DUBLIN - IRELAND

Over 30 countries visited but strangely Ireland was still not on that list. With the easter weekend coming up I made a spur of the moment decision to go. It was going to be a quick friday until monday in Dublin, I had looked at Cork but the flight times were not as good. Unlike some of my destinations I could at least get some ideas off other people before I went. One bit of news I got was that all the pubs were going to be closed on good Friday, in some ways i’m glad I knew this before I went and not when I got there.

It was a bit of a drag to Manchester airport and even more so when our flight got delayed by over 2 hours on the way out. By the time I got to the hostel I was tired and hardly in the mood to go out drinking anyway. I had a bit of a walk round to get the basic directions then had an early night.



At the hostel they advertised a free (by donation) guided walking tour. As with Paris I saw this as a good option and also the chance to meet new people on the way round. I sampled my first pint of Dublin Guinness which did taste a bit different than it did back home. Our hyperactive tour guide made the day, the walk was mostly near the college and the Temple bar area finishing up near park lake mid afternoon.



During the walk I got talking to a girl from the hostel and we arranged to go out round the town later that evening. It was hardly a heavy night as we both planned to go out fairly early the next day to see a few things. It was great to see a bit of the nightlife, some of the places seemed mostly locals while others around the temple bar area were mostly tourists. Drinking in Dublin was very heavy on the wallet, at least 20-30% more than you pay back home.




On the Sunday morning we set out for kilmainham gaol which was a good long walk from our hostel. It was an interesting couple of hours with the main area looking like something off the set of Shawshank redemption.



On the way back we went to the Guinness storehouse which despite the high entry fee was packed out, interesting and well worth the visit. It finished on the top floor overlooking the city with a pint of the black stuff.


The girl I was with had to change hostels but we had arranged to meet later in the evening. I have to admit that my hostel didn’t have the most social people which does happen on the backpacking scene from time to time. A group in my room were making loads of noise at 4am and I was glad to see the back of them.



Final evening we went out for some food, as she was from America (born in China) she wanted to try some real Irish food which was very good (and costly). Before heading back we visited a couple of pubs the second of which was all local people.

That was my 3 nights in Dublin, and to honest it was nowhere near enough so at the time of writing the verdict is still out on Ireland. I left early the following morning and got home without any delays.