A Day in Dublin

I woke up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning, gathered up my suitcase and pre-packed breakfast, and made my way to Mile End tube station, the sun not even peeking across the horizon yet. About an hour later, I was at Gatwick Airport, a mixture of complete exhaustion and excited anticipation at the thought that I was finally heading off to Dublin to meet up with Greg!

Greg will be visiting me for 9 days and Dublin is our first destination. Early that afternoon, we were on an Aircoach bus bringing us from the airport right into the heart of the city. It only took a bit of wandering to orient ourselves down O'Connell Street to our hostel right by Trinity College, established in 1592. 

After dropping our bags off, we looked around for somewhere to ease our rumbling stomachs. We had a (very) late breakfast of eggs and potato farls, a super thick bread made with both potato and wheat. 

We then began our self-guided tour around the city. We moseyed our way down O'Connell Street and read about the General Post Office,

and the Monument, or what some locals call "the stiletto in the ghetto". 

It also happens to be the tallest monument in the world. 

Several statues line the street. 

We then wandered over to "ha' penny bridge", providing beautiful views up and down the Liffey river. 

Temple bar was next, the nightlife capital of Dublin.

Then we wandered towards City Hall and the Christ Church Cathedral where ruins from 1030 are still standing.

Around the corner stands St. Patrick's Cathedral.

There's a small museum inside the Cathedral, with various items from all points of its history scattered around the perimeter. 

After touring around the cathedral and resting our feet in the park right outside, we looked around the grounds of Dublin Castle.

Then, we walked up Grafton Street and took a stroll around St Stephens Green, a beautiful park dating back from the 1600's.

Our evening was spent in Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street. 

I had a thick seafood chowder full of clams and mussels and Greg ordered a "chicken burger" with a side of chips. I also got an order of 3 bean chilli with sour cream and tortila chips, and was really thrown off when my tortilla chips turned out to be cool ranch Doritos :-P

We warmed up with coffee, a tiramisu mocha for me and a Baileys mint coffee for Greg. 

The rest of the night was spent exploring the streets by night.