Unfortunately, because of how busy I am due to my classes and internship, I haven’t traveled as much as I would have liked while here. However, I did have the chance to go to Dublin, Ireland. While I only had one full day (Saturday) in the city, I really enjoyed it and would love to go back.
My friends and I arrived in the city late on Friday night, too late for any activities. We somehow managed to find a taxi that would fit all of us, got to our AirBnB, and spent the night resting up for Saturday. Since we had such little time we were determined to make the most of it, and that we did. We got up early and caught a bus into the center of the city and fro there we set out on our way.
My first impression of Dublin was that it was much prettier than I expected, not that I expected it to be ugly. There were so many old, beautiful buildings that you don’t get as much of in London because of the Great Fire in 1666. It had a very different feel from London. The first destination on our itinerary was Trinity College. After arriving on campus, we visited the college’s library (wild stuff, I know) to see the Book of Kells. the Book of Kells is an ornately illustrated compilation of the four gospels and is more than 1,000 years old. Unfortunately the book was not on display that day, due to the fact that the elevator which lifts it to its display case everyday was broken. One of my friends was very disappointed.
After the library, we walked around the city a bit more, got lunch, and headed off to Dublin Castle, a castle that is just sitting there in the middle of the city. This was the first time I had actually seen a castle in person and it was very, very cool. It was probably m favorite thing that I saw on our trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go inside and take a tour, but I would have loved to. Just another reason to go back I guess. After walking in the surrounding gardens for a while, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. I didn’t go on the tour myself (though I regret not doing so), but instead opted to walk around a bit more and enjoy some hot chocolate in a cafe. After the storehouse, we made our way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. While it was too late for us to go inside, it was a very beautiful building and the surrounding park was very nice as well.
After the cathedral, we grabbed some dinner and made our way to Temple Bar. I will say that I am not a big drinker at all, so I did not enjoy it very much. This is another part of the trip where our group split up, with half of us staying and half of us going elsewhere. After leaving, we picked a direction and walked in it and found ourselves next to the river. we walked along it, crossed a bridge or two, and stopped at a riverside bench to talk and enjoy the scenery. Later, we met back up with the rest of our group and, since we had an early morning flight, caught a cab to the airport. After a nap on the cold floor of Dublin Airport, we boarded our flight home, made our way back to our flats, and slept all day (and all night too).
Dublin was a very pretty city with some very nice people in it (seriously, everyone was so nice). While I still prefer London, I would definitely go back to Dublin and absolutely want to go back to Ireland. I guess we’ll see what the future holds.