Dublin, Ireland...

After taking a week off updating my blog, here I am again.

This will be a continuation of post on my trip to Europe over the break.
2nd stop: Dublin, Ireland.

So, it was a really short flight from London, England to Dublin, Ireland. About an hour long. I reached the Dublin International Airport at about 6.00pm, and got my luggage and immigration at 6.30pm, caught a bus that took me straight to downtown, the BusAras (the main bus station), a ride of about 20-25 minutes. From there, I walked approximately 15 minutes to the hostel that I'll be spending 2 nights in.The airline bus I took.

It was really nice to walk in about 10 degree Celcius weather, and Dublin is rather beautiful at night. I walked along the River Liffey to find the right bridge to cross, and also the archway to get to Temple Bar (the neighborhood where the hostel I'll be staying in, also the most touristy night life place in Dublin.) So, as I was being dumb and forgot about the name of the hostel, I overshot it and got to the wrong lane, before I smarten up to dig out the papers of my reservations to look for the name of the hostel. Barnacle's, yup, that's it. I actually recalled walking passed it a couple minutes before, hence, I tracked back and got there.

The location of Barnacles is amazing. It is on THE Temple Bar. If you were to click on the Temple Bar link (to wikipedia), it's the red bar, The Temple Bar. So, I checked into my 10-people mixed suite room, where I met a several people from difference places (France, Australia, Michigan(it's a small world), Italy.) The room was actually pretty clean and nice. The en-suite bathroom was good. For 15 euros a night, it's a steal. I had been to other hostels where it was communal bathroom and at a more expensive deal. So, I was really happy for choosing Barnacles, and will definitely recommend it to others.

So, as it was already kinda late, I figured that most of them had their dinner already, so, I went out to grab a quick bite before coming back to mingle with them. As I was getting lost while looking for the hostel earlier, I stumbled upon a Malaysian restaurant. So, without second thought, I headed there for a quick fix of nasi lemak. It cost me 9 Euro dollars, and it wasn't that good. It was just alright.

So, after that, I went back to the hostel, for a quick shower. And after that, started chatting with others (well, they were chatting, I was more like jump in once in awhile). So, I met Sophie(from France, traveling alone), Quang (from Australia), Gregory and Damien (from France), Emily and John (from Michigan). Really nice people and really fortunate to meet them. Later that night, we went down to The Temple Bar, and had a really good time. Guinness is amazing. After drinking it in Ireland, it's just so different. I mean, it's much smoother. I'm not sure if that's a psychological effect or what, but, it tastes different. Since leaving Dublin, I had Guinness at Southampton, England, and also at Ashley's, Ann Arbor. It's just not the same. Yar, so, one thing I like about Irish bar is that it has a good feeling with it. The music they play, (a lot of U2 and some Westlife), a good mix of classic oldies and some newer stuff. So, we were there from about 10pm til 1am. We had such a great time and did some sing-along to the live band. And here's a video Emily took:


At the bar, we met two Californian kids, Mike and John from the same hostel. As The Temple Bar closes at 1am, we left there, and went to another bar, Q-Bar, more like a club, and continued our drinking there. We a little bit more dancing and drinking there, and it was there that I saw where the term "thrown out of a bar" comes from. A guy was drunk and kinda causing trouble (i guess), and he was picked up by the bouncer, and thrown out of the bar (literally). He was just lifted up by the bouncer and dropped outside the bar. It was so fun, with all the light chatting in between. We left the place at about 3am. It was drizzling outside when we were on our way back to our hostel. Also, on our way back, we went into this 24-hours mart, and fun stuff happened there. Some of us bought chicken pot pie, and others were just goofing around. Some drunk Irish guys started singing too. We got back to our hostel at about 4am. Fortunately, I drank quite some water before dropping dead.

Somehow, I couldn't really sleep well. Woke up at about 8am, and knowing that I had barely slept, I forced myself to stay in bed, until 10am, where I gave up, and went out for a walk. I walked for a long time. At first, I went to Trinity College, then, to the Stephen's Green Park, and then, I just decided to walk blindly, without a map, and just wandering around. Lost, I still got pretty far, to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was so lost that I needed to take a reverse route to find my way back. And it was about 1.00pm when I got back.
Trinity college.
The Stephen-Green Park.Random photos of kegs I took while walking around lost.
St. Patrick's Cathedral.

After I got back from the walk, I met Quang, Emily and John at the common room, and they were planning to go on a city-tour on bus after lunch. Cool. After lunch, at Eliza Blue restaurant, in Temple Bar area, where the menu for food is limited, while the wine list was really extensive. But, well, still feeling a little bit from yesterday's night out, I opted for a breakfast set. It was good.

The city-tour on bus was really fun and comprehensive. It covered 21 locations, which is basically everything in downtown Dublin.
Looking down from the balcony of my room. Look at the cobble-stones road. The roads of the entire Temple Bar area is like that. So, girls on heels, take the side walk. See the red 'awning', that's the Temple Bar.
Temple Bar...
One of the bridges over River Liffey.

So, below are some of the photos I took while on the bus tour around the city of Dublin.
The Wellington Monument at The Phoenix Park
The residence of the President of Ireland(Áras an Uachtaráin) is located in the park. If you click on the photo, to enlarge it, you might be able to see that there's a lighted candle between the first and the 2nd high pillar from your left. It's always lit, to have light to guide the people home or something like that.
So, if you haven't notice, I like bridge. This one, not so much, but I like the picture.
On O'connell St. I just want to point out that where the Q-bar(the 2nd bar we went to yesterday night) is, the blue lighted place
The Millennium Spire.
Nice building eh? The is the GPO. General Post Office. The Bank of Ireland is also really nice, but I don't think I have a picture of it.
And what the heck is this. OK, so I was having dinner (the 2nd night in Dublin) at Burger King, at about 7.30pm. I went to bought some gifts before that. And this guy came in completely shit face, aka, drunk. And I wasn't paying much attention at first as I thought he should be able to order his food and leave. But, he was causing some kinda trouble. And the manager went to call for a security, and this guy came and tackled him, and locking him and pushing him on the floor, while waiting for another security guard to come. Not sure what happened in the end. But, just thought that it was interesting.
Dublin at night. Beside the River Liffey. Beautiful!

We went to The Oliver St John Gogarty Pub in Temple Bar. It was a really nice bar. We caught the Manchester United match for the 2nd half, and Man U won!!!

The Guinness word is carved to the table. Well, if Malaysia were to brew such good beer, I would be that proud either.
So, all of us at the bar. From left, Me, Gregory, Quang, Emily, John and Damien.
The Oliver St John Gogarty Pub.

We only had light drinking tonight, as Gregory and Damien will be leaving for home early tomorrow, while I'll be leaving for Manchester later in the afternoon. And, John, Emily and Quang will be going for a hike somewhere. (Dublin has insanely nice mountains and sea views, I wish I had more time to view the majestic coasts and do some outdoor stuffs).

So, we called it a night at about 11ish. It was still really fun. I packed my stuffs up as I need to check out by 10.30am the next day. But, again, I couldn't really sleep at night. Woke up at 3+ am, not sure why, and it was not fun. And the snoring from others wasn't helping. But heck. I was rolling around for the next 3-4 hours. After a light breakfast, I checked out from my room, left my luggage at the desk (amazing service for minimal fee). I went to Trinity college to snap some photos. And also, I left for the Guinness Brewery, which itself is worth another post.

So, check back soon. :)