Dubin, Ireland

Dublin! What a fun place to be. We stayed in a good old fashioned youth hostel, although I'm not sure I qualify as youth anymore. It was nice to be back in the land of book exchanges, free breakfasts and travel tips galore.

It was easy to hit up tons of the main tourist attractions. Rich and I went for a long walk one day and ended up seeing the Dublin Castle, Ha'Penney Bridge, Temple Bar District, the spire and O'Connell Street.

Rich had to work for one of our Dublin days so I had the day to myself. Dublin is known as one of the most expensive cities in Europe. After a quick google search though I was loaded with ideas for free things to do! And I hit a bunch of them up.

The National Museum of Ireland is free and fascinating. I went to the Natural History building, which is also known as the dead zoo. Yes, a museum filled with skeletons and taxidermy animals! It was fascinating and at times a bit scary.

My next stops were to the National Portrait Gallery and Trinity College. Both beautiful. I enjoyed seeing the artwork by and of Irish artists; that was pretty neat.

Dublin was a fun city, full of beautiful buildings and homes. I loved the short brick buildings and all of the colorful doors. There were so many little parks and green spaces that were great to walk through.