Dublin

Friday night, we rolled into Dublin! We took a taxi to our hotel, which was kind of far from the city centre. We were hungry so we walked to a pub not too far from the hotel. They informed us that they no longer serve, so we had to go to McDonald's because it was the only other thing in the area. We went back to the pub for dessert!

Saturday morning we got up early and decided to take the Luas (kind of like their transit system) into the city. We got off and walked to the Guinness Storehouse. We were there for quite sometime learning all about how to make Guinness and Arthur Guinness and the 9000 year lease. It was really cool to see everything there and hear all about Guinness, and of course get a free pint at the end of the tour :) The Guinness store house is 7 stories tall and the highest point is the gravity bar which is all glass and gives you a great view of the city!

After the Guinness factory we got on a Dublin city tour Hop-On/Hop-Off bus. We thought this would be the best way to see much of the city in 2 days. Saturday was a really busy day in this sense! We went to Kilmainom Gaol (jail) which was really amazing and I learned a lot about the 1916 uprising in Dublin. I was really glad we did this tour because a lot of the people involved in the uprising have buildings and streets named after them. It was fun to recognize those names and know the story behind it.

After the Gaol we got back on the bus and saw Trinity College, Temple Bar Area, Christ Church, etc... We saw quite a bit!! At the end of the day we were pretty exhausted and hungry! We had a great meal at Flanagan's restaurant and took the Luas back to our hotel.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the zoo. The zoo was one of the stops on the Hop-On/Hop-off tour that we saw and since our tickets were good form 24 hours, we still had time to hop-on and get there. The Dublin zoo is really quite large and had a lot of stuff. I LOVE zoos and they even had my favorite animal, the giraffe!! After the zoo we went and saw St Patrick's Cathedral. After the cathedral it was almost time for me to head back to Galway. We stopped at the hotel, grabbed my stuff, took the Luas to the city centre and said our good-byes.

It was so fun to have Steph and Lindsay here and I'm glad that we got to see so much in the time that they spent here. I think they had fun and were also ready to head home and not live out of a suitcase anymore.

I took a bus back to Galway--it rained the whole way back. We definately had great weather while they were here to sight-see! When I got home I was pretty tired.

Today I have to catch up a bit on homework and get ready for another week. Next weekend I'll be headin to Northern Ireland!