Dublin

Hello (:

This post has been a long time coming, I was supposed to write it last week, but I ended up doing some over time and had a busy weekend going to The Deep and not doing much else. Without further ado, here's the lowdown on the trip I took over to Dublin with my two pals.

We booked this trip back in December after my friend found it on Groupon. I'd never used Groupon before, so I had no idea what to expect. In total it cost around £94 each and that included return flights and two nights in the hotel. We snapped it up pretty quickly and I kind of put it on the back burner, feeling a bit more enthusiastic about going to Amsterdam, as I've visited Dublin before.

Part of the deal was we had to fly from Birmingham, which wouldn't have been first, second or third choice of airport for us, as it's quite a trek. We set off super early, and my friend drove us there and back, opting to leave the car at the Airparks car park. This was a good idea, as we knew her car would be secure, as well as all the bits and bobs we left there. It was fairly cheap as well, and it includes a bus transfer to and from the terminal.

The flight was pretty uneventful, we flew with Ryanair, and I was expecting a lot more hassle than what we actually got. I've not had the best previous experiences with Ryanair! When we arrived in Dublin, we got a taxi to our hotel. We were staying at the Regency Hotel, which was a midpoint between Dublin centre and the airport. The hotel itself was a lot nicer than any of us were expecting, especially after reading some questionable TripAdvisor reviews.

It was early afternoon when we arrived, so we set about getting a taxi into town to buy some needed toiletries - we'd been told we could only take hand luggage, but ended up having our bags checked which was a tad annoying - and had a general look around. We ate at Eddie Rocket's, which is a 1950's style diner, and all the food comes in red baskets and the staff are dressed like extras from Grease. The food was amazing and we left feeling very full, but very happy.

Because of our flight times, we only really had one proper night we could use, so we decided from the moment we booked that we'd be going on a night out on the Saturday. Because we'd gotten so many taxis everywhere, we spoke to all the drivers and got a lot of opinions on where to go and which bars and clubs would be the best for us.

We were dropped off at Temple Bar, which is the big tourist hot spot. A lot of the pubs and bars have live music and it's very folk-y, and not really our thing at all. Back in 2012, I'd already been in the actual Temple Bar pub with my parents and sister and hadn't enjoyed it much back then. We avoided that and headed to Buskers instead, which played a lot more chart music and cheesy pop (still, not really my thing, but Desperadoes were 4 euros). It was a really lively atmosphere, but not the place to go if you want a more authentic Irish experience, as it was full of tourists. The club beneath Buskers, Alchemy, was pretty good too and we finished the night off in there. I've got to say, drinks are pretty expensive in Dublin. My friend had a double Archers and lemonade and it cost her just short of 14 euros.

On Sunday, we decided to take advantage of our hotel's facilities and headed to the pool. I was super hungover and was determined not to enjoy any moment of it, but was quite surprised. There's a rule in Dublin that in public pools, you have to wear a swimming cap. Which, as someone who goes swimming quite regularly, absolutely confused the hell out of me. A taxi driver had informed us, it was due to hygiene reasons. We sat in the jacuzzi for a while, before me and my friend managed a few lengths in the pool before it got really busy.

That afternoon, we headed across town to the Guinness Storehouse. It was interesting, but it was so busy. I'd recommend booking tickets, you get like 10% off if you book online and you get to skip the ridiculous long queue. Because it was so busy, it was difficult to properly take your time and look and read each piece of information. It also meant the queues to learn to pull the perfect pint and the cafe were really long, so we decided not to wait and press forwards. The whole Storehouse wasn't what I was expecting, I hoped it'd be a bit more interactive than it was. Good for beer enthusiasts though, as there are a few interesting facts along the way.

The main exciting point of the Storehouse was going to the Gravity bar at the very top, the walls are made out of windows and it overlooks Dublin centre and the view was incredible. It was such a clear day and you could see for miles. I can only imagine it looks even more incredible at night. You also get a free drink in the bar, Guiness or a soft drink.

We had a walk up to Grafton Street to look around the shops and I got a picture with Phil Lynott's statue to show my dad. As everything started to close, we headed up to Temple Bar to get something to eat, opting for an old favourite, TGI Friday's. We ate Jack Daniels chicken and drank cocktails, before stopping for a 5 euro cocktail in Buskers. It was a really chilled out evening, and the perfect way to end our trip before the 3AM wake up call on Monday morning.

I love Dublin. It's one of those places, like Amsterdam that I feel sort of drawn to. I feel like I could genuinely live there one day, if the New York dream never happens, who knows what will be the back up? I'd recommend Dublin to everyone, but if you have as little time as we did, definitely plan in advance what you're going to do. We knew we wanted to have a night out and my pals wanted to go to the Guinness Storehouse. There's plenty of other options too, of course.

Have you ever been to Dublin? What did you do there?