There's no place quite like Dublin

In the midst of dissertation stresses, exam woes, and impending end of our university experiences, some friend and I spent a weekend in Dublin. The trip was initially set up my 21st birthday way back in March, however, the break doubled up as a nice getaway from adult things.

Since I was eighteen I saw my older cousin spend her 21st in the Emerald city, I had always to visit. The trip had been booked up since Christmas, so when the day we left finally came around, we were all very excited. 

Friday 
We caught a coach to the airport in the afternoon and arrived at Stansted at around 4pm. Having checked in online prior to arriving, this gave us lots of time to mooch around the airport- something I love doing! We boarded our flight at 6pm and landed in Ireland at 7pm. After being used to flying all over Europe and the US, it felt very odd only being in the air for an hour- the same time it took us to get to the airport by coach! Once we landed in Dublin, we soon noticed how much colder Ireland was. We had left England in sunglasses and arrived in Ireland lacing ourselves in as many layers as possible! 

At the airport, we met up with another friend who lives in Ireland and made our way in to the city centre. We arrived at our hotel after catching 2 buses. It was pretty magical that our first view of the city was it's twinkling night lights and buzzing pubs. We were staying a little out of the city centre in a travel lodge. Having spent a lot of my family holidays in these establishments, the hotel was pretty much what you expect. Basic but simple. However, the staff were really lovely; booking us taxis and telling us the best places to go. 

We were all pretty shattered once we arrived at the hotel so we headed up the food to our good old faithful Dominoes and brought back as much pizza, dough balls, and chicken wings as we could manage. After munching all this down, we decided to head to a local pub, just a few minutes away from the hotel for our first (of many) drinks. 

The pub was pretty dead, but for a few older Irish men drinking Guinness at the bar but the music was great and we had a few to celebrate the start of our trip. 

Saturday
We got up relatively early Saturday morning, grabbed some breakfast from the Aldi below our hotel, and caught the bus in to the city centre. After much debate between us, we decided the best way to see Dublin was on an open bus tour. We brought our 2 day ticket which was really reasonable, working out at 8 euros per day for students. The bus tour took 1 and 1/2 hours altogether and is a great way to learn about the city. After the tour, we stopped off at a pub and enjoyed Irish Stew and a pint of Guinness (I know, but it had to be done!) 

After this, we headed to Penny's (Primark) on O'Connell Street. We were amazed at how great the stock was, however, due to funds and limited suitcase space, we didn't buy anything. We then walked to the Jamesons whiskey distillery, however, unfortunately the wait for a tour was going to be at least an hour so we decided against it. A little tip: make sure you head to the Guinness factory/Jamesons distillery early in the day to be guaranteed a tour! 

We then headed back to the hotel, stopping off at Aldi for snacks and alcohol on the way. Before we'd headed out to Dublin, and in honour of my birthday, I asked everyone to dress up as characters from my favourite film, The Wizard of Oz. Everyone looked great and it made pre-drinks and games even more hilarious. 

We caught the bus back in to the city which saw people clapping us as we walked up the stairs due to our costumes. We got talking to some locals on the bus and they recommended a bar where we should head to. None of us could get over how lovely and friendly everyone in Dublin was! 

Temple Bar is a strip of bars and pubs and is where people tend to go for a night out so we thought that was the best bet for a great night! We headed to a bar to start with and had a couple of drinks, making friends with the many hen do's out for the night as well! Drinks are expensive so be prepared, however, the atmosphere is so amazing that you don't really need a lot. 

The bar closed at 1am so we headed back on the street to work out where to go next. One of us girls noticed that there was a pub called The Temple Bar which we saw as a perfect photo opportunity and we asked one of the security men to snap us all outside it. We decided to head inside and I am so pleased we did because we ended up having the most incredible night in there! 

The pub was just how you would imagine a typical Irish bar, complete with 2 men playing guitars and people dancing to the well-known songs they were playing. The highlight of the night was the 2 men singing Galway Girl and us all going crazy. 

Once the pub closed at 3am, we headed back on the street and saw that a busker was playing with about 30 people around him, singing a long and dancing. We thought it would be ridiculous not to miss this opportunity and spent the next 30 minutes going crazy to Oasis and The Beatles. It was the most perfect end to the most perfect night! 

Sunday 
We were all feeling pretty delicate on the Sunday morning, however, with it being our last day in the city, we wanted to make the most of it. We caught the bus back in to the centre and had a look around Trinity College, Dublin's top university. The grounds are beautiful and definitely worth a visit. After that, we went and got our photos taken to the statue of Molly Malone and brought as many tacky trinkets as our purses would allow us. 

To end our trip, we had a coffee in this really pretty tea shop, just up the road from Molly Malone. Unfortunately, none of us got the name of it. 

We caught the coach back to the airport and flew back to London that evening. 


Our weekend in Dublin was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I was in a beautiful and exciting city with my beautiful and exciting friends, making as many memories and having as many laughs as we possibly could. It is the best place for a get away with your girlfriends. 

Kat xxx