It's not easy being green

Okay, well maybe it is!

We arrived at Dublin and found our hostel with relative ease.  We are staying at a hostel called Oliver St. John Gogarty's which is in the Temple Bar district.  That district has plenty of fun places to eat and drink and is very close to so many of the major attractions in Dublin.

Our first day in Dublin we got on a hop on hop off bus tour around the area and stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral and walked around there for a while and then hopped back on and stopped next at the Guinness Storehouse.  The storehouse was huge and so well designed.  They had a huge self-guided tour where you go through their whole brew process and then the history of the Guinness family and how they have gotten to where they are today.  During the tour, you get a lesson on how to taste Guinness and how to pour it.  Then you get to go up to their Gravity Bar which offers a 360 degree view of the entire city.
After that brewery tour we made it back to Temple Bar and went to a restaurant that had some great burgers.

Day two started with breakfast (free breakfast) at the hostel and then we headed to the hop on hop off bus again.  We rode that around with the live commentary guide and then took a separate route around the docklands.

After that we walked to Trinity College and took a guided tour of the grounds there.  The tour guide was interesting, funny and knowledgeable of the things of the college.  We learned that the people in charge of naming things there at Trinity College lack imagination.  Their big square at the front of the campus is called Front Square.  The big arch that you go through to get to Front Square is called Front Arch, etc.  But the campus was cool.  People like Bram Stoker (the writer of Dracula) and Oscar Wilde went to Trinity College.  Also at Trinity College is the famous library which houses the Book of Kells.  The Book of Kells is a very old, very ornate, writing of the four gospels of the New Testament.  The text is beautiful.  I found it interesting how they can tell the story of the gospels in images while also writing the text in Latin.
The Long Room in the library is also a sight to behold.  It was majestic looking with all of it's leather bound books and high wooden book cases.  One thing to note is that the books are not categorized alphabetically or chronologically or by any means other than the physical size of the books.  Fancy trying to go pick one out?

We left the campus and headed to lunch at this nice place called Sweeney's.  I had Irish stew and it was delicious.

After that we headed to a cinema and saw the movie the Grand Budapest Hotel.  If you haven't seen it, it is a quirky movie, but it is funny.  Watch out for language though as it may be a bit strong for a younger audience. :)

 Stained glass window at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 The main part of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Front Square at Trinity College.

Front Arch at Trinity College.

The Long Room at the Trinity College Old Library.  (See if you can notice that the books on the bottom are big and they get shorter and shorter the higher you go)