Dublin in two days

Hello everyone! I’m a Spanish guy living in Cork City. Last weekend I went to Dublin with a friend, as we had never been there before.

As you can expect, in two days I couldn’t see all I wanted to in Dublin, but still, we visited the main places of Dublin and we had great fun.

We walked along many of the streets of the city and discovered some of the great Irish Pubs the city has to offer. That’s why I want to share my experience with you, so that whoever is looking at going to Dublin for a weekend, can read my experience and, maybe, use it as a guide for their travel.

I’ll divide my tale into what I did on Saturday and Sunday, to make my getaway more useful for the travelers who read it:

Saturday: We took the bus very early in the morning at Patrick’s Quay in Cork City. We were aware the bus was going to take 3 hours to get to Dublin from Cork, and we wanted to make the most of our day in Dublin.

The bus dropped us at Batchelors Walk in Dublin, just next to O’Connell Street (Dublin’s main Street). Our hostel, the “Dublin International Hostel”, which we had already booked online, was located at Mountjoy Street, a few meters north from Dublin City Centre, so we walked to the hostel, loaded with our meager luggage until we got to our hostel.

It was already 12PM when we were ready to leave the hostel. We took one of the free maps they had at the entrance and started our walk along Dublin. Walking down O’Connell Street we decided to head to Dublin Castle, which is placed at the south of the city. On the way, we were getting hungry, so we decided to make a stop to have lunch and taste some traditional Irish Food.

Once we had eaten, we continued our way to Dublin Castle, enjoying Dublin’s vibe and the many sculptures we found out on the way. Dublin Castle is different than any other castles I have ever seen, it’s more a collection of 18th-century administrative buildings built on a medieval plan of two courtyards, we only visited the beautiful outside of the castle, but if you want you can visit the interior on a pay-per-view basis.

After Dublin Castle we explored the area, visiting Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Park and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, finishing our tour walking around Trinity College.

When we finished touring all those places the sun had already set, so we decided to go back to the hostel and have dinner before going out at night to explore a few of the many Irish Pubs of Dublin.

Once we had dinner, we rested a little at the hostel’s living room and then we went out to have a pint. We first went to a pub called Murrays which was one of the closest pubs to our hostel. It is a huge sports bar where we enjoyed a typical Irish pint while dancing and meeting a lot of people.

After that, we headed to the main area to spend a night in Dublin, Temple Bar. There, we visited so many different Irish Pubs, most of which had different groups playing live traditional Irish music.

Before we realized it was already 2 AM, and we decided to go back to the hostel, in order to feel awake on Sunday to continue exploring the city.

Sunday: We woke up around 9AM, we had breakfast at the hostel’s dining room and, after having a shower, we went out again to continue with some sightseeing.

We decided to go to the south of the city again and visit some of the Irish Parks we hadn’t visited yet. First of all we walked to Merrion Square (passing first again by Trinity College, because we liked it so much when we first visited it on Saturday).

Once we walked Marrion Square, we headed to St. Stephens Green, where we could enjoy the Irish flora and a more relaxed atmosphere.

After that, it was time to go back to the hostel and pack to go back to Cork. We took the bus to Dublin Airport, because my friend wanted to rent a car to go back to Cork, and then, continue alone on a trip by the Wild Atlantic Way.

We left Dublin in our rented car, very proud of all we had seen there, and it was an amazing experience.

During our stay in Dublin, we found that is a very multicultural city, as we met with groups of Spaniards, Italians, Brazilians… We really enjoyed our stay there and I would like to invite you all to visit the marvelous city of Dublin. In two days I had good fun as you can see, but if you have time to stay there for more time, do not hesitate to do it, it’s worth it!