Dublin Day 1

Luck ‘O The Irish

Day one proved to be an eventful day in Dublin. I’d made plans the evening before to wake up relatively early and go on another free tour through the company we’d used in France, and afterwards have a small lunch before heading over to the Guiness brewery. Didn’t work out quite as well as I’d been thinking and I’d been more tired then I thought and over slept that morning missing the appointed time for the free tour. So instead I made my way down to breakfast and decided to do my own self guided tour, checking out some of the things I’d seen on the map and just wander for the morning portion of the day. And so that’s exactly what I did.

I began wondering somewhere around Trinity College, then took some shots over at a very large and famous Cathedral. I continued through the city traversing my way through the streets in no particular hurry and no particular direction. As often happens time began to wonder away from me and after around a good three hours of wondering I realised I was lost. So I continued walking in the direction I believed to be the right direction only to stumble upon a small rugby pitch. Intrigued I entered the pitch snapping a few shots before asking the friendly staff at the sports gear store for some help. I first asked the man to show me where I was on my map, surprisingly or maybe unsurprisingly however you care to look at it, he told me I was a good 20-30 minutes off my map. Meaning I’d really gotten lost and REALLY wondered through the city of Dublin. He then continued to explain to me how to get back by bus to a location I knew so that I could find my way home. He wrote down the number of the bus, the name of the stop and street, and even pointed out where the bus station was. I thanked him profusely and made my way over to the bus stop to wait. By the time I’d made it back to the hostel it was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. So i dropped off a few things and headed downstairs to the desk.

Absolutely enthralled by the kindness of the Irish people I asked the desk how I could get to the brewery from the hostel. They told me it was good twenty minutes walk. I asked if there was a bus that headed that way since I’d been walking around a good three hours that morning and was beginning to tire of walking. She too gave me a bus number and told me where to catch the bus. Even told me the approximate cost of the bus. I then asked her if my little bus hopper card I’d purchased cheaply at the airport (yes I just put those two words together in the same sentence.) would work and she said yes and that I was smart for purchasing said hopper.

So I walked leisurely down the street to catch the next bus to where I was headed. I arrived in under ten minutes time and quickly purchased my discounted students ticket for a self guided tour of the brewing process in the Guinness storehouse where a photo was taken of me, and I was aloud a taste test of a new Guinness product as well as a pint up in the Gravity lounge afterwards. It was in Gravity lounge that I was able to snap some amazing pictures of the night skyline of Dublin, reminding me slightly of a time when I’d stood freezing atop the roof of the tallest skyscraper in New York and took a similar photo of the night skyline. After this I headed back to the hostel to turn in for the night planning to try once more to get to the free tour the next day.