Ireland

There is nothing better than a little city break to finish off the year with. Luckily, Adam surprised me with a booked trip to Dublin - somewhere I have always wanted to go and never been, despite it being so close!

The flight was the shortest one I have ever taken. By the time we were level and able to take off our seat belts, we were putting them back on to come back down again! Once off the plane, we got on a city link bus right outside of the hotel that stops off at various points around the city. The time we got to the hotel was bad as it was still early and we could not yet check in so, after we dropped off our bags, away we went exploring.

Our first stop was the Guinness factory. I was unsure if I wanted to do this as I do not drink or like the stuff, but Adam does and it is Dublin's number 1 tourist attraction so we thought we would give it a go. I actually found it pretty interesting and there was some cool things to do. You get to pour a pint how it should be poured and also go into a taste room and get shown how you should drink it (still did not like it). After you have worked your way around all of this you can then go up to the observatory bar where you claim your free pint and get the best view of the city. You can actually see rather a lot from up there. As we were nearly finished and thinking of leaving, a cloud of black smoke completely blinded us and it turns out the factory next door was on fire! We made a swift exit as the fire engines were turning up...

Another thing we did was visit Dublin Zoo (we chose this because we got free entry tickets through Tesco club card boost!) We had to get a bus to another part of the city then using our map walked down a very long street. The map was not very clear as things did not quite match up as they should. Either way, we walked past the zoo! We ended up walking quite a bit extra before we realised and turned around. We did eventually get to the zoo and it was okay - having been at Chester Zoo so many times I have found it hard to beat. Dublin Zoo did not beat it! The enclosures were quite a lot smaller and there was a lot of construction work going on at the time. Still, there were some cool animals and some that you do not get in Chester Zoo, like red pandas or wolves, it was still a good day out.

We stayed at Temple Bar hotel whilst in Dublin and it turns our Temple Bar is the place to be. The area comes alive at night and the bars are full and energetic. We went to one bar that had constant live music and it was brilliant! They even played Galway Girl which made my night. Despite the fact that there were two drunken idiots causing trouble and the high drink prices, I had a good night!

Another thing we did which was pretty cool for me being someone who has studied English - we went to see the Oscar Wilde memorial. It was not a huge thing just a statue of him leaning on a rock and some quotes, but it was still nice to see.

Overall, Dublin was a great getaway and I would love to go see another part of Ireland sometime. Well worth weekend away!