Dublin Ireland Part 1

Dublin was a great 4 day trip. I arrived on a Thursday night and hopped the bus. A nice local lady told me what stop to get off of and what direction my hostel was in along the River Liffey and I checked in and found my bed in the 12 bed room. Friday morning I woke up early, ate the continental breakfast and went to the tourist information center. From there I wandered the streets and took it all in, being a great tourist and taking plenty of pictures. I found my way to a train station and hopped the train to Dun Laughaire (yes talked about in the movie PS I Love You and it is pronounced Dun Leary) After I got off the train I walked around the harbor and had some great views of the Irish Sea and local dogs with their owners. I found some churches to take pictures of and a proper fish n chips shop where I took my fresh cod and fries to a park and had lunch next to the sea. I took the train back to the city centre of Dublin and found the Whitefriar Street Church where St. Valentine is buried. My friend from MSUM that was studying in southern England arrived later that night and we went to a pub called The Brazen Head where we had our first half pints of Guinness...which was splendid. The next day, Saturday, we visited Christ Church and St Patrick's Cathedral and made our way up north of the river to O'Connel Street where we met 2 guys Sam had met from England.

The group then went to Trinity College and we saw the Book of Kells and the Old Library where the second Star Wars movie - the library where yoda and the jedi masters were is based of of this library. In the library Sam and I commented how we wish we could take pictures but it was not allowed and a young gentlman behind me made a joke and I ended up talking to him for several minutes after the tour was over. Going into the gift shop there, he offered to give us a free tour of Dublin for the day as he had studied at Dublin University and was just visiting the city for the weekend. So the rest of the day we followed John Ruddy around the city and learned random trivia and historic things from an Irish guy. From Dublin Castle, to a marketplace, old Dublin walls, the place where Handel's first orchestra played 'Aleluhia' and a place where there was a viking settlement that is now marked with cobblestones we saw so much from a local viewpoint. We ended our adventure at an old church that was changed into a pub. John told me 'no worries, it used to be a protestant church' jokingly as we went in and he kindly bought us a round - Sam an Irish coffee, and me a pint of Bulmers Irish Cider. (earlier at a different pub I had tried and Irish coffee and it wasn't as good as I thought it would be) It was late evening and John wanted a battered sausage (he always gets them when he goes to Dublin) so we went to a nearby food joint. After supper we parted our ways and Sam and I went back to the hostel to get ready for our night out.