After leaving Glasgow, I flew into Dublin whilst Court caught the train back to Saltaire. Sadly, I arrived the day after flooding in the city caused the untimely deaths of two individuals. :( The strange thing was, you would never have guessed that they had received so much rain the previous day - the streets were completely dry, and the sun was shining! So strange...
I had plans in the evening to meet up with my friend Marianne, a lifelong Dublin resident whom I met in Australia in 2010. Since I had time to kill, I found myself scoping out the shores of the River Liffey and wandering around Temple Bar. When it started to get dark(ish) and I still had a considerable amount of time on my hands, I decided to go to the movies for the first time in 5 months. (For those of you who haven't seen We Need To Talk About Kevin, it's definitely worth a look.) I have to say, movies feel like a luxury when you're on the road non-stop - they can be a nice way to relax and get some energy back.
In the evening, Marianne and I went to Oliver St. John Gogarty in Temple Bar to check out the live music - it was fantastic! We saw two groups playing traditional music, broken up by a pair of Irish dancers - very entertaining. And I will say that the rumours about Guinness in Ireland are true - it does taste better in the country where it's brewed! I generally find Guinness too dark/heavy in other parts of the world, but I quite enjoyed it in Ireland, particularly in Dublin! More on that later...
The following morning I got up early to go on a day tour organised by my hostel which took in Wicklow and Kilkenny. As luck would have it, it was another beautiful sunny day - perfect for exploring. Wicklow is very beautiful - we were in a valley surrounded by high hills with trees turning every autumn colour you can imagine. The contrast between the changing leaves, emerald green pastures and clouds of mist hanging over the lakes was truly breathtaking.
After departing Wicklow we headed to Brownshill Portal Tomb (which was cool), and finally on to Kilkenny. Though I genuinely enjoyed getting to walk around the city itself, the best part of the tour for me was simply driving through the countryside. Ireland really is as beautiful as you've imagined!
The next day I went on a free 3.5 hour walking tour of Dublin operated by New Europe (http://www.neweuropetours.eu/). As with the ghost tour we did in Edinburgh, these guides work for tips only, meaning that they really work hard to impress their clients. To say I was impressed by my guide – Dave – is an understatement. As with the guides we encountered in Scotland, the love he had for his country was palpable. I really enjoyed how thorough he was in explaining the history. (I actually think I am a better student of Irish history than I am of anywhere else!) On our tour we covered a lot of ground, visiting City Hall, Dublin Castle & Record Tower, Chester Beatty Library, Christ Church, Trinity College, the National Gallery, Leinster House, and St. Stephen’s Green. If you’re planning to go to Dublin – or any of the other places where New Europe tours operate – I highly recommend the experience, particularly if you have a few days in one place with no set plans. The tours give you historical background in addition to showing you the sights, and if you have another day afterwards, you can revisit places you may not have known about/considered otherwise. I’m glad that I went on the Kilkenny daytrip, but I definitely would have liked some more time in Dublin after the walking tour. I did go back to the National Gallery on my own – I wanted to see the amazing bog people! – but I never did make it in to see the Book of Kells, or into the Chester Beatty Library (which sounds really fascinating).
After my time in Dublin I embarked on a six-day “All Ireland” tour with Paddy Wagon. I wanted to see as much as humanly possible in the ten days I had, so a tour which took me right around the island was a necessity. (For those of you who are wondering if I toured the famed Guinness Factory/Storehouse, the answer is yes - the tour looped back around to Dublin, so I'll cover that once I've talked about the rest of my experiences there.)
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