Drinking in Dubbers

Dublin came and went in one quick weekend in early December.  It proved to be a flat outing for Karen and I as we made our way over with our flatmates Dave and Jacqui in celebration of Dave's birthday.

None of us wanted to cut into time off work, and we (rightly so) figured we would be able to see plenty of the city in our short 2 day allotment.

Now, the trip proved to be a lot of fun, the Saturday there especially, but, as a destination 'Dublin' just didn't rate too highly for any of us.  It was expensive, rather drab, and didn't seem to offer much for tourists that didn't have alcohol related to it.  Which is fine to a certain point, but come Sunday we kind of wanted to do something that didn't involve sitting in a pub/bar!

Still, as I said, Saturday was a load of fun.  We arrived on the early flight from London and easily made our way into town via the bus system.  From there we wandered the quiet 'main' streets in search of a cafe for breakfast, a search that took a lot longer than I would have expected.  We quickly realised, pubs must out number cafes 100 to 1!

After stocking up on some energy we went for a wander around some of the streets looking at the delights on offer.  Don't get me wrong, some of the buildings were impressive, just not that impressive, but maybe that has something to do with us all living in London!  Still, we had a nice wander and covered a lot of the city on our feet, before making our way to Ireland's number one visitor attraction - the guinness factory!! (aka the Guinness Storehouse)

Dave and I found ourselves getting rather giddy with excitement from the moment we were in range and the pace of the group quickened until we set foot in the vast modern building.

We seemed to have timed our visit perfectly as there was not one person in line (a very different story to when we left around lunch time and the queue went around the block outside in the cold and wet!)  The factory proved to be very educational and interesting and well worth the entrance fee.  The highlight of the visit was sitting back in the Gravity bar seven stories high looking down over Dublin with a complimentary pint of guinness in hand!  Dave and I actually got rather tipsy up there as the girls were more than happy to pose for photos with beer in hand, but when it came to drinking it, well that was another story - all the more for Dave and I!

That evening the four of us made our way to Temple Bar region (super touristy and we were told, avoided by the locals) for dinner feeling rejuvenated after our late afternoon siesta at the hostel.

I had arranged for us to meet up with some friends of mine from New Zealand who I used to live with first year at University.  In total we had 8 of us for dinner and finding somewhere to eat that could fit us all in was proving to be very difficult to say the least.  Luckily we had a local with us and Mel''s boyfriend led us out of Temple bar and onto Georges St and then worked his charm at an italian restaurant and hey presto, we had ourselves a table!

After a very enjoyable dinner we made our way up the street to a bar to meet up with another few friends, one of which is lovely Irish girl we knew from Japan who was hitting the town in celebration of her 30th birthday! - and who were we to pass up the opportunity of celebrating with her!!

I've no idea of the name of the place, but we ended up a very cool bar, that on the first level appeared to be just a regular, loud, crowded bar, but downstairs had plenty of space, and a great breaks DJ spinning on the decks for free!

We stayed for a while, until the birthday girl was heading off, and by this time another good friend from NZ had found us and we took off for a little night time wander around the streets of Dublin. 

Day two proved to be our downfall.  After we had wandered around a nice little park (St Stephen's Green), had some tasty brunch and walked up and down one of the main shopping streets (Dawson St), and ventured around Trinity College we were broke on ideas of what to do with the rest of our time.

In the end karen and I did some more walking around the shops, but didn't buy anything as, to our shock, it was all more expensive than London, and the same set of stores anyway.  Then we met up with Dave and Jacqui and spent the next couple of hours staying inside from the cold, in different pubs, but more to kill time than drink.

Afte a late lunch/early dinner (of delicious Irish stew) we made our way over to O'Connell St, but amid all the crowds it was all just the same set of shops as Dawson St, and London, so we grabbed a bus and made our way to the airport three hours before our flight!  We figured we were done with the city, wanted some warmth and didn't want to have to pay for drinks we couldn't afford in pubs full of tourists.  So we spent the next couple of hours in the departure lounge reading our books and magazines!

So, as I mentioned at the start Dublin is not 'up there' for me as a destination, but that doesn't mean to say we didn't have fun - we did.  Basically, I think Dublin is a one day destination, and then I would advise getting out of the city into the countryside.  As a place to live, I am sure it has its positives, its quite small and compact, it has a great music scene, and your never more than 5m from a pint - but, it all just proved to be all a little one dimensional for me - drink, drink and .... drink!

Still, I know I will be back, even if it is just to the airport before shipping myself off to the westcoast of Ireland, which I am very keen to see!