In June of 2017, a few months before my first trip here, I got to know an Irish guy. We spent some time together while I was visiting and stayed in contact. He's one of my favorite humans on the planet and though maintaining long distance friendships across the Atlantic, with different cultures and styles of communication can definitely have its challenging moments, one of the things I appreciate is that we're both willing to work at it.
He was the one who suggested I look into this trip because flights were so cheap and I am so glad I took him up on it.
He's a huge history (and craft beer) nerd so when we made plans to do a walking tour so he could tell me all about the history of the city, I knew it would be a ton of fun.
We visited War Memorial Park and the Irish National War Memorial Garden. We checked out the area around the Irish Museum of Modern Art (which I have a ticket to go see tomorrow), walked along the River Liffey, went through Croppies Acre Memorial Park, the Collins Barracks, Arbor Hill Cemetery, then walked through the Smithfield and The Liberties neighborhoods.
(Click on the right hand side of the picture to go through the slideshow)
Midday, we stopped in Dudley's pub in The Liberties for drinks and a bite to eat. I got crab cake croquettes and he ordered nduja & smoked cheddar ones. We ended up with the wrong ones but they were both delicious so we split them.
Though the place has great craft beer I'm more of a gin drinker so I got Dingle gin and tonic water. Love the orange instead of lime.
Eating and drinking in public feels very weird after all this time but the place was nearly deserted, masks were required when moving around, and I had a wonderful time catching up with my friend and meeting his brother and brother's girlfriend.
We spent nearly 4 hours drinking and talking in the pub. I alternated G&T's with water because there was no way I was going to try to keep up with two Irish guys and a French woman (who has lived in Ireland for years). lol.
My friend and I took our tipsy selves back to Kilmainham where we had pizza (and a beer for him/cider for me) before I went back to my "gaff" (home in Irish slang) and he headed to his place.
It was one of those days where I got home exhausted but happy. All in all, we walked nearly 6 miles and had a fabulous time. It's funny, I'm a pretty big introvert but I don't know if it's the Irish charm or the fact that it's been a very long time since I've been able to travel and meet new people, but it was a fantastic day and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun.