Yo, if you haven't read my PART 1 yet, head over here. Otherwise let's continue on to Day 2...
Day 2: Sunday, 25th of February
We woke up to the smell of fried bacon and sausages. Having stayed at Airbnbs for most of our trips, I can’t tell you how nice it actually was to have a full on English breakfast cooked for you at this lovely B&B place.
I convinced the crew (i.e. Liam, Dialect and his gf) to walk (yes, with our bags) towards our Airbnb so that we could all drop our bags and go enjoy the rest of the day. It was a sunny day which is a rarity in Dublin as it is, plus we got to stumble upon a few odd looking fellers on the way.
This one looked pretty serious...
and so was this dude... Liam even tried to chat him up.
Well, that didn’t go by plan, did it. The key to our Airbnb was nowhere to be found and I couldn’t get through to my host. FAIL.
So we ended up having a drink at the Lanigan's Pub instead (with the most creepy deco ever, with stuffed animals and screaming dolls). Wtf?!?
If you're in town - it’s worth checking it out though. It reminded me a little bit of the Rolf’s Restaurant and Bar in New York (which I wrote about here) but a lot creepier. Lol
Liam and I said goodbye to the guys, finally dropped our bags and set off for our sightseeing tour - all planned and guided by me.
Before we jump in though - I want to let you know that I did some research in advance of all the quirky and unusual things we could do and check out in Dublin (see here the full list) because Liam and I try to avoid most of the touristy spots and instead explore a different side to the cities we visit.
So here we go - welcome to Inga's exclusive tour of Dublin.
1. The Needle
(or more like the Spire of Dublin, 119m long and cost €4 million to build. What? Why would you..?!) - anyway, I thought it was pretty sick and liked the fact that we stumbled upon it completely by accident
2. The Hungry Tree
(which I imagined to be a lot bigger) - but it was still pretty cool or at least a bit different...
3. National Leprechaun Museum
(is not an actual museum but a 45-50 min talk about the history and myths of the Leprechaun) - f*ck that
4. St. Michan's Church
(to see some mummies) - was closed on Sundays (FAIL)
5. Saint Audoen's Gate
(which we couldn’t find) because it ALSO seemed to be closed on Sundays, or forever (FAIL)
But at least we stumbled upon this sick wall art on our way...
6. Murdering Lane
(to check out some graffiti) - essentially ended up being dead, with barely any graffiti there (FAIL).
If anything Liam definitely wasn’t impressed but at least I took a few cool shots there (so maybe half a FAIL?)
7. The Guinness Factory
(which at first I was against but then Liam’s mate Pete convinced us to go the night before. Drunk, yes) - was MAD busy with SO many tourists that we didn’t even get to the tasting room and basically ended up paying €50 for 2 pints of Guinness (the freshest pints in the world but still - FAIL)
At least they had one cool thing that we liked...
Oh, and maybe these random Guinness crisps too...
Sooo, as you can tell my quirky and unusual tour of Dublin was a tremendous success.
We ended up walking all the way back, catching the sunset which was just stunning! So at least that was good.
And if anything, we were super lucky to get a sunny day like this. In fact, this was my second weekend in Dublin and it wasn’t raining! Must have been that Leprechaun luck, ay? 😏
Continued
Before the trip one of my school friends recommended a place for the best chicken wings. We tried going there the night before but the wait was something like two hours so there was no way we could wait (and is how we ended up at the restaurant next door).
Anyway we decided to go back there and try our luck again. This place doesn’t take reservations over the phone so even when we rocked up at 6ish, they still put us on a table for 8pm.
Elephant & Castle lived up to its chicken wings expectations (maybe not so much the burgers) but the buffalo chicken wings were definitely buffalo.
I even did a proper research on the restaurant’s history and found out that it originated in New York and the only reason they opened a restaurant in Dublin in 1989 was because one their Irish chefs was denied entry into the U.S.A. - how fascinating! Haha
The next morning...
Liam and I planned to check out the Long Room Library (which was meant to be the highlight of our Dublin sightseeing tour) but by the time we got to the Trinity College, a) the queue was SO bloody long and b) tickets were rather expensive for just what you knew was one room filled with books. Plus Liam started to fill ill. Booo.
So we scrapped that off our plan and went to get brunch at Brother Hubbard instead. I highly recommend that place if you're after a super healthy brunch, with plenty of vegan options and a cool decor.
Moral of the story?
Don’t go sightseeing on a Sunday and no offence but Dublin isn’t that of a great city to sightsee (or maybe we missed the best bits by avoiding the tourists?).
On the plus side we did 28,055 steps that day so technically it ended up being a free workout if anything ;-)
P.S.
Whilst walking around the city Liam and I noticed something rather odd. For some reason very well known restaurant and shop names were called something else in Ireland. For example:
- Primark —> Penneys (which actually originate from Ireland so fair enough if they wanted to call it something else), but
- Poundland —> Dealz (with the Z?!)
- Pizza Express —> Milano (what, why? What’s wrong with Pizza Express?)
- Burger & Lobster —> Beef & Lobster (really?)
There are probably more but these are just a few that we came across. We still haven’t really figured out the cause or reason for this.
Maybe you guys can help? Share and comment down below!
Love,
Inga x