Liz's London Adventures: Kiss Me I'm Irish...weekend trip to Dublin

Friday September 16:
"The scene from Home Alone"

Our flight was at 6:40 am, however the airport is over an hour away so we booked a bus to pick us up at 4:15. We get to the bus stop and the bus is not only late, but the driver says he has no more seats!! 6 girls with no coffee in their system yet at 4:30 in the morning is not a pretty sight...especially when we think we are going to miss our flight. We freaked out for about 5 minutes and then a van cab was driving by and we chased it down. We told him to drive as fast as he could, he laughed and then stepped on the gas. Luckily we made it to the airport in one piece. After checking into our flight, we looked at the security line and began to panic because it was so long. It was moving quickly though, as we finish going through security we hear our flight being paged that it is boarding. All 6 of us start sprinting!! By the time we got to the gate we were panting and out of breath. We looked like the family from Home Alone no joke.

We were so thankful when we arrived in Dublin! The Guinness Storehouse Factory was the first thing on our list of things to do. It was really fun, and wicked interesting to learn about how this famous beer is brewed and how the company came to be etc. At the end of the tour everyone ends up at the Gravity Bar. It is on the top floor where you see an amazing view of Dublin. You can see the whole city, it was awesome. And of course the free pint of Guinness they give you is an added bonus (:

After the tour we went to a small pub for lunch and headed back to our hostel to get some rest. Our hostel was really nice...very modern. The only thing that had all of us scratching our heads was the Anime mural on our wall in our room. We still are questioning it today.

My friend Alena and I headed out a little earlier because we wanted to see St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle.  Everything was in walking distance from our hostel which was so nice, and saved us money! St. Patrick's Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous. It was just about dusk when we headed out, so the way it looked against the changing sky was amazing.

Dublin Castle was closed off because they were shooting a movie!! They wouldn't even let us take pictures. It was a famous Indian actor, apparently he was a big Bollywood star. The castle looked so pretty lit up at night. We stood and acted like tourists for a few minutes and then headed to the pub.

Saturday September 17
Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green

Walking through the arch at Trinity College was so pretty. We walked in and there was a wedding party coming out and taking pictures. It was really funny for them because they walked out and all these strangers were staring at them. They cheered and thanked the crowd. The architecture at Trinity was so pretty the campus was very welcoming.  We headed over to St. Stephen's Green after leaving Trinity; it started to rain though so we ducked in to the National Gallery of Ireland for a few minutes to stay dry. It ended up being free so we walked around the European Painters exhibit.  When the rain stopped we headed back out. St. Stephen's Green was a very picturesque park, there was a statue of Oscar Wilde laid back on a rock. People wanted a picture with it but no one was brave enough to climb up the rock except for me. They were looking at me in shock as to how I made it up there...it really wasn't that hard.

After a long day of sightseeing we went to the Porterhouse Brewing Co. Pub.  The food and beer were so delicious. Everyone is preparing for Arthur's Day on September 22. It is Arthur Guinness's Birthday so there is a celebration in about every pub in Ireland. There were signs everywhere, banners, coasters, and billboards promoting this event.  People said that it is almost as big as St. Patrick's Day.

Overall my trip to Ireland was a success and I will definitely go back!! My goal is to make it there at some point in my life on St. Patrick's Day.

More adventures coming soon (:

Liz