Dublin
Late post! I've been meaning to get around to this but getting set back up in Olympia took precedence. I now have some time on my hands to write about Dublin and hopefully give this blog a sense of completion - not only for my readers but for myself to be able to look back on one day when I'm too old and crippled to even think about visiting France and Ireland again.
As my previous post mentioned, we got into Dublin very late at night and there was only one other walk on passenger on the ferry. Once to our hostel we got checked in and after stowing our bags in the smelly basement lockers, made our way to our room to sleep.
Some words on the hostel:
We stayed in a place called Isaac's Hostel. The main doorway was through an alley, and entered into a large common room with big long tables with bench type seating. When Tawnie and I arrived the common room was packed with mostly young people, but also a smattering of older folks. The majority were European I would assume.
We booked a room that was for 6 people, with both men and women. When we arrived our first night there was a young girl - about 19 or so - from Germany in our room. She was travelling on her own and came across as pretty shy and a bit frightened - staying in a hostel she was finding out, was probably not as cool and rugged-glamorous as she had in mind. The three of us chatted for only about a minute before Tawnie and I climbed into our bunk bed (she claimed top bunk) and went to sleep. Then at about 3AM our other three guests finally made it back to the room. They were super loud and drunk and obnoxious. They made some effort to be quiet, but when you're as drunk as they were it didn't really work. Plus these bunk beds were very creaky and made a ton of noise when you sat on them or shifted around. It wasn't the ideal nights sleep, but it was cheap!
It was my idea to stay in the hostel. In my mind staying in a hostile was somewhere near the peak of budget travelling and I had to get a taste of what it was like. The silly part is, I had already stayed in a hostile before at McMenamins Edgefield. I had just forgotten. Which is funny, because I didn't particularly like the hostel at Edgefield (everything else was awesome, but having to tiptoe around during the day in your room, then be woken up at night be strangers in your own room is a bit annoying). Isaac's Hostel wasn't any different. In fact, Isaac's was worse, as the lockers were in a basement three floors below our bedroom. Since we were travelling with all our stuff and couldn't really afford to have anything stolen, we had to make many trips up and down making sure to keep our things locked up, while also retrieving clean clothes. I think overall it wouldn't have been so bad if we had lockers next to our beds. We also got breakfast...sorta. It consisted of hardboiled eggs, toast, and jam. Not great, but it kept us functioning.
Anyways, moving on. The first day in Dublin was jam packed. We walked all over town, and began our adventure by visiting the Teeling Whiskey Distillery. We were there before the tours began so we popped into their café and enjoyed some hot chocolate and coffee. Then we went on the first tour with 7 people total. Our tour guide was a super young girl with a very entertaining Irish accent that spilled out tons of knowledge about the history of Irish Whiskey in Dublin, as well as the history of the Teeling family and how they make their whiskey today. We finished off the tour with a tasting and Tawnie and I both enjoyed it, and learned the correct way to drink whiskey, which I found makes it much more palatable - even to the point of enjoyable! If anyone ever needs some tips on what to get me for my birthday or Christmas, a bottle of Teeling whiskey is a surefire bet.
After the tasting we made our way back out onto the streets of Dublin. If I can recall correctly, the rest of the day was spent walking around looking at things we could look at for free. We ate out for lunch and dinner but I'm already having a hard time remembering those meals.
However, the next day in Dublin we went to the Guinness Storehouse. I'm glad I went, as it's a huge attraction, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Teeling. The place was packed and it was full of glitz and glam. There were exhibits all over the place and everything was just too damn bright, shiny, and loud. It felt like I was in a club. Many of the exhibits weren't even that informative either - they were just kind of cheap and tacky but attention grabbing. Old man rant over. That all aside, the best part was getting to pour your own pint of Guinness. They teach you the correct method, then allow you to pour and drink your own, even printing out a certificate indicating that "Sam Timpe poured a perfect pint of Guinness". I no longer need a resume, I can just use that.
After that we walked through St. Stephens Green - a lovely park with a pond and a nice trail that goes around the outside of it. We sat and people watched for a bit before going to a nearby restaurant for Italian food. Then we went to The Little Museum of Dublin. I would highly recommend this museum as it was pretty cheap, not very popular, but full of items and letters that had to do with the shaping of Dublin as a city. Then at some point we went to the Temple Bar neighborhood and saw the world famous bar, but it was too packed for us to think about walking in. Instead we went to an ice cream shop across the street, and ended the night having dinner in a restaurant nearby. We had traditional Irish fare and a bottle of wine to celebrate our final dinner abroad. After that we took one last stroll down the River Liffey to our hostel.
The next morning we woke up and bought a bus ticket from the hostel to get us to the airport. We didn't have to wait for the bus at all, and proceeded to the top front of the double-decker to see the city one final time. We were at the airport plenty early and tolerated our long flight home pretty well. Joe and Audrey received us at the airport and took us back to their house for pizza and a good nights' rest without loud drunk people waking us up in the middle of the night.
Overall, Tawnie and I had differing opinions on Dublin. She really enjoyed it. She liked that it was a bustling large city with a beautiful river running through it and a ton of architecturally pleasing bridges. I personally didn't love it. I like alcohol but this place really felt like it was fueled on it. From what we saw, drinking is a huge part of the culture of Dublin and I just wasn't in that kind of mood. If I went a couple years ago I would have probably had a blast, but I think at this point in the trip we were both just ready to come home.
Well that's that ya'll. I'm going to make one more post regarding my packing list, but that's it for actual travel posts. I hope you have enjoyed my posts. There are definitely things I would do differently next time I blog, but at the end of the day I'm just glad I've got this all written down so I can look back on it someday.
Some words on the hostel:
We stayed in a place called Isaac's Hostel. The main doorway was through an alley, and entered into a large common room with big long tables with bench type seating. When Tawnie and I arrived the common room was packed with mostly young people, but also a smattering of older folks. The majority were European I would assume.
We booked a room that was for 6 people, with both men and women. When we arrived our first night there was a young girl - about 19 or so - from Germany in our room. She was travelling on her own and came across as pretty shy and a bit frightened - staying in a hostel she was finding out, was probably not as cool and rugged-glamorous as she had in mind. The three of us chatted for only about a minute before Tawnie and I climbed into our bunk bed (she claimed top bunk) and went to sleep. Then at about 3AM our other three guests finally made it back to the room. They were super loud and drunk and obnoxious. They made some effort to be quiet, but when you're as drunk as they were it didn't really work. Plus these bunk beds were very creaky and made a ton of noise when you sat on them or shifted around. It wasn't the ideal nights sleep, but it was cheap!
It was my idea to stay in the hostel. In my mind staying in a hostile was somewhere near the peak of budget travelling and I had to get a taste of what it was like. The silly part is, I had already stayed in a hostile before at McMenamins Edgefield. I had just forgotten. Which is funny, because I didn't particularly like the hostel at Edgefield (everything else was awesome, but having to tiptoe around during the day in your room, then be woken up at night be strangers in your own room is a bit annoying). Isaac's Hostel wasn't any different. In fact, Isaac's was worse, as the lockers were in a basement three floors below our bedroom. Since we were travelling with all our stuff and couldn't really afford to have anything stolen, we had to make many trips up and down making sure to keep our things locked up, while also retrieving clean clothes. I think overall it wouldn't have been so bad if we had lockers next to our beds. We also got breakfast...sorta. It consisted of hardboiled eggs, toast, and jam. Not great, but it kept us functioning.
Anyways, moving on. The first day in Dublin was jam packed. We walked all over town, and began our adventure by visiting the Teeling Whiskey Distillery. We were there before the tours began so we popped into their café and enjoyed some hot chocolate and coffee. Then we went on the first tour with 7 people total. Our tour guide was a super young girl with a very entertaining Irish accent that spilled out tons of knowledge about the history of Irish Whiskey in Dublin, as well as the history of the Teeling family and how they make their whiskey today. We finished off the tour with a tasting and Tawnie and I both enjoyed it, and learned the correct way to drink whiskey, which I found makes it much more palatable - even to the point of enjoyable! If anyone ever needs some tips on what to get me for my birthday or Christmas, a bottle of Teeling whiskey is a surefire bet.
After the tasting we made our way back out onto the streets of Dublin. If I can recall correctly, the rest of the day was spent walking around looking at things we could look at for free. We ate out for lunch and dinner but I'm already having a hard time remembering those meals.
However, the next day in Dublin we went to the Guinness Storehouse. I'm glad I went, as it's a huge attraction, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Teeling. The place was packed and it was full of glitz and glam. There were exhibits all over the place and everything was just too damn bright, shiny, and loud. It felt like I was in a club. Many of the exhibits weren't even that informative either - they were just kind of cheap and tacky but attention grabbing. Old man rant over. That all aside, the best part was getting to pour your own pint of Guinness. They teach you the correct method, then allow you to pour and drink your own, even printing out a certificate indicating that "Sam Timpe poured a perfect pint of Guinness". I no longer need a resume, I can just use that.
After that we walked through St. Stephens Green - a lovely park with a pond and a nice trail that goes around the outside of it. We sat and people watched for a bit before going to a nearby restaurant for Italian food. Then we went to The Little Museum of Dublin. I would highly recommend this museum as it was pretty cheap, not very popular, but full of items and letters that had to do with the shaping of Dublin as a city. Then at some point we went to the Temple Bar neighborhood and saw the world famous bar, but it was too packed for us to think about walking in. Instead we went to an ice cream shop across the street, and ended the night having dinner in a restaurant nearby. We had traditional Irish fare and a bottle of wine to celebrate our final dinner abroad. After that we took one last stroll down the River Liffey to our hostel.
The next morning we woke up and bought a bus ticket from the hostel to get us to the airport. We didn't have to wait for the bus at all, and proceeded to the top front of the double-decker to see the city one final time. We were at the airport plenty early and tolerated our long flight home pretty well. Joe and Audrey received us at the airport and took us back to their house for pizza and a good nights' rest without loud drunk people waking us up in the middle of the night.
Overall, Tawnie and I had differing opinions on Dublin. She really enjoyed it. She liked that it was a bustling large city with a beautiful river running through it and a ton of architecturally pleasing bridges. I personally didn't love it. I like alcohol but this place really felt like it was fueled on it. From what we saw, drinking is a huge part of the culture of Dublin and I just wasn't in that kind of mood. If I went a couple years ago I would have probably had a blast, but I think at this point in the trip we were both just ready to come home.
Well that's that ya'll. I'm going to make one more post regarding my packing list, but that's it for actual travel posts. I hope you have enjoyed my posts. There are definitely things I would do differently next time I blog, but at the end of the day I'm just glad I've got this all written down so I can look back on it someday.
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