Weekend in Dublin (Not Just the Airport)

We went to Dublin last weekend and got to see more then just the airport!  We departed from Bournemouth International Airport.  It doesn’t take much to be “International” around here given the close proximity to a multitude of different countries, so international here is a little different then back in the States.  For example, one does not need to have a large airport to be international.  The Bournemouth airport has 4 Gates….That’s it folks!  Four.  Made traveling a breeze!  Not to mention you don’t need to have a large tracking board for flights when it only takes about 1 minute and 20 yards to see all of the gates.  The flight was about and hour and 10 minutes (nor do international flights need to be long).

The first thing we did after taking the bus into the city was head to Grafton Street to meet up with one of Courtney’s friends, Mary Lou De Natale.  Mary Lou was Courtney’s student adviser/mentor back at USF.  She had been in Dublin for the previous 2 weeks with a group of nursing students from San Jose State.  They were learning about the health care system of Ireland at UC Dublin.  Sure, we wanted to see the city, but Mary Lou was the main reason that we decided to head to Dublin.  When you are in another part of the world, it is always nice to see a familiar face.  We meet up on Grafton street and had a nice visit over dinner.

After we parted ways with Mary Lou, we headed over to our hostel, Kinlay House.  Nice hostel, lots of character.  They got brownie points because they gave us a free upgrade!  We ended up in a 6 person room on the 3rd floor…which is really the 4th floor because what we would call the first floor in the states is the ground floor in Europe.  We shared the room with two girls the first night but didn’t see them much.

Dublin. A city comprised of the old and the new

When we finished settling into our room we decided to head out into town and have a look around.  The hostel was in the Viking/Medieval part of town, so we started off there.  We saw a  few churches, did some general strolling about, then walked around St Stephen’s Green and ended up in Temple Bar.  Temple Bar is an area of town dedicated to pubs and restaurants and street musicians.  If you want to have a pint and a good time, that is the place to be.  We started off our Temple Bar experience by listening to a street band called The Super Fantastic Adventures of Captain Magic in His Amazing Wonderland. Epic band name huh?  The band had 6 members: two guitars, one base, one violin, one drummer and one general percussion guy.  They were in fact, super fantastic.  Courtney bought their CD but was a little disappointed because they only recorded 6 songs and the sound quality isn’t great…but that is okay.  Happy to support great street bands.  After that we had a couple pints of Guinness, enjoyed the pub musicians and headed back to the hostel to catch some Zzzz’s.

The next day we got up early to catch the light breakfast served by Kinlay House and started our day of sight seeing.  We spent the morning wandering around the shopping district, visiting Trinity College, walking along the River Liffy, and touring St Patrick’s Cathedral.  For lunch we went to the Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub (they had a certificate from the Guinness Book of Records framed on the wall).  We had a very Irish meal.  Courtney traditional lamb stew with a red lemonade and David had bangers and mash with a Guinness.  The combination of great food, great atmosphere, and great live traditional Irish music, left us feeling very satisfied.

Courtney really wanted a Guinness with a shamrock in it...However it wasn't meant to be.

After lunch, we made our way to the store house at the Guinness Brewery at St James Gate for a tour.  We are now educated in the ways of Guinness.  Here are some fun facts about Dublin’s favorite stout:

• The Guinness store house, is in the shape of a giant pint glass with a bar at the top that represents the white foamy head of a freshly poured pint.  If filled, this giant pint glass would hold 14.3 million pints of Guinness.  The Gravity Bar at the top has 360 degree panoramic views of the city.
• The idea for the Guinness book of World Records came after the director of Guinness, at the time, had an argument about the fastest game bird in Europe and was unable to verify the answer.  He guessed that questions such as this must come up at pubs all the time, and decided to create a book to provide answers for bar bets.  The fastest game bird in Europe is the Wood Pigeon.
• The lease for the St James Gate Brewery was signed by Arthur Guinness in 1759 for a term of 9,000 years.  The annual rent is 45 pounds.

We finished out the evening back in Temple Bar where we listened to a live band play traditional Irish songs and each drank a pint of Guinness for which we had a new found appreciation.