Dublin

Yesterday we woke up really early in order to get on the road and drive down to Edinburgh to catch our plane to Dublin. It was a nice drive that felt like it went quicker than the 2.5 hours it took. We caught an Aer Lingus puddle jumper across the sea to Ireland's capital city.

Once here, our cabby turned into a tour guide and gave us some great info on the city and Irish culture. His name was Patrick Duffy. Um, yeah, that's pretty Irish. 

We are bunking at Buswell's Hotel which is in a great location in the center of everything. It's is the only non bed and breakfast that we are staying at and it didn't turn out so well initially. Our room had no wifi signal because it was at the back which was no good. Then the water in the room had no cold. You read that correctly, no cold water. That's worse than no hot because you can't even get in and be strong. So Savannah almost got burned and we couldn't shower which was not good. Fortunately they had another room available to which they moved us and everything is all good. Plus it has wifi access so we can keep up. 

O'Connell Street in Dublin

After we got in we headed out to see the city. Our cabbie had told us that if we get on one of the 'hop on, hop off' double decker bus tours it would be a great way to see much of the city quickly and get a good idea of what we want to do. So we did.

The bus had no roof on the top and since the weather was perfect we sat up top. The gentle breeze felt great and we got to see a lot of neat things we wouldn't have seen otherwise including 2 cathedrals, an old prison, the Jameson whiskey distillery, lots of statues, and the largest enclosed park in Europe, Phoenix Park (yay Phoenix!). 

Following the bus ride we went to the Gaiety Theatre where we had tickets to Riverdance! As with earlier times on the trip, we figured "when in Rome/Dublin." Riverdance came from here and is part of the culture so we were excited. 

We were lucky as we were able to get 5th row seats just a week prior to the event. The theatre is very old and looks marvelous with majestic chandeliers lighting 2 balconies and many boxes. The dancers were very talented and the show was really good. 

At Quay's in Temple Bar (the Party District)

After that we were hungry but as it was 10pm, most everything had stopped serving and moved onto the drinking part of the evening. Fortunately, we found an Italian spot which was still serving. Even though none of us really wanted Italian in Ireland, it was really good and actually had true Italians working there. 

We then headed off to a true Irish pub in the busy Pub district called Temple Bar. The pub, Quay's, was great and had a band playing some great Irish tunes. It was wonderful to soak up the local flavor.

Another cool thing from this day was that Savannah tried Guinness for the first time and loved it! She is a true fan now.

We were wiped after that so we went back to the hotel and crashed. 

Enjoy the photos below!

2013 Trip - Day 5 - Dublin