Dublin Rocks!

At the end of July, Paige, Inca John and I headed to Dublin for the weekend.  The main reason was to see U2 at Croke Park, but we did a few other things as well. 

If you haven't met Inca John yet, he is the small bear friend of my friend Liz.  He is a very well-traveled bear, who was knitted into existence by the ladies of her church before her first trip to Bolivia.  Since then, he has gone all kinds of places with all kinds of people.  I think I was as excited to get to bring John along on the trip as I was to take the trip itself.  He's a really fun bear.

We got cheap flights, but the first one was out of Edinburgh.  So we MegaBused it down. These are never the most comfortable trips, but since the bus wasn't too full, it was okay. 

Once we got to the airport, we had a wee bit of a wait.  But we watched the planes taking off, and the sunset, and just hung out, enjoying each others' company.

 We had a bit of trouble with our hostel... besides the fact that it was very humid and stinky and there was black mold growing on the walls, it took forever to get checked in.  And it was a 20-bed all-girl dorm.  And the girls were young drunks.  Young, LOUD drunks.  Poor John.  He was a gentleman, though. 

 We did some shopping, although I occasionally wasn't sure what was being sold...

We did find a 'favourite spot', where we sat and enjoyed coffee.  More than once.  It was gorgous weather, and a gorgeous spot on the river.  Oh, and the mocha was gorgous, too.

Did I mention that the girls were loud?  Apparently they also hated Bono, which totally explains why they paid good money to come to Dublin for the concert.  Oh, and they were loud about it.  Did I mention that?  It made it kind of hard to sleep...

We enjoyed the main sites in the city, though.  We paid the exorbitant fee to see the Book of Kells.  I'm not sorry I did, but I won't pay to see it again.  Once is enough.  At least, for that price, it is.  We also just enjoyed some of the fancy things on the streets-- like the shamrock lighposts.  They were everywhere!

We knew that no trip to Dublin would be complete without partaking of Guinness, direct from the source.  So we took the tour of the storehouse.  It was really cool.  We also ate lunch there, and got a free taster-- and then a free pint! 

The free pint was enjoyed in the Elevation bar-- at the tippy-top of the storehouse, with a 360-degree view of the city.  And as if there weren't enough U2 allusions already, they were playing all U2 music.  Now THAT'S what I call a True Dublin Experience.  =D


All in all, we had a great time.  John even got some new digs-- an Ireland hoodie, a U2 concert badge, a shamrock briefcase, and some boots-- because Bono said to 'get on your boots'.  As for the concert... well, that deserves a post all it's own.