Ireland, You Had Me At Dublin

Dublin was the start of an epic (almost) 2 week Ireland adventure!

Dublin was the first stop in our amazing Ireland adventure. I plan on writing a series of posts about my Ireland adventure over the course of the next few weeks. I’m gonna share these posts in little bite sized portions since it’s the holidays and my work schedule will be insane until January!

So here goes…

Never having been to Ireland before, I didn’t know what to expect. I had seen pictures and read blog posts and other travel related articles, but until you experience a destination in person, you are always a little skeptical. Can it be as beautiful? Are the people really THAT friendly? Is Temple Bar as crowded and touristy as they say?

To these questions and more, I say YES, YES, and YES again!

Our adventure begins with landing in Dublin on November 3rd. By the time we got through customs (no big deal), grabbed our luggage, and took a taxi to the Clontarf Castle Hotel located northeast from the city center, we were tired. Nether Renee or I got much sleep on our overnight flight on Aer Lingus from Chicago. Luckily we were able to check right into our room, drop off our bags and freshen up. The Clontarf is a beautiful castle hotel. It’s located in a nice residential neighborhood about an hours walk to the city center of Dublin.

Not wanting to fall asleep and really mess with our schedule, we decided to walk to the center. After all we had just spent 8 hours on a plane and were ready for a little exercise. It was a cloudy but mild day. I plugged in a central spot in the center of Dublin in Google on my phone and away we went. Thank goodness for navigation on my phone!

First on our list was the Book Of Kells and the Old Library at Trinity College. I had already pre booked our time back at the hotel. Our first must do was the Kilmainham Gaol, but the only timed entry that would work for us was the following Tuesday when we returned to Dublin after our road trip to the west coast. The jail would have to wait. An important lesson, book online well in advance to secure your ideal time!

I had heard that the Book Of Kells was a must in Dublin. This 9th Century medieval manuscript is of the four gospels of the New Testament. This colorful and beautifully illustrated work is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures and draws millions of visitors to the Trinity College every year.

When we arrived after walking over an hour, we went to reception to get a printed ticket. No waiting in line! We entered the Book Of Kells exhibit first. We walked through. There was quite a few people, but we managed to get up close to see everything. Truthfully I only had a mild interest in the Book Of Kells (I know, what kind of crazy lunatic am I?), what I really wanted to see was that Old Library.

After spending a short amount of time, we climbed the steps to the Library. Once we reached the top, you were overcome with the smell of old books! It was intoxicating and I LOVED it! Yes, I’ve seen the photos, but to see this gigantic room with all these books was jaw dropping! Walking end to end of this room and looking at all the busts of scholars, raised my IQ level to genius I swear!! Actually probably not, because if that was true, I would not have had my “accident” 2 nights later!

If you have any kind of bookish bone in your body, seeing the Old Library will be well worth the price of admission into both the exhibit and the library.

Grade for Book Of Kells: B- and the Old Library:  A

After we did this, we walked along Grafton Street and went in a couple shops, but decided not to do any serious shopping at this time. One thing we both wanted to do was bring back an authentic Aran sweater from Ireland. Shopping would be done when we came back to Dublin before heading home.

Of course I had one thing on my mind as soon as I landed on Irish soil. That was having my dream of seeing U2 on tour in Dublin, their home. I had waited patiently for the band to announce their Dublin tour dates before booking this already planned trip to Ireland. In the weeks before take off I became obsessed by getting to do all the U2 things while in Dublin. One of those things was a visit to the Little Museum Of Dublin right by St, Shephen’s Green. This was the next thing we did after our stroll along Grafton Street. I will save all the U2 themed things for my next post. 🙂

By this time, we were hungry and consulted Renee’s list of Gluten Free places to eat while on our Ireland adventure. I was really surprised that there were quite a few places that supported this food intolerance. She had places in each of our stops written down. One place she had was the Boxty House right on Temple Bar which we were not too far from, so we decided to check it out.

I ordered the Gaelic Boxty. If you have no idea what a boxty is, it’s a pancake like patty made with potatoes. This boxty was used as a wrap for the filling of Irish beef medallions, in a whiskey and mushroom cream sauce. this was served with chips. It was quite yummy. I had a nice glass of Murphy’s ale with it. Our meal at Boxty House was so good, we would end up eating here 2 more times before leaving Ireland. Perhaps it’s a little tourisy since it is located in the Temple Bar district, but we didn’t care. It seemed authenticly Irish to us and the food was great!

Grade for Boxty House:  A+

By this time it was dark, cool, with periods of intermittent rain, so it was time to head back to the hotel. Again we decided to walk the hour back instead of taxi as we had not yet tried public transportation. The one thing I always recommend if it’s possible, is to see a city by foot. There is no better way to get the vibe of a city that to walk it’s streets. The streets seemed safe enough and we never at any time felt unsafe. It was late by the time we got back and we were exhausted being up nearly 24 hours.

It didn’t take me long to realize that Dublin is a beautifully gritty city. For this it is different than any city I have ever been to. The graffiti, the mix of modern with old world, and the fact that it’s obvious that the pubs are the center of Irish life made me fall for Ireland’s biggest city.

It was a great start to our Ireland adventure!!

Lori