Travel: Dublin

Assalammualaikum!
Yep, so this is when my summer trip really started =]

Edinburgh was just an introduction because I had to fetch Aisyah from Edinburgh Airport.
Our flight to Dublin from Manchester Airport was at 0745hrs on 18th June, and so we spent a night in Wasil's house.

Wasil's house was supposed to be empty i.e. free of man.
But suddenly two of his housemates came home earlier from their summer camp. And when we reached there, to our horror, Wasil was told that a group of 5 boys from London was stranded in Manchester and they needed a house to stay, so they had to stay at Wasil's house!

And when people know that Wasil's hse has many ppl (the London boys, not us!), some other boys decided to make the night merrier, they came for a sleepover.

So that night, Aisyah and I became the prisoners of Banff Rd.

We were confined to Wasil's room because there are boys in every single corner of the house.
Wasil made them aware that we are in his room, and whenever we needed the toilet, Wasil will have to clear the path for us.

To be honest, I think the other boys should have been more considerate.
They knew Wasil wanted the hse to be empty for me and Aisyah to spend the night comfortably, but they still spent the night there. Isn't it inconsiderate?
It was so weird to spend a night in a house with 10 other men/boys.
Thank God we plan to leave the house at 0530am the next morning.

The real deal: Dublin

Our RyanAir flight cost only £9.99!
That was cheaper than an open return train ticket from Preston to Manchester.

RyanAir has now allowed two bags to be brought up in the cabin.
I used to have to shove everything I owned into one cabin bag.
I even wore many many layers of sweaters before! Just so that I can save space in my cabin luggage.
So, congratulations RyanAir.

The next step is to discard that passport check procedure for non-EU passport holders.
That procedure is very very annoying.

I booked a family suite in the Ibis Hotel in Red Cow, Dublin.
It cost me €51 per night, it was the cheapest that I can find.
And it took 30 minutes from the city by tram!

Wasil, Me and Aisyah in the LUAS. LUAS means tram in Irish

Anyway, I don't really find Dublin interesting.
Even though we walked under the hot summer sun to most of the places in the Dublin map, we did not go in. We simply took some pictures at the main entrance because we need to pay to enter most of the places. Hence by 6pm, we did not know what to do or where to go.

I really hope this does not happen to tourists visiting Kuala Lumpur.

Places we visited in Dublin:

1) The Spire of Dublin.

It looks like a long thin sturdy needle in the middle of O'Connell Street.
I found out that it is 121m! I could not get any picture of the whole structure. I will have to lie down flat on my stomach if I want to get the picture of the tip.

The Spire of Dublin in the background

2) The General Post Office

The General Post Office is also on O'Connell Street. It has a Georgian architecture and looks very impressive.
We bought postcards from Carroll's Gift Store on O'Connel St and crossed the road to post them.
The inside was quite busy but because there were really a lot of counters, the queue was not long at all.

The General Post Office Dublin

3) Mary Street

We walked along Mary St in Dublin and there were many street performers.
One of them was this bashful Spiderman.

We are supposed to pay him some money and take a picture with him but because I did not want to pay, I took his picture from far. I think he noticed us and quickly face the wall so that we cannot get a good view of him.

Shy Spiderman

Men in Black

There were many roadside stalls selling the in-trend colourful hairbands.
There were also Penney's, equivalent to Primark in the UK.

We then crossed the River Liffey to get to the other part of Dublin.

River Liffey, Dublin

4) Dublin's City Hall

The Dublin's City Hall is located on the other side of the River Liffey.
The hall itself is free to go in, but not the exhibition section.
When we were there, a wedding was about to be done so they were preparing the chairs divided by isle in the middle and a place for the priest in front.

I can't remember how much was the entrance fee for the exhibition section since we did not go in.

At the main entrance of the city hall exhibition room

5) Dublin Castle

Not far from the City Hall is the Dublin Castle.
I can't remember how much is the fee to go into the castle since we did not go in either.

Within the Dublin Castle compound

Wasil's jump shot. My jump shot is too ugly to be displayed

6) Dublin City Council

Alah, nothing here.
We did not even go in. We took a picture here because the writing was very big.
I told you, we were already kinda bored.

Dublin City Council

7) The Four Courts

Our last attraction site was the Four Courts.
This court was in the visitor map so I thought it is one of the visitor's attraction.
Little did I know that it was a proper, working court!

As we go in, the security personnel asked us to place our bags in the scanner and he told me to keep my camera in my bag.
We spent quite some time in the court because we were already very tired of walking.

We saw a group of people coming out of one of the rooms, some of the men were wearing the white wigs and black robe, just like in the tele.

We looked like little ants in front of the Four Courts. LOL

We bought dinner from one of the Pakistani shop and made our way back to the hotel.
We reached the hotel before dark and stayed in.

In conclusion, it is okay to miss Dublin.
There is not much things to see.
But since it is the capital city of Ireland, people will expect you to visit it at least once.
Hence spending half a day there will be sufficient.

-Because life is a test-

-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com