Dublin Dazzles

 

It was a rainy Thursday morning in Dublin when the plane landed and our cab driver was delightful!  Not only was it “grand” to hear the lovely, lyrical sound of the Irish again,  but Clive assured us we were at the perfect hotel with convenient transportation to the sites we wanted to see and do this visit. 

One of the unexpected sites though,  most likely because of where we were staying was the Brazen Head Pub.  As we turned the corner to our hotel, Clive told us to be sure to cross the bridge and there it was, the oldest pub in all of Ireland.   Brazen Head dates back to the late 1600’s. We dropped our luggage off with the front desk, checked in and since the room wasn’t ready yet, headed over for lunch. I mean who doesn’t need a Guinness after 12 hours in the air and a 2 hour layover in Washington D.C.? 

After a much needed 3 hour nap, I know,  You’re supposed to stay up and get right on the same timeline as where you are, but that wouldn’t have been fair to anyone. we were now feeling ready to take on Temple Bar, 

We were up at about 4:30 the next morning, still not on Irish time, so I decided to go down to the desk and see if we could get a cup of coffee. The gentleman working was Michael and we had such a nice visit about travel and oh yes, a little bit of politics got in there.  After a scrumptious full Irish breakfast we headed out to the tram which stopped right outside our hotel and off we were to the EPIC Irish Museum. We had heard from a couple of friends that it was a must-see while here. And it was. 

The EPIC, which stands for "Every person is connected." Is an amazing display of Irish history, the music, the storytellers, the people who came from Ireland and made a huge impact on the world like John Kennedy, Maureen O'Hara and many more.

It’s  not your typical museum where you walk along and look at statues. There are 20 galleries as they call them of videos of Irish life through the eyes of the Irish people themselves. Actually it’s difficult to describe, but if you're of Irish descent, I know you’ll enjoy this emotional, interactive look at Irish life over the years. 

We’ve been to Temple Bar twice since we got here. The Ha'penny Bridge is beautiful at night. A great place to people-watch and the young men and women who bring the wine and beer are a lot of fun to talk to. I’ve had lamb and mashed potatoes twice and we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant called “Bar Italiano” one night.

It was fun being back in Dublin.  We spent three nights here, the hotel was perfectly located, the tram was easy to get around on. What’s funny is whenever we got on the tram, a young person would get up and offer us their seat. We started to feel quite old. 

I’ll tell you something though.  It really was invigorating. It was so much fun going out at night, listening to good Irish music, having a Guinness, or glass of wine and talking to folks young and old. People who travel are interesting, and inspirational and no matter what country someone is from, I find we are all more alike than different.

We're off to Killarney tomorrow!