Dublin

By Tarynne

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013

By 1 p.m. Oliver, James, Rick Steves and I had arrived in Ireland.

We hopped on the bus which dumped us off near our hostel, Jacobs Inn. We waltzed in the door and Jaren came bounding around the corner to greet us. We decided to checkout the city so we headed down O’ Connell street and across the River Liffey towards Trinity College (1592).

We checked out the campus and then stopped for a minute to watch a boring game of cricket. We headed towards the National Gallery (1864) and Natural History Museum, but by the time we walked in the door we had time just to say we were there before they were closing their doors for the evening.

Well, we tried.

So we walked to Temple Bar and found a pub sitting right before Temple Bar Square and tested out Guinness and Pilsners. After our initial introduction to live Irish music, we headed back to the hostel so we could get ourselves signed up for the pub crawl.

The pub crawl took us around to some pretty cool spots with live music and lots of people.

We had a fun night and got a sweet taste of Dublin (and Eddie Rocket’s).

Wednesday June 26th, 2013

We started off the morning with a walking tour of the city. Our highly opinionated, bitchy, but intelligent guide took us to see some of Dublin’s most important buildings and sights while revealing some funky information about Ireland.

After hearing her opinions on and viewing Dublin City Hall, Christ Church, Trinity College, the River Liffey boardwalk, Dublin Castle, Parliament and being told to avoid Temple Bar Pub in Temple Bar, we headed off to find some good grub. We ended up in a falafel joint, thanks to the Obama poster in the window.

Afterward we headed towards Old Jameson Distillery to learn all about the Irish Whiskey.

Apparently John Jameson started his small distillery on Bow Street (1780) and was then sold for the next 200 years at this spot, every bottle saying ‘Sine Metu’, Without Fear.

We ended up walking around a bit too long and dinner didn’t deserve attention until just before 10 p.m., which resulted in settling on a fish n’ chips place in Temple Bar.

After being reminded that Americans eat more ketchup and condiments than any other nationality, we feasted on the biggest buckets of fish and chips we had ever seen (and donated to their tip jar).

We attempted to go out afterwards in Temple Bar and catch up to the heaps of pissed people flailing their limbs around in Irish pubs, but with full tummies and tired eyes we forfeited early.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

We headed out at a decent time to Kilmainham Gaol. The information we had heard the day prior from Amanda (the bitchy tour guide) surrounding Ireland’s struggle for independence from the British really came to life as we walked through the compound that held political prisoners from 1796 to 1924.

Afterward we excitedly headed towards the Guinness Storehouse (1759). To be honest, I’m a bit of an ADHD tour and museum ‘guest,’ but this was easily one of my favorite ‘touristy’ things I have done and would recommend it to anyone visiting Dublin.

After multiple floors and learning the process of creating Guinness, advertising campaigns and marketing, you get to attend a brief ‘Guinness Academy’ for the opportunity to have a certified perfect pour before heading up to the Gravity Bar to enjoy your capstone creation.

After a few hours at Guinness we headed back to the hostel to chill out. The guys went to Thai food just across the street while I might’ve taken a power nap.

Since Dublin was treating us with a clear day, we headed up to the rooftop to play 31 and get our cheap drink on.

We ended up heading to Temple Bar and back to The Old Storehouse Pub before heading into Temple Bar Pub the rest of the night.

Afterward we made the walk back down O’ Connell street. Garbage cans were hurdled (well, missed and therefore mounted), Jaren did pullups on Ha’Penny Bridge, and I was denied service in McDonalds for wearing a Burger King crown while ordering.

Friday, June 28th, 2013

Sometime overnight the mysterious roomie we hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting, besides the shopping bags left on his bed the day before, decided rolling in at 9 a.m. was going to work for him. He snored louder than a jack-hammer hitting Bill Gates’ safe, so needless to say, I was up at 9 a.m.

It was a rainy grey day and we ended up walking around Merrion Square (1752) and visiting the the Oscar Wilde Statue, as per Rick Steves’ recommendation.

After making it as impressively entertaining as we could, we then headed to the Natural History Museum where we spent a good chunk of time before heading to Insomnia Coffee to get some fuel for the rest of the day.

People dog on Starbucks coffee, but this crap deserves the negative attention, not the green mermaid. We then carried on up O’ Connell street and into “Istanbull” to get the best falafel and donor kebabs Dublin has to offer.

Once again we headed up to the rooftop and played cards and tunes before heading back out to Temple Bar for a night out pretending to be Irish.

Saturday June 29th, 2013

We were up with no big plans but just needing to get out the dorm because Wilfred (the snoring roomie) was at it again, choking himself on his own tonsils while sleeping. He was also responsible for an unbelievable amount of baby powder sprinkled around the room after his grand entrance at 9 a.m.

So we headed down O’ Connell street only to be stopped at Abbey Street before crossing the River Liffey due to the barrage of troops in the Dublin Pride Parade.

Good thing James wore his rainbow striped tee that day.

We cruised around the streets and ended up sitting on the curb in Temple Bar Square watching all the ridiculously drunk people providing convincing evidence of why we should continue to believe the current Irish reputation (drunkards) is accurate.

We had enough and decided to retreat to Starbucks before then heading to J.W. Sweetman Craft Brewery to get a few ciders and snacks before heading back to the hostel.

We ended up back at J.W. Sweetman Craft Brewery several hours later to have dinner. It was a super chill and fun night and felt good to just hang and have good conversation, drinks and food before Jaren and Oliver decided to leave us bums so they could return home to carry on as normal functioning human beings.

Sunday June 30th, 2013

Jaren and Oliver left us on Sunday morning. It was kinda a bummer of a day. It was grey and overcast and all of our friends and James’ family had gone their separate ways. We felt like we were two men down as we had Oliver’s company the past two weeks and Jaren’s for the last week, so it felt a bit lonely back down to just the two of us. We predictably bummed around planning our route to our new home just an hour outside of Dublin.

Let the next chapter begin. We miss you guys a ton already.

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