D Day 3

Last Day and night in Dubs, and this time we used it to actually discover the city. The group split into two, one group went sight seeing right away (Dave, Jake, Sophie, Aine, Bruna) as they went for the quick and dirty breakfast at the SPAR. Second group me, Jenn, Nic, becs, and Hester wanted a sit down traditional Irish breakfast.

found a nice cozy little place in Temple Bar. Reminded me of Diner Deluxe or Lazy Loaf back at home. A traditional Irish breakfast i guess wasn't all that different from a Canadian breakfast' per say but it was good nonetheless!
After breakfast, we headed to O'connor to see some different coloured doors and the spire (and was were becs and Hester were catchin their bus to the airport).



haha it was so odd seeing other tourists also taking pictures too... really they are just doors, but might as well!
is it an actual post, or art?


After, Nic, Jenn and I headed to Trinity college and the Canadians were keen on seeing the book as Patty, Jenn L and Mei gave it a rave review last night. But there was a long line up to get into the library and since we were to meet group one in about 2 hours, Nicole decided to take a city bus tour and split off. I love travelling with easy going people - just sorta the do what you want and meet up 'if you feel like it' after.

The Book of Kells was actually pretty cool as it was an ancient illustrative manuscript. Wiki gives it a pretty good low down here.


After Trinity, just wanted to hit Dublin Castle which was a few blocks away.

Didn't see too much of the castle as we were already growing tired and then eventually we ended up at the Starbucks on Grafton. Oh Soy Chai how I've missed you.. and instead of it being 4 pounds it was FREE! why? Well look who we ran into (below):
Sal, (can't remember middle one's name), and Laura. My favourite Italian and French Girls in Dublin! After a bit of chillin' and souvenir shoppin, we met back up with the gang and from there Aine and Bruna went back to the flat, Nicole went to do some shoppin and the rest of us decided to walk a little more. Jake and Dave apparently still wanted to visit the other half of the city...


after about 30 mins, I split off from the group cause I thought 8 hours of walking was good enough for me! So bought myself a book, headed back to Starbucks to chill and possibly hang with some new friends afterwards as they closed a little earlier on a Sunday. Chilled for about 2 hours, and after they closed up, headed out to the Porterhouse Irish Pub in Temple Bar with Sal, Laura, Paola (columbian), Carlos and Malta (spaniards) - don't know if I spelled their names right - but tried my best!
I must say this was the best time I've had in Dublin pub, beer was great, atmosphere was awesome, and had great conversations with some new friends!


We stayed until closing as each one of us took turns buying the rounds and after about 6 rounds of beers, and having us get rowdier and rowdier, the pub closed at about 1am and we were kicked out.
After that strolled the streets of Dublin, said goodbyes to my new friends and then headed back to the flat. luckily they weren't sleeping yet or else I would've been locked out (but I've been messaging them all night)... and nope, they were all still up taking shots! I accidentally called Sophie 'Bruna' over the intercom and made me take a shot of JDs for that mistake!
haha but by the time I arrived, people started to leave and I crashed at about 230 and planned to wake up at 530am to catch my bus to the airport for my flight at 9am (wanted to avoid the morning Monday traffic in Dublin). Well apparently, I didn't notice that the clock on my phone didn't adjust to Dublin time as it should have and I woke up at 430 am! So by the time I got to the airport it was about 6am and was SUPER early, but the airport was CRAZY busy at this time...

Caught my flight on aer lingus and once I arrived it was back to the office by 1pm in A'dam!!

Thanks Aine, Aisling and Dublin and the rest of the crew for a great time!

Salute my friends!

D Day 2 (Malahide and Howth)

Day two, last minute Jenn and I decided to join the others to visit the country side and since we were planning on doing it eventually, might as well join the crew! Their plan was to go to Malahide Castle and then to Howth.ops, that's Hester, not ester (typo)

The day started off with us walking to the train station which was surprisingly quite far. But we found it with success ! We bought a day pass for 7 Euros (and considering we were leaving the city and making a few stops it wasn't bad!). But the trains are infrequent and each time we we're ready to head the wait time would be at least 10-30 minutes (that and being a Sunday I guess didn't help either).



and then head to the washroom...here's comes the DART!
We make it to Malahide with quite a bit of walking and the castle was smaller than expected but beautiful none the less. We did the tour for 5 Euros but the tour ended up being quite short and was basically the people pressing play every time we entered another room. I want my money back... well at least 4.5 Euros worth.
After the castle, we head towards the town and have lunch outside by one of the fountains. When it started to get windy and hail was when we decided to take the train and head further out! We had to make a switch and at one of the stations it was about 20-30 mins for the train to the town of Howth which was where we wanted to go. So we walked around the station, but then eventually warmed up in the elevator.
We arrived in Howth and the wind was still fierce but we were able to walk near the shore, but when it started to rain, we sought refuge in the nearest pub and decided to stay there to drink and snack and waited for the weather to die out... it was sweet.

After forcing ourselves to go back out, we saw a neat little structure on top of a cliff in the distance and decided to walk towards it.


Then after that we saw another hill with some people on top and naturally we decided to walk there - haha it was one of those it's looks like it's only ten minutes away but naturally it was about 30-40 minutes of course. But when we got there, as anticipated there were amazing view of the ocean and the town itself. Despite the wind, the rain, the snow and Dave mistakenly stepped into a puddle of muddy water thinking it was a rock... it was all worth it!

After an entire day of walkin, we finally took the train back to Dubs.



St. Patrick's Church

When we got to the flat, Aine was not home yet and since we've hardly seen Patty and gang, we decided to meet up with them for dinner and swap day stories! We met at Temple Bar at an Italian restaurant and had us some good food! Reminded me of Venice when that pizza hit my mouth...
Forgot to mention, when in Ireland, you think everything is in English, but signs are also posted in the native Irish Gaelic language. It's quite different and you could figure out some words, but most you can't. Most the Irish learn it when they are young and can understand it, but of course most people use English to communicate.

After dinner, we were suppose to meet some of Patty's friends at the smallest Pub in Dublin... too bad it was closed... so we went somewhere else that was close and that served Murphy's beer (a local beer) that patty insisted on trying.
We found McDaids, totally Irish and loved it! closed early though... the beer was great! nice and smooth and nothing like Molson Canadian = very good.


When we were forced to leave (they closed quite early , about 11ish, we were all pretty tired from the walking and headed home on the snowy evening.