Ireland - Dublin City

 
We took an overnight flight - Norfolk to Philly, and then Philly to Dublin. The main flight was only 5.5hrs, and it landed us there at 7:30am, Ireland time. This would feel like about 2am to us, which means, outside of any sleep we got on the plane, we were basically not sleeping this day...we can't check in to our hotel until 3pm. I could have booked us the  previous day (so we'd have a place right away), but decided against it in our case. I figured we could push through and be fine, and we were. I had heard already that parking in Dublin was a problem from friends and family. Narrow roads, difficult to find parking...I solved this problem by picking a hotel that included parking (Hilton Garden Inn), near Temple Bar, and Dublin Castle etc.

So we got our car from the airport, and took it straight to the hotel parking, and then we didn't have to worry about it anymore, we could walk from there to everything we wanted to see. 

It's a great city. We didn't run into any parking things which I have heard can be difficult, but if you're walking - it's a great city. 

View from our room. 

It's an Irish harp, right?

It took a minute (a few days) to get used to seeing all the Gaelic and ignoring it to find the English

Our rental. It was a teeny little thing, but that wound up being a huge blessing on the tiny Irish roads. It was a manual tranmission. Brian tried to shift "the window" multiple times as he got used to doing it with his other hand. 

First horse and buggy we saw. Came to later find out, these are called Jaunting Cars. And then I had a lightbulb moment to realize that car is short for carriage. I swear to you, I never made that connection at all until now! 

A traditional Irish Stew, made in Guinness, with potatoes and bread

Cottage pie, with beef. 

We have a coworker with this last name, so we grabbed a pic

Brian "Oh, those are peas. I thought it was guacamole" 😧 I tried to like the pea guac, but it just wasn't good. Come to find out they are "mushy peas", and quite a popular side. We skipped it in the future.

Our first meal in Ireland was at Darkey Kelly's. Lots of history here...Madame Darkey Kelly ran a brothel, and was executed for witchcraft/supposedly abusing her son. She was probably not a witch, but bodies discovered under the floorboards of the brothel she ran in 1761 suggests that maybe she was Ireland's first serial killer.

"Hey, think we can get internet and a few cameras in our castle?"
"Hold my 🍺" 

They had this frequently in buildings. Just a mass of wires all tangled like it was the back of my tv cabinet. 

Street actor talking to tourists

Saw this ad on a bus stop and it made me laugh. I just don't think I'd ever see this posted up where I live!

If your name is Kennedy and you want to see it EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, go to Ireland. It is the name of pretty much everything, everywhere, all at once😄

HOT TAKE: While Dublin was fine, and there are neat things to see there (post about Castle etc) - it was definitely the least interesting part of our trip. And this is my hot take on big cities, you may disagree. And keep in mind, this is coming from a city girl. If you give me the choice between country and city extremes, I'm picking city. I would prefer a city/blend (just some pretty views, and a smaller sized city), but I am a city mouse through and through. That being said - 

If you've seen one city you've seen them all. Don't throw hate at me 😂. If you've seen NYC or Chicago or Toronto or any other large scale city for the country that it's in...you've seen Dublin. It's fine. But it's not any more outstanding than any other large city, and actually was pretty dirty, so maybe it's even less than some others. But by and large, if you're traveling and need to see a big city, fine, do it. Otherwise, the other places in Ireland are more worth your time. Cork city was another larger city, and not a fave/could have skipped it. Also very dirty as fas as big cities go. "Big cities" are relative terms, as there are only 5mil people in Ireland, so the scale of their large city is going to be smaller than most American average sized cities. But there you have it. Traveling a long ways from home and landing in a spot that "looks and feels like NYC" is just really not my thing. Especially if you've actually seen NYC. Dublin is a pass-through because the airport is here. But it doesn't need much of your time or attention. Having seen it, I will probably not stay here again.