Allo there lassies & laddies! Fancy a wee potato??

Our latest episode in our blog travels took us to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland for a quick little weekend away. Flying out on cheap and undependable Ryanair, we arrived at our private room in our hostel at about 5pm on the Friday (we took the day off for extra time in Ireland). After a quick unpack, we headed to the oldest pub in Ireland; the Brazen Head (first built on that site as a pub in late 12th century) for our first taste of Guinness in Dublin (Supposedly Guinness tastes best in Dublin). It was difficult to argue with the claim, as it tasted amazing and quickly hooked Ant in (uh oh)! Afterwards, we met up with our friends Claire & Sean whom are from the Cork/Dublin area and whom we met while travelling in Morocco mid 2012. We had a great night out with them which included more Guinness, fried chicken, random meetings with very random people, and lots of Irish music!

We arose slightly later on Saturday morning with heavy heads and parched throats. For breakfast we headed into town and came across an amazing fresh market selling very attractive looking foods and drinks. We did a round of the market while mentally narrowing down our decisions and planning our feast. After a satisfying meal (check out the photos!), we were off again for a quick peak at the big Christ Church Cathedral before meeting up wit Claire & Shaun again, who drove us out to Bray to meet Claire's lovely family, and score a free awesome meal of home made Shepherds Pie, Irish style with plenty of chilli, yum!

After our stomach-warming lunch, we headed back out onto the road for a tour of the nearby mountains (well more like big hills) where we saw a round tower used for hiding from invading Vikings, and had a very peaceful walk in the pouring rain admiring the naturally forming waterfalls sprouting up everywhere from the constant rain. As it began to darken, we headed back into Dublin for some dinner at a Spanish/Cuban tapas bar which had an Irish version of Jenga (aptly called "jumbling tower") and then out for more Irish music, Guinness, hot whiskey/port and random locals!

Sunday was again a less than comfortable start to the day, though we rose earlier to get in our free breakfast and have a shower before we had to check out. We then raced to an 11am start walking tour which took us around the main sites of Dublin and gave us some very interesting historical and made up facts! We finished our final day in Dublin with a visit to the massive Guinness storehouse with Claire & Shaun and learnt about the finely-tuned process of producing Guinness before smashing some final Guinness pints overlooking the city of Dublin from the 7th story 360-view sky bar!

A not-so-fun end to our trip was the commute home, which began at 7pm on sunday night, ended at 2:25am in the morning, and included 1 plane,4 buses, and a cable car! But it was all worth it and we'd do it again in a second, as these kinds of fun trips away are the reason we've left everyone on the other side of the world!

See you all in a few weeks time!

Love Ant & Nat xoxoxo