May 5, 2011

ireland


so there it is, ireland was the 20th country i visited.. and it was.. well, special, at the least..

it was my first real trip after about 9 months, it was a 'birthday trip' (my birthday is today, 05.05), and most important of all, it was with my sister (who has already been to 5 different countries with me!)..
 

the main destination was dublin.. sometimes i feel like i'm not a fan of big cities, but it's kind of a false feeling... i would say i don't take as many pictures, and i don't really care for going to museums and overly-touristic-and-mostly-tourist-trappy kinda places, but i do enjoy tasting the vibe and the culture of a new place..

there's not a whole lot to see in dublin, so we basically walked a whole day and saw pretty much everything we wanted to see there: in the morning, the st. stephen's green (a cute park), the trinity college (just a campus), the dublin castle (cool) and the chester beatty library (with an exposition about religions)..

in the afternoon, the very famous and very overrated guinness storehouse.. if you're absolutely crazy about guinness (or beer, for that matter), and you haven't seen a brewery before, then maybe, just maybe this is worth the 15€ admission.. ok, it includes a free pint of guinness at the gravity bar, with a panoramic view of the city.. but if you think about it, that's an expensive ass beer, even with a view!

after the beers, we were a little 'happy' and decided to go to the temple bar quarter, a historic area with arts, culture and many, many pubs, half of them with some sort of live music.. it was still early (6, 7pm), but the place was already crowded.. good energy, good music, and good beer.. score.

next day we took a bus to kilkenny, a little medieval town a couple of hours from dublin, and this place was the highlight of the trip.. the town is tiny, cute, colorful, with good people, a nice castle with a huge beautiful garden.. also, we 'found' another garden while finding shelter from the rain.. right across the street, in the back of the kilkenny design center..

and that was it.. a good, unique weekend with the sister..

things worth mentioning:

- there was a serial killer looking (and behaving) guy walking his german shepherd back at the kilkenny castle.. if you go there and see him, RUN!

- plastic bags at the supermarket cost 22 cents!

- there are more bachelor(ette)'s parties there than anywhere i've ever seen.. i swear there are two in any given street block in temple bar!

- skip the guinness storehouse.. invest in kilkenny (round trip bus: 13,50€)..

- i hope ryanair goes bankrupt, so they can't lure any more people (me included) into their scams.

so, ireland.. drink guinness (but skip the tour), soak in the good vibes, see the beautiful places.. long story short, good times, colorful streets, lovely company and tasty beer.. cheers!

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colored doors, dublin



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temple bar quarter, dublin

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guinness mustache | irish coffee

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kilkenny castle

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kilkenny "secret" gardens

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kilkenny street