You can have Dublin. Seriously, there is nothing unique about this city. It is expensive, dirty, has poor public transportation, and seemed generally full of rude people. Maybe we hit Dublin at its worst, folks from all over Europe and the world flocked to Dublin in late July for the U2 concerts, but we ran into so very few locals who we nice and friendly. I can count 4 and all were in some sort of service industry (2 taxi drivers, 1 usher, & our hotel staff).
All my Dublin photos can be seen at my Smugmug Site.
There weren’t any real highlights either to Dublin. The Guinness factory you say? Pretty much a carbon copy of other big corporate tour centers like Hershey’s or Coke. Charge a bundle, herd you through a multi-layer building of exhibits where lines to do anything interesting are long, give you a free sample, then dump you out at a huge store where you have the privilege of purchasing items so you can advertise for free for that company. Actually quite a brilliant idea on the part of the corporations if you think about it. 15 Euro for a free pint of Guinness….there has got to be some nice profit in that. At least the facility was interesting enough to have a bit of a photography shootout with my friend Alana. I focused more on new photography techniques and less on the exhibits themselves.
What about shopping? All those unique Irish gifts? Not likely. The main shopping district, Grafton Street, while a nice pedestrian street in town, was pretty much no different than the mall down the street.
What about Trinity College and the Book of Kells? Got to be some history there, right? All two pages of it. Trinity college was nice, but again, nothing special. Some big ‘ol ugly grey buildings with a bit o green grass here and there. If you wanted to see the Book of Kells, you could wait in a crowded bookstore, be charged an arm & a leg, then be whisked by only two pages of the book. We had been warned this was a waste of time by several so we were spared.
What about the Irish pub life? Apparently, tourists are not really welcome, especially if they are Americans. And seriously, in what city would a real pub charge 25 Euro for fish & chips? In Dublin. With a side order of rude bartending staff. I did learn one thing from a Dublin pub? That black lights are installed in bathroom stalls so heroin addicts can’t find their veins. Brilliant!
The Dublin Castle has to be nice and historic? If you consider an 18th Century palace painted in primary colors surrounded by modern 70’s building historic, then yes. But compared to other real castles I have been to in England and Scotland, Dublin Castle is a joke.
And don’t even get me started on the Dublin airport where you walk for seemingly miles to get to a terminal with only ONE food shop that is sold out of most of its food. But you can get an apple and a bottle of water for 5 Euro. Delightful.
Was there anything I liked about Dublin? Yeah. I must say that St. Stephen’s Green, the downtown city park, was quite a nice place. We hit that on our last day, and it was a pretty place. Again, nothing special, but after several days of dingy and grey, the sun and greenery of the park were a nice contrast.
If I visit Ireland ever again, I’m skipping Dublin. I hear the rest of the island is rather lovely. It’s a shame Dublin just didn’t measure up.









ut on the deck then watch the fireworks display.













