO DUBLIN! 2. I’ve never had a flight where you board directly off the tarmac. The flight to Dublin was incredibly quick. Faster than a car ride from Jaffrey to Nashua. Before we knew it we were on a bus to Dublin center.
First order of business was checking into our hostel. I was in a different room than Becca and Tiffany because I booked the trip later than them. This was my first hostel experience; I was very undecided about how I felt about it. The nice thing was that there were a lot of different rooms to relax in, one including two hammocks that Becca and Tiffany became very fond of. My room also had its own private bathroom. Because we got into Dublin sometime around 7pm we didn’t do a lot on the first night. After settling in we set off for a pub to eat dinner at. Originally we asked the guys at the front desk of our hostel where would be a good place to check out so as to their suggestion we went off to the Temple Bar area. This area is a historic cultural hotspot for tourists. There’s a lot of night life here. After strolling the cobblestone streets we found the pub we were recommended. After looking at the prices we decided to look around some more. After searching we discovered that Dublin is an expensive city and euros are not kind to the American tourist’s pocketbook. Ultimately we settled on a pub that was outside of the Temple Bar area. I had a delicious steak and ale pie (made with Guinness) with chips. I’m a great fan of pub food but this was definitely one of the best dishes I’ve had in a pub since being abroad. Tiffany also got a stew with lamb in it and a Guinness. I tried a bit of the stew and it was delicious as well. The Guinness? Not so much (it tasted like popcorn to me? I don’t know. I don’t like beer.) After enjoying food and conversation we went to McDonald’s so Becca could get food that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, then we called it a night.
Unfortunately our only full day in Dublin was full of rain showers and wind. We still enjoyed our day but it got pretty cold at points. We did a ton of walking around the city. We wandered around the Temple Bar, went through the shopping district, and ended up in a mall eventually. On our way out of that area we came across a Tower Records. I was beside myself not only because I have never had the chance to go to one but because their vinyl selection was massive.
Some church we walked by a million times.
A view of the Ha'Penny Bridge
After killing time by wandering around, one of our first stops was the Ha’Penny flea market. This market was all vintage and handmade items. It was small but really cool. There were a lot of great clothing finds, jewelry, records, and art. Becca walked away with a great dress and Tiffany and I got some small prints from an artist. If you’re ever in Dublin on a Saturday, I highly suggest checking it out if (vintage) flea markets are your type of thing.
After the flea market we wanted to go to the National Museum of Ireland. There were several problems with this. First off, we could not find the damn place for the longest time. Second, we were mistaken in thinking that all of the collections were housed in one area. Well once we finally got to where we thought the museum was we found out that it was one of three or four museums that make up the National Museum system. The one we were at was the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History. What we really wanted to see was the archeology museum but since the museums are free to get into, we looked around the arts one for a while. The silliest thing about Dublin is everything closes by 5 and then it’s all about night life. Because of this we didn’t get to stay in the arts museum long as we had to make haste and try to go find the archeology museum before it closed.
The Museum of Decorative Arts and History
After hurrying over to a different part of the city, we found the museum and had somewhere around an hour to quickly go through some exhibits. I really wish we had had more time here. The museum itself was gorgeous but the collections were so fascinating. I saw learned about and saw bog bodies for the first time (it’s SO cool) which was my favorite part. Really, everything I saw was super interesting and I wish I could have had more time to look at it all and go on to see more.
Bog bodies are really cool, okay?
Once we were forced to leave the museum we made our way back to a burrito place we came across earlier in the day and then back to the hostel to relax. The burritos were delicious and I saw tears of spicy pain and joy shed. Everything was beautiful and everything hurt. We had done a ton of walking and despite Dublin being a party city, we had no interest in going out. Instead we hung out in the hammock room for hours talking and eating digestive cookies and hot chocolate. While we were there a guy from America (was it Minnesota? Somewhere around there or maybe a little further west) and a girl from Canada came in and we talked to them for a while. They were both travelling on their own and then met in a different hostel in western Ireland. The two decided to travel together and had become friends. I think that’s one of the coolest aspects of hostels; if you allow yourself to be social then you can meet a lot of interesting people.
Sign on the door of the burrito place. We got a good chuckle from it.
(Typical) hammock shenanigans
The next day we were leaving Dublin so we just did some more wandering. Of course, the weather was gorgeous this day. We leisurely walked around the city again, took a lot of silly pictures, made wishes at a fountain, and saw a lot of beautiful architecture and spring flowers. At one point we went on a hunt to find a café called the Stage Door which had been recommended to us for hot cocoa with Baileys. Once again, it took us forever to find it and we almost gave up but at the last minute we found it. As we walked up the proprietor was sitting outside with a customer and right away greeted us, asked us how he could help us and showed us inside. The café was very quirky. A lot of vintage decorations and a lot of salt and pepper shakers of animals having sex. It was an experience all in itself. Becca and Tiffany both got hot cocoa with Baileys and I got an Irish Coffee. The first few sips I had were fine but boy, let me tell you, that drink was heavily Irish and not so much coffee. In the end, Tiffany had to finish off my drink for me. With our check we got lollipops so that was a nice little treat to leave with.
Drinks and lollipops at the Stage Door
After the café we walked through Trinity College's campus to get to the science museum and it was GORGEOUS. We didn't get to spend much time at the science museum though because we had to catch a bus back to the airport. At the science museum we got to take part in an experiment (for lack of a better word) and the "fail better" project. We got to read about a few examples of fail better and then had to make way to our bus. It was really interesting but we didn't get to spend much time there.
I don’t think any of us were quite ready but we all really enjoyed Dublin. Honestly it’s one of my favorite cities now and I would really love to go back to have more time but also so I could go visit other Irish cities.
Here are some pictures from around the city.
I see that Something Corporate reference.
