I took the very early train to Stansted Airport, and most importantly the train turned up and was on time! The Stansted train is the most unreliable of all the trains that go through Cambridge. I am constantly hearing the announcements of delayed arrivals or even cancellations of that service. I flew Ryanair – the Irish company, known for its cheap flights and the flight was hassle free. Once I got to Dublin though I was met with a 45 minute wait to get through the non-EU passport holders line through customs. I was not very happy with that – the EU passport holders were passed through straight away with no delay; the rest of us had to find our way to the end of the line that wound its way through the airport terminal. But eventually I made it out of the airport and onto Dublin soil.
I took the bus into Dublin itself and got dropped off at Trinity College. I then had a short walk to my place of residence for the weekend – O’Donoghue’s. Heidi that I work with at OCR organised my accommodation for me. Her partner’s Uncle owns the popular pub where they have comfortable rooms above. It was in a great location too, right near St Stephen’s Green and near the ever popular Grafton Street. After I booked in and dropped off my bag I ventured out to explore – I was not going to waste any of my time there.
When I arrived it had been overcast and raining slightly, but by the time I went for a stroll through St Stephen’s Green the rain had stopped and it was quite pleasant. In St Stephen’s there are lakes with swans, ducks and seagulls lazing about and a beautiful seating area in the middle of the Green with gazebos and water fountains.
I then decided to take one of the tour buses around the city. Some people at work gave me the advice of taking the buses that do the live commentary, which was definitely a good hint. The hop-on-hop-off Dublin Bus Tour (green bus) took me to the outskirts of the city to the Kilmainham Gaol, which was my first stop.
They do guided tours of the Gaol, and the tour leader we had was great. He had a round tummy, white hair and beard and a thick Irish accent. He greeted us in traditional Irish language (also known as Gaelic) which I loved hearing. The tour around the Gaol was very interesting; it also involved a little bit of Australian history – they shipped off some of their convicts to Australia (they had photos of the boats they used too, in their museum). There were some sad stories about the gaol and they people who were held within its walls throughout history. The Famine played a large part of the history of the Gaol and they were the saddest tales of all. Kids as young as 15 were put in gaol for crimes such as stealing a load of bread. Because they had lied about their age to be able to work, they were then sentenced to pay for their crimes in gaol. At one stage during the famine, people were committing crimes to get into gaol, because they were given full meals while within the walls. To combat that, they strictly rationed the food and the prisoners were given very little food – the same poverty as outside.
After my tour of the Gaol, it caught the tour bus again and completed a tour of the city. We rode passed Pheonix Park and saw the large Wellington Monument and then passed some of the grounds of the Dublin Zoo. We then continued along the River Liffey and then to the main street – O’Connell Street. The days are long at the moment, so there is much more time to enjoy the scenery. I strolled down the street, visited a few of the shops – including Penny’s Primark and bought myself a cheap blue dress to take to Greece with me. I then crossed the river, walked past the massive Irish Bank and the pretty Trinity College and then back to O’Donoghue’s. I popped into the supermarket to grab a bite to eat before heading down to the pub to enjoy the ambiance and music.
The pub is quite small, but very popular and there is standing room only. I strolled around for a bit and then found some people sitting in the corner of the front of the pub – they were setting up to play some music. They had a full range of traditional Irish instruments: guitar, mandolin, accordian, bodhran, uilleann pipes, tin whistle/pennywhistle. I stayed watching and listening for the entire night. They were a really friendly bunch and I chatted with others who were enjoying the music also, with the night finishing about 1:30am.
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