Friday, 26 August 2011

Dublin




From the warm, hospitable family home of the Bradshaw’s, we jumped on a train and headed to Dublin for our first youth hostel experience…and yes, it was quite an experience. At first, we were thrilled to be put in room 33 on the 3rd floor (go on…say it in an Irish accent…tirty tree and a tird). To our dismay, we were forced to move to room 19 the next morning when we discovered that one of our room mates had one too many pints of Guinness and forgot how to aim when doing number twos. Hopefully this is our first and last hostel horror story.

On a brighter note, Dublin is all about Guinness.  Guinness Guinness Guinness. It’s on every street corner, tourist t-shirt and in the hand of every punter. Daniel even got to pour his own on the tour of the Guinness storehouse. If you ask Monique, it’s all highly overrated – tastes like rubbish and stinks out the whole city. Refer to the beer blog for Daniel’s perspective on this debate.

Aside from Guinness, there was the 500-year-old Trinity College that featured the Book of Kells, and the most spectacular old library. Then there was the music scene. Every pub had live music featuring some sweet banjo, fiddle and guitar, creating an amazing atmosphere of heart racing, hand clapping and foot-stomping Irish folk.

We got to see where our favourite movie Once was filmed in Grafton Street, visit Kilmainham Gaol first built in 1796 and see St. Patricks Cathedral, which dates back to 1192.

It was a busy couple of days and we walked our feet off. We loved seeing flowers overflowing from what seemed like every windowsill in the city.

Next we’re heading to the west coast city of Galway

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