(An Irish blessing)
28th of April in 2018:
This Saturday, we decided to journey to Dublin. The day started at Europa Bus Station at 9 a.m. I met the others at half-past eight to get the bus tickets printed out. After that, we got into the bus X2, the ‚Goldline‘ from Translink. What makes it specials is the route, where the bus only stops at Dublin Airport and Dublin Busara Bus Station in Dublin. The travel took us about two hours and just cost £17, where the return is inclusive. The bus was comfortable but a little bit tight at our legs. We also had Wi-Fi. In the beginning, I stayed awake to talk to the others and made plans for the next weekend. But tiredness crept over me, and I fell asleep.
The bus arrived punctually at half past eleven in Dublin.
First of all, some facts about Dublin:
Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland.
The currency is Euro (€), and the main languages are Irish and English.
When we arrive the City, the ‚way‘ to the city looks quite futuristic. A lot of glass used for the buildings. When we reached the Busara Bus Station, there were a few buildings constructed like the others in the same futuristic style. Later on, I learned that it was the finance area.
Our first tourist feature was the Trinity College. To be honest, I’ve never heard something about it before ^^‘. But never say die! I asked my friend, Google.
The next stop was at a church and a guide hall. Do our tourist habit like every time we saw something special by taking pictures and because of our ‚ability to take decisions‘, some of us got hungry. So we split and went for lunch. Son, Tim, Jenny, Dome, Phi and I went to ‚Abra Kebabra‘. At first, we wanted to go to the Korean and Japanese restaurant but discouraging by the high prices we went for Abra Kebabra. It was a mistake. Let me explain why.
1. the portion of my meal was disappointing, although I choose ‚large‘ size
2.the price doesn’t cope with the portion
3. It took over 20 minutes to prepare the meals
The next time I prefer to pay an expensive repast and have a good one instead of the other one.
Later Phi, Dome, Jenny and me wanted to visit the ‚Anime Dublin‘ shop. After a confused search through the alleyway of Dublin, we found the shop in the George’s Street Arcade.
Of course, we also bought some presents or souvenirs for our friends at home. We were continuing the sightseeing tour by going to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was an impressing Cathedral.
At the request of Tim, the next stop was Guinness Storehouse. I would never imagine that Guinness is that famous for it taste. The waiting line for the entry was very long and time was limited we didn’t go in.
One aspect, which differs from Belfast, are the traffic signs. Compared to Belfast, they wrote in English and Irish.
The traffic light also made sounds when it changes from red to green. You can see it here: Dublin’s traffic light
Following were the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History. It was good, but I enjoyed Ulster Museum Belfast more because it has a lot of more exhibits of different topics. Compared to Ulster Museum, it just had padded animals while the other on had a mummy, minerals and more.
The last stop in our sightseeing tour was Science Gallery Dublin. The theme of the exhibition was ‚Fake‘. It shows examples of daily situations, where you never might notice that it’s fake.
For example:
Of course, visiting a good restaurant is never missing on a trip. This time it was ‚Nandos‘, where they served cuisine of South Africa. The legendary PERi-PERi chicken was quite good, and even I didn’t choose much spiciness. At first, we planned to visit a pub and have dinner there, but it was very crowded at 6(!) p.m. and nearly impossible to get a table for eight persons. At 8 p.m. we took the bus with the destination at home. I slept but also listen to Tim and Dome talking about coding, servers and other IT related topics during my nap. Who says it’s impossible to learn during your sleep 😀 ?
All in all the day lovely, the weather was great, but I have to say compared to Belfast, I prefer Belfast more because of its less amount of people. (I prefer the less crowd than usual).
-Huong Giang-
PS: Son likes to take pictures 😀
