We spent a little time in Dublin at the beginning and end of our trip to Ireland, split up that way so we could take advantage of the direct flights between Dublin and Zurich on Aer Lingus. It was one of my first experiences with European discount airlines (since most don’t fly out of Zurich), and overall I have to say they seemed to have their act together. Everything costs extra: from checked luggage, to advance seat assignments, to beverages and snacks on board the plane. But I found myself not really minding all that, especially since the plane was new and clean and more or less on time. Direct flights make me happy.
Shortly after we arrived we met up with Beth for dinner in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Temple Bar is the main touristy nightlife district, and was hopping even on a Monday evening. It was great to meet Beth in person, and a fabulous start to our trip. After dinner, I wandered off to find a pint of Guinness, since, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do on your first trip to Ireland, right?
Since we only had one full day for sightseeing in Dublin (and since we hadn’t bothered to figure out what we wanted to see ahead of time), we opted for the hop on – hop off tourist bus. This is the kind of thing we usually avoid, but it turned out to serve our purposes quite well. The drivers provided cheerful, kitschy live commentary (and how can you not love those accents?). We “hopped off” to visit Dublinia, an interactive exhibit about life in medieval Dublin, where we learned fun facts such as that Vikings never actually wore horned helmets (although that didn’t stop them from being sold by the boatload in the gift shop).
After a greasy pub lunch accompanied by some delicious ale, we hopped back on the bus until it reached the Guinness Storehouse, a gigantic, multi-media exhibit dedicated to the glory of Arthur Guinness and the black liquid he brewed. Although we’ve established that I’m not a fan of the drink, the exhibit was extremely well done, and a fun way to pass a couple rainy hours. We cashed in our tokens for free pints at the Gravity bar and enjoyed the panoramic view (and a rainbow) before heading back to the bus to see some more Dublin sites from the top deck. A yummy Thai dinner was followed by a couple pints of tasty microbrew at The Porter House.
Dublin wasn’t as… what’s the word I’m looking for? It wasn’t as cute as I expected it to be. Perhaps too much time living in a pristine city like Zurich led me to notice Dublin’s rough edges more than I normally would have. But I did enjoy it, and it had a good city vibe. Plus, Ireland had several other towns that more than made up for Dublin’s lack of cuteness.
