Hayley could not be in Europe and see ONLY one country, so Laura (our friend from smu) was in Belfast on a school trip for her break and our friend Michelle (another friend from back home) is studying in England so we decided to meet them both in Dublin! Then my friends from Rouen - Julie, Ava (+ Ava's friend), Roxy, Elina (+ Elina's friend) were going to meet up with us from their previous travels so it was going to be one big reunion!
Day 6: Feb 24th, 2011 - Arrival in Dublin!
Hayley and I woke up early and checked out of our lovely Hostel in Paris and headed to the airport. We caught a 10:20am flight to Dublin from Charles de Gaulle. We arrived around 11:00am, collected our luggage and headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to the city center. But wait, 17 degrees and sunny..and palm trees?? Are you sure we aren't in Florida??? If it weren't for the accents, I would have sworn we were.
Next stop? Our hostel! The bus driver told us when to get off the bus (probably about 35min drive), so we got off and got out our map. We were looking for Camden Place Hostel and had the address but couldn't find it for the life of us. We asked some people who were very friendly but had no idea where it was. We finally saw Camden Hostel and went in to it but turns out it was the wrong one (oops!). BUT they did know where we were going and it turns out the street we were looking for wasn't even on the map ..ok. But the nice guy gave us directions and we found it no problem after that. Let's say that this hostel was A LOT nicer than our Paris one. I forgot to take pictures but it was a lot more modern and the beds were super comfy and we had our own bathroom for our room!! Ava, Emma (Ava's friend) and Julie had arrived earlier that morning and came and found us at the hostel. We caught up and then we checked in to our rooms and then Julie, Hayley, and I went exploring down Grafton Street where we stopped at Bewley's (an amazing cafe!) and grabbed some lunch where Elina met up with us.
We then walked around some more. I loved the atmosphere, the streets were always buzzing with people and the buskers there were amazing! I could spend hours just people watching. We then headed back to the hostel, relaxed a bit and then met Elina and her friend Anni from Finland living in Dublin for supper. We went to this awesome restaurant but the wait was 1.5 hours so we decided to grab a drink before dinner. Why not head to the pub that P.S. I love you was filmed in?? Whelans.
We then got a phone call from the restaurant saying that our table was ready so we headed over where I had the most delicious club sandwich with homemade fries! mmm-mmm :)
We were all so exhausted from our days of traveling that we all headed back to the hostel for some much needed sleep
Day 7: Feb 25th, 2011
Hayley and I decided we wanted to see the countryside so we had booked a double-decker bus tour to the North country side to see Malahide Castle and the Wicklow Mountains. We left at 10am and arrived back at 2pm, here are some pictures!
We then arrived back to Dublin where we did a bit of shopping on Grafton Street and then headed back to the hostel which is when Michelle finally arrived! We got her settled in and then went back to Grafton Street where guess what! We found a TIM HORTONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Double double + boston cream doughnut = amazing. We then went to eat and sip our coffee on the stairs of a statue right in the center of Grafton Street and people watched and caught up with each other's lives.
We then headed back to the hostel which is when Laura arrived (WOOO Halifax reunion!). She got settled in, we got all caught up, chatted chatted and chatted some more and then headed out for a girls night out. We went to go find a place for supper and we had heard of a good noodle place so we walked miles before we found it and there was about a 20 min wait. After the long walk, we decided to wait, then some genius thought to check the menu and the cheapest item was 20 euros. Back to walking we went where we found a restaurant with great food, and slightly lesser prices!
We then met up with the rest of the girls. We went to Temple Bar which is the area of Dublin where all of the bars are located. We found one called Citi bar which was a lot of fun, we danced for a bit, then sat down, but us Hali gals were extremely tired from our previous days of travel that we headed back to the hostel a wee bit early, prepping ourselves for the next day.
Day 8: Feb 26th, 2011
We got up at 9:30am and went to the free walking tour in the city center. Our tour guide was great (and was wearing lime green shoes) and took us to every site you can imagine in Dublin:
And how could you be in Dublin and not do a Guinness Tour? So off we went to do that. It was so cool - it's a self guided tour where it takes you through the process of how guinness is made and then at the top, you get a free pint of Guinness in the gravity bar which overlooks the city.
Previous, we had decided to walk to the Guinness Tour from our hostel which of course, took FOREVER, so we decided to head back to our hostel in style:
We went back to the hostel, and got ready for another girls night out. We went to a club called Copper Face Jacks which my Irish friends had recommended, and boy was it packed and fun. Usher was performing in Dublin that night and four of his songs played in a row at the club so we got all excited thinking that he was going to go there for the after party - no dice. But nevertheless, a lot of fun! Got back to the hostel around 2:30, and was up at 3:30 to catch my 7am flight back to Paris. I said my sad farewells to the Halifax girls :( and then departed, but what a fun week Hayley and I had!
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