Exploring Dublin
I don't get out to Dublin much with where I'm living, but I've been in the city centre quite a few times recently. One of these days I got the chance to meet up with a friend from college, which was so much fun. It was so great to spend time with a familiar face. We ate and had a few drinks and caught up about my time in Ireland so far and his travels over the summer.
Then, we went over to Dublin Castle. We were unaware until we arrived that they were putting on a reenactment. They had all kinds of booths set up outside and loads of actors. It was pretty fun to see!
After we had a look at their set up, we went inside and took a little tour of the apartments. The paintings and chandeliers were so ornate and beautiful. The views of Dublin were pretty nice as well.
On a separate occasion, I had a large portion of a day to explore the city by myself. I hadn't really gotten much of a chance to do that last summer because I was busy with work and school, and on the weekends we were usually away exploring a different city. So this day I was determined to do whatever looked interesting. I walked around town and if something caught my eye, I checked it out. It was wonderful.
I started off in St. Stephen's Green. I had walked in for a brief minute the day I arrived in Dublin last year, but I wanted to see more of the park. I decided to take some time in the park to sit down and write out a few postcards for some family members.
From there, I walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Another spot I hadn't gotten the chance to check out. A friend had, though, and he highly recommended that I go. I didn't pop inside. Instead, I enjoyed sitting outside in the perfect autumn weather enjoying the opportunity to people watch, which I love.
I decided to make my way back toward the northeast. A few things caught my eye on the way.
Finally, it was back to the familiar walk towards work that I made every morning last year.
I ended my day of exploration in front of the famine ship as I waited for Killian to finish up with work so that we could leave town together. We had a couple of drinks at Dublin's Oktoberfest and went home to relax for the rest of the night. It was a day well spent doing some of what I'd always wanted to do!