My Goodness, My Guinness

In the morning I finally checked myself out of Palmer's Lodge and took a bit of flack from the girls that worked the front counter as they had come to know me like part of the furniture around the hostel. They seemed upset to see me go.

I took the tube to the Euston train station and waited for the departure of my train towards Holyhead. The train trip was about 4 hours long and was probably one of my favourite journeys so far because of how quiet and un-crowded the train cars were.

When we got to Holyhead it was time to switch up on to the ferry which would take me to Dublin. On my way towards to ferry check-in a guy saw my Canadian flag patch and had to inquire where I was from. Turns out the guy, Corbin, was from Saskatoon and was on his way to Dublin as well. I now had something to help me pass the time on the ferry. We were both a bit afraid of the ferry ride as we had both only paid £26 for the whole train and ferry ride journey. When you try to book a ferry separate it usually amounts to £20 just by itself, so I started to wonder what kind of leaky tub they were going to set us up on. It turned out to be quite the other way around. The ferry was something that I imagine is used in pleasure cruises.

Once the ferry made port we hopped on a bus into the city center and started the search for our hostels. Mine was pretty close to the central train station where as Corbin's was a bit further out. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet up later for some drinks. My hostel was a bit on the nice side of things...too nice actually. It was lacking a major feature which is essential for meeting people in hostels which is a common room with a or some comfy couches. Basically just a place where folks will chill out and you can chat. So, I guess making friends here was going to be a bit tougher. Turns out it wasn't too bad. Several of my roommates were great to talk with and pass the time, but didn't seem to be big on the Guinness drinking.

I met up with Corbin in the evening and we headed out for the fabled night spot area of Dublin called Temple Bar. Actually, we were pretty stupid and thought temple bar was the name of an actual bar (which it is) and only found out later that the whole area is called temple bar as well. For being a monday night we weren't expecting too much of a busy night life. We were quite surprised to see that the whole place was packed and busy and made for a friendly and enjoyable night out.

The next day we both agreed to set out on a bus tour around Dublin and end off the day with a visit to the Guinness storehouse. The tour was quite informative and proved to be worth the money, much like the one Jeff and I used in Brussels. The Guinness storehouse was of course the highlight of our day, but it ended up being not all that interesting. The price was more then I would pay for any normal museum and wasn't nearly as interesting. The good part was they finish off your tour with a pint in the bar at the top of the factory which has a (almost) 360 degree view of Dublin. That evening we hit up temple bar again for a fun time, but it was an early night as Corbin was leaving for Galway to start working.

I was back on my own wandering around Dublin and checked out some more sights like Trinity College, St.Patricks Cathedral, Phoenix Park. I also took the time to book into a 6 day all Ireland tour called the Paddywagon which didn't depart until the day after. So I had a pretty boring day before my tour started as I didn't have anything to really see or do as I felt I had done everything I wanted to. I instead did a lot of reading and people watching in one of the parks and some more wandering around the city ensued. I turned in really early as I had to get up very early for my tour bus which would take me on the most interesting ride of my life. The next 6 days would find me befriending some of the craziest and funniest people I've met to date.