Throwback: Dublin, Ireland

Dublin at night.

While I was visiting Jason when he was studying abroad in Spain, we had to take advantage of the cheap flights through RyanAir to visit other places in Europe. 1cent deals, just pay taxes?! Um, heck yeah! It only cost about $50 round-trip to get from Madrid to Dublin. We were all over that! We took a a quick trip (because Jason still was in school) and were only there for 4 days.

This was back in 2007, so it was over 5 years ago. Since then, I've been to a lot of other places, so my memory is a tad fuzzy on details about the trip (and I wasn't very good at documenting my travels back then, dumb me!). But luckily I took quite a few photos and looking through them again has helped me recall some things we did in Dublin.

So here are a lot of photos & the things I do remember {in no particular order}:

- Let me get the negative, bad things out of the way first: It was cold. We did go in December, so it wasn't a surprise- we were prepared. It was also expensive. But we were expecting that, too. Finding cheap places to eat were a bit tough, but we found a couple spots. And we found a pretty decent hostel for a few euros.

These two 'negative' things about the trip are small compared to the fun we had there.

-The first thing I noticed when we got to Dublin was the Irish English accent. We caught a bus from the airport and I could not for the life of me understand what the driver was saying-- and I knew he had to be speaking English {because we were obviously not locals}. Then another time we were on a bus filled with kids going to school. They were speaking so fast and I could only pick up a word here and there, but I figured they must have been speaking Gaelic and it sounded really cool!

-The first night we got there, our first mission was to find our hostel. After walking around for a while, trying not to get run over (because they drive on the opposite side of the street than in the States- so we would look left to cross the street when we should have been looking right, and vice versa), we finally found our hostel. I believe it was the cheapest one we could find in Dublin {can't remember the name, sorry}. But it was nice. The dorm rooms were huge (as you can see in the picture). There was a nice common area and a kitchen. The biggest plus was that it was walking-distance to a lot of attractions, restaurants, bars, etc.

Our big hostel dorm room.

Gigantic Christmas tree in the common area.

The front door of the hostel was huge!

- While we were exploring the town our first night there, there was an art show at a gallery, so we stopped in and saw some really cool modern art pieces.

And of course we had to stop at a pub & J had to get a Guinness!

- Walking around the city, you can really see all the history. There are so many old buildings and other places of interest that have been well-preserved throughout the centuries. There are also a ton of museums in Dublin, so you can get your learnin' on!

- There is an abundance of good places to eat in Dublin and a wide variety! We ate at this Indian place and it was seriously the best Indian food we've ever tasted. No Indian food we've tasted after that has come close to the deliciousness this little Indian place in Dublin served up! There were also a lot of other type of restaurants, including Thai, Middle Eastern, and Korean. 

- To our surprise, we saw a lot of Filipinos in Dublin! J hadn't eaten Filipino food in months and was missing it. After seeing so many Filipinos, we knew there had to be a Filipino restaurant or at least a store so he could fulfill his Filipino food void. One night we were walking around and came upon a little Filipino restaurant called Cafe Manila! J was so happy!

Happy camper.

- We saw the Dublin Castle. We went there first at night, then the next day in the morning. It was my first time seeing a real castle. A lot of history here.

- We went to Phoenix Park, one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It was really pretty and green. There are a lot of good walking trails and little lakes. We saw the Wellington Monument, too where J taught me about phallic imagery, lol.

Wellington Monument in the background. Phallic, indeed.

- We went to check out Trinity College. It's a really pretty campus with some really nice-looking old buildings. It must be really cool going to such an old college with a lot of history (it was founded in 1592!)

- And of course, we had to go to the Guinness Storehouse. We went on our own self-guided tour, took a lot of silly pictures and learned about beer-making, specifically Guinness making, and  its history. We also got a drink ticket to claim a free pint of Guinness at the end. I don't drink beer, so J got to drink two pints. It was about 11am, and he was a bit tipsy when we left. 

  

We only had 3 days in Dublin, but overall it was really fun despite being cold  and expensive. If I ever go there again, I would want to stay longer and check out more museums, castles and other attractions- and check out other parts of Ireland as well! I would also want to find that Indian restaurant again. Yum.

Have any of you ever been to Dublin or anywhere else in Ireland? I'd love to hear about your experiences!