Our first proper introduction to Dublin was when we hopped on our Airbus 747 to the city and were met by a jolly little Irish bus driver, cracking the jokes and being very helpful in terms of telling us where to go. Classic. With ease we arrived in the city centre and found our hostel - the Litton Lane Hostel. I was so excited to arrive because we were meeting my little sister Katrina there, who I hadn't seen for about a year as she had been on exchange in Spain. It was so great to see her! After we dropped our things up in our room we set off on a wander through the city, with no set itinerary but just a want to explore. We wandered down the river to the port and then went back to a small pub that we passed along the way. Due to a four thirty start after such a large weekend at Parklife we were desperate for a coffee. The owner of the pub was there, another Irishman who had definitely had a whiskey or two but was friendly and helpful none the less. Although he didn't seem to know exactly where anything was, but did suggest that we check out the Guiness Factory across town.
After thanking the man we set off for the Temple area of the city, where the famous Temple Bar is situated among other lively, colourful pubs, restaurants and people. At The Temple Bar there was a man, David Brown, who was 43 hours into attempting to break the record the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest amount of time continuously playing a guitar. He was aiming for 100 hours. Throughout the two days we were in Dublin we kept going back to see how he was doing. He had all different people playing with him at different times. The place was packed with people who had come to see him attempt the record. The vibe was incredible. Everyone was cheering him on, all hours of the day and night. The last time we went to check on him he looked terrible! But was charging on at 73 hours. We hope he makes it!
We then continued on through the city to the Guiness Factory. It was interesting to Guiness' origins and the history behind the porter, but it wasn't the most exciting place I've ever been. Considering I'm not a massive fan of the taste we didn't end up having our free Guiness at the end but did get to see some great views over of the city from the Skybar up the top of the factory. Having walked quite far to get to it, Sam suggested a horse and carriage to take us back to Temple. Five euros each seemed like a pretty good deal so we enjoyed a ride back to the centre of the city. We went to check and see how the record was going and he was going strong, before grabbing some ingredients for dinner and heading back to the hostel to cook.
Mat wasn't feeling very well so had an early night, while Katrina, Sam and I had a few drinks and went out to explore the town. It seems Dublin is always busy at night. It was Tuesday and everywhere was packed. We hit a few pubs and enjoyed the atmosphere. It's a very lively and happy city at night. We had a lot of fun!
On day two we woke up late and went to visit the National Leprechaun Museum. W The tour was great. A young girl took us around telling us all about traditional Irish folklore, which is mainly based on fairies rather than leprechauns, leprechauns are actually a Hollywood commercial icon put on the Irish. Our favourite room was the giants room where a table, chairs, couch, reading light are all five times the size of normal furniture so you look like a tiny person sitting on them. Took a lot of photos! At the end you get to draw a picture which they frame so we had some good fun drawing leprechauns. Katrina drew us with Finn (our new token leprechaun who would continue on our Irish journey with us as our mascot), Mat drew an Australian leprechaun, Sam drew a leprechaun's face with a massive beard and I drew a cartoon one. After this we went to look at Dublin Castle. There isn't much to see but in the middle is a massive garden surrounded by ruins which was really nice so we spent the afternoon in the sun.
Had a quiet night in as we had an early morning start so had dinner back at the hostel. Our road trip around Ireland started in the morning! Sad to say goodbye to Dublin, but we'll see you again!
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