Dublin

So today I explored Dublin. After a very nice Irish breakfast that included potatoes and black pudding I set out to sort my phone and transport. I’m very close to the main street in Dublin and easily walked to buy a public transport card as well as get an Irish sim for my phone. I then made my way to St Stephen’s Green, a Victorian park on the other side of the river. I was meeting someone I know through an internet forum to play Pokémon Go. I’m a fairly casual player of this game (it’s a game you play on your phone for those tha aren’t familiar with it). Today was a community day so we met up to play during this time. It was nice to meet Joan and have someone to play with.

Once we separated I took a hop on hop off bus to see more of Dublin. Unfortunately I didn’t see enough as I was somehow hit on the head by a tree branch as we drove under some trees. I’m still not sure how it happened. I was sitting upstairs at the back so there was no roof. We drove under some trees and some branches hit the roof but I didn’t actually see what hit me. It hurt. Fortunately though it was fairly minor, no bleeding and more of a shock than anything else. The man sitting in front of me was a doctor and said he didn’t think it was serious all the while wanting to pour cold water on my head. Someone else went and told the driver. To make everyone happy I went and sat inside and to be honest it was better because it it was warm, unlike upstairs which was very cold.
I continued on the bus until the bus was held up and diverted (probably due to a protest over affordable housing). We were near the Temple Bar area so I got off to take a look at the area. It is full of pubs and lots of people. I went into a pub but it was full so went next door to an Irish restaurant. My fears of it being overpriced tourist fare were unfounded and I had a lovely bowl of soup.
I then went up to the Molly Malone statue and my phone died. I decided the best way to find my way back to the hotel was to get back on the hop on hop off bus as it stopped around the corner from the hotel. I’m glad I did even though I was redoing a section because this time we had the recorded commentary. On the first bus we had live commentary and it was very hard to listen to. It was also good to listen and look without worrying about taking photos.
After a couple of false starts I found my way back to the hotel.
A good day if cold. My head is fine now.Read more