Last Weekend - Dublin

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I decided to spend my last weekend in Ireland in Dublin. I had not visited there when I was here in 1981 and though I knew it was "just another big city." I figured I should really visit its sites since it IS the country's largest city.

I boarded a train in Galway at 8am and arrived in Dublin about 11. It was raining on and off, but not too cold. I grabbed the streetcar and took it to the town center. Finding the hostel was not so easy, and though I wanted to begin site seeing right away, I also wanted to dump my load, find the hostel before dark, and get a bed. It was somthing like 2 miles of walking uphill and nearly out of town before finally coming upon the hostel. A nice, very large and busy hostel for sure. And nearly full. As soon as I dropped off my bag, I headed back out into the city's shopping district, not really sure of where I was headed. I ended up across the river and found Trinity College, so I started there. A horse carriage was bringing a bride to the chapel for her wedding! Very cool, though this prevented me seeing inside. The Book of Kells is located here, but I opted to not spend the money to see it. After a couple of hours there, I walked and walked to as many areas as I could. I saw the Christchurch Cathedral, an art museum, the Georgian part of town, the parks, shopping districts, and of course visited a few pubs. I had a nice hot Irish dinner in Temple Bar and even caught the tail end of an Irish trio playing traditional music in one of the pubs (a popular one). The next day, I decided to board one of the city tour buses where you can get on and off anytime. This tour took me to places that I would have not gotten to on foot, including the Guiness Brewery and the largest park in the city (bigger than Central Park). It began to rain while I sat in the open, upper deck of the bus, but I didn't much care. I was having a blast seeing all the sites. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Overall, though, I was not delighted with Dublin and decided to not spend another night there. I headed back to Galway Sunday night and got a full days rest at Chris' before heading back home to the U.S. on Tues. morning. Awesome trip and awesome time!