Ireland Day 1: The start of our Dublin Adventures

It was a long 19-hour journey to get to Dublin, Ireland, from our hometown in South Dakota, USA. We arrived in Dublin Thursday March 3rd around 9:45 am. We walked through airport customs, picked up our checked bag, and then walked to the taxi area.

Dublin Airport has an area specifically for city taxis and buses. Their trams don’t go all the way to the airport. We found the taxi setup to be easy. There was an attendant at a booth who informed us another taxi will be along soon to take us where we needed. Shortly, our first taxi driver appeared and helped us get our luggage in the taxi van. We were exhausted from traveling, but he was very friendly and had a lot of great information to share. See the end of this post for all the historical information he provided. After some crazy curvy, scary roads, we arrived at our hotel, Hilton Dublin on Charlemont.

We were exhausted so we decided to take a nap that ended up lasting 4 hours. When we woke up, we had a few hours of daylight left so we took a walk to checkout the area and to find dinner. Our taxi driver took us past St. Patrick’s Church. He informed us that it’s called St. Patrick’s church because there is a well that is still inside the church to this day which is the location where St. Patrick performed his first baptism in Ireland.

While walking, we came across the church again, there was a sign in the park that confirmed what our taxi driver said and provided more detail. According to the sign, there was just a well, which then a wooden church was built to commemorate the event of St. Patrick’s baptisms of the first Irish. In 1191, the church was raised to the status of a collegiate church. Then, in 1213, the church was raised to a cathedral status. Then, 100 years later, the spire blew down, and the church was damaged in a fire. The church was rebuilt but reduced to the status of a parish church. In 1555, it regained its cathedral status. St. Patrick, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, and other famous people are entombed there. It had quite the whirlwind of a condensed version of its history.

After taking some pictures and wondering through the park, we made our way to The Brazen Head. The Brazen Head is the oldest bar in all of Dublin. It’s a little building compared to all the other buildings built next to it with its original stone face. It’s an interesting little place with all kinds of small cozy rooms and a rich atmosphere. A server directed us a table where we ordered two pints of Guinness, and after looking at the menu, we ordered 2 servings of Beef and Guinness Stew. The stew was delicious and the best first thing to eat in Ireland. It just felt like home.

We finished dinner, paid our bill, and decided to wonder around but head in the general direction of our hotel. We walked down the Temple Bar area and then along Grafton Street, which had several shops. Eventually, we made our way back to our hotel, where we went to bed a bit early as we were still jet lagged from our trip.

Safe travels,
Luke & Jessica