Dublin
On Saturday morning, I picked up my good friend Claire at the airport and we checked into the Trinity Capital Hotel near Trinity College in Dublin. This hotel was like Alice in Wonderland. There were tall, skinny, velvet chairs, mismatched furniture, purple walls, crazy fantasy looking patios, and of course, a mad hatter…he looks normal in this picture.

Our first order of business was to hit a pub and have a pint of Guinness. We got on the Red Bus, hopping on and off to see the sites of Dublin.
We visited the Kilmainham Gaol, one of the largest unoccupied jails in Europe. Built in 1792, it is most famous for executing some Irish rebels, specifically the 14 leaders of the Easter Rising rebellion who wanted to break away from English rule.

We then proceeded to the closest pub for lunch and to watch the Germany/Argentina World Cup game. We made friends with some locals and discovered Craic, said like crack, and we loved it! Craic is what the Irish refer to a good atmosphere with music and good conversation. It’s pretty funny when they use it in a sentence. For example, “go to Pub Celt, the “crack” is great there!”
Next, we went to the Guinness Storehouse to learn about the brewing of the finest porter. The best was the Gravity bar on the 7th floor of the building, which had panoramic window views of the whole city. It is the tallest structure in Dublin.
We got back on the bus and finished our tour of the city. After the tour, we went on a search for Shepherd’s pie but no one had heard of it!?!?! Finally, we stopped at the Oval on a recommendation, only to be disappointed because they only had Irish stew but we did get to watch the Spain/Paraguay game.

That night we went looking for some “crack” and found it at the Celt pub. This was definitely a local’s pub as we were the only non Irish folk there. They played amazing Irish music with a fiddler and all! They ended with some modern music with an Irish twist and we closed that pub down!
Sunday
We first went to visit Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. It is considered the most beautiful book in the world.

We then went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and most importantly shopping on Grafton Street. that night we stayed in the outskirts of Dublin in the Clontarf Castle.

Monday
We picked up our rental car and headed to Kilkenny. En route we drove through the Wicklow mountains, it is famous for where Braveheart was filmed and was a very scenic drive with the narrowest roads we’ve driven (of course it was the first roads we drove too).

Next we stopped in Glendalough and visited the ruins of a monastery. It is well known for hiking trails which we attempted unsuccessfully, out of the 7 trails we chose the one less traveled which was unfortunately a steep hike to nowhere and had no views.
We saw one of the 13 round towers in Ireland.
We stayed in a hostel in Kilkenny and went to Matt The Mills pub where the locals go on Monday evenings for live music and more “crack.” Made fast friends with the local hurling team and again closed another pub down.





Tuesday
We woke up very late due to the over consumption of Guinness and headed quickly out of Kilkenny and ventured towards County Cork. We stopped at the Rock Cashel with the worst weather yet as it was rainy, windy and cold, but viewed another round tower.

That's all for now...it's not called drinking all day if you don't start in the morning, so we have to get up early. Cheers!