Dublin up.

More enjoyable Dublin things! Sorry for being such a blog slacker. I know I suck and I am working on being a better person. I desperately want to share my stories. And so, so many pictures.

Parks.

The green spaces. I like them. The weather was pretty lovely while we were there (July), so I got to enjoy the parks and all of the strolling around.

My fav park was the Iveagh Gardens. It was tucked away near St. Stephen’s Green (the big park) and so much more quiet. I would say it was even tranquil there. It has beautiful statues and fountains scattered throughout and a large lawn to relax on. Definitely one of my happy places.

Trinity College.

We even found Oscar Wilde in one of the parks! Watta smurk on that guy!

Historic City Centre.

I also really enjoyed the Temple Bar area. It’s full of historic buildings, museums, pubs, and oh so many tourists.

We didn’t go into the Temple bar, but I stood outside of it!

Poor Molly Malone statue, I was a horrible tourist to her.

Museum!

I forgot to take any pictures, but I had a wonderful time exploring the National Museum of Ireland. It’s full of cool antiquities from medieval times, prehistoric artefacts, and MOFKN bog people. I mean no disrespect with my language, I was just so blown away by the bog bodies that I cannot contain myself. I had such a visceral response to seeing these once human beings lying in these glass cases. I wasn’t sure if I would barf, cry, or start laughing. Don’t worry I contained myself. I’ll just have nightmares forever now. Since I didn’t take pictures I took the liberty of googling images for you. Now you too can have the nightmares! This is from the museum website if you want more pictures you’re going to have to do the terrifying google search yerself.

Me in the gift shop of the museum.

Another notable museum to visit is the Chester Beatty Library. Their collection includes a diverse range of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books, and decorative arts.

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Fun fact, the Euro cup was happening while we were in Dublin and when we first arrived Ireland was doing better than expected. So, we went to watch one of the games before heading to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which meant we had a few beers beforehand. I can’t speak for John, but I was a lil tipsy walking into that church. Like a true stereotype of an Irish person. The result was some weird blurry pictures and lots of giggling from me.

Wth all that said, the church is beautiful and worth a visit.

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

Music!

We took in a few concerts while in Dublin. Including Sigur Rós! Absolutely amazing.

The aftermath of Sigur Rós.

And we went to a weird music festival! Featuring CHVRCHES, the Lumineers, and a bunch of bands I don’t remember. I’m def too old for this kinda music festival. It was rank with teenage hormones, glitter, and mystery drugs. At one point I brought out some wet-naps to clean up before devouring a festival burrito and all the youths turned to hiss at me.

Bonus: I saw 5 people barf and 3 people lying next to what was probably their old barf.

All the pale Irish kids got so sunburnt. lols.

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

There was this one cool tent for the older crowd that had fun folk music and a really awesome cover band playing. We hid in there a lot.

At some point we ventured into the electronic dance music area and it had roller skating… so that was cool.

I brought a tarp to sit on like the square I am.

And back to the old people tent! AKA the cool people tent.

OMG BEER!

I went to many a pub and took in the Guinness Storehouse tour.

Dis me standing near the river Guinness.

Look at my perfect ass pour! I’m amazing. I graduated from Guinness school with honours!

Look at how much fun we’re having.

Although we enjoyed the Guinness straight from the river Guinness I also found some cool local micro brews. I’d recommend checking out Against the Grain, Blackbird, and P. Mac’s for good hip beers. For a proper Irish Pub we liked Bowe’s Lounge Bar. And definitely don’t miss the smallest pub in Dublin – The Dawson Lounge.

Dublin is a cool place. Do I want to live there? Honestly I’m not sure. One major draw is that we had lovely friends from Edmonton in the area to hang out with and we got to meet some new people from Canada! One main drawback is that I found Dublin expensive compared to other places we’ve lived in. I’d really love to check out some of the other cities in Ireland next time like Limerick or Galway which we just didn’t have time for.

Next up on the blog lineup is our Ireland + Northern Ireland countryside adventures!

~B~