Travel

For those who may not know, Lindsey and I took a nine-day trip to Ireland and London at the beginning of April. We flew Aer Lingus from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT, directly to Dublin Airport in Ireland. 

The flight was super smooth, the staff was friendly and accommodating, and overall, we had a really good experience on our flight. Our pilot managed to shave off about 45 minutes of flight time despite the fact that we took off about a half an hour late, touching down in Dublin at about 4:30 in the morning as opposed to our initial 5am arrival time. 

We breezed through customs and baggage claim and found ourselves on the curb of the Dublin Airport waiting for the bus at about 5:15, which was much earlier than we anticipated. We ended up heading straight to our hotel – The Marlin – and resting for a bit before heading out for the day. 

I will be honest in sharing that we had a bit of a rough start to our first day in Dublin. We barely slept on the plane and as a result were incredibly overtired, so our wonder and excitement was overshadowed slightly by our exhaustion-induced crankiness.

Still, we headed out with as much optimism and energy as we could muster and went into the city. We stopped first at Caffe Nero, where we ordered two cups of coffee that were not great, so we very quickly got moving to the next coffee shop we found, Beanhive Coffee on Dawson Street. Lindsey ordered a latte that was slightly better than the first one that she got, while I opted to not order anything, lest I be disappointed by another mediocre cup of coffee. 

St. Stephen’s Green and Trinity College 

After ordering breakfast, we made our way over to St. Stephen’s Green, a historical park and garden located in Dublin City Centre. With lovely paved walking paths and beautifully maintained gardens, the park also features statues of important historical figures such as Arthur Guinness and Countess Constance Markievicz, as well as sculptural monuments to Irish history. We sat and enjoyed our breakfast in the beautiful sunshine while trying to avoid the slightly aggressive pigeons and seagulls that wanted to try our breakfast, too. 

After, we headed over to Trinity College to walk around the campus. The site of Trinity College is oddly tranquil, despite being located in the center of the city and being one of Dublin’s most prominent tourist attractions. The quiet of the campus is in large part due to the enclosed design of the college, with the main buildings looking inwards towards one another and arranged in squares, with only a few public entrances. Trinity is known for its rigor in literature – famous alumni include playwrights Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, novelist Bram Stoker, satirist Jonathan Swift, poet Oliver Goldsmith, and the writers of the Game of Thrones series.

The architecture of the college is truly stunning. At the center of the campus is the Campanile, a bell tower and one of its iconic landmarks. The Campanile is featured in the “bouldering” tradition of the Dublin University Climbing Club, in which members climb the Campanile under the cover of night – considered to be the “most impressive climb and one of the most difficult.” 

Grafton Street & other wanderings 

After Trinity College, we walked up and down Grafton Street, a pedestrian-only street full of shops that runs from St. Stephen’s Green to College Green. We passed a handful of buskers and street performers, as well as flower markets. 

Interestingly enough, in Dublin, street performers must pay for a license to busk, and on Grafton Street, each performance is restricted to a maximum of one hour and a musician cannot play within a 100-meter distance of that location until the following day. Grafton Street has been the traditional home of the “big busk” on Christmas Eve, which aims to raise money for homeless charities and has featured famous musicians including Bono of U2. 

Since it was a bit past lunchtime and we were both feeling very hungry, we made our way over to A Goose on the Loose, a small, cute cafe located on Lower Kevin Street. The atmosphere was super warm and welcoming, and the staff were friendly and attentive. It was the perfect spot for a quick, laid-back bite to eat in the middle of the day. 

Later on in the day, we got takeout from the Dublin Pizza Company, a take-out only, woodfired pizza spot on Aungier Street, just a block away from our hotel. Lindsey got a margherita pizza, while I opted for focaccia mozzarella. Both were pretty good, but I still prefer a good ol’ New York-style slice.

The Book of Kells Experience

On our second full day in Dublin, we started our day off with breakfast at First Chapter Cafe. It was so good. My caramel latte was incredible, and after two days of no coffee in my system, that cup truly healed a part of me and got me excited for the rest of the day. Lindsey ordered the French toast, while I got the full Irish breakfast. Food is fuel, and after living off of takeout for our first full day in Dublin and our day at the Cliffs of Moher, this breakfast was exactly what I needed. 

So with food in our bellies, caffeine running through our veins, and a fresh outlook on life, Lindsey and I circled back to Trinity College to do their Book of Kells Experience. The Book of Kells Experience is a self-guided tour that took approximately 90 minutes and centers around the 9th-century illustrated manuscript and Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament. 

We were able to get a peek at the current pages on display and Trinity College’s old library. The college is currently working on restoring many of the library’s books through their landmark conservation project, so only the first four rows of shelves housed books while we were there, but it was still so cool to see the beautiful expanse of the library. We were also able to see Gaia, the illuminated artwork by Luke Jerram now on display in the Old Library. Gaia features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface, showcasing the planet floating in three dimensions as it might be viewed from space.

After the Book of Kells, we decided to make our way towards the Guinness Storehouse. Our scheduled tour time wasn’t until 2pm, but there was plenty to see along the way. We first made our way over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Park. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic cathedral and is currently the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. The cathedral hosts a number of public national ceremonies, including Ireland’s Remembrance Day ceremonies, hosted by the Royal British Legion and attended by the President of Ireland, and its carol service, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, is celebrated twice in December. 

Dublin Castle and Dubh Linn Garden 

Next, we headed over to see Dublin Castle and walk around Dubh Linn Garden. While we were at the garden, we chatted with a lovely local woman for a few minutes. She explained the history behind the statue of Veronica Guerin in the garden – Veronica Guerin was an Irish investigative journalist focusing on organized crime in Ireland. She was murdered in 1996 in a contract killing that was believed to be ordered by a South Dublin-based drug cartel. After pressing charges for assault against a major organized crime figure, she was ambushed and fatally shot in her vehicle while waiting at a traffic light.

You enter the gardens through wrought-iron gates of Celtic-inspired spirals, and beyond the gates are four smaller gardens located in each corner of the site. One of the gardens is dedicated to Guerin, while another contains a bronze sculpture that commemorates the Special Olympics held in Ireland in 2003 with names of the 30,000 volunteers who contributed to the games inscribed on plaques. The third and largest of the smaller gardens is the Garda Memorial Garden, in which the names of all members of the Gardaí (the Irish Police) killed in the line of duty are inscribed on a roll of honor. 

“Several sculptural works are also incorporated into the layout. These works and the overall design of the garden are intended to reflect how the premature deaths of loved ones leave a trace or imprint, like ripples in a pool, on the lives of those left behind,” the Dubh Linn site states. 

Dublin Castle is a major Irish government complex, conference center, and tourist attraction. Constructed on the site of a Viking settlement, it is a former motte-and-bailey castle and was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. The castle was built near the dark pool (“Dubh Linn” in Irish), which gave Dublin its name. 

Until 1922, it was the seat of the British government’s administration in Ireland. It now hosts the inauguration of each President of Ireland and other various State receptions. While we didn’t go into Dublin Castle, it was still beautiful to see from the outside and gave us a chance to wander around the castle gardens for a while. 

Right next to Dublin Castle is the Chester Beatty Museum, which promotes the appreciation and understanding of world cultures with holdings of manuscripts, rare books, and other treasures from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Once the library of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, an American mining engineer, collector, and philanthropist, the Chester Beatty also serves as a research library for scholars from all over the globe. Admission was free, so we wandered around the museum for a bit, learning about the history of different religions and cultures. 

We were feeling a bit hungry by this point, so we made a quick stop into the Silk Road Cafe, which is located inside of the Chester Beatty, to grab a few pastries and some water before we continued on our trek to the Guinness Storehouse. 

The Guinness Storehouse Museum 

Full transparency, although I am not at all a fan of Guinness, this museum was probably the one that I was looking forward to the most. We purchased our tickets online ahead of time and paid a few extra euros for the Stoutie Experience, in which they screen print your face onto the foam on a glass of Guinness. Don’t ask me how they do it, because I truly have no idea (even though I quite literally watched it happen). 

We arrived at the Guinness Storehouse a bit before 2pm and were let in immediately. This tour was also self-guided, so after a few obligatory introductions from one of the workers, we were sent on our way into the museum – which is shaped like one huge pint glass.

The museum walked us through how Guinness is made, from how the barley is roasted to how the yeast is grown and sourced. In one of the rooms we were able to smell the four distinct ingredients that go into a Guinness – roasted barley, malted barley, hops, and yeast – and smell the different aromas that the ingredients emit. Afterwards, we were given a small glass of Guinness and were taught how to drink a Guinness properly (yes, apparently there is a right and wrong way to drink a Guinness). Having just come from the aroma room, I have to say, I was actually able to taste some of the specific flavors that they mentioned previously, especially the coffee flavor that comes from the way that the barley is roasted (a process that is similar to how coffee beans are roasted). This roasting process is what also creates the distinctive dark color of the Guinness. 

After the self-guided tour, we went into the bar and got our faces screen printed onto the beer. No idea how they do this, truly. I had to Google it. Apparently, The Guinness Stoutie is created using Ripples technology, which combines 3D printer mechanics and ink-jet printing to print images onto the foam head of a pint of Guinness. This machine uses a 3D printer and natural malt extract to create the image. It was genuinely so cool to see, even if it did feel weird to be “drinking” my face. 

After the tour concluded, we also had access to the Gravity Bar on the top of the Guinness Storehouse, which offers 360-degree views of Dublin. The bar is designed to look like the head of a pint glass, sits 46 meters above the Dublin Streets, and is as tall as 300 pints of Guinness – and would take 2.6-million pints of Guinness to fill it!

The Guinness Storehouse Museum was truly a highlight of our trip to Dublin and I would highly recommend visiting if you ever find yourself there! Even if you’re not a beer fan, it’s an incredibly engaging, well-done museum and it’s so cool to learn about how the beer is brewed. 

We got out of the museum around 3pm and made the trek back to our hotel to take a brief afternoon siesta before we reemerged for dinner. Following our nap, we got changed for dinner and made our way up to the Temple Bar area. While we didn’t stay for very long at Temple Bar – we heard that it’s a bit of a tourist trap at this point – we did make sure to take pics outside and pop our heads in to listen to live music for a few minutes before making our way to the Old Storehouse for our meal. 

The Old Storehouse was super warm and welcoming, and we immediately enjoyed the atmosphere. We were seated in the main bar area, where live music was playing all night, so we were able to have some entertainment, too! Lindsey and I both enjoyed a bottle of Falling Apple Irish Cider in the flavor of raspberry & elderflower, which clocked in at 5% alcohol. It was delicious and refreshing, and I’m tempted to see if I can have some shipped to me here at home. Lindsey opted for a cheeseburger, while I went with a tried and true classic of a Caesar salad and fries.

After dinner, we wandered up Drury Street, which was on our way back to the hotel and was packed with folks enjoying a pint and the wonderful weather. Not wanting to indulge in another alcoholic beverage, we popped into Spilt Milk, an ice cream shop, and got ourselves a sweet treat to end the night. Lindsey got some ice cream, while I ordered an acai bowl – both of which we enjoyed on our walk back to the hotel. When we got back, we promptly tucked ourselves into bed and readied ourselves for another lovely day in Dublin!