Ar turas go Bhaile Átha Cliath, Éirinn*

I went to green Ireland this weekend. Well, not exactly, as I only visited Dublin, but I saw a bit of green Ireland before we landed. It really is green.

Where do I start? I guess on Friday, although I flew to Dublin on Saturday. Anyway, I met with a friend on Friday and even though I knew I would have to wake up extremely early on Saturday, we obviously got completely sloshed. It was worth going out though, as the night was very warm (around 70F) and Covent Garden was fantastic.

London Eye. Friday evening, around 8pm, on my way to Covent Garden.

Then, on Saturday, after 3 hours of sleep I woke up at 4am. I tried to pack and fight a huge hang-over. The latter didn’t quite work. The reason for such an early wake-up was pretty stupid - the Brits, with all their fantasy, closed 8 tube lines for the week-end and I had to travel around the city, change the lines about 4 times to finally get to Liverpool Street Station from where I could catch a train to Stansted. You can easily imagine how narky I must have felt, riding the tube for 2 hours, so early in the morning and - yes, being completely knackered.

Anyway, I eventually arrived to Dublin and was welcomed by typical Irish spring weather. In other words - rain and about 50F. It’s really hard to describe the joy that hit me. Hung-over, cold, soon to be soaking wet - what else could I ask for? I found out very soon. See, I think that Dublin is utterly screwed up in terms of getting around. Or the map they gave me at the airport was. I got completely lost and was wandering in the rain for about 1 hour looking for my hotel, then, when I left the hotel to see some tourist attractions, I got lost again. And again. And again. I managed to do a bit of sight-seeing, though. Actually, I saw quite a lot. See below:

Flowers.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver's Travels was a dean of St. Patrick's a few hundred years ago.

Guinness Storehouse. The worst, most boring and most over-rated place in Dublin. If you ever visit Dublin, you should never go there. They only positive thing is a free pint of Guinness at the end of the "tour".

The Old Jameson Distillery. Now, that was really cool. Not only can you learn about the difference between Irish Whiskey, Scotch and Bourbon, but they also give you a complimentary glass of tasty Jameson after the tour.

The Old Jameson Distillery.

Dublin "skyline" from the Chimney Tower.

Kilmainham Gaol. Not exactly the nicest place to be, if you're a prisoner, however people were committing crimes during the Great Famine to get in here, in hope for regular meals.

Grafton Street, one of the busiest streets in Dublin.

And yet another street in Dublin.

This is pretty much it, when it comes to sight-seeing. Frankly, Dublin doesn’t have much to offer in this area. When it comes to drinking venues though, it’s just the opposite. I met with a few friends (old / new friends from Poland) and we went out on the piss. Jolly good times, I shall only say…

I am thinking about going to Ireland again sometime, but this time I will probably focus on the rest of the country, which supposedly is really beautiful.

Oh, and a little places-trivia at the very end of this somehow too long post: where was this picture taken? Warsaw, San Francisco, London, or maybe somewhere else? A pint of delicious London Pride for anyone, who gets it right. The only catch is that you’ll have to come to London to redeem your prize!

Where is it?

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*A trip to Dublin, Ireland. In Irish, of course ;-)