Dublin

After 2 flights and 3 bus rides, I have arrived to my hostel in Dublin.  We were exhausted but we were in the city famous for its pubs so we obviously had to go out for one quick pint of Guinness.  It was 1am on a Thursday and all the bars seemed to be closed, finally after about an hour we found one that was open and downed our first Irish beer.  Then, we took advantage of not being in Norway and being subjected to Norwegian prices, and downed some chicken wings and pub grub.  Then I had a sleepless night, despite the hostel being wonderful, there was a loud squeaky train outside that passed by every 10 mins, keeping me awake.

Today was a very full day, my legs are aching from the 10 hours straight of walking.  We did lots of wandering and exploring this lovely city.  We spent some time walking though the main shopping street then strolled through a gorgeous park where we were nearly attacked by pigeons, they were vicious and everywhere!

Pigeons!!

We visited the National Gallery and saw some great artwork, although not much of it was even Irish.  We check out a museum of Natural History, which was actually really interesting.  It was basically 2 floors of stuffed animals from polar bears to kangaroos.

Natural History museum.

We saw Saint Patrick’s church and ended up in Irelands oldest library.  That sounds like a snore but it was fascinating, the books were sooo old!  In the back of the library there were cages where people had to sit to read so they wouldn’t stain or ruin the books.

In the evening, we booked a seat at the Brazen Head pub (supposedly the oldest pub in Dublin), at a folk story and legends dinner.  It came highly recommended and was well worth what I paid!  There was a 3 course traditional Irish meal and in between courses there was a guy telling us legends, stories, taught us about the Irish beliefs in fairies and there was a live band after playing some great Irish jig/sing along songs.  Id suggest this to anyone visiting Dublin.  There was about 50 people there and probably 40 were American.  Through out all of my travels, from Australia to Norway it is very rare to meet any one from North America but it seems as if they all flock here.

A store that sells Tim Hortons in Dublin!!

After some more Guinness we wandered around to another part of the city near the river. Now I am headed for bed (I learned my lesson and bought ear plugs) so hopefully Ill be rested for a bike tour and a Guinness brewery tour tomorrow.