What's the craic?*: part 1

At the end of last week a friend and I packed our bags and boarded a plane, Ireland bound. We arrived bright and early Thursday morning (and by early I mean our flight got in a 9am which meant a 4am start) to a not so bright but very cloudy Dublin. We checked into Kinlay House, dumped our bags and headed towards the city centre to explore. I'll be honest, I couldn't be bothered taking photos, I just wanted to take it all in and enjoy myself.

Thursday night was a big meet and greet night where met the 3 million other Australians on the tour. Not going to lie, it was nice to be surrounded by the Aussie accent again; I've successfully avoided Australian here in Manchester so far. It is a strange, in a good way, feeling when you meet people half way across the world who live in the same city as you.

Friday was big day of exploring. Luckily all the girls in our hostel room got along superbly so we venture out for the day; first stop was the jail. Unfortunately the tours times were too late for us so we headed back via the Gallery of Modern Art.

 No, there is nothing wrong with my lens. The blurry greyness is due to the incessant drizzle that followed us all day. Understandably, before heading into the photography exhibit we stopped for coffees and hot chocolates inside to dry out a bit.

This is the courtyard of the gallery.

 The photography exhibit was in a separate building and to get there we walked past this beautifully manicured garden.

Our detour home via the gallery meant we missed the start of our walking tour but we managed to catch up with them outside the Christ Church Cathedral. Most of the photos I snapped along the way aren't the best in quality because I didn't want my camera getting too wet and we were a bit rushed.

Far too much money was spent in this iconic pub.

A bit of festive bunting never goes astray.

A building in Trinity College

Trinity College entrance

The Dublin castle entrance

 Our walking tour ended at the Guiness storehouse. I'll admit I'd never had Guiness before this weekend but when in Rome...and who was I to turn down a free pint!

We spent the rest of the afternoon sipping our Guiness and listening to the live band playing in the storehouse bar.

*I wanted to avoid cheesy leprechaun-related humor for a post title so I went for the slogan that was printed on our Shamrocker tour t-shirts. See here for an explanation.