Strangers are friends you haven't yet met

Ireland was intoxicating. The more time we spent here, the more charming it became. It's home to some of the friendliest people on earth, I think. Whiffs of beer and good food fill the streets which are lined with cute shops and pubs. If you stay up long enough for the nightlife, the pubs are filled with the sounds of traditional Irish musical charm. The musicians keep a steady buzz and visitors cheerily tap their feet and sing along. The wood floors are smooth and slick from so many years of foot-tapping! We've found that you become part of the pub family in no time at all. They have signs posted reading - "Strangers are friends you haven't yet met." The bar keep is there to talk! But you have to pay careful attention because the chatty Irish speak so quickly that the words start to run together. Bars are named O'Neils, O'Briens, O'Connells, O'Flanegans, O'Donaghues...you get the point.

We spent 3 days in Dublin sightseeing and just enjoying the stress free atmosphere. Our first evening, we toured the Guinness Brewery. You can smell the hops and malt from the beer from blocks away. The next day, we spent the afternoon seeing Christ Church, Trinity College, O'Connell Street, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the Custom House and the downtown port area on the river. In the evening, we got fish and chips from Leo Burdock's - supposedly the oldest fish and chips joint in Ireland. It's take out only and comes in a paper bag. It was pretty good!

That evening we did a sort of pseudo pub crawl around Dublin. We liked each pub too much to truly do a pub crawl, so we stayed longer at each and chatted with the bar tender. We ended up only making it to 3 pubs - Porterhouse, O'Neils and Peader Kearney's. Each was quite unique and a lot of fun!

We day-tripped to Kilkenny on our final day there which was kind of a quaint Irish town outside of Dublin. We pretty much spent the day just walking around and enjoying the town. They have about 8 cathedrals and 80 pubs! Haha. Typical Ireland we think! We went through Smithwick Brewery and learned a lot about the history of Kilkenny and of Ireland from the bar keep there.

All in all, we had an incredible time in Ireland. Add it to the list of a place to return to and spend a great deal more time exploring further into the country.