redgeek: Dublin - Day 1 (Part 1)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Dublin - Day 1 (Part 1)

I have never been to Ireland before and Miss Pinky wanted to either go to Cork or to Dublin. We couldn't decide with which city to go to so we flipped a coin back in May (whilst in Scotland)... and so we ended up booking a trip to Dublin. This time I used Travel Republic - cheap and cheerful and it was less than £140 per person... I needed this holiday after studying so much and Miss Pinky needed a getaway!!

It was an early start on the first day of our trip (and a pretty long day too). The flight was at 7.00 am on Friday. But the only problem was, was that the Tube didn't start until 5 o'clock-ish and the train didn't pass the Tube station we were at, until 5.30-ish... so we had to take a cab. We got a good cab price of £41 for 2 people and they picked us up at 3.30 am (it was early and we could have left later but at least we got there on time). And thankfully for the price of getting there early there was no queue at the check in! That was fantastic! So after check in we went to find breakfast and Miss Pinky decided to do some serious work on her company's laptop! What a bore :P (I know she'll be reading this article - so I'm only joking ^_^).

One of the very few restaurant-cafes that opened at 4 am-ish...

Continental breakfast for 2... The Greek Yogurt could have had some honey in it!!

After breakfast it was time to find the gate... but after sitting at the gate for 15 minutes or so we got the unexpected announcement that our flight was going to be delayed! Hah! I believe that's typical of a BA flight. No wonder I haven't flown with them for more than a decade! So in the end (thankfully) our flight time was shorter of 50 minutes (instead of an hour and thirty minutes) which meant we got to Dublin 25 minutes later than expected... the captain explained that it was because there was no aircraft waiting at the gate.... All us passengers were fuming!

Was this our plane... Probably not :P

We finally got to Dublin! Woohoo! We were too early and sleep deprived but we took the Aircoach Bus 747 (€6 per adult) to the hostel we were staying at.

On the 747 Airlink Bus

Check-in time at The Generator Hostel was at 2.00 pm, and so we decided to first get rid of our luggage (by leaving it in the luggage area at the hostel) before having a walk around the city (more about the hostel in a separate post).

The Generator Hostel Dublin

So the first tourist destination we were trying to get to was The Guinness Storehouse... it was supposed to be a 10 minute walk from the hostel but Miss Pinky and I seemed to have got distracted by the Jameson Distillery which is just behind the hostel (€13 entry fee per adult). We didn't do the tour because we wanted to see what Dublin could offer... and then we got completely lost so I started asking a few locals with the location... The Irish are so polite and friendly! They will help you if you get lost!! ^_^

Jameson Distillery

Inside the Jameson Distillery Reception

Dublin is BIG on streetart!! ^_^

Liffey River

Some weird mask looking statues...

Finally we got to the Guinness Storehouse (€16.50 entry fee per adult)... It was awesome! I got to pour my own pint and drink it!! Whoopee!! I actually like Guinness - nice and creamy compared to normal beer...