Dublin

This past Friday my friends and I woke up before the sun came up to catch a bus headed for Dublin. We had originally planned on going to the south of Ireland but bad weather forecasts (we looked this time) did not leave us optimistic. Dublin was our next choice. Although I have heard from numerous sources that Dublin did not have much to offer, we figured it had to be visited at some time and now was as good of a time as any.
We arrived in the capitol city early in the morning and were eager to hit the streets to see what they offered. We spent the day walking around, stumbling upon the sights we most wanted to see and took in the differences a big European city has compared to those in the states. I myself have been to other European metropolises so the culture shock wasn’t that great and I wasn’t that impressed. It was a new experience for most of my friends however so I was okay with wandering.
As I could have easily predicted, the college attitude of my friends was in full gear which meant our very first stop had to be at the Guinness factory. Like an eager dog going on a walk, we bolted across town to the sight. The tour itself was corny and was more of a museum and marketing ploy rather than a brewery tour. It did however give us interesting information on the history of the brew and how it had helped shape Dublin for the last 250 years. At the end of the tour we enjoyed a complimentary pint of Guinness at a bar on the top of the building that had a great view of the city which was impressive.
Also that day we went to Trinity College to see the legendary Book of Kells which is known for being one of the oldest surviving books and for its beautiful illustrations. When we got there though, we found out the actual book was off display but we could enjoy a replica for only 7 Euro! Of course we didn’t pay this and we went along our merry way. Also that day I saw St. Nicholas Park, The National Museum of Archaeology and History, and the Four Courts, none of which were interesting enough to write about.
The next day we took a tour of Croke Park, the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the largest amateur stadium in the world. The stadium itself was boring but learning about the GAA and the national games of hurling and Gaelic Football at an attached museum was riveting. The 32 counties play each other each year and it is way more than sport to them. I have never seen such devotion to sport as these people do. It is more than sport to the Irish It is their culture, pride, family, and tradition they play for. That day I also went to Dublin Castle (uninteresting), Bennett’s Barracks which houses the National Museum of something (a pretty good museum about the history of Irish soldiers), and the Jameson distillery tour (an even more painful tour than Guinness’s but I got a bunch of free whisky and stole a Jameson glass one of the shots came in so I was happy.)
What the sights lacked however, the companionship I experienced at the youth hostel we stayed in more than made up for it. I had heard that the youth hostel experience was unique, but I did not know it was so fun, inclusive, and that accessible to my experience. At the hostel, we met and instantly became friends with people from Germany, Belgium, Paris, and other parts of the world. We were all young travellers looking to have a great time and to meet new people and that is exactly what we did. We shared travel tips, experiences, and information about our homes while getting absolutely smashed in the process. We hit the streets of Dublin together to tackle the nightlife and after the bars closed headed back to the hostel to keep partying until the early hours of the morning. And in the morning, we ate breakfast together, relived our experiences of the previous night, and said goodbye, hoping to run into each other at some future exotic destination. I learned this weekend that there is no such thing as travelling alone in Europe when you take advantage of the timeless tradition of the youth hostel lifestyle. I can’t wait to do it again.