Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly
Dublin Ireland is an amazing city. Some people will laugh at those bus tours that take you around a city with a hop on hop off format. I swear by them. It’s one of the best ways to see all of the tourist type parts of a city. One reason this is so great is because sometimes tourist sites are not always easy to get to or in a great area of town. Plus tours like this give you an idea of the layout of an area while letting you see what you want to see the most. Dublin is no exception, their bus tour lets you visit both the Guinness Museum and visitors’ center whose tour appropriately ends in a bar or if you’re interested in something harder you could go with the Smithfield Whisky tour.
If you aren’t a drinker at all, you could visit a Museum or two or stop at Trinity College to view the book of Kells or slip over to Temple Bar from there to lift a pint in one of the many pubs and restaurants. Or if you’re like me, you can slip into an audition for Ireland’s next pop music divas and lie your way through the first round only to realize that at nearly 27 years of age you’ll never be able to pass as 18. Who knows, maybe you’ll be more successful than I was. After all, Dublin is a city of magic.
Except for the more far flung sites that were the reason I recommended taking the bus tour first since it gives you an overview. The city is really a very walkable city. This is because, at its heart, Dublin is a people’s city and the best way to see it is to be right in the middle of those people. As cosmopolitan as London or New York, you’ll hear many languages spoken with many voices. Just being out in the throngs make you feel alive.
Maybe you’ll stop in at the O’Connell Street Post Office and wonder for a moment what the holes are in the façade? These small holes are actually bullet holes form the Easter Rebellion in 1916. To an American whose own country’s war for freedom from the Brits was so long ago it is almost like revisiting your own past. It will touch you; this sign of Ireland’s more recent fight for independence, a fight some Irish will tell you was only half won. Ireland’s fight for freedom is still noticeable in her music. Whether you’re listening to an older band like The Clancy Bros. or an Irish Band punk band like Flogging Molly, who currently reside in LA, you hear both a love of country and yearning for something… If you’re lucky enough to step in to a pub on the right night, maybe you’ll find your own band like I did with the Three Toms, they play traditional Irish music with an influence of Johnny Cash.
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Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly
