My Adventures in Europe: Dear Old Dublin Town

After Brussels we went to one of my favorite places in the world: Ireland. After only having 2 days in Brussels it was nice to be able to settle into a place for a few days.

Shani didn't feel well when we got there so I went to walk around by myself for a bit. Our hostel was right in Temple bar so that was super convenient for us. I had been craving Starbucks for A LONG time (there are 3 that I know of in Spain and none near me) and was holding out to get one in an English speaking country. So that was one of the first things that I wanted to do when we got there. I was super excited when there was one just around the corner from our hostel. I went there while Shani was resting and got some crazy flavored drink that doesn't exist in Spain. It was TERRIBLE! Haha. After not having Starbucks for that long it made me not like it all. So that should save me a ton of money when I get back to the US. :p

disappointing

While we were eating dinner at the hostel we decided to go on the free walking tour the next morning. It was a great decision. It was advertised as 3 hours (ours was 4) and was so informative. It was my second time in Dublin, but I think I learned a lot more this time. I would HIGHLY recommend this tour to anyone going to Dublin. We learned the history of the Dublin Castle, the post office, Trinity College,Temple Bar , and many more things. One of my favorite stories from the tour was in Temple Bar outside the The Clarence Hotel. Our tour guide stopped us outside there and told us a story about a band that played in Temple Bar when it was not as big of a tourist/pub area as it is now. They played in a venue across the street from the hotel and after the show they went to the hotel bar for a drink. The bartender turned them away saying they didn't serve people like them. One of the band members said that when they became rich and famous they were going to buy the hotel and fire him. And they did. Any guess what band that was? If you guessed U2 you are correct. The hotel is owned now by Bono and The Edge. Pretty cool right?! They also own The Workman's Club.

Where the tour started, in the Capital Building

Heading in to Dublin Castle

The Church in Dublin Castle, the tower is the last original thing from the castle, they stored documents there.

This was a wall built for when Queen Victoria came to visit, they wanted to hide the poor people, so they hid them behind a wall.

U2's hotel

Trinity College

Bell tower at Trinity College, students don't walk under it or they will fail their exams.
So after graduation, everyone takes pictures under it.

While we were on the tour, the guide told us that the company who runs the tours also runs pub crawls every night for 12 euros. They had one on new years eve for the same price. Considering that all the clubs have a cover, which can be upwards of 20 euros, especially on NYE we decided that even though it would be super touristy, it would definitely be worth it. And we got super lucky since we booked it through the tour guide we only had to pay 11! After the tour we wandered around Grafton Street and around the rest of the town.

The next day was New Years Eve, we started the day off by visiting the Guinness Storehouse. It was super fun as always. There was a big NYE party there that night with some bands so we got to hear a lot of sound checks which was pretty cool. I got to pour my own pint again which was almost perfect, so I guess I will have to go back again for one more lesson. :p

View from the Gravity Bar

The problem with living in Spain is we are not used going out until 1 or 2 am, so when our pubcrawl started at 7:30 we literally could not get there on time. We made it to the first pub which was The Workman's club just in time to have our free drink before moving on to the next one. We went to 3 pubs and 2 nightclubs. There were bands at the other two clubs so that was fun. And there was hockey on the TV at one of them!!! Super awesome. It was definitely a fun night and completely worth the 11 euros. :)

The next day we wandered around the town and took pictures of everything we saw on the tour. We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral to see the cat and the mouse that got stuck in one of the organ pipes a long time ago. The best surprise of that visit was the collection of costumes from the Tudors. I love that show! So I was super excited to see those. There was a sign next to the costumes saying that they filmed a lot of scenes with weddings, burials, and for the interior of the Tower of London in Christ Church. They also filmed in Dublin Castle and Kilruddery House. Too bad the show isn't on anymore!!
After checking out a few other places we split up again so Shani could go on a run which gave me time to be a nerd and go to The Writer's Museum which was really interesting and gave me a lot of perspective and background information on some of the authors I learned about in theater history. I also learned that Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift was actually not written for children, but as a satyr on how poor people were treated in Ireland.

Christ Church Cathedral

Tudor's costumes

The cat and the mouse

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Writer's Museum

That night we went to look at the Oscar Wilde memorial and to see his house. Followed by one last drink (a Guinness for me, of course). We had to go to bed early because our bus to the airport left at 3:30am! Insanity!