Exploring Ireland: Dublin and Beyond

After 2+ years of canceling this trip and waiting to rebook, Doug and I finally made it to Ireland.

To say I was excited to get to Ireland was an understatement. It has been two years of planning, cancellations, planning, revamping, stalking travel restrictions, and all that jazz. The C word threw a wrench into everyone’s travel plans. Keeping track of refunds and credits and such was difficult. Going forward, I have to recommend not using third party sites. Book your flights and hotels DIRECT. It is so much easier to deal with the hotels and airlines when you booked directly with them and they are always more willing to help you out in a pickle.

My trip started out on what I thought would be a high note. Delta upgraded me to Comfort+ for free!

What I didn’t take into consideration? This meant giving up my window seat just 12 rows back for a middle seat with some extra leg room and a free eye mask. Although the eye mask was cool, I could have done without. I would have preferred to have the window to lean on and catch some zzzzz’s on this six-hour flight.

Either way, I was happy and excited once we touched down in Dublin and my Irish adventure could begin.

Stay: Temple Bar Inn

We stayed at the Temple Bar Inn, which is in the Temple Bar district of Dublin. The Inn is only about 5 minutes down the road from the famous Temple Bar. The Temple Bar is in a prime location, has a long history in Dublin, looks super pretty, and is also home to 450 different types of whiskies. 450.

The lobby and check-in area is cozy, with warm lighting and chic decor. The whole place has a hostel vibe to it without being a hostel. Overall, the hotel is very clean and just feels cozy all around.

There is a bar and restaurant next to the lobby, which are really inviting and great spots to hang out and mingle.

I stayed in a double twin room. The room is definitely small, but how much time are you really spending in the hotel room when you’re visiting a new country?

One thing about Temple Bar Inn that is both a pro and a con: the location. On the plus side, it is a central location, which means you can get pretty much anywhere in the city within a 20-minute walk. The down side is that it gets LOUD. Since it is on the main tourist strip, there is loud, loud noise at all hours of the night. It’s hard to sleep sometimes.

Day 1: Dublin

We started our trip the only way that felt right: the Guinness Storehouse.

When you think of Ireland, you think of Guinness. We signed up for the “Self-Guided Experience + Gravity + Guinness Academy” package, which includes a self-guided walkthrough of the Storehouse, a free pint at the Gravity Bar, and the chance to pour your own pint. You get to take in all of the history, smells, and flavors of Guinness.

Included in the self-guided tour is a tasting experience. This piece is totally FREE with admission to The Guinness Storehouse, regardless of which experience you book. When you arrive on the second floor, you’ll see a line forming which you can join without any reservation. You’re then taken into The White Room where you are given a short lesson on how Guinness is made, a lesson on how to properly drink a Guinness, and most importantly you are given a mini Guinness to enjoy.

DON’T DRINK IT YET!!

You’re then taken into another room, which is a model of the type of parlor that Arthur Guinness himself would have had in his home. There we were taught the proper way to taste the Guinness, raised our mini pints up, and sláinte!

Fun fact: this was my first sip of Guinness… ever. I was shocked with how much I enjoyed it. I expected Guinness to be a heavy beer, but it’s really light and flavorful.

We went up to the fourth floor and found ourselves at the Guinness Academy, where we learned how to pour a proper pint. There are 6 steps to achieve the perfect pour.

1. Pick up a clean, cool, Guinness branded pint glass and line up the spout to the gold harp at a 45° angle
2. Pull the handle down all the way and fill the glass to the bottom of the harp, or ¾ of the way full. If it is not pulled all the way down, it may alter the taste!
3. Tilt the glass back upright and stop the flow of the pour once you reach the top of the harp
4. Let it settle. You’ll see the nitrogen bubbles slowly rising to the top, creating the perfect white foam layer
5. Once it’s settled and separated, put the pint back under the spout and push the lever back to finish filling to the top. A Guinness lever pulls and pushes. When you pull, nitrogen is released with the beer, when you push, no nitrogen is released so you don’t have to worry about the foam overflowing!
6. Drink up!

After learning to pour our perfect pints, we sat down to enjoy them in the Academy.

Up another floor, we reached the restaurant area. We decided to eat at 1837 Bar & Brasserie, but not before we grabbed our complimentary pint from the Gravity Bar at the top level of the Storehouse on the seventh floor.

You cannot miss The Gravity Bar when you visit to the Guinness Storehouse. The Gravity Bar offers 360° views of the city, and is really neat to check out.

After admiring the views, we took our pints back downstairs to 1837 Bar to enjoy them with our lunch.

We finished our lunch and our pints and decided it was time to exit the land of Guinness. We popped by the gift shop to pick up the engraved pint glasses we had ordered when we booked our tour, and made our way out. 

In total, we were there for about 2.5-3 hours. Without stopping for lunch and enjoying a few pints in between the tour, you can get through the Storehouse relatively quickly, but I don’t recommend skipping any of it!

At this point the jet lag kicked in, so we wandered back to the Temple Bar Inn to relax and take a nap. This is when we met Martin Byrne, the security guard in the front entrance.

Martin is an Irishman with the gift of gab. We talked to him for a while, and he gave us a ton of recommendations and really made us feel welcome in Ireland.

After our chat with Martin and our nap, it was dinner time. We walked down the road to Quay’s. We were looking for some authentic Irish food, and this seemed like a good spot for it. Ironically enough, neither one of us ordered anything “traditionally” Irish like stew or shepherd’s pie.

I ordered myself the soup of the day, which was a vegetable soup, and then a grilled chicken Cesar salad. I have to say, it was one of the best soups and best pieces of chicken I have ever tasted. 10/10

To finish off this delicious dinner, I ordered Bailey’s Ice Cream for dessert. It was homemade and absolutely scrumptious, and was such a unique flavor of ice cream!

Filled with delicious food and jet lag, it was time for bed. Plus, we had an early 5:45 AM wake-up call ahead of us.

Day 2: Northern Ireland

Up and at ‘em! On our second day, we went up North to a new country: Northern Ireland.

We were to be at the tour meetup spot, The Hugh, by 6:45 AM. There were about 7 buses lined up there, all for for different day trips departing from Dublin, so it was important we found the right one before departure. Luckily there was a man in a bright orange jacket directing everyone to the right bus.

We met our tour guide Mark, our driver Vedran, boarded the bus, and were off!

During the introductions and summary of the day ahead, Mark mentioned that it was the week of the Platinum Jubilee for the Queen of England. That means she has been on the throne for 70 years. 70 damn years.

Mark also told us the story of how Northern Ireland became the filming location for the HBO series Game of Thrones. Apparently Scotland was too expensive to film in, so Northern Ireland offered a tax break for the first season of the show. This worked out swimmingly for the government of Northern Ireland; since the show was such a success, they filmed there every season, but the tax break only applied to the first season. Clever ducklings.

Our first stop would be Giant’s Causeway, a scenic destination filled with myth and beauty. Giant’s Causeway was actually formed by volcanic activity, but we like myth better. To get there, we drove through Ballymena, the home of Liam Neeson. To my surprise, nothing on the “Welcome to Ballymena” sign even mentioned him! You’d think they’d want to advertise that they were the home of a famous movie star.

We stopped along the side of the road to take in the views of Dunlace Castle. The castle isn’t much but ruins at this point, but it is really cool to see as it sits on a cliff overlooking beautiful views of the water. Dunlace Castle was used as a skeleton set for Game of Thrones, but it was enhanced so much with CGI that fans usually don’t recognize it.

As we approached Giant’s Causeway Mark told us the legend of Finn McCool who, according to the tale, built Giant’s Causeway. Finn McCool was not actually a giant, but rather a very large man. He would constantly shout insults and arguments across the water to Benadonner, an actual giant who lived over in Scotland. Finn McCool finally decided to pay a visit to his rival across the way and threw stones into the water, creating a pathway for him to walk to Scotland.

Finn walked across this bridge and quickly realized how giant Benadonner was, turned around, and ran home. But it was too late; Benadonner had already seen Finn and crossed the causeway to Ireland. Long story short, Finn McCool’s wife saved the day (obviously) and Benadonner ran back home to Scotland, destroying the Causeway and breaking the bridge as he ran.

You can still see Finn McCool’s face in the rocks yelling across to Scotland today. This is actually a natural formation and not man made, if you can believe it!

Driving the last few minutes to Giant’s Causeway you pass through Bushmills, which is known for whiskey. It’s home to the oldest distillery in the world!

We finally arrived at Giant’s Causeway and got out of the bus to walk around.

Pro tip: take the red trail. It’s a scenic route and you will not regret it. The blue trail is ok, but it only takes you along the coast while the red trail takes you above the Causeway, giving you some incredible panoramic views before you climb down to explore the Causeway itself.

After finishing our hike and taking a million photos, we had lunch at The Nook, which is right at the entrance to Giant’s Causeway. I got soup and Doug ordered the stew. He says it is the best stew he had in all of Ireland, so make sure you add The Nook to your list!

The Causeway was probably my favorite spot in Ireland. It is a magical place to visit. The landscapes are incredible, and you can get a good hike in!

We left Giant’s Causeway and passed through yet another Game of Thrones filming location, the town of Ballintoy. According to Mark, the makers of Game of Thrones moved all of the residents of Ballintoy onto a yacht during filming and paid approximately $10,000 per week for these accommodations!

We continued on our journey and stopped at a viewpoint that looks over the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which connects the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede to mainland Ireland. On a clear day you can even see Scotland from the outlook! It is one of the only spots in the world where you can see three countries at once: the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Pretty damn neat.

Our next stop was yet another Game of Thrones filming location, the Dark Hedges. This spot was used as The King’s Road in Season Two.

For my history buffs or non-Game of Thrones fans, the Dark Hedges were planted in the 1770’s by a man named James Stuart to frame house he built on the land. James Stuart’s father, also James Stuart, was the ambassador to the king in Turin, Italy and was granted land in Ireland. Unfortunately he never made it to the house as he drowned on the journey from Italy to Ireland. The son built the house that we see today in 1775. He planted approximately 150 trees, 75 on each side of the road leading to the house. 

Our final stop for the day was in the city of Belfast. I was pretty excited for Belfast since my parents had visited and told me how fascinated they were when they went.

To my disappointment, we were only allotted one hour in the city, which isn’t really enough time to do anything. There was an international market being hosted right outside of city hall during out stop, which at least gave us an easy activity.

We wandered around the city, trying to see everything we could in our short time there. There are some really awesome murals throughout the city, and the bars and restaurants looked great. It’s definitely a spot I want to revisit in the future so I can really take it all in!

After we got back to Dublin, we quickly changed and left to grab dinner. Doug recommended Gallagher’s Boxty House based on their reviews on Google, and on account of it being about two minutes from our accommodations.

This was definitely the right choice. It was the best meal we had during our trip. I ordered myself a Dingle Donkey to start, which is really just a Moscow Mule with an Irish name. For dinner I ordered the vegan dumplings, which were little potato gnocchi served with sweet potatoes and other vegetables. The plate was so well seasoned and flavorful.

You know I always have to indulge in dessert. This time I went with a rocky road brownie, which was a brownie with nuts and marshmallows covering the top.

With a full belly, I knew it was time for bed. Doug had different plans and went out to explore the bars in the area. He even made some local friends!

Day 3: Dublin

We had booked a tour for 8:00 AM to explore Trinity College and to see the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is a Christian illuminated manuscript of four Gospels of the New Testament. The book is elaborately decorated and has survived with its beauty intact since the ninth century.

Trinity College was only a 5-minute walk from Temple Bar Inn, so we arrived a little too early, but this only meant there was plenty of time for breakfast. We popped into Butlers Chocolate Cafe across the street. I ordered a chai latte and a croissant, and then was told “you get a free piece of chocolate with every beverage order.” Free homemade chocolate?! Sign me up. I quickly pointed to the bright pink square on the counter that happened to be a Himalayan sea salt dark chocolate caramel. A perfect, sweet start to the day.

Outside of Trinity we met our tour guide, Neill, who was enthusiastic and ready to show off the college and the museum. We were the first group in line to enter the museum area that held the Book of Kells.

When we were let in, we were taken straight back to the book. No lines, no people. I love a good fast track! The Book is pretty neat, but after a few seconds, I was ready to move on.

We went up the stairs to The Long Room, one of the seven libraries on Trinity’s campus. The Long Room is something everyone has seen on TV at some point. It was featured in Harry Potter as well as Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, although George Lucas will tell you otherwise. He claims that The Long Room was not the inspiration behind his library design, but Trinity wasn’t falling for it and subsequently sued him. The outcome of the case was a bit blurry to me, but I heard that Star Wars merch was on sale in the gift shop for a while afterwards, so I guess you could say Trinity won that suit.

We finished our tour of the college and, surprise, apparently the tour also included more! We made stops at the statue of Molly Malone, Dubh Linn Gardens, and Dublin Castle.

Many people might recognize the name Molly Malone from a local pub or restaurant, but Molly Malone was actually a real person who lived in Dublin in the 17^th Century. By day she sold fish in the marketplace, and by night, well, let’s just say she was very friendly with the gents.

The Dubh Linn gardens are the Dublin Castle gardens, and are technically designated as a helicopter landing pad for the castle. They’re never really used for landing helicopters, as that would absolutely demolish the gardens, but in case of emergency, they are there. Dubh Linn is the origin of the name Dublin, which was named by the Vikings and means “black pool.”

Dublin Castle is really cool. Only one tower of the original castle remains, but a Georgian style castle was built around the original tower. Inside the castle courtyard there is a statue of Lady Justice, but Dublin’s Lady Justice is different from any other you’ve seen before in a handful of ways. She is not blind folded, her breasts are fully covered, her sword is raised and ready to fight, she is facing the entrance to the castle, and her scales are tipped.

The tour finished there and we made our way back to the hotel. Doug needed a nap, but since I didn’t go out the night before and still had plenty of energy, I made my way into Fleet Street to grab lunch. I chose to eat at a restaurant called Elephant & Castle. I ordered myself a gigantic veggie burger. It came with a beetroot sauce that added a little sweetness. It was the perfect combination. I also ordered a homemade ginger ale. I had never had a homemade soda before, and I can’t lie, I’ll stick with the processed bottled stuff. It was strange, and the taste wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

After lunch, we had a tour booked at Jameson Distillery on the north side of Dublin. The entrance is around the back in an alley and a tad confusing to find. Luckily the signage is pretty good, so we were able to find it in time for our tour.

Once we checked in, we met our tour guide, Niall. He was full of personality and you could feel the passion he had for his work with every word he spoke.

Niall took us through the founding and history of Jameson and then through a taste test of three different types of whiskey: original Jameson, Jameson Crested, and Jameson Black Barrel.

The original was my personal favorite, but I’m also not a huge whiskey fan, so I don’t think I’m the best judge. My favorite part of the tasting was the giant glass of water I got afterward.

After we finished the tour and tasting, we were given a voucher for a free drink at the bar. I ordered a Jameson and ginger ale instead of the whiskey neat.

We finished our free drinks and made our way back to South Dublin for a Dark Dublin Tour. We met our tour guide, Brian, who took us through the city and told us all about Dublin’s dark history.

When I booked the Dark Dublin Tour, I was imagining stories filled with ghosts and myths. Instead, this tour was filled with gore and dark history, which to me is just as interesting. Dublin is a city with conflict at almost all points of its past, so this tour was jam-packed with stories. 

For dinner, we walked outside of the main city area to Kevin Street to a restaurant called The Landmark. Doug’s boss recommended it as “the best spot to eat in Dublin.” According to Martin, the security guard at the inn, going down there was a waste of time since it was where all of the locals went and he presumed we wanted something a bit more touristy.

Martin was wrong. The Landmark was delicious and absolutely not a waste of time. It was nice to be surrounded by locals rather than a bunch of drunk tourists in the Temple Bar District.

After dinner it was another early night for me, and another night out for Doug.

Day 4: Dublin

The only thing on our itinerary for the day was a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, which is a prison from the 1700’s turned museum.

We started our day at the prison and took a guided tour to learn all of the history that took place there. The prison housed men, women, and children. The prison most famously held the leaders of the Irish Republican Army in the early 1900’s. The last prisoner was released in 1924 and the prison was turned into a museum in 1971.

After our tour of Kilmainham Gaol, we went back to the Temple Bar District and stopped at Old Mill for breakfast. I ordered the trio and a cappuccino. The trio consisted of a soup, garlic bread, and wheaten bread. It was perfect for the cold, misty day we were experiencing.

Since we didn’t have much planned for the day, we took a recommendation from Neill to shop at the Powerscourt Center. This mall was formerly a Viscount’s home and was transformed into a mall in the 1980’s.

I treated myself to two silver rings, one emerald and one sapphire. When I tell you I’m obsessed, I’m o b s e s s e d. Silver is relatively inexpensive in Dublin, so definitely treat yourself to some jewelry! 

Next up: the City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour of Dublin. This is the best way to get an overview of any city, in my opinion. The tour will point out a ton of great spots you won’t want to miss while visiting, while also providing a form of transportation.

The tour takes approximately 2 hours from first to last stop if you do not get off. We decided to stay on for the entire two hours, and it was perfect. A good way to relax mid trip while also getting plenty of sightseeing in.

We had dinner at The Shack, which is the restaurant right next to the Temple Bar. We sat outside and the waitress asked us twice if we were sure we wanted to sit there. At first we didn’t understand but then as time passed, the streets quickly filled around Temple Bar and it got LOUD. It was rather entertaining, so we didn’t regret sitting there.

Outside of the noise, I have to give more recognition to The Shack. The food was absolutely incredible. I ordered the Whiskey Chicken, and I still am thinking about how amazing it was. The sauce was flavorful, the chicken was tender, and the whole plate made for a perfect meal. For dessert, I ordered Bailey’s cheesecake, which was more like a mousse than a cheesecake in my opinion.

After a few nights of staying in, I decided it was time to go out and experience the Dublin bar scene a bit. We made our way to Bad Ass Bar, which is right off Fleet Street. It was a lively bar with live music and a good vibe. It was a tad crowded but for a Saturday in the Temple Bar District, it was pretty comfortable. We stayed there for a bit before moving on to find someplace with more traditional Irish music.

Well, that plan went to shit. We couldn’t find any live music that wasn’t modern or the same five songs over and over. We decided to have a drink at the bar at the Inn and then I made my way back up to the room.

Day 5: Blarney Castle and Cork (sort of)

Another day, another tour. This time with Paddywagon’s Tours to visit the city of Cork and Blarney Castle.

Before reaching Cork, the tour made a stop at the Rock of Cashel. This was the coolest “pit stop” we’d had on the tours so far. The Rock of Cashel is an ancient castle/fortress in the town of Cashel. You can wander around the grounds, which are also burial grounds, and it is a bit strange just wandering around over graves. Some are relatively modern, too.

We left the Rock of Cashel and made our way to Blarney Castle. Blarney Castle is home to the famous Blarney Stone. It is said that kissing the Blarney Stone while upside down will bring you luck. If you don’t kiss the stone, it doesn’t mean you will receive bad luck, you just won’t get lucky.

When we got to Blarney Castle we went straight to the queue for the stone. It took us about 30 minutes to climb the steep, narrow steps and get to the top. Most of the people in line anxiously lay down and shimmied back towards the wall to kiss the stone, myself included. I was terrified being that there is a gaping hole right below the stone, but I swallowed my fear and did it anyway!

By the time we got down again the line had tripled, and some people on our tour bus said they didn’t even get to the top because the line was too long and they ran out of time. My advice if you’re visiting Blarney Castle is to go straight to see and/or kiss the Blarney Stone.

The castle grounds have a ton to see, mainly plants and flowers. My favorite section was the Poison Garden, which housed all different types of poisonous plants and even some marijuana plants.

Outside of the castle there are caves, which I was pretty excited to explore. But I was quickly disappointed when we saw they were gated off about 10 feet into the cave. I suppose it is for safety measures, but what a shame.

After we left the castle grounds, we went to The Mill for lunch. It is cafeteria style and not the best food, but not the worst. It got the job done.

Our last stop for the day was the town of Cork. We were only given one hour to explore. We wandered around the main city streets for a bit and made our way back to the bus and back to the city of Dublin.

Day 6: Cliffs of Moher and Galway

Up and at ‘em for yet another day trip! This time to western Ireland to the Cliffs of Moher and the city of Galway.

We met our rambunctious tour guide, Stephen, at Hugh Lane, quickly boarded the bus, and were off before 6:45 AM. Stephen was not fooling around. He wanted to be the first tour bus on the road to avoid any backup, and we all truly appreciated it.

We stopped at Barack Obama Plaza, a service station along the way, after about an hour to grab some snacks. Did you know that Barack Obama is Irish? He had family in Moneygall, and when he visited in 2016, they named the service station after him!

Our first real stop for the day was at the Cliffs of Moher. My goodness – what a sight. The Cliffs of Mohr are probably one of the most famous sights in Ireland. They are absolutely breathtaking.

When we arrived, we walked up towards O’Brien’s Tower to take some pictures. We did a little hike around the top to take in the views from different vantage points. We were even able to hike down the cliffs a bit. We could have gone further, but we didn’t know how far the path would take us and we were short on time.

When planning our trip, I read on a few other blogs that it was best to wear hiking boots, but really regular sneakers would have been fine. The terrain is relatively flat and easy to maneuver.

After we left the cliffs, Stephen took us to the Burren National Park. This area was awesome and a great bonus stop. It almost looked like we were walking on the moon with all of the gray rocks and craters around. We only had about 10 minutes here, so we quickly grabbed some photos and got back on the bus.

Next up was the Kilmacduagh abbey ruins. Although the abbey itself is in ruins, it remains an active graveyard, so it felt intrusive walking around. Instead I took time to check out all of the cute baby cows and sheep across the street from Kilmacduagh.

Our last stop for the day was in Galway. Cue “Galway Girl” by Ed Sheeran. The song rang through my head the entire time we were there.

At this point in the day, we were starving. We stopped in The King’s Head for lunch. I ordered a soup and a salad and they hit the spot. It was a cold and rainy Irish day, so the soup was just what I needed.

After lunch, I couldn’t pass up some dessert. We stopped and got some Ice cream at Kenny Joe’s. It was the most delicious banana cone I had ever eaten. I’ve never had such a fresh, strong tasting ice cream before!

There were a ton of street artists and antique shops all around the area of Galway we were in. I only wish we had more time to explore this beautiful city, but we had three hours back to Dublin ahead of us.

When we got back, we stopped for dinner at O’Shea’s. The food was ok, but nothing really to report back. Definitely not somewhere you need to make sure you go when visiting Dublin.

Day 7: Dublin

Our last day in Ireland had finally arrived. I woke up relatively early and did some research on where to get breakfast. It was the first morning that we actually had time to go sit and eat. I picked a cafe called Bittersweet and ordered a crème brûlée steamer and an almost croissant. Absolutely delicious! 

After breakfast Doug and I walked to Anne’s Lane, which is right near Grafton Street, the main shopping street in Dublin. Anne’s Lane is one of the most Instagrammable spots in Dublin. It is a cute little street that isn’t too crowded, with multi-colored umbrellas hanging above it.

After Anne’s Lane we did some shopping around Grafton. I bought a wool scarf, which felt silly to buy in June, but I couldn’t pass it up! I’ll be thanking myself come wintertime.

It was time for our final activity of the trip: a tour and tasting at Teeling Whiskey Distillery. We were greeted by our tour guide, Rita, who told us the history of Teeling, showed us the whiskey-making process, and walked us through a whiskey tasting at the end. We were given a taste of whiskey neat and a whiskey cocktail. The cocktail was to die for. I snapped a photo of the recipe and cannot wait to make it for myself!

After Teeling, we walked down to the Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Dublin. It opened in 1198! *gasp* 

I was surprised to see that they offered a vegetarian “shepherd-less” pie. I was so excited that I could finally eat one of my favorite Irish meals in a form that wouldn’t kill me. (For anyone who doesn’t know, About 10-12 years ago, I developed a very severe allergy to red meat, so seeing a veggie option here made my day.)

After lunch, we took a rest back at the hotel, started packing, and then went to get our COVID tests so we could get back into the US. We had appointments at a Randox center about 15 minutes from the hotel.

After we took the tests, we started walking back to the Temple District for dinner when my phone rang. It was Randox telling me I had taken a faulty test that didn’t have a control line, so I had to go back and retest. How annoying!

Luckily, we both tested negative, and we went to Gallagher’s Boxty House again for dinner. The food here was just too good to not enjoy multiple times! I ended my final Irish meal with my new favorite dessert: the s’mores brownie. A perfect ending!

Day 8: Dublin Airport

A few of our tour guides mentioned that the staffing at Dublin International Airport has been low and security can take up to 5 hours to get through.

Our flight was at noon, so we decided to be up at 5 to leave for the airport ASAP. We were at Dublin International by 6:00 AM only to discover that there were no Delta agents at the check-in and bag drop area until 6:30-6:45 AM. After all that waiting, the check-in lady messed up my bag tag. Just added stress for the trip home.

We got to security and it took all of 10 minutes. I’m so glad we got here 5 hours early for no reason whatsoever.

On the bright side, US Customs is done at the Dublin airport rather than when you arrive home, so we got that out of the way.

After a week in Ireland, I have a few primary observations from the trip that I figured I’d leave you with:

1. Irish people LOVE the following songs and you will hear them at least once per day: Country Roads, Jolene, Sweet Caroline, Valerie

2. There are a LOT of cows and sheep

3. Irishmen are storytellers, and they can’t get their story straight. We heard lots of different variations of the same stories. It’s hard to tell what is true!

4. Dublin is filled with broken glass and garbage in the streets, so be careful!

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