St Patrick's Day in Dublin!

Off to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day! This blog post will likely be a bit shorter than the rest as most of my activities involved beer and shenanigans, but I definitely thought it deserved to be commemorated.

Day 1

So... the trip began with a few hiccups. We are flying out of Paris with Ryanair, the cheapest possible airline. This airline only flies out of the Beauvais–Tillé Airport which is located about an hour drive away from the north of Paris. There is thankfully a shuttle bus you can take from Porte Maillot which is in a suburb right outside the city limits. We decided to get to the bus station 2 hours before our flight, that way we’d arrive at the airport with at least an hour. When we got to the station we realized that the last bus had left about an hour and a half before and we were forced to take an 150€ taxi or miss our flight. The drive was so long our taxi had to fuel up at the gas station enroute. Turns out flying Ryanair out of Paris ends up really not being worth the money saved. PRO TIP!

Day 2- The Cliffs of Moher

We kicked off the day bright and early at our hostel with a nice McDonalds breaky before getting on our tour bus with Paddy Wagon Tours to see the cliffs. Our driver, Aidan, was a great guy and we stopped along the way at a few little towns to grab some Irish coffee- the start of a lot of drinking to come. We then visited what Aidan liked to call the baby cliffs which are only 100 something meters and are quite stunning. It was crazy how hard the waves were hitting the rocks, some people actually got soaked from the spray coming up.

I thought they were gorgeous but I had no idea how amazed I was about to be seeing the main attraction: the Cliffs of Moher.

The hour or so drive there was so scenic and you see tons of bright green country side along with little sheep grazing peacefully. Ireland is extremely picturesque. When we finally got to the cliffs, the weather cleared up and there was a break in the clouds. We were quite lucky because apparently sometimes it’s so foggy that you can’t even see the cliffs in front of you. It was, however, incredibly windy- so windy to the point that I could picture a child being blown right off their feet. The cliffs are so huge and impressive but if you take the path to the right you can see some other cliffs that are super beautiful and hike along a trail right along the edge. I was a bit scared at first because it was so windy and the ground was a bit slippery at points and I am literally the most clumsy person I know. It ended up being okay and I lived to tell the tale and gained some incredible memories with friends- not to mention some major National Geographic photo ops.

We passed through many cute towns like this on the way back!

We got back and grabbed a quick burrito dinner to fuel up for the night ahead. The spot, Boojum, was really yummy and quite good bang for your buck. We grabbed our alcohol provisions for the weekend at Tesco’s and went back to the hostel.

It was insane seeing all my friends from Queens emerge from their rooms and congregate in the common room to pregame for the bar. I would say there were around 80 of us there and it was quite a rowdy crew. I would pay to know what people who weren’t with us were thinking when they walked into the common room and saw our crazy shenanigans. The rest of the night got a bit blurry but we went to this bar called Vat house. I tried to order a Coors Light and the bartender was absolutely not having it and gave me another kind and said “you’re gonna drink this and you’re gonna like it”. It was actually good so I wasn’t upset but imagine if I hadn’t liked it!!

Day 3- SHOWTIME

We got up bright and early at 8:30 AM to start getting ready- quite a late start compared to my normal 6:30 start at Queens. We all went down the common room and madness ensued! The funniest part is that the parade was the one plan we had for the day and we missed it even though we were literally 2 steps away from it. Instead we were too busy drinking with our friends in a basement....

The rest of the day was spent roaming around the Temple Bar area, including the famous Temble Bar itself! I had a really good late lunch (at 4 pm lol) at this amazing Persian place called Zaytoon and good drinks at another restaurant/bar nearby with a really cute terrace vibe called Roberta’s.

Finally, we went back to the hostel for more drinks and hit more bars around. I have never bar hopped so much in my life and it was really fun to get a different vibe at each. All in all, my St. Pats was incredibly fun and it was so cool to be in Dublin for it. Would recommend!

Day 4- Guinness Tour

The next morning was incredibly rough. Nursing hangovers in the nearby McDonalds, we set out to plan what we should do as our flight wasn’t till 7 pm that night. We decided we clearly hadn’t already drank enough so we hit the Guinness factory museum. The museum is very cool and gives a really good overview of how the beer is made and the history behind it. Did you know that Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for the property? Crazy!!

There is also a really cool room in the museum where they show various commercials Guinness has put out of the years and those were really fun to watch. We then went up to the tasting room and got free samples and watched them put on a little show and do some Irish dancing which was really cool, and then headed to learn how to pour the perfect Guinness. I actually didn’t do too bad of a job and it was time to taste my first ever Guinness. I didn’t have high hopes of liking it but I actually LOVED it! It’s so velvety smooth and creamy and I taste like hints of chocolate in it. Apparently drinking it in Ireland is the tastiest it’ll ever be so I am interested to see how one elsewhere stacks up.

After the tour was over we headed to a late lunch spot called Klaw to eat before hitting the airport. Klaw was an amazing restaurant and I loved it so much that I decided to merited it’s own blog post so I will do a post reviewing the food I had there. Afterwards we grabbed our bags rom the hostel and took the bus to the airport!

All in all, I really enjoyed this trip. Dublin is a great city and Ireland is such a beautiful country full of extremely kind people. It’s actually quite a shame that I didn’t get to experience more of the city and I certainly would like to come back and do it properly.

Where I Stayed, What I did & What I Ate

Hostel

Abbey Court

29 Bachelors Walk, North City, Dublin, D01 AX90, Ireland

https://www.abbey-court.com

Day 2

Paddywagon Tour

https://www.paddywagontours.com

Boojum

Millennium Walkway, North City, Dublin 1, Ireland

https://www.boojummex.com

Vat House

2 Anglesea St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland

http://vathouse.ie

Day 3

Zaytoon

14/15 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

https://www.zaytoon.ie

Roberta's

1 Essex Street East, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

https://robertas.ie

Day 4

Guinness Storehouse Brewery Tour

https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en

Klaw

5A Crown Alley, Dublin 2

http://klaw.ie