My favorite things about Dublin (Part 1)

In trying to come up with a good way to sum up our trip to Ireland, I thought it might be best to tell all of you my favorite things about the trip and the city.  Sure, I might be missing a few key attractions, but these are the things I liked, and well, it is my blog after all, right?  So without further ado, I shall begin in reverse order and grace all of you with the first five things I really loved about Ireland.  (Please note, these are not in any particular order of importance or level of me liking them.  They are just in order of how they came to me as I wrote them in the airport...

10)  The Jeremy Kyle Show - We had to experience the local television entertainment, and I found a gem amongst gems - the Jeremy Kyle Show.  It's like a British version of Maury Povich, but ten times better.  I swear, every time I turned on the hotel TV, this show was on, and they were always talking about paternity and DNA tests.  I loved it.  I must look a little bit more into Jeremy's Web site here and see if I can watch it at home.  He's the next big thing, you know.   

9)  St. Stephen's Green - Our hotel was directly across the street from this beautiful park.  It's completely fenced in and surrounded by trees.  Now I'll admit, I could have done without the pigeons.  (Side story:  I'm scared to death of pigeons.  They are flying rats, in my opinion.  The first day there, we were taking pictures, and I was swarmed by pigeons.  Seriously, swarmed.  They landed all around me, and T said I just froze like I didn't know what to do.  Ick)  Other than the pigeon infestation, I loved this place.   It was so peaceful, so beautiful, and definitely one of my favorite places in Dublin.  I could see myself just coming to this park with a nice cup of coffee and writing for hours. 

 

8)   Grafton Street - This place is the big shopping district in Dublin.  It's a few blocks walking distance from our hotel, so we were able to stop there several times.  The streets is completely blocked off from traffic and is pedestrian only, and the place is just alive with activity:  shopping, street performers, crazy people, you name it.  We spent our last afternoon there just wandering around that area, checking out stores and watching some random guy do this limbo act to Jay-Z (oh, and I should mention the limbo stick was on fire.  That added to the coolness factor.)  We stopped by a street cafe later for a little coffee and writing.  Oh, how I loved Grafton Street. 

7)  So I cannot go too long without talking about, of course, the local pubs.  The only way to truly experience Dublin is by visiting the pubs, and we did plenty of this, especially on Arthur's Day, of course.  It's crazy - pubs are like Starbucks in the States.  There's one on every corner.  An added benefit is that they are all non-smoking, too, for those of us who don't like coming out smelling like an ashtray after going out.  Unlike all of the bars here in the States, Bud Light (or, insert your appropriate watered-down beer here) isn't the main drink on tap.  No way.  These places have about 3-4 Guinness taps per bar.  I felt like I was home.

This was a nice hole-in-the-wall pub we frequented.  Apparently the musical group, the Dubliners got their start there.  Pretty cool, huh?

Ah, yes, our favorite place, the place where we started our Arthur Guinness Day celebration, the Auld Dubliner. 

St. John Gogharty's was the second bar we went to on Arthur's Day.  This place was right across the street from the Auld Dubliner, and it was equally as packed when we got there. 

6)  On our bus tours of Dublin, we got to see some pretty breathtaking churches and cathedrals, too.  We tried to hit all of the major ones, which included Christ's Church, Dublin Castle, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.  All of them were absolutely amazing.  We even found a Catholic Church, St. Teresa's in the Grafton Street area.  It was kind of cool to go somewhere amidst the craziness for a few minutes of peace and reflection.

We took this picture walking around the grounds of St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It was absolutely beautiful, and the pictures don't do it justice.

So there you have it, those are the first five things that I absolutely loved about Dublin.  I hope you enjoyed them, and come back tomorrow for the last five!  And I promise...more pictures!