Dublin

The last possible weekend of travel together, Sean, Annie and I decided to travel to Dublin to meet up with my friend Pete, who was coming over from Portugal.


[Sean and Annie over the River Liffey]

Sean, Annie and I left early early Thursday morning from Berlin and got into Dublin pretty early. We took the airport bus into town and began to just walk around. The deal was that we were going to be staying with someone that Pete had met on Couch Surfing. Couch Surfing is a great network, where people set up profiles and offer couches for backpackers/ tourists to sleep on instead of paying for a hostel. In an expensive city like Dublin, this sounded like a great opportunity. But, we couldn't go to our "couch" until Pete got in, in the afternoon. Until then, we decided to walk around, get lunch, and begin to see some sights.


[Trinity College]

We first went and saw Trinity College, the Republic of Ireland's oldest University. Carrying around our small bags around campus, we definitely fit in with all the students. The campus is very beautiful and clearly a popular tourist spot in Dublin. From there we walked to the Dublin Castle.


[Dublin Castle]

After walking around some more, meeting up with Pete, and dropping our stuff off in the lobby of the apartment building we would be staying in, we headed back to the Dublin Castle. The day stated to clear up, and the Green Isle really is incredibly green!


[Garden behind the Dublin Castle]


[Annie, Sean and I sitting in the garden]


[There was also a particular snake theme in the garden. Here is a snake sculpture with the Castle in the background]

We walked around town a bit more, and as Dublin might be known for fickle weather, it rained and cleared up all in a couple hours time.


[River Liffey]

Since we had heard that Indian food is some of the cheapest in the city, we decided to get Indian for dinner. Although it was relatively cheap to what other restaurants were offering, it was still pretty expensive for our student budget.


[The Irish Flag reflected in the water of the Liffey]

After dinner we walked back to the apartment, where someone was finally there to let us in. The deal was that it was actually Rory's apartment, a guy who has hosted probably the most people on couch surfing, with 4 or 5 couch surfers every night. However, Rory wasn't there, because he was visiting Pete's co-worker in Porto, Portugal. When we got there, Rory's roommate was there who was leaving the next day, his girlfriend, and his girlfriends family. At least, thats what I think the relation was. But they were all leaving early in the morning to various places, and the only one who would be staying was Jerome. Jerome is technically a couch surfer but studies at Trinity College and has been staying Rory for a couple of weeks, after running into roommate problems at his apartment. Anyways, Sean and I went to bed since we had been up since about 4, and Annie, Pete and Jerome went out to a pub that was close by.


The next morning, we slept in a little bit, and went to the grocery store to buy some food for breakfast. One of the benefits of couch surfing is actually staying in someone's house, so we could use Rory's kitchen things, of course cleaning them when we were done.

The first stop for us on Friday was the the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate - a site that can't be passed up when visiting Dublin.


[The Gate]

The tour is not actually of the Brewery, but rather like the Carlsberg brewery, a museum of the making of the beer and the history of Guinness in various aspects from Arthur Guinness himself to advertising of the beer to new technologies of Guinness in a can.


[One of the more famous Guinness Slogans]

Sean was lucky enough to get to start his own brew. Each hour on the hour while the Brewery is open, one visitor gets to release the hops to start the brewing process of a whole new batch a beer. Sean is now responsible for a lot of Guinness Beer.


[Sean starting his own brew]


[There is his name!]

The best part of the tour comes at the end of course! At the very top of the brewery, they have what they call the "Gravity Bar" where everyone gets a free pint of Guinness after the tour and great views of Dublin.


[Sean and I with our Guinness!]

After we enjoyed our Guinness's and views of Dublin, we headed to St. Stephen's Green, a park that is pretty close to Trinity College, where we were supposed to meeting Jerome later. The Green really reminded me a lot of Boston Common, and was spectacularly green and flourishing in the Spring weather.


[Annie and I on the Green]


[The center of the Green]

After that, Pete really wanted a Pub lunch, but by this time, it was Friday after work and every single Pub was packed with Dubliners just getting off working and hanging out at the pub. After walking into six or seven different pubs, we just gave up, got some (expensive) fast food and went to meet Jerome at Trinity. That night, Jerome invited us to the bar that is actually on Trinity's campus, where the students were running amok. The bar was more like a party, with students all over, their school bags and sports bags all over. What Annie and I found surprising was how dressed up all the girls were for such a function. We realized later that this was just the first stop before most people went out to real clubs and bars. We ended up having a good time hanging out with Jerome and his French friends at one of those clubs.


The next day, we all slept in, except Pete, who had to leave early to get back to Porto. Annie, Sean, and I decided to go to Phoenix Park, a huge park located a little bit outside the city center, and have a picnic lunch. Since the weather wasn't perfect and we didn't have a blanket, we had to find better ground to have out picnic on. We decided the huge statue would be a good place.


[Annie climbing up the statue to have our lunch on top]

Although the rain would come and go rather strongly, we had to visit the touristy area of Temple Bar in central Dublin. A famous and touristy area, the most famous bar is probably The Temple Bar. To get out of the rain, we went in for some drinks.


[The Temple Bar]


[Annie and Sean in the Temple Bar]

The Temple Bar is known for its huge selection of Whiskey's, both from Ireland, Scotland and the US.


[Me, Sean, Jerome and another surfer Pedro eating out delicious meal!]

The perfect end to our weekend was Jerome's suggestion that we make dinner together. Annie and I decided that soup after such a cold and rainy day would be delicious. We cut up lots of veggies and made a minestrone-like pasta vegetable soup, and Jerome made delicious French crepes that we had before and after the soup. Putting blue cheese in the before the soup made a great appetizer and putting sugar, lemon, jam, chocolate, and whatever else sweet we could find (not all at the same time though) made a delicious dessert!

I really like the time we spent in Dublin, not only because I have wanted to go to Ireland to a while, but because in general everything went really well. We got to see the sights that we wanted, we had a great place to stay without having to pay for it, we got to meet Jerome (an awesome couch surfer), and in general just had a lot of fun. The couch surfing experience definitely made me a believer, and I plan on doing it in the future!