Dublin. What an amazing city. Amazingly expensive too. Nonetheless, I'd definately go back there to party again. Our trip started at 3am on a Sunday morning, to get to Stanstead Airport for an 8am flight to Dublin. Arrived there safe and sound to find the streets quite literally bulging with Irish Gaelic Football fans. I wasn't made aware until about a day before travelling (Thank you Mr O'Connor) that Sunday was going to be the Gaelic Football finals - eqivalent to the FA Cup Final in England. The green and yellow of Kerry mixed nicely with the red and white of Tyrone. Strange to see opposite teams getting along so well. I suppose you do get too used to hearing about the thugs associated with Premiership football teams.
On our first afternoon, we just had a bit of a wrecky and a wonder around Trinity College and went to see The Book of Kells. I wasn't aware that the library at Trinity College is an exact copy of the library at Trinity College, Cambridge! Factoid for the day there! Got back to the hotel and decided that we needed a power nap if we intended on partying the night away.
And so began the first night of randomness. We made our way into Temple Bar trying to find somewhere suitably cheap to eat. Which didn't happen, so we just decided that we'd forego starter and a pud and just have a main course and tap water. (Last of the big spenders 'eh!) After that it was off to the bars. Firstly The Temple Bar pub itself. A huge red pub split into different bars with a 2-man band squished into one corner playing traditional Irish songs. This place has an amazing atmosphere, but it's the kind of place which is so busy you literally cannot bring your drink up to your mouth to drink it. No wonder why it was so packed! Too many people buying drinks, and unable to drink 'em!!
It makes me laugh to hear men singing, or I should really say slurring along to the songs! It's just a very loud, completely incomprehendable noise in the vague tune of the song. So we wondered around to a few more bars (At an average of 15 euro a round - for 2!) until we happened to fall victim to 5 drunken Irish men who insisted we dance with them. One was partial to unbuttoning his shirt and flashing a nipple. Avert your eyes!! One was trying so so hard to chat my friend up , however considering we're both in excess of 5'11 with heels on...these guys were about 5'6 - 5'8. It just wasn't going to happen! But, we weren't going to pass up an offer for a drink or two. So it was that we were shown a few more bars and made to dance some more until the early hours.
Cue day two and our trip to the Guinness Factory. Outside we were asked by a couple of Yanks if we'd like them to take a photo of the two of us outside the gate. It was a nice gesture and one which was returned. Skip a few levels of how Guinness is made, how it was transported all over the world, and exhibition on the Artwork by John Gilroy and up to the bar with 360 degree views of Dublin city...and our free pint! I'd never tried Guinness before, so wasn't too sure of what to expect, but for a free drink it was palletable. My friend however took one lick of hers and decided she didn't like it. So who did we make a b-line for? That's right...the yanks we met outside the storehouse. We got talking, so much so we were invited for lunch. Turns out they were 'American Airline pilots'. My guess - they were having us on. I mean, I pilot who wears RayBan sunglasses, I'm not sure if that's just too much of a joke or not?!
Still, lunch was nice and my friend exchanged numbers with the one from Hawaii as they wanted to meet up again in the evening. Needless to say, we didn't. So we went off to Dublin Castle. Very boring, other than when we went underground to the ruins of the old medieval city wall. Apparently the name Dublin comes from the viking Duf-Lin (that's spelt pheontically. Do excuse my ignorance of the Viking alphabet, but it's not really up to scratch!) anyways, Duf-lin apparently means "Black Pool" - from the dark waters which surrounded the city. Take my word for it - after my recent experience in Blackpool, Dublin is like paradise!
So skip to night two out in Temple Bar and we have a lovely chinese/thai dinner and hit the Temple Bar Pub again. This time it's even more rammed than the night before, so we down our Tia Maira and OJ and Southern Comforts and lemonade and head out to another bar, which was a bit dead so try a third. Even though on the door it said "strictly 23 and over" we thought we'd try our luck and sneak in the back door. It worked...shortly after, a big group of lads came in and it wasn't long before one of them approached us as asked "is this bar stool free?"...it certainly was but that didn't stop him coming back and striking up conver
sation. Then another came over, shortly followed by a third, fourth, fifth! Within half an hour we had half of the Northern Irish Young Farmer's Convention descended upon us!! They were a right good laugh though. Between the lot of them they had a kitty of about 600 euro to spend on booze on that one night alone, so you can imagine - things were going to get pretty messy! I can only remember the names of a handful though, Martyn, James, Alistair, Tommo and Peter - guys, on the off chance that any of you are reading this, thanks for a great night of laughs and very dodgy dance moves!!
sation. Then another came over, shortly followed by a third, fourth, fifth! Within half an hour we had half of the Northern Irish Young Farmer's Convention descended upon us!! They were a right good laugh though. Between the lot of them they had a kitty of about 600 euro to spend on booze on that one night alone, so you can imagine - things were going to get pretty messy! I can only remember the names of a handful though, Martyn, James, Alistair, Tommo and Peter - guys, on the off chance that any of you are reading this, thanks for a great night of laughs and very dodgy dance moves!!I think we stumbled back to our hotel at something like 3am and the next morning wearily made our way to the Airport. That is after my friend tried to purchase some Irish souvenirs from a big chain store, and was refused because she had come into possession of a fake 5 euro note. How embarassing! Love the place, can't wait to do it again next year.
