Wednesday Wanderings: The Emerald Isle

Last week was a little bit hectic as we were still working on getting the house emptied out. Looking back, it would have been ideal if I had shared this post last Wednesday. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, so instead you get our flashback to our trip to Dublin a week after St. Patrick's Day.

In 2009, Brett and I bought our first home together in Toronto, and I immediately started freaking out a little bit inside thinking I'd never get to do all of the travelling that I wanted. Brett was pretty sure travelling was not in the cards for us as well, so instead of just accepting this as fact I set out to book us a fabulous vacation within our budget... and I did. Only a few weeks after moving into our home, we booked a 5 day, 5 night escape to Dublin for only $1200 (American), and it included our flights, our hotel (which we upgraded to the better option) and daily breakfast. When I found the package and relayed it to Brett he didn't believe me at first, but when he saw it with his own eyes he immediately told me to book it. Then we had to wait 4 months.

The whole trip worked out perfectly, we flew in and out of Boston during our trip back to see Brett's family for Thanksgiving. Being able to fly out of Boston saved us a ton of money, but it also wasn't an added expense since we planned on being in the city already anyway. The only downside to the trip, was the horrible layover we had in Paris on our way there.

It was a long wait for our connecting flight, which ended up being delayed even longer. After a rough flight into Dublin and then a long bus ride into the city we were thrilled to arrive in our cozy Hotel room. Though we were both jet lagged and feeling awful, we agreed the best thing to do would be to freshen up and do some light exploring by foot so we could get used to the time zone. 

We wandered around the city, and enjoyed a quick dinner before calling it an early night. We were both exhausted and wanted to be up early the following day to really make the most of our short time there. 

We lucked out on our first full day. Despite some cool weather (to be expected in Ireland in November), we had beautiful sunny blue skies. We started out wandering in the park next to St. Patrick's Cathedral, then headed to the Guinness Storehouse for some beer. 

Walking along the Liffey from our hotel

This was such a short trip to the city, so we stayed within the city limits, doing a lot of exploring by foot, and of course a lot of touristy stuff. One of the reasons I do enjoy some touristy things is buildings like Christchurch Cathedral. The architecture is beautiful and I love all of the detail in old buildings. 

An afternoon stroll at Christchurch Cathedral in the sun

Christchurch was definitely one of my favourite places to visit on this trip, as was Kilmainham Goal. Is it a pretty tourist thing to do? Yeah! But is the history and creepy factor totally worth it? Yup!

The Custom House was just the opposite side of the River Liffey from our hotel. It was beautiful during the day, but even more beautiful all lit up at night. The architecture was gorgeous and the detail up close was even better.

Yes, our Dublin trip was short and pretty touristy. We enjoyed the sites of the city, lots of good drinks and some good food along the way. It gave us just the right taste of Ireland to know that we definitely want to go back and see more outside of Dublin. One day, we will go back.

Have you been to Dublin before? Where should we visit the next time we're back? I'd love to go back with the kids and explore some of the sites outside of the city one day.