Ah Dublin, the city that has stolen many a traveller’s heart. According to my Lonely Planet guide book, this place is ‘pulsating, yet manageagable,’ interesting choice of words for a place buzzing with tourists, families, locals, and stag and hens especially on a sunny Saturday in August.
This was Day 1 in the ‘Dad and Daughter Road Trip’ (more on this soon) where I’m spending the week discovering Ireland with my lovely father, thanks to Tourism Ireland. And what a way to kick it off. We had just under 24 hours in this capital city before we hopped in our hire car and moved on, meaning that we couldn’t waste a moment.
Unfortunately we lost a bit of time getting from the airport to our hotel. As there’s so much going on in the city the roads were chocka block, with a Comic Con going on. Seeing a real life Picachu, Doctor Evil and Superman wandering past your car window doesn’t happen everyday!
Once we’d dumped our bags, freshened up and ditched the car, we grabbed our maps and headed to St Stephen’s Green. Once a place for public hangings, this lush park and gardens is now the hangout spot for families, couples and groups of friends lying on the grass and catching some rays. If the weather is on your side (I’m quickly learning how four seasons in one day is pretty common here) then stop for a picnic and plan where you’re going to next.
One of the best ways to see the city and to get your bearings is by jumping on one of the hop-on hop-off tourist buses. Our driver, Mark, was this hilarious Irish man who sang to us, told (bad) jokes and gave us a brief but interesting history of the many stunning buildings we went past.
We hopped off at the Guinness Store House, the interactive brewery tour where you learn all about how the black stuff gets created and why it became such an iconic drink. Because it’s on a lot of other people’s to-do lists it can get pretty busy so leave yourself enough time to get round and make it to the 7th floor where you get to sample a cold pint (included in your entrance ticket) with stunning views of the whole city.
Back on the bus we toured past Kilmaiham Gaol and Dublin Zoo before stretching our legs once more over the Ha’penny Bridge, crossing the River Liffey. This pretty bridge connects you right to the Temple Bar area where you can’t fail to wander round smiling at the party atmosphere of the many Irish bars packed in this place.
A quick tour around the majestic Trinity College where the Book of Kells is located, and our stomachs rumbled that it was time for dinner.
We headed back to the Temple Bar to fill our rumbling tummy’s and got to sit outside in the fading evening light with a bowl of steaming Irish mussels, Guinness bread and a bottle of crisp white wine, soaking up the craic all around us. It was perfect for people watching and I think I may just have to get an Irish character into one of my next novels!
Making our way back to our hotel via the shopping street and street performers mecca a.k.a Grafton Street we decided to pop into a few pubs for a quick drink. I don’t think there’s anything like a ‘quick drink’ in Dublin as I’ve heard that you’re likely to make friends for life with the locals here. We got chatting to a fab Irish couple and before we knew it it was 1am and we were stumbling home to bed. Whoops!
I’m in Ireland for the next week and visiting a new destination each day, so if you want to see what else we get up to then follow me on Snapchat (TheNotwedordead) or find me by clicking the links below to get daily updates!
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