The travels of Tim and Megan: Dublin, Republic of Ireland

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We had a fantastic time in Dublin. As you can see from the photos below, the 3 days centred around Guinness!

We arrived in Dublin around lunchtime Saturday. After dropping our bags at our hotel we wandered up and down O'Carroll Street, one of Dublin's main streets and home to the giant spire! We then headed for Temple Bar, a great area full of bars, cafes, shops and buskers/live entertainment. Our first stop was the actual Temple Bar, where we enjoyed the first of many pints of Guinness. The Temple Bar is one of Dublin's most famous, appearing on loads of postcards etc. There is even a Temple Bar Trading Company next door to the pub, which sells all sorts of merchandise! We made at least 4 stops at the Temple Bar during the weekend.

We also found the relatively well hidden John Mulligans pub, tucked away in a little side street amongst nothing in particular. Mulligans has been in business in Dublin since 1782, with the current site being opened in the middle of the 19th century. They have made a special effort not to change the decor since then, and it really did feel like we had gone back in time. We had a walk down Grafton Street, another of the famous streets for shopping and buskers etc. Unsurprisingly, Tim was was sucked in to buying a green Guinness T shirt, ready made for St Paddy's Day next year!!! And we had a relaxing walk through St Stephen's Green, at the end of Grafton Street, which made a nice break from the hundreds of people crowding the shops and bars. On Saturday night we found a great pub called The Vat, again in the Temple Bar region, where we sat for hours, drinking Guinness and eating dinner.

Unfortunately Sunday greeted us with gloomy skies and pouring rain. We decided to visit the Guinness Storehouse (brewery tour) anyway, despite the fact that the views from the top would be a bit foggy. We got a taxi to the Storehouse, which turned out to be value for money as our taxi driver was full of interesting pieces of information and tips of what to see and do in Ireland. She also had the finest Irish accent we encountered. She was telling us that she preferred the Jamiesons whiskey distillery tour to the Guinness tour because they give you several samples of whiskey, which "warm the cockles of your heart". Fantastic. She also gave Megan the tip of the day which is to ask for a bit of raspberry/blackcurrant in your Guinness to make it less bitter.

The Guinness tour was great. It was self guided, and we really enjoyed wandering through at our own pace and reading about the history of Arthur Guinness, his 21 children and how Guinness has come to own almost half of Dublin. After several floors of the Guinness Storehouse, we arrived at the very top, the Gravity Bar, which (usually) has spectacular 360 degree views of Dublin. We cashed in our token for our complimentary pint of Guinness and then went back down to the restaurant on level 5 for lunch. Tim can confirm that there is nothing finer than an Irish beef stew and (another) pint of Guinness for lunch on a rainy day!

In the afternoon, we braved the rain and wandered back to the Temple Bar region and watched a bit of football on the big screen and wandered around some gift shops before making our way to out hotel, where we had another beer of two in the bar! It was a little tricky finding food on Sunday night. There seems to little priority given to food in Dublin pubs...we think the level of importance goes something like drinks, live music, drinks, loads of people, drinks, sport on TV, drinks and more drinks...then maybe food if you're lucky.

On Monday we went on one those hop-on-hop-off bus tours that European cities are so fond of. After cruising the city in this double-decker style, we jumped - or hopped, if you will - off at The Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub (since 1167). This proved a sterling move, as the pub is fantastic; it was covered in memorabilia from Irish history and offered up a stellar roast. And just as well as we needed strength for the hijinks to follow, namely leprechaun escape (see below), a parting thunderstorm and the compulsory seat dash that comes with Ryanair not allocating seat numbers.

Final story

We are sure you have all heard that leprechauns are magical little creatures, but this is just ridiculous. Tim bought a little toy leprechaun at a souvenir shop on Saturday and it is one of those things that has a suction cap attached to it, so he stuck it to the mirror of our hotel room, where it proudly sat gibbering away about its lucky charms. When it came time to check out of our hotel on Monday morning, we packed everything up, and did the usual very thorough check of the hotel room to ensure we hadn't forgotten anything. There was nothing left anywhere. But it wasn't until later in the afternoon that Tim suddenly remembered that he didn't have the leprechaun in his bags! We searched through the bags, went back to the hotel and looked through the now vacant room again, asked the cleaners if they had found it...nothing. The little bugger had taken his lucky charms and escaped in the night. To be sure to be sure. No dramas though, as Tim bought a replacement one before we left for the airport which is still with us...for now at least.