Amanda arrived in Dublin on May 14th and we really packed everything into a one day whirlwind tour of Dublin. Luckily I had done some recon while in the city earlier so had everything planned out. To the hour. (Lucky Amanda). But, there was so much to see and do in Dublin I wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything in our short time frame! We stayed at the Dublin International Youth Hostel for two nights which was amazing. It was an old convent so the (now) dining room was the old chapel. It had big beautiful wooden tables, ceilings, beams, and stained glass windows. They even had a loud speaker that would carry throughout the place each morning - "Good morning boys and girls, checkout is 10am, blah blah." It was awesome. A total mix between Sister Act and Harry Potter.
After talking to pretty much every info booth in town I (along with the great employees at these places) determined the best way to see the highlights of Dublin in one day would be on a good old tourist Hop On / Hop Off bus. Now, if you ever go to Dublin definitely consult with me first because I think I explored every option possible. I could probably work at one of the tourist info centers by now.
We started our whirlwind tour on the bus and stopped first at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Book of Kells is a lavishly decorated copy, in Latin, of the four gospels which was written by monks off the west coast of Scotland over 1000 years ago. It is associated with St Colum Cille who founded a monastery in Iona in 521-597 AD. It has been kept out of harms way for all those years and has moved locations a few times due to Viking raids and other disasters to ensure it's safety. It finally came to Trinity College in 1661. The exhibit for the book was quite interesting, detailing the drawings and materials used in the book. While it was amazing to learn about this book, the real highlight was the Trinity College Library, specifically The Long Room. There has been a library at Trinity College since 1592, when Queen Elizabeth founded it. It is considered to be one of the world's greatest research libraries and holds the largest collection of manuscripts and printed books in Ireland. The Long Room is 215 feet high and houses about 200,000 of the library's oldest books. It is breathtaking. For you Star Wars fans, you might recognize it from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as some sort of Jedi library (I had no idea....I've never seen Star Wars). On the walking tour I did learn that George Lucas asked for permission from Trinity College to film in this room for the movie and they told him no as they thought the filming equipment would damage the fragile books. Apparently, George Lucas then set in filmers with hidden cameras who took thousands of pictures of the space against their wishes. Trinity college sued George Lucas but of course the movie grossed hundreds of millions of dollars so he gladly paid them out of his earnings.
After checking out Trinity college we made our way to St Patrick's cathedral, which was founded in 1191. The thing that struck me the most was that the Guinness family contributed over 150,000 pounds for the restoration of the cathedral (in the 1860s) and now they have their own private section at the front of the church! (I'm not sure if this was what I should have taken away from a cathedral visit, but its what I remember the most. Oh well). After that we headed to the Dublin Castle tour (because we are in Ireland and of course need to scope out the castles). I couldn't get over the decor inside the castle. It was mostly from the 18th century and it was a whole lot of gold and a whole lot of detail.
Rated as one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland, we decided we had to visit the Guinness storehouse. With neither of us being huge beer fans we weren't quite sure what to expect. Boy were we shocked at what we found. The place was absolutely massive with seven floors of information, interactive activities, history, and of course tastings. We only had about an hour at the whole place, so skimmed the levels and then headed straight for the tasting (obviously). Guinness is so much better in Ireland than it is in the U.S.! And it is everywhere. It was a great experience and you could definitely spend a whole day here.
Our next stop on the line was the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). My airbnb host had recommended going here and I had heard about it from a couple of the info booths.
The jail was the location they held local prisoners and was also the location of the 1916 Uprising executions. The stories were quite moving and gave us a better understanding and appreciation of Irish history.
To cap off our busy day, we went on a musical pub tour in the Temple Bar area (recommended by Rick Steves). Turns out, the rest of America also reads Rick Steves. We had probably 40 or so people in our group and almost every single one was American! I couldn't believe it. But, as usual, Rick was right. This musical pub tour was a real highlight. Two musicians took us to three different pubs and played music, told stories, and gave us an introduction to traditional Irish music. They were extremely entertaining and even got us singing along at points. Amanda and I really loved this part of the day!
We had a little church, some Guinness, jail time, castle, and music - a true Irish day.
Highlights:
- Musical Pub Tour - although pretty much all Americans on the tour, the introduction to Irish music and getting to know the musicians was so cool.
- The Long Room - such cool architecture and I was speechless when I walked in the room!
- Queen of Tarts - a lunch spot located across from the Dublin Castle and quite possibly the best frittata I have ever had! Still dreaming about it.
- Dublin Castle - great to learn about Dublin history and hear the amazing stories of this castle right in the heart of the city.
- Our hostel - although standard bunk beds in the room, it was so cool to stay in a building that had been repurposed for something new.
Lessons Learned:
- Dublin is pretty touristy - especially the Temple Bar area. But that is where a lot of the live music is!
- In Ireland, if you don't drink Guinness, you should learn to drink whisky. So I did.
- Doing a whole city in one day is exhausting! But it was fun for one day. And then we needed a vacation from our vacation.
- The tour guide makes a big difference - I had actually done a tour earlier of the Dublin castle and was unsure if it was something we should do - our guide on my second time through was so good and really made the experience!
- If you want to do the tour of the Gaol, book ahead! They sell out a couple weeks in advance (luckily my host had told me that).
A typical Irish pub.
The Long Room.
Interior of Dublin Castle.