Our Time in Dublin

V and I (with no children) left for the airport on Friday night. We had an easy trip to Dublin, the flight was less than an hour. We read and talked to a woman on the plane. So strange to not be watching the babes and carrying car seats, etc.

We took a taxi to the hotel (30 Euro). The hotel was really lovely (and a steal), but a bit out of the center of the action. It only took us 15 minutes by bus to get downtown. The first night, we headed out for a snack and a drink in the Temple Bar area. We were so tired but forced ourselves to go out. It was really fun. We mostly people watched.

Saturday we had breakfast and started our tour. We initially hopped on a tour bus with a plan to buy a three day pass. The driver dropped us at the head office downtown and after our ride, we heard most of the tour and realized it was far overpriced and not worth it. Lucky for us. We shopped downtown a bit and found a great souvenir shop. We waited to buy and of course never went back!

Next, we walked along the river and headed to Christ’s Church, a beautiful old Anglican Cathedral (Catholic until 1541) from the 1030’s. We sat in on a short service. Connected is Dublina a museum dedicated to the Viking era. It sounded really neat, but was so disappointing. Generally, three floors of plaques on the walls, telling the history of raids and later settlement. I would have rather read a brochure.

We ate lunch at a great little pub. We talked to a couple of guys from Canada (one was from Winnipeg.)

We stopped at the Jameson Whisky site and had the best Irish coffee of our lives. We missed the tour, but I would go if I ever had the chance again. We stopped at a pub quickly and met a couple from Chicago, trying to decide whether they should accept a job in Chili. I hope they went for it. Nice couple. We had to leave our chat with them sooner than we would have liked, because we had a planned tour at the Dublin Castle.

Dublin Castle was originally built to house the English Viceroy. It is now used for the current government and as a museum. The tour was absolutely fascinating. I think it is easy to forget the Irish (Republic of Ireland) have only had their independence for 80 or so years. They initially got partial independence in 1923 which sparked a civil war (over accepting partial independence or not) turning prior friends into enemies and ending in many bloody executions. It also struck us in both of the tours we took, the presence of lingering anger over the English rule (suppression.) Another interesting note, Ireland had the first woman elected to (at a national level?) public office in Europe. Their current (and previous) President is female.

After a very full day, we walked back to the hotel (around 3 miles). We swam in the wonderful spa pool and then headed across the street for a bit of Italian. Then to bed with us. We couldn’t muster the energy to go out. (Amazing how much you can see with only two adults to worry over.)

Sunday, we headed to Kilmainham Gaol (a prison turned museum) right by our hotel. Again, a fabulous tour. Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the jail. The jail has also been used as a set for several films. It was built in 1796. The idea was to separate prisoners, into individual cells and by age and gender. It was meant to house 112 people, but at times housed as many as 3000. The children were sometimes arrested for petty theft the youngest said to be a seven year-old boy, many adult prisoners were deported to Australia.
Unfortunately, there was no segregation of prisoners; men, women and children were incarcerated up to 5 in each cell, with only a single candle for light and heat, most of their time was spent in the cold and the dark. Your family could provide you food and comforts if they could afford it.

We went to Guinness Storehouse, the tour was interesting and we had a great view from the top of the building. We actually spent more money at the gift shop, than on our tickets to Dublin. Funny. Despite this fun time, I still just can’t drink Guinness.

We made it to St. Patrick’s Cathedral (also Anglican, I was hoping to find a “good” Catholic church to buy gifts). The grounds were lovely, as was the church. We headed to our hotel, rested, swam and forced ourselves to venture out again. We decided later, we would have been better to stay in. We wandered around looking for dinner, only to finally stop at a little Italian place. It was fine, but not worth the outing.

Luckily we stopped at the front desk to find out about a morning taxi. Thank goodness. There was a strike the next day. You could get a taxi as long as you pre booked it the night before. We talked to both of our drivers, who were angry about the growth of Taxi’s from 2000 drivers to 18000 over the last several years. Dublin has twice the Taxi’s of New York City, but on 1.5 million residents. A funny note was that both drivers took several vacations a year, including to the states and one was looking to buy a new house for over 500000Euro. (4 bedroom, 3 bath, for himself, his partner and her child) .

Overall, we found Dublin a bit gloomy. The weather was cold and cloudy, so I am sure that set the mood. Sadly, there was a fair amount of street people as well. We had a great trip overall and I was very glad to have spent the time with V.