Dublin Publand

First of all, a really cute picture from the London pub the night before Ireland:

We discovered that the pubs of Southwark (where are hostel was) are actually disappearing at an alarming rate to make room for hostels and flats as tourism and the population grow. This was the only pub close by but it was great! Cheap beer, loud Englishmen, and a beautiful wooden bar:

Just what we were looking for. 

So that was Sunday. Monday we spent the whole day traveling. Free hostel breakfast, tube and train to the airport, got there really early just in case, crappy sandwich for lunch, 2 hour wait, plane to Dublin. We arrived in Ireland around 5 pm and got the bus to the hostel. We spent the evening walking around enjoying the Temple Bar area and looking for reasonably priced fish&chips, which we finally found! 

I started to fall in love with Dublin the moment we arrived. I guess I had low expectations, but it is much more than I expected. A line from one of my favorite movies (The Commitments) kept running through my head- "Rome wasn't built in a day, but Dublin was." So I thought it might be a little run-down or something. I don't know. 

But it's not at all! The first thing we noticed was how much was happening. Right in our area there are street musicians on every corner. Some of them are REALLY good! 

These "lads" (not guys) had a huge crowd

They were really good. 

Fleet Street: narrow, full of pubs and music, and so cute. 

After a quick walk around we called it a night. 

Today we decided to take a free walking tour so after free hostel breakfast we went out to meet the group (company called Sandemans- I had heard good things from friends). The tour was GREAT. Dublin isn't a huge city, so we cold easily walk to most things, and we got a history and culture lesson on the way. I'll share some if you're interested...

Dublin Castle, the big landmark, was built in several different centuries so it looks like a hodge-podge. It's the home of some government and some cultural events. 

The original part is the circular piece- I think he dated it to the 1200s?

All the same building, all connected. 

Then behind it is the courtyard, which you can one side of above. Here's the other side:

Two things are interesting about this. One, that wall was put up however many centuries ago so that royalty wouldn't have to look at the slums during an age of huge social divides when upper-class politicians really didnt care about working class problems. 

Two, in this spot, about 20 meters below current ground level, was the Dubh Linn- literally meaning black pool in Gaelic- a pond that gave Dublin its name. 

Here is the face of St. Patrick on the Dublin Castle chapel doorway. He is actually famous for bringing Christianity to Ireland (didn't know that) and the Irish weren't allowed to drink on St. Patrick's day until the 1950s when Irish descendants in New York started the drinking tradition and Ireland loosened up (didn't know that either!). 

Side note: the Irish really are super nice and really do drink a lot. They are also sarcastic and funny and will make fun of you (yes, me) but all in good fun. 

This is Dublin's lady justice statue. She is not blindfolded, her ass is towards the people of Ireland, she's holding a sword, and for 250 years her scales weren't balanced. The tour guide found all of this hilarious and fitting. 

Forty steps. A scene from "PS I love you" was filmed here and Jonathan Swift lived in a house that used to be here. Cool!

Christ church cathedral. Beautiful outside, costs money to get inside. 

In the distance is the famous spire- our tour guide said it had many nicknames including "the stiletto in the ghetto". 

It's EVERYWHERE. They have Guinness holidays. 

The blue building on the left is where a band called "The Larry Mullen Band" got its start when  the place used to be a music venue. After a show one night, the band went across the street to a pub and wasn't allowed in because they looked too scruffy. The lead singer told the bouncer "one day ill be famous and buy this pub."

That band is now U2, and Bono owns the whole block. :)

Didn't mean to catch that random hand. Whoops! This is Trinity College. Very famous and prestigious, and home to the Book of Kells, an Irish gem that includes illuminated manuscripts of the first 4 Gospels. 

Statue on St. Stephen's green of the famine. We learned a lot about the Great Famine, civil war, rebellions, and the rest of Irish history. Did you know 30 million people around the world have Irish in them, and only 7 million are in Ireland? Also, did you know that Obama is part Irish? Fun facts :) 

After the tour we got a cheap sandwich again for lunch and rested at the hostel. I'm trying to eat less meat and go back to my vegetarian ways purely to get more fruits and veggies abroad. There is never a shortage of protein or carbs in my diet here. 

We then had an unexpected surprise- the girl sleeping in the bed right across from Jeremy's is from 30 minutes from us in the US, knows Jeremy's friends, and- get this- has met Jeremy at a party at home. She is in the last 2 days of a 5-month trek across Europe, so we had loads to ask her and talk about. The 3 of us went out for drinks (Guinness for him and Bulmer's cider for me) and cheap burritos. She had so much good advice. So cool and CRAZY. 

So tomorrow we're off back to London. I'm sad. I like Dublin MUCH more. Cleaner, cheaper, music everywhere, more culture than tourists, and I'm falling asleep to the Irish music outside my window. I can't wait to come back here one day and explore other parts of Ireland. 

Dublin was a last-minute addition to the trip, and I'm SO GLAD! 

Goodnight :)