Going to Ireland blowing off London (UPDATED)

N

Napoleon

2,500+ Posts
Next Monday, I'm going to Ireland for a wedding. The wedding is in Drogheda which is a northern suburb of Dublin.I get to Ireland Tuesday afternoon and then I head up to Drogheda. I'm helping the wedding couple wrangle the herd for much of their wedding weekend, so I'll be running around helping them get their life in order and then possibly driving a van of overflow drinkers when we hit Northern Ireland on Saturday for a pub crawl. Wedding is on Sunday.

There is a possibility that I will be able to make it into Dublin for an evening on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, but I will finally be free to play in Ireland on Monday the 19th. That's when my schedule frees up.

Free Days in Ireland: Monday 19th-Thursday AM 22nd

I want to see Dublin, but I was also thinking of going to Cork City for one day and night to see another side of Ireland.


Free Days in London: Thursday PM 22nd- Tuesday earlyAM 27th

I was thinking of going to see the Fulham FC vs. Manchester United match Saturday (24th) at 12:45pm. Other than that, I don't have a plan.


What are some suggestions for my 3 free days in Ireland and my 4 1/2 free days in London?

Thanks
 
Kind of depends on what you like to do.

Dublin is a good town to just stroll around and enjoy the pace of life. Great pubs and pretty good restaurants. The area between Trinity College and St. Stephens Green are good areas for poking around. North of the Liffey can be dodgy for wandering. Have lots of Guinness and plenty of Irish sausages and you can't go wrong.

If you like sports, play Golf.

Unfortunately you are just going to miss some big international Rugby games by a few days.

If you like history visit the General Post Office (site of the 1916 rising), Kilmainham Gaol, and Trinity University (Book of Kells).

If you like U2, visit some landmarks around town or head out to Dalkey/Killiney to see where the lads (and most Irish celebrities) live.

Live music, there are plenty of great venues all over town. Temple Bar has a high concentration of pubs and music venues. It is turisty, but can be pretty fun.

If you like booze. Visit the Guinness brewery and Jameson distillery.

If you go to Cork, the city isn't much. You can find some great coastal towns in South and West Cork. Kinsale is a fabulous place about an hour from Cork city. Of course Blarney Castle is in Cork too.
 
First off, Drogheda is not a northern suburb of Dublin. It's like 60km from Dublin. Sure some people may commute to Dublin from there for work, but calling it a suburb is a bit of a stretch.

What do you want to do in Dublin? You want to see music, go to the pubs, shop, just walk around and see the city, visit historic sites, go clubbing, go eat at nice restaurants? Help us out a bit here.

Coming from Drogheda, you're looking at 60-90 minutes to get into the city center, depending on traffic. Then parking is a whole other nightmare. Taking the train or a bus would be a better option, as it would get you to Connolly station / Busarus which is in the city center.

If I were you, on Monday I'd head to the airport and catch a flight from DUB to Kerry (KIR). Rent a car. Spend Monday night in Killarney. Drive the Gap of Dunloe. If the weather is nice you can go hiking in the big national park there and check out the castle. From Killarney, drive to Dingle. Spend the night somewhere in the middle of the village and enjoy the pubs. Dingle has some of the best pubs in all of Ireland. There are some great restaurants as well. The next day drive the whole of the Dingle Peninsula, and then drive over Conor Pass to Brandon Point if you have the time. Or go drive the rest of the Ring of Kerry, stopping along the way to enjoy the views.


Go see Dublin in the evenings like you mentioned. Don't stay there for your 3 days, get out into the countryside and see the real Ireland...
 
HornInDub:First off, regarding Drogheda, I live in LA so my frame of reference is a bit warped. When I saw how "close" Drogheda was/is to Dublin and read that some people buy their first homes there because Dublin was so expensive, in my mind I thought "Suburb".

Drogheda is 36 miles (60Km) from Dublin and there are parts of Malibu that are 46 miles from downtown LA. Sometimes it takes me over an hour to get home (in rush hour) from Santa Monica to my apartment in Hollywood. So my reference is definitely skewed.

The wedding party is going to do a bus tour/visit to Dublin on Friday and I think that we are going to the Guinness Museum. (I'm guessing that the brewery is there as well??) If we don't do a brew tour, that will be on my list. I also want to see the Jameson distillery.

Other things I'd like to see in Dublin are old churches, neighborhoods (I'm into photography, so I want some great structures to photograph), and some classic bars. I do like to visit Universities, so I think that I will check out Trinity College. (Thanks Ahab)

At night I wouldn't mind seeing a band or two. Either Irish music or some up-and-coming young rock bands. NO AMERICAN ROCK COVER BANDS!

What does a "nice restaurant" in Ireland mean? I've been to a few different Irish pubs over the years and Shepherd's Pie and other forms of "Pies" that are covered with mashed potatoes seem to be the extent of their cuisine (along with Fish & Chips). I'm kind of on a budget, so I don't know if I would splurge on a nice meal anyway.

NO Golf. (It's February for god's sake!) No surfing. (I'm not bring a wet suit and it's February in Ireland for god's sake!) But Castles are always cool.

TRANSPORTATION:

I hadn't planned on renting a car. I was thinking that I would take a train back into Dublin on Monday and then when I travelled to other parts, I would take a train then as well. I will have two bags most probably, so lugging them off a train in a random town might be a pain, unless they have lockers at the station. And I am now scheduled to fly OUT OF CORK to London @ 12:55pm on Thursday, so I'll need to make my way over to that side of the country as well.

I picked Cork City, because it seemed to be "The other big city" and the "Revolution City". I figured that it wouldn't be as touristy as Dublin and I am only going to be there one day.

How expensive is renting a car over there? Do you pay extra for picking up in one town and dropping off in another?

And this Dingle is the ****? I do like the idea of visiting a smaller town and hitting a classic Irish pub were the locals (not just tourist) are drinking and are friendly and everyone's named Patrick, Maggie, O'Reilly, Flanagan... And Dingle would be a place like that?


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I'm in Milan at the moment and had a bit too much Sicilian wine at dinner so excuse this post if it sucks, I'll do better tomorrow but for some reason I feel compelled to reply tonight.

- fair point on LA vs. DUB, but remember DUB only has like 1MM people, maybe 1.5MM. Not a trillion like LA. and also consider that there is a nice road from Drogheda to DUB, but when you hit DUB it turns into a 2 lane road, and this is the MAIN road. So you can probably drive from Malibu and back in rush hour both ways in the amount of time it woudl take to drive from Drogheda to DUB city centre one way. Or maybe I'm just jaded and sick of Dublin traffic (even though I live in the city centre). In any event, it's not DUB, it's a good ways out, but shoudl be easy to get to via train/bus as I mentioned earlier.

- The "Guinness Museum" probably means a tour of the brewery, as the tour essentially takes in the history of Guinness and is a museum. Then you end the tour in the Sky bar or whatever the hell its called, and there are great views of all of DUB so bring your camera. cool tour too. DO NOT walk around this area at night. It's not exactly the safest part of Dublin to walk around in. Trust me on this one.

- Go see Trinity. Book of Kells. The grounds are nothing near the size of UT but you'll get some good pics. The rest of the colleges are not really photogenic (UCD, DCU, and the smaller ones, etc). Stick to Trinity.

- For churches, well, you picked the right country if you like those. Go see Christ Church cathedral, it was "stolen" by the protestants a long time ago from the catholic church. The Catholic church is still waiting / hoping that it will be returned. St. Patricks cathedral is another must see. Its 5 minutes walking from Christ Churst. Also go see St Michan's church, where you can go see mummies. Creepy but cool. Just google it and you can read about it, I'm too lazy to post links at the moment. If you need more churches to see, I can give you about 30 to see in the DUB area. Something tells me 3 is more than enough for you though.

- Classic bars. I assume you mean classic pubs. Well you're in luck because, like churches, there's a jillion of them. Again, too lazy to give directions (PM me if you want more detail on these), but go see the Stag's Head, Mulligans, Kehoe's, Doheny and Nesbitts, and O'Donoghue's the Hairy Lemon, or the Long Stone. All in the same general area. Since its your first time, I hesitate to say this, but you'll want to do it anyway, so go to Temple Bar. Go for 2 hours max, have a pint at the Quay's bar, at the Temple Bar, then at Oliver St. John Gogarty's, then get the hell out of there. Go early, avoid the disaster that is British tourists drunk off their arses. After Temple bar, go visit the ones I mentioned above. If you look at a map, the locals drink at places like the ones I mentioned above. Most of them are in the area east of St. Georges Street and south of Dame St. (Dame St runs from Trinity college west. George's St runs north/south and dead-ends into Dame St.) loads of good traditional pubs there. O'Donoghues is on lower Baggot St, and has live music almost every night. Not very photogenic but good craic all the same. (get to know the word Craic by the way). Stags head would be good for a couple photo's. OK I lost my train of thought on this topic, so hopefully this helps.

- Neighborhoods. Georgian neighborhoods is what you're looking for here. There are some good georgian houses around St Stephens Green and Merrion Square. I know there's one somewhere by one of those parks that you can go tour and see how things were back in the day. If you have time, take a walk down Northumberland Road, see the big row of houses there, this is where the English gentry lived when they occupied Ireland. Lots of them were shot from the roof of the schoolhouse pub as they walked home. Coincidentially I live on Northumberland Road. So if you're in the area, I'll buy you a pint. Great photo ops on that road I think anyway. Also walk along the Grand Canal for some good shots too. Generally speaking, if you stick north of the Grand Canal close to Merrion Square and Stephens' Green, you will see a ton of typical georgian houses to shoot.

- Want to see live music thats not traditional Irish? Simple. Go to Whelan's on Camden St. Everyone knows where this is. Good sh!t. Locals galore. Good music. Good drinks, pubs everywhere in the area. Thank me later. If you want to see traditional Irish, the VAT house in Temple Bar usually has bands, as does Oliver St. John Gogarty. O'Donoghues has people show up and play, not an organized band. Kiely's in donnybrook has a great impromptu night of musicians but I think only on Thursdays. I just found this out recently and love it there now. Probably my favorite pub in Dublin (the old part of the pub anyway, not the big modern new part where everyone goes for Rugby matches)

- nice restaurant means you're going to spend about $50 a head for a main course. I'm not talking about Irish cuisine, I'm talking about restaurants that just serve damn good food, Thai, French, continental, whatever. DAMN good restaurants. Food is bloody expensive in Dublin as you will soon find out. It is fantastic though. Let me know what your budget is for food and if you have any ethnic preferences, and I'll give you some good restaurant recommendations in the city centre - loads of cool trendy places to go. And if you haven't tried Indian food, well, you kind of need to do that, it's the mexican food of Ireland. I love the stuff now.

- surfing is the best in the winter, but yea its damn cold. Next.

- Dingle is teh sh!t. Touristy? Yes it can be. But it is not cheesy touristy. You really feel like you are the only non-Irish person there. I love going there. I'd go a lot more often if it wasn't a 4.5 hr drive there from Dublin. Google some pics of Dingle, the Dingle Peninsula, Conor Pass, Brandon Point, Brandon Bay. See for yourself. Its just awesome there. Plus their accents just crack my **** up everyime I hear it. I woud laugh in the pub but my fiancee would shut me up first before the locals kicked my arse. Get here if you can, you won't regret it.

- I'll be honest. I have only driven through Cork city because, as you say, it's the OTHER big city. Cork sucks, and I've heard that from not only Dubs but people from Cork as well. If you go, you really need to rent a car and drive into West Cork. Go see Blarney Castle. But don't spend any time in Cork City. You saw DUB, that's enough. The countyside is what you want to see in Ireland, not another big city. You can rent a car for probably around $50 a day or so. Just do it. AND MAKE IT A SMALL SMALL CAR. you'll be scared sh!tless fi you rent a normal sized car. Trust me on this one. you won't mind that 1.2L engine when you have an extra 8 inches clearance on either side of the car....

I've finished my Nastro Azzurro from the minibar, so I'm done. Hope this helps.
 
OK found one more Nastro Azurro in the minibar so here's Part 2.

Go do a tour of Dublin Castle. Lasts like an hour. I did it for the first time a few weeks back and thought it was cool It's not a full-blown castle as you would think, but still cool.

Go see Malahide Castle fi you want to see a real castle and don't have time to get to Blarney Castle in Cork

If you end up having a full day in Dublin, there is a bus that will take you to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. I absolutely love this place and go there at least 4-5 times in the summer, and ALWAYS take visitors here. I think the bus leaves from St. Stephen's Green but you can find it easily if you google it.

If you like to take pics, there are some cool bridges that span over the River Liffey. I've seen some pro photographers shots at night, and they are awesome.

Forgot to mention, Grafton St. is the main st. south of the Liffey. Cool pubs on either side of it, great to just walk around the area. I still go there on weekends just to walk around and see whats going on. Busy every day of the week, year round.

St Stephen's Green is great, you'll get some great pics here. One of the nicest parks in Dublin, if not the nicest.

For photography of "neighborhoods", just walk along the Grand Canal, starting at Northumberland Road and head west. good 1 hr walk but you'll see tiny little cotttages that sell for ungodly amounts of cash, modern houses, huge georgian places, etc. Do not walk past Clanbrassil St as this is where it gets dodgy. You can walk north on Clanbrassil St and end up at St Patrick's Cathedral or Christ Church if you want to do a lot of walking. Cool shots of swans can be had on the canal too.

Harcourt Street is another street of stephen's green that has a lot of georgian houses. a few hotels and bars here too. The odeon is a good place for a drink with the after-work crowd. Copper Face Jack's is known as a pick up joint, big time. They say if you can't pick up here, you'll never be able to pick up. Not that I've been there or anything...

Wherever you eat, if you see sticky toffee pudding on the menu, order it. its damn good stuff.

If you want some trendy clubs to go to later, Lilly's Bordello is the top place but can have a huge line. Also consdier AKA and Cocoon. I think you're there during the week so these places may not be too packed then. The pubs will always be packed though.

Hogans pub on George's St. is always good. Not photogenic but usually has a good crowd. Across the side street is a big pub called the Market Bar. Usually a good crowd there too.

Dawson St. (just off Stephen's Green) has some "super pubs" as they call them. Cafe en Seine, Ron Blacks and Samsara are popular, but not a "Traditional pub". You can have a good time here though. Don't miss the "Dawson Lounge", also on 'Dawson St. It's the smallest pub in Ireland.

End of Part 2.
 
Since you will be going to Cork for your flight, you should try to get down the West Cork coast.

Cork city is much smaller than Dublin and you can see the whole city center quite quickly. Patrick Street is the main road in the city center. The English Market is sorta neat (just off Patrick Street). It is basically a big, old fashioed market for fresh food. The streets off of Patrick Street are narrow, twistyl lanes. You may find them interesting for photography. There are supposed to be plenty of good restaurants and pubs, but I'm not knowlegeable enough to give any recommendations. There is a large college (UCC), so there are bound to be good bars and pubs.

If you can't get too deep into West Cork, you should go to Kinsale and to Cobh. They are probably the nicest coastal towns close to the city. I'm guessing 45 minutes to an hour by car from the airport. Cobh was the main point of departure for generations of Irish. There is a museum there about emigration. Also, the Lusitania was sunk just off the coast and the Titanic made its last stop in Cobh, so there may be some interesting museums or memorials.

I agree with Dub, get the smallest or second smallest car that they offer. Get a stick, or pay through the nose for automatic. Visa does not cover the insurance on Irish rentals. You need a Diners or a Platinum Mastercard in order to decline the suplemental insurance.
 
After HornInDub's badass recommendations I think you should be set up, but I would also recommend Kinsale over Cork if you have the time. Very cool place, great restaurants, right on the water.

I have always been partial to Galway but I think that's going to be out of your way for this trip.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I've printed them up and I will be looking over them on the plane tonight. I also have a LET'S GO IRELAND, so I will be using that to map out my itinerary.

I've booked two nights in Dublin after the wedding hoopla, just in case, but I'm thinking that I may only use one or none. (I'm in Ireland for 3 nights after the wedding stuff is over.)

And HornInDub, I'll call or write with my updated travel plans.

-Nappy
 
It has been a crazy few days. I've been helping out the wedding couple this past week/weekend and so I was basically on the go from 8:30am to after midnight almost every night.

The wedding (at Slane Castle) was an all day thing. We had harp players during the wedding, circus acts during dinner, a magic show after dinner, a band after the magic show, a dj after the band... and that was after getting back to the castle at about 3:00am the night before from a pubcrawl and dinner in Belfast.

My favorite time so far has been a quiet 30 mins at Whitey's in Belfast with one of my best friends and the husband of his best female friend from college. That has been the only time that I have been allowed to relax. (I was flown over and put up by the wedding couple to kind of be a production coordinator/production manager/1st A.D. for their weekend. )

So now I am in Dublin being put up in the Westin Hotel for the night before renting a car tomorrow and traveling to the western part of the country.
 
I took HornInDub's advice and headed west. I took a train to Killarney (instead of Cork) and pushed back my flight from Cork to London from today (Thursday) to Monday (from Dublin).

I talked to a (natural redheaded) college girl from Cobh (a.k.a. "Cove") who was going home for the weekend. She gave me some advice as well. Chubby, cute, insecure, and somewhat stacked... I almost went to Cobh instead.
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Got to Killarney and decided to get my own room at a hostel vs. a BB. The price difference is about 25 EURO vs 40-45 EURO, but my room smells. But the native Killarney girl (Emir) behind the counter sold me on the place. (I'm really a sucker for Irish girls.)

Last night a hotel/bar called The Grand was celebrating their 10th anniversary and there was Irish square dancing (don't recall the name) with an interlude of authentic Irish step dancing performed by 4 girls in outfits around 12-15 years of age. I got a kick out of that.

Today I did a bus tour with a horrible tour guide. We did the Ring of Kerry and stopped at every tourist trap on the ring. I think that I lost my Breckenridge, CO ballcap at lunch. That sucks.
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But the positive was that when I complemented a guy about 45-50 years of age on the burnt orange t-shirt peeking out of his jacket, he showed me that it was a UT shirt. I was wearing one as well.
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We have a picture along the coastline of the two of us showing our t-shirts and give the horns. Definitely cool.

So that's what I've done. I've decided to blow off London until the night before my trans-Atlantic flight. I just can't seem to care about that place. And I'm picking being in Dublin for the England vs. Ireland rugby match over spending $400 for a Fulham vs. ManU ticket in London.

-Adios
 
We spent a week in Ireland. First thing we did when my wife was done with her grad school stuff was get on a train out of Dublin to Westport and proceeded to cycle through the western country side. Best vacation I've ever taken.
 
What is the story on your friend's wedding at Slane? Sounds like quite an event.

Hope the Irish win tomorrow. It will be an emotion packed event for sure.
 
SLANE CASTLE
The couple: Two Americans- the bride's mother is from Northern Ireland, but lives in The States.

The castle: Where U2 recorded The Unforgettable Fire- also the home of a cool concert series at the end of every summer. U2, The Rolling Stones, REM, Oasis, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cold Play, Moby... all have played there.

The wedding: Was at Slane Castle last Sunday (the 18th). I stayed at the castle on Satuday night and Sunday night and I can totally take you on the short cut from Drogheda to the castle now if you would like. Forget the main highways.

Circus performers, a magician, a band, a dj, harpists... plenty of entertainment. It was originally picked becausee the 3rd floor area has a round room with a reinforced steel dome roof. They were going to have a Cirque de Soleil type performance where a girl swung from ribbons dangling from the ceiling, but the Earl of Slane changed his mind about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Total bollucks.

When I was with the bride at the information center in the town of Drogheda, a lady at the info center responded to the Slane Castle news with this comment- "Only rich people get married at Slane Castle." Probably not what her boss would have wanted her to say, but it was an accurate statement.

So I went from staying in a boutique hotel (The d hotel in Drogheda), to a castle (Slane Castle) to the Westin in Dublin, to a backpacker's hostel with 5 other new friends. I may be at the end of my abilitiy of suffering through traveller's hostels. I've seen some people 20 years old than me in these things on my trip (2 in Dublin and 1 in Killarney), but that doesn't mean that I can deal with the loud German high school kids or the overpowering mildew in the bathroooms.

That's what I've got so far. The town of Dublin is definitely ramping up with drunk Irish and English fans all over the place in their O2 green/white & white/red jerseys everywhere. Most fans are going to put away about 7-12 19oz "pints" of Guinness before heading to the game.

Adios, Cheers, gotta go.

-Napoleon
 
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