A Day In Dublin.
After what felt like decades of lockdowns, restrictions and boredom, I, like a lot of people, just wanted to ‘get out’.
I was sick of the same city, and just needed to get away. But, I couldn’t afford a long break, nor could I afford to take lots of time off work/ Uni. A day trip, that’s all.
I looked on the train from Salford Crescent… Leeds? Newcastle? Nottingham? £25 minimum. And yet a return flight from Manchester to Dublin, leaving at 08:00 and coming back at 21:30, was just £20.
So why not?
Despite my Irish heritage, I had never been to the capital before. I had heard great things about it though, which, in fairness, mainly came from unrecovered participants of recent stag/hen dos.
After leaving Dublin airport, I hopped on the 702 bus to the 3Arena, which is situated to the far west of the city.
The bus took almost as long as the flight, and nearly cost as much too! Eight euros for a single ticket. But it was definitely the cheapest and simplest way to get into the city.
The 3Arena was a forty minute walk from the centre, which was a great opportunity to see some non-tourist parts of the city.
I knew I had to head towards the centre, so I crossed the river, and aimed towards an area known as Irishtown. It was free from any tourists, and you felt it was close enough to seeing how true Dubliners live. It’s a beautiful area, with parks and murals scattered around the walls. This was one of the few areas where I managed to walk past the pubs, but they looked brilliant from the outside.
Amongst the Georgian buildings in the area of South Georgian Core, I found a beautiful park called Merrion Square. I sat on a bench there, watching the world go by for five minutes, whilst drinking a Fanta that I stupidly paid £3 for in Manchester airport.
I went into my first bar at 11:15, called O’Donoghues, on Merrion row.
It was a great pub, and one I highly recommend. With memorabilia of the Dubliners, (a famous Irish Folk group who met in that pub) scattered all around its walls.
I sat at the bar, ordered a Guinness, and during the wait I really got a feel for the place.
To my left was a group of people having a drink, discussing the mayhem that occurred the night before, to my right was a couple of men talking business over a coffee and at the other side of the bar was a group of 15 Spaniards on a hen party, who didn’t speak a word of English, trying to tell the barman what they wanted to order, to which he was saying “I haven’t a fecking clue” on repeat.
I noticed opposite me was a noticeboard, half full of One Dollar notes with writing on them. When he handed me my Guinness, I asked about them.
He replied: “When the Irish emigrated to the USA, it was tradition for them to send their first Dollar note home, as a keepsake. Now, when the Americans come over, they leave a note here for their friends to find when they visit too…
“Just a bunch of Yanks leaving their mark in a foreign country, like always” he said.
I laughed, hoping somehow, I had found the only Irishman in the world who doesn’t know about the British empire, or had not realised I had a British accent.
We chatted for a while about Dublin, whilst he repeatedly asked one of his regulars: “will you be fecking off yet?” before pouring him yet another pint.
The conversation ended with me asking: “any places I should be visiting whilst I’m over?”
To which he replied: “just drink… that’s all every fecker does over here anyway”
So, after taking a shortcut through St Stephens Green Park, that is exactly what I did.
I found myself drinking another Guinness in a pub near Temple Bar, and met John, another barman. You could tell he had been a barman for some time and was fed up with serving Guinness’ to British people all day.
After serving my pint, he looked me up and down and just went: ‘what are you doing here?’
After explaining my day out, he seemed to get a bit fonder of me, as we began speaking about. Celtic Vs Rangers in Scotland, and his joy that Celtic will win the league.
“It’s fecking brilliant, we let them ‘eejits’ have last year, but we’re back now boy”
Before a group of Geordies boys interrupted by barging in, they bought a round, and then one of them spoke to John saying: “lucky you, you’ve seen him buy a drink… tight c*nt never does that”
I won’t go into detail, but I’ll just say, John didn’t like the C word, and made it known to the Geordies, and the awkwardness was my cue to leave!
I then bought another Guinness, alongside a beautiful four-cheese pizza, en route to the Guinness factory.
The factory was my ‘typical touristy’ part of the day, but for nineteen euros, including a pint at the end, I thought it was very reasonable. It was a self-guided tour, explaining everything about ‘the black stuff’, with the highlight being the taste test midway through, in this cute little Guinness glass.
The post tour pint in the gravity bar was brilliant too. The views were outstanding and felt the parts of Dublin I unfortunately missed, was partially made up for, due to the fact I could see everything from up there. It was a nice, relaxing part of a very hectic day.
My day was coming to an end in Dublin and spent the remaining two hours wandering over the north side of the river, stopping in the occasional pub, like the Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland.
The bus back to the airport was followed by my last Guinness on Irish soil, before heading back to Manchester in time for last orders at the student bar.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day, and really recommend giving it a try. Cheap flights can be found on an app called ‘Skyscanner’, and same day flights to Dublin midweek are consistently cheap from a variety of UK airports. And if Dublin is not the one for you, flights to Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam and Eindhoven are cheap and do-able too.
If you can, give it a go! What have you got to lose?
