Hey girls,
Sorry for not writing a post this weekend, I wanted to wait and tell you all about my weekend in Dublin instead!
I had the best time and miss that city already!
We flew out on Friday lunchtime with the delightful Ryanair, that airline will never cease to amaze me. We got on the plane and a very smiley air hostess ‘welcome to this Ryanair flight’d us while standing opposite the 1st row of seats with crisp packets, cookie crumbs and whole cookies on the seats, there was even a cookie by her feet! I know it’s ‘low fares made simple’ and all that but seriously!
Anyway, as soon as we got off the plane with a 30 minute bus ride into the city, we were straight into an Irish bar called The Porterhouse. After a few drinks there, I was basically tipsy by then at around 6pm as it was 2 for 1 cocktails (hadn’t quite got my head around Guinness then) we headed back to our AirBnB to drop our bags off before meeting our friends who we were visiting.
We stayed in an AirBnB in Central Dublin near Beggar’s Bush (great name), less than an hour’s walk from the city centre.
After we dropped our bags off, we had a few more drinks which turned into even more drinks and by about 9pm we hadn’t eaten and I was VERY drunk, whoops! We went to this BYOB Japanese restaurant and I remember ordering The Chicken Ramen but I can’t quite recall eating it? No surprise there.
Anyway, the next day, after a well deserved lie in and slightly dodgy head, we walked into town and were shown the sights by our friend/honorary tour guide. We went for a burger at this place called Bunsen where their menu is literally on a small business card. The cheese burger and sweet potato fries were incredible and I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re planning a trip to Dublin.
After we stuffed our faces quite spectacularly, we walked down to Temple Bar, basically the Malaga strip of Dublin but definitely less disgusting and with a much cooler vibe. It reminded me of Shoreditch in London.
I absolutely love live music and drinking (basically my happy place) so I was promised a trip to Temple Bar (the bar as well as the street) which is the must see place to go for tourists. This was about 2pm on a Saturday and it was packed! The vibe was amazing, I felt like I was in a ski resort.
Anyway, we stayed there for a bit, I obviously got up on the stool and was shouting along to the music and dancing and basically felt on top of the world. We did have to leave heaven though as we had tickets to go round the Guinness Storehouse (not my idea, my boyfriend is the Guinness fan).
The tour was actually amazing, even if you don’t drink or even like beer. I learnt a lot and it was genuinely interesting so I’d recommend going. The best bit is at the end, you can use your ticket to claim a free pint of Guinness at the panoramic bar with stunning views across the city. As I’d just spent the last hour learning about this particular ‘brew’ or stout I should say, I thought I’d give it a go…
Well I can now officially say I am a Guinness virgin no more! I drank the whole thing and it wasn’t even that disgusting, considering I hate even the smell of lager and beer.
Also, what a pair of heroes Arthur and Olivia Guinness was! I make a lovely fitting tribute to Arthur later on…
Anyway, after the tour, we headed back near Temple Bar and watched the rugby. That’s all I’ll say on that…
Then we decided to drink our sorrows away and headed back to Temple Bar (the bar) for 1 or 2 more drinks and beautiful shouting to music before grabbing some dinner.
Saturday night after dinner, I had a glorious Irish stew (highly recommend), we were basically zonked so just chilled in a low key pub chatting.
Come Sunday, we went for a late breakfast before getting in the car up to the mountains to see the famous Guinness lakes (less than an hour away from Central Dublin) as it was super sunny all morning. Unfortunately when we got to the mountains it wasn’t quite so gloriously sunny and it looked like this… 
The view behind us normally looks something like this… 
Bad luck eh? Anyway, we scrapped that idea (I was so wanting a cheesy couple photo with that view) and went to the nearest seaside town called Bray for a cup of a coffee and good ol’ slice of cake. After that we ended up in a bar drinking Guinness (officially a Guinness drinking pro by this point) and watching the Irish rugby game.
Sunday night we were all thinking of a low key night as we were getting our flight back the following day and our friends had work in the morning as well. That’s what we were all thinking after a couple of glasses of wine and a huge pizza from Pizza Express or Milano’s as it’s called in Europe – did you know that because I didn’t!
Somehow though, in between eating lots of pizza and asking for the bill we’d ordered an espresso martini each and from then it escalated very quickly into wanting to do shots in another bar. We very quickly ended up in Temple Bar (the bar) for another night of drinking and dancing, or more like throwing our hands into the air and shouting the lyrics up to the ceiling (you can imagine). It was then that I spotted a huge bronze statue of Arthur Guinness in this bar and from then on was aiming the songs at the statue, profoundly claiming my love for him (don’t ask).
Then on our final morning, Monday, we headed to Sophie’s rooftop restaurant at The Dean Hotel in the city centre for a highly recommended breakfast with a view. Wow, what a place, I cannot recommend it enough. The foods was amazing and not at all pricey really compared to some places I know like this. I had the eggs Benedict which was 14 Euros. I’d heard the dinner menu was a lot more expensive which is why we went for breakfast. The views are much better on a sunny day than at night time anyway! But definitely recommend you check it out and if you have the cash, you could even stay in The Dean hotel which looked amazing too.
All in all it was an incredible long weekend away in the beautiful and crazy party city of Dublin. I’m definitely coming back, perhaps for my 30th or my one day future hen do!
Lots of love to you girls and to Guinness (I literally love the stuff now haha)
xxxxx
It’s A Girl Thing 