In Dublin’s fair city, where girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
She wheeled a wheel-barrow, through streets broad and narrow
Crying: cockles and Mussels a-live, a-live oh ….
Got a little carried away there…!
We went to Dublin for 3 nights for the week of Rob’s birthday. We stayed at The Jury’s Inn hotel which was overlooking the picturesque Christchurch cathedral. This was the perfect location for sightseeing and shopping. We were within walking distance of Trinity College, Temple Bar, O’Connell Street and Dublin Castle.
On the day we arrived, we spent the afternoon on a hop-on-hop-off tour bus. The weather wasn’t brilliant as it rained most of that day, so we thought this would be the best option as we could go downstairs of the bus and be undercover if necessary. Luckily, we got on the bus when it wasn’t raining, so we managed to see a fair bit. We got off at the Guinness Storehouse. You can’t really go to Dublin and not go in the Guinness Storehouse!
I found the Guinness Storehouse to be rather interesting mainly because the smell and learning about its ingredients made it sound like it tastes nicer than it actually is. We got to the top and saw the fabulous views. We didn’t bother with the complimentary pint because I for one can’t stand the stuff, and Rob couldn’t be bothered to queue for it! We did have a free glass on one of the floors on the way to the top though, so didn’t completely miss out! Rob did the Irish proud and had a pint (or two!) of Guinness every time we ate out or went in a pub. He did notice the Guinness tasted smoother than is does back home. Even though Guinness is something of an Irish icon, I couldn’t touch it! I did have a sip of my free glass at the Storehouse but….eeew!
When we came out of the Storehouse, it was pouring down with rain. We ended up sitting at the bottom of the tour bus but I was rather miffed about the fact that the rain left the windows all steamed up, so we couldn’t see anything. I wasn’t a happy bunny! Before heading back to the hotel, we went into a typical Irish restaurant where I had an Irish stew – yummy!!!
The next day, we were pleased to discover that the weather had brightened up and there didn’t seem to be any sign of rain. We spent the day exploring Dublin on foot. We went to the famous Trinity College, a lovely place to walk around, and we visited the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is the greatest Irish work of art to survive from the Middle Ages, it has been in the library of Trinity College since the 1660s. It was fascinating to look at but the fact that only one page was on display (it was in a locked glass cabinet) was rather disappointing, although we could understand why. Even more amazing to see, was the Trinity College Library. Oh my God!! The main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room, is nearly 65 metres in length, and houses around 200,000 (yes, 200,000) of the Library’s oldest books. The smell was astounding! There’s no word to describe the smell, but you could certainly smell its history.
The rest of the day saw us going into Dublin Castle and Dublina (which gave a visual presentation of Dublin’s medieval past). A rather historical day, but hey, I’m a historian after all! Not only that, we did some shopping around Temple Bar, O’Connell Street and Grafton Street and bought some souvenirs. We also saw the statue of Molly Malone. There were some tourists sitting on and leaning against the statue which I found VERY annoying! They were just chatting away looking at their maps completely oblivious to people around them trying to take a picture of the statue. I couldn’t help thinking “are they thick or what?!” I didn’t want them in my pictures of Molly Malone, and neither did anyone else I’m sure. Nevertheless, we managed to take a picture of the top two thirds of the statue.
Our last full day in Dublin was Rob’s birthday. We decided to book a trip and go out of Dublin for the afternoon. Even though we like Dublin, we couldn’t help feeling that we weren’t really experiencing Irish culture. We found Dublin to be a little too British. If you want to experience Ireland properly, then I wouldn’t suggest Dublin. That afternoon, we went to Malahide Castle (which is about 30 minutes north east from Dublin). We were able to appreciate some of Ireland’s countryside on the way. I found Malahide Castle to be different as it was a bit on the small side. For a castle, it wasn’t very big at all, but I found it to be rather cosy and rather charming (although I could see why some people would say they were completely underwhelmed by the experience). The castle itself is set on beautiful grounds and the area is rather peaceful. However, after seeing numerous castles in the last few years, I can’t help feeling if you’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen them all. Although the history is different for each one, they all have their similarities to others.
Tags: Europe
January 1st, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I remember Malahide Castle was rather disappointingly SMALL. I wouldn’t really want to live there – give me Chirk Castle any time!