April 9th, 2014

It was another early morning today because we had to take the Student Shuttle bus to the University. Even though we’re not students, it was free so we figured we’d give it a shot. Mel came with us and gave us a quick tour of the University before walking to the Square to grab breakfast before our bus.

We had breakfast at the same café, another delicious raspberry muffin! And on the way to the bus depot I bought a postcard of Galway and some snacks for the bus.

The bus to Dublin was uneventful, we played cards almost the entire time. When we arrived in Dublin, we hoped off the bus and started walking towards Temple Bar, roughly where we knew our hostel to be. We found a Visitor Information Centre along the way so we stopped to get directions and to ask what we could do for the rest of the day. The gentleman didn’t seem too pleased that we were only spending an afternoon in Dublin but he told us the way to our hostel and gave us a map anyways.

Our hostel was called Barnacles and it is in the heart of Temple Bar. It was a really quaint hostel with twisty staircases and steps. Like they took three or four buildings and knocked out the walls. We arrived too early to get our room keys but we were allowed to leave our bags in a locked storage area. The receptionist was actually an American too so she understood our accents and was able to tell us where was the best places to go.

We stopped first at a Subway restaurant for lunch before walking around Dublin, headed mainly in the direction of the Guinness Storehouse. On the way we passed Trinity College, and St. Patrick’sCathedral.

At the Guinness Storehouse, we took the tour, saw how they made the beer, had an official tasting, even posed for our own poster! TheGuinness Storehouse was built to look like the inside of a pint glass. In the centre of the bottom of the pint glass, under a pane of glass in the floor, is the signed 9000 year lease for the property. My favorite part though was the panoramic view of the entire city of Dublin from the top of the Storehouse.

Back at the hostel, we met Ben, a 19 year old student from US studying in Cardiff at same school as Eve Myles (one of my favorite actors from Torchwood). He was on a 24 hour layover so he was just relaxing at the hostel as opposed to the airport. We invited him out to supper with us but he said he’d rather go nap.

For supper, we met up with a family friend of Franny’s & her cousin who took us out for Mexican food & Margeritas. It was really good but I’m afraid I’m going to have terrible heartburn tonight from my burrito. After supper we walked to a milkshake bar near Trinity College.

When we arrived back at the hostel, we met our other roommates, who were also Canadians from Calgary! They invited us out to party but we had an early flight so we decided to try and go to bed early.