Last week my family paid me a visit. We were going to spend one and a half day in Belfast and then we were going to Dublin, but due to the French air traffic controllers strike, we arrived at the hotel at 2 a.m. so the first day we could do nothing. The next day, we spent the whole day touring Belfast, we visited the castle, the Titanic museum, the botanic gardens and we couldn't have lunch "paella" because it was closed, what a pity.
But the best part of my eastern holidays was the visit to Dublin. We spent 4 days there and I have to say that it is a very wonderful city. It was crowed with people from all over the world, I did not imagine that it was going to be such a touristic city. In Dublin you have many places to see. You can see the Book of Kells, a masterpiece of medieval art, exhibited in the old library, but the queue was so long that we passed by. The National museum of archaeology is also very interesting, not very big, but you can spend 2 hours seeing examples of celtic and medieval art, as well as items from ancient Egypt.
There are lots of places to visit, for example, Dublin two cathedrals, Christ Church and St Patrick's, and you have to pay if you want to go in, The Dublin Castle, very impressive but you need an entire day to see it properly. In Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed park within any European capital city, you can visit the zoo, the Wellington monument, the Papal cross, the Irish presidential house, the United states embassy and many more interesting monuments.
The Kilmainham Gaol is an interesting visit too, it only cost 4 € due to major building works that were being undertaken, and certain areas of the gaol were not accessible. All the visits are guided, and they tell you how the political prisoners held there were executed and how the people, during the famine that suffered Ireland in the mid 1840s, committed minor crimes in order to enter the prison and eat, at least, one food a day. Not a very happy visit but very instructive.
Dublin has more than 800 pubs, and the Temple Bar pub, located in the heart of the city is very famous, but you can drink a pint of beer in any pub, and you are not going to be disappointed. And what about the food? You have Irish, Chinese, Italian, Indian... food, you can eat whatever you want to eat, and a lot of pubs and restaurants offer what is called "early bird menus". It is the same menu but cheaper provided you have lunch or have dinner between certain hours, normally in the afternoon, for example, from 4 pm to 7 pm. The city is expensive, there is an ice-cream parlor in O'connell Street that charged us 8€ for 2 ice creams, but at least, they were delicious.
Finally, I want to talk about the best attraction in Dublin, The "Guinnes Storehouse". It is located in the heart of the St James’s Gate Brewery, which has been home to the Guinness beer since 1759. It has seven floors, and on each floor, they show you how they made beer in the past, how they transported it, and they also show you old machinery and how to taste the beer. They also tell you that Arthur Guinness, the founder of the Guinness brewery business, and his wife Olivia, had 21 children. (Incredible)
The building has some restaurants but the food is very expensive. If you buy the ticket online, it will cost you 16.20 € and all adult tickets include a free pint of Guinness, which you can enjoy in their gravity bar, taking in the breath-taking panoramic views of Dublin and Beyond. Seriously, you can not leave Dublin without visiting The Guinness Storehouse, you won't be disappointed.
Dublin has lots of places to see, I have not named or seen everything there can be seen here (I wish I had been able to), so the best way to discover Dublin is going there and enjoy the city. You won't regret it.
