A Summer to Remember..: Dublin

This past weekend I went to Dublin with the Dubs Crew (me and three of the other girls I travel with here). Dublin was just like I remember it from four years ago, even though I'm at an age where I can do more there.

I have to say that the Irish are my favorite people, generally speaking. And maybe I'm biased since I'm Irish and I have family there. But even after traveling to all the places I've been to these past months, I still love the Irish. They will ask if you need help even if you look a little bit lost, and you can always see their caring nature. One of my friends thinking out loud said, do they teach their children kindness here? Well, I hope most parents teach kindness, but in Ireland it's more like a culture. Just like I remember, Ireland is very slow paced and people are happy go lucky. That isn't to say that they don't have drive, or aren't successful but they just look at life differently.

We stayed in Dublin for the length of our small trip. I didn't realize how small Dublin was in comparison to the other cities we've been to till my second visit. You can literally walk the entire length of the city with no problem. There are many things to see right outside the city of Dublin that can be made into a day trip. But since we didn't have that kind of time we just stayed within the city and basically saw everything. The hostel we stayed at offered a free walking tour which was great for us. So in the beginning of the day we saw all the main sites, and then we had lunch with one of my cousins. It was great to see him again, and it was nice that my friends got to meet my Irish family. After lunch we made a loop around Dublin in order to see the main street there. Then we met my other cousin for a cocktail. She was so sweet and proper it was great to see her as well, and I remembered to take a picture unlike lunchtime. She took us to a great place and showed us a great area to stay for dinner. Somehow though, we ended up finding our own restaurant. Which was basically like a Chipotle with a different name, Tolteca. That dinner was so great because it was a little taste of mexican food which we have all been missing like crazy. It was super satisfying and ended up being buy one get one free night, so it was super cheap. It wasn't like my mom's New Mexican food, but it did the job of keeping me happy. Later we decided to see the nightlife in Temple Bar, which was much different than the other cities we've been to. It's much more of a pub culture, than a club culture (going out to dance). It worked out for us since we're all getting a little tuckered our towards the end of our trip.

The next day we went to tour around the city a little more and realized there was nothing super close by to see. I think my friends avoided the idea of going to Guinness Brewery since I have already been there but I realized it would be a great place to end our trip. We purchased a hop on-hop off bus tour ticket (which we somehow got at a discount) and went to the Guinness Brewery. The tour was great, but the main reason I brought them there was for the 7th Story Gravity Bar which has a 360 degree view of the city. The view is just gorgeous, and I was glad that my friends were able to see it.

On our way back we saw the rest of the city from the bus tour. We had just enough time to get our belongings from our hostel, grab a snack and head off to the airport. It was a quick trip but I'm really happy that I was able to go.

I'm not sure I have all the photos to post. But below is what I have for now.

SLANCHA (to good health),

Nicole