Erin go Braugh

This past weekend trip to Dublin was my first weekend trip away from London since I've arrived here in January. I have taken day trips to other parts of England, such as Bath, Salisbury and Buckinghamshire, but this was my first trip outside of the country. I officially have two stamps on my passport: Heathrow and Dublin Airport!

I  went with four of my friends from Nichols College back in the states. It was a kind of reunion of sorts, as we have been doing our own things in the last month or so. We are all good friends, but sometimes we act like siblings that constantly bicker and fight. I still love them though!

Our flight to Dublin departed from London Stanstead Airport, which is about an hour from Central London. Since we had a flight that departed at 630, we got a shuttle that departed at 2 am. And as all of  you know I am quite the night owl, which meant I did not go to bed at all.

We flew with RyanAir, which although is the cheapest option, is also infamous for its no thrills. Think Southwest, but even less thrills. Not even a free soda and bag of peanuts! The flight wasn't too awful, but I don't think I would fly them again unless it was absolutely necessary. (Lucky me gets to fly them 5 more times when I do my journey around Europe after the semester is over!)

Upon arriving in Dublin, in the early morning hours, it did not feel entirely different than London. Grey clouds and overcast blanketed the sky as we touched down, and I was a little disappointed that we picked such a similar climate to book a trip. But my disappointment soon melted away! We took an AirCoach, which dropped us off just steps from our hostel on O'Connell St, which is one of the main thoroughfares in the city.
Our hostel, the Mount Eccles Court, was in a nice residential section lined with Georgian townhouses. As it was my first hostel experience, I expected the absolute worst, but overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been. According to one of my friends, it was one of the cleanest and nicest hostels she had stayed in after being in Italy for Spring Break.

Once we got settled in, some of our group needed some rest. I was not one of them surprisingly, so me and my friends Lindsey and Fatima decided to go on a walk, mainly because I needed to get a pair of flip flops for the showers in the hostel. We explored O'Connell St. and the shopping thoroughfares that are off  O'Connell St. We then decided to pick up the rest of our party, grab lunch at Eddie Rocket's, a diner we saw in passing,   and take a Free Walking Tour recommended to us by the lady that checked us in to our hostel.

The Free Walking Tour is a three hour walking tour that takes you to all the main spots of the city. They also operate in a few other cities across the world. They don't charge anything, but they do offer other touring packages, such as pub crawls, that they mention throughout the tour. Other than that, it was really informative and you got to learn more about the history of Ireland and Dublin itself.

Here are some of the sights we saw on our journey.

The Dublin Castle

Trinity College

The Temple Bar District with tons of pubs and restaurants!

Leinster House & National Library of London

St. Stephen's Green

After our tour, we wandering back to our hostel to get some rest before we grabbed dinner and went out for the night. We decided to go back to Temple Bar to get dinner, and we ended up at a really nice, but reasonable restaurant and pub called Farringtons. I had Steak and Guinness Casserole, which was delicious and the most traditional Irish food I had all weekend. After our dinner, and a few drinks, we decided to go to a place we had stopped in earlier in the day during our tour, called The Purty Kitchen. Despite the odd name, it actually was a really nice place, with a pub on the ground floor with live music, and two floors of a nightclub on the first and second floors. We had a blast and it was the perfect ending to our first day in Dublin.

Dublin at Night - The River Liffey and Ha'Penny Bridge

On Saturday, we decided to just walk around the city center, exploring the River Liffey and all it had to offer. There were tons of photo opportunities, both traditional and nontraditional. One of the unfortunate things about Dublin, and Ireland in general, is the toll the recession had on the Irish economy. It was a big booming economy, but its bust was felt greater than in other countries in the EU. There was a lot of boarded up buildings, stalled construction projects, and hotel and office developments that looked empty and unused. 

I'm going to end this post, because it's getting a little lengthy, but I would highly recommend going to Dublin, and Ireland in general. I can't wait to go back again and explore the more coastal, small villages of Ireland. Erin go Braugh!

PS Click here to see even more picture from Dublin from my facebook album, even if you're not on facebook!