Two Days in Dublin
Our flight touched down in sunny Dublin right around 9am after a few hours of restless sleep. That’s 4am our time and yes, I did say sunny Dublin, which would become a theme of our visit to Ireland.
Our first day in Dublin was really a bit of a waste as we tried to defeat jet lag. Dublin is a cool city, if not very Americanized. We enjoyed the feel of the city and it’s both very pretty and walkable.
We began by taking a stroll over to The Spire, which was just around the corner from our well located residence at Wynn’s Hotel. The Spire gets a bit of a bad rap with most Dubliners simply saying “what’s the point?” when describing it and most tourists kind of shrugging it off. As we walked up to it I kind of got that vibe with lots of people around doing other stuff (it’s located in the middle of busy O’Connelly Street) but few actually paying attention to the spire itself. I liked it, however. Looking up from the base was dizzying and it is a cool landmark in the middle of the city.
The next stop was Dublin Castle. We couldn’t go in, as it was closed for some reason, but we could walk around the exterior and the garden which were both rather underwhelming. We followed that up by passing on joining one of the highly reviewed Sandemand free tours of Dublin (noting that we felt we were too tired to start a 3-hour walking tour at that point) and heading over to Trinity College. I also found Trinity a bit underwhelming, but that could have had something to do with my now cranky tired state. At this point we bucked the recommendations we had gotten to try and power through that first day after the red eye and went back to the room for a nap. After that we finished the day off with some drinking at the Auld Dubliner in Temple Bar and a few other spots. Honestly, the Temple Bar area on a Friday night was not the best idea for what we were looking for. It reminded me of a college bar. Shoulder to shoulder inside, wreaks of spilled beer from the night before, etc. Not the mellow Irish pub experience we were looking for. Temple Bar is definitely more of a party spot.
Day two in Dublin, another sunny and hot one, was much more successful in our now well-rested state. We started things off with Experience the Gaelic Games, a group that teaches people how to play the native sports of Ireland. This included Gaelic Football, Hurling, and Handball. Gaelic Football was definitely the favorite of both me and Stacie, and it would be a blast to play with a group of my competitive guy friends. As it was, I felt it would be inappropriate to knock the 14 year old girl with the ball on her ass.
On the way back to our hotel for a quick shower and a hearty Burrito lunch (yes, they have Burritos in Dublin), we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a large anti-abortion rally. Apparently, there was a big abortion bill on the docket while we were in Dublin and we found ourselves surrounded by thousands of marchers blocking off all roads back to our hotel.
After navigating through it on foot (the bus wouldn’t go in), it was time to finally put the Hop-on Hop-off bus tickets that one of Stacie’s colleagues had given us to use. For those that are visiting Dublin for the first time, the HOHO bus is a great way to see Dublin. They run every 10 minutes or so and hit all the major tourist stops. For a flat fee you can ride it as much as you want, and many of them also include narration. Bus travel is the norm in Dublin as there is no subway system, and it’s very safe.
Our first stop on the HOHO bus was the Guiness Storehouse for the obligatory Guiness tour. Very touristy, but cool nonetheless. The self-guided tour finishes with a pint of Guiness, acquired either through a quick session learning how to properly poor a Guiness with a bartender, or up in the Gravity Bar which offers 360 degree panorama views of Dublin. I strongly recommend opting for the Gravity Bar, as it’s a cool spot (even if Dublin isn’t exactly the most picturesque spot from on high) and you’ll be an expert at pouring Guiness by the time you leave Ireland just from watching the bartenders.
Prior to a meal and some more pub stops, we finished out our day with a ride around on the HOHO bus that included a jaunt through Phoenix Park, the biggest city park in the world which makes Central Park look like a playground. Interesting note is that the only two residences in the park are that of the Irish President and the US ambassador, who gets a similarly luxurious estate. Apparently Ireland is extremely grateful that the US was the first to recognize Ireland as a sovereign nation and the first to open trade relations with them. I also figured that was about sending one more “HA-HA” over towards our former colonial masters in England, but we’ll take it.
