So recently I took a quick trip over to Dublin, Ireland for a little mosey about while actually considering a move there later in the year. With only two days to see as much as possible I tried to cram in a lot. It might only have been a short visit but I visited a lot of attractions so I thought I better split it into two posts.
Here’s my stressful arrival and first day in Ireland…
Though not really a spur of the moment trip the flights weren’t booked particularly far in advance but turns out there’s always a good deal to be had with Ryanair as I got return flights Glasgow to Dublin for £20 total. Bargain. I also managed to get a pretty nice hostel for around £8 a night so not bad at all.
Unfortunately, the airport experience was quite a stressful one on the way out, with a boarding pass that wouldn’t scan meaning a hike to the other side of the airport for it to be re-issued by Ryanair and then a 50 minute queue to get through airport security making me late for my flight. I would have, in fact, missed my flight had it not been delayed!
This annoyingly set me up to be late for a meet up in Dublin which was further extenuated by my airport bus into Dublin city getting stuck in traffic. All making for a very stress little traveller but luckily I managed to rearrange my meeting and all was well in the end.
My weekend visit turned out to be quite a wintery one but luckily the sun was shining for the first morning though it as very cold and very strong icy winds.
First stop, and direct from the airport was Trinity College Dublin.
I was lucky enough to be getting a tour around the campus and so learnt some history as I wandered around. I got a little look inside some of the buildings as well which are just as stately inside as out despite being a working university. As well as my guide pointing out the likes of Oscar Wilde’s student diggs, Trinity has one of the Sphere Within Sphere (Sfera con Sfera) sculptures by Arnaldo Pomodoro. Pretty interesting artworks that are in lots of influential places like the Vatican and the UN Headquarters. What I like about this one is, that unlike the others it doesn’t spin because it rains too much in Ireland and it kinda rusted. Oops.
I spent quite a while around Trinity and had lunch there before heading back up through O’Connell St, the main thoroughfare of the city, and off to locate my hostel which was near by. In the meantime the weather had taken quite a horrid turn and so I hide in the hostel from the heavy sleet and gale force winds but they eventually subside a little so I do a little more exploring and head off to find Dublin Castle.
Dublin Castle is very pretty but quite a mix of styles, I guess as new sections were added on. Since I visited in the evening I wasn’t able to see the inside but the outside was impressive in itself though quite difficult to take good pictures of as its sits surrounded by other buildings, and car parks on all sides.
After it starts to get a bit dark I head on back to the hostel where the headache that I’ve had all day develops into a full blown migraine which was quite horrendous. A 12 bed dorm room is definitely not the place to try and lie quietly in the dark. Even with being ill, I end up having one of the worst sleeps I’ve ever had in a hostel with so many loud people coming in from the pub at 2 and 3 am and then for some reason everyone’s phone alarms going off from 4am and them either not noticing or only snoozing them for 10mins a time.