In case you missed it:
- Days 1-3: Glasgow- Euro Trip Begins!
- Day 4: Edinburgh and A Lot of Rain
- Days 5-9: Absurdly Beautiful Norway
We woke up very early on Day 10 after a late night hanging out with Johannes to catch a plane to Dublin. The flight was uneventful (always a welcome surprise) and we were tired but happy to be in Dublin. With both Blake and I being part Irish, we were pretty excited to see our “homeland.” Blake felt right at home with all of the gingers and the sun block:
While I was excited to see O'Neill stuff everywhere!
We didn’t have much on our agenda, so we just walked around to get a feel for the city the first day.
Dublin definitely lacks some of the charm of other European cities. I mean, there are some cute parts, but as a city goes, it was rather uninspiring. Except for the Leprachaun on a smoke break that Blake got a picture of, who inspired a lot of laughter:
The next day we took a “free” walking tour. We took one from the same company in Berlin- you take a free 3 hour tour and then tip what you feel like or can afford at the end. It is hard to compete with a city with as much history as Berlin, but we were very happy with the Dublin tour as well. You learn a lot of fun little facts, like how this Justice statue in the Dublin Castle courtyard is terribly wrong. First off, it isn’t blindfolded (so Justice is not blind), second- when it rains, one of the scales tilts, so Justice isn’t equal, and last, the statue has her back turned away from the people.
After the walking tour, we headed over to the Guinness Factory Tour. It doesn’t show any of the factory, but it is in an old Guinness Storehouse, and it is really really cool. It was a little on the spendy side, but definitely my favorite thing in Dublin. I’m not even a huge Guinness fan, but after learning about it for 2 hours- I was craving some Guinness for sure! Here are some of mine and Blake’s inspired photographs:
Later that evening we decided to try one of the “free” bar crawls offered by the same company as the walking tour. This time, by free, they really meant 10 Euros, but it had free beer for 45 minutes, and then a free shot with every purchase at all the bars. It was an excuse to get out and see the town, so we were in. When we first got there a group of rather large 19-20 year old American girls were obnoxiously blocking the bar. After the first 45 minutes of free beer, they were already dancing on the bar. The night did not look good. Blake and I are a little sensitive to the “stupid American” stereotype, and the last thing we wanted to do was have to hang out with a group of them. But we eventually did meet other Americans and Europeans that were slightly older and much cooler, and ended up having a great time.
The next day we only had a half of day before we had to fly to London, and we had already seen most of everything that we wanted to see in Dublin, so we just wandered around the city some more and enjoyed a sunny day. (It only managed to rain a bit off and on the first couple of days, so it wasn’t as bad as Edinburgh or Norway).
We had a great time in Dublin, but I would say that it was a let down in general. After talking to a few other people though, they all said that the countryside in the South of Ireland was absolutely amazing, and that Dublin is nothing like the rest of the country, so now we know that next time we will have to get out of the city. Also, next time I will have to bust out my Irish dancing moves since I didn’t have a chance to do so this time!
To check out Dublin via pictures, click here.
Next up, one last Ryanair flight to London for the last leg of our trip!
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