The fastest growing city in the world...

...because it's Dublin everyday (HAHAHAHAHAHA sorry ;-) ) this is a 2 for 1 post you’ll find out why... read on

After an 18month travel hiatus we had decided we wanted to go away for our 5th anniversary. We needed a break for wall papering, painting, knocking walls down etc etc and a deal came up on Groupoon - flights and hotel - for Dublin 14th - 17th January so I boooked it. A few things - in hindsight I wouldn't do this again. The flights they booked us on got us in really late and had us coming home really early and to change the flights cost a fair amount - had we just booked those flights with Ryanair to start with it would've cost a lot less! The hotel was fine though.

We were up at 4:30!!! I was so glad I had bought Carl an espresso machine for Christmas!

we drove the 45 mins to Bristol Airport where we checked in and waited, and waited... Due to the snow our flight ended up being delayed

yup the only one so we assumed the weather was worse over there

Huzzah!

On arrival I had prebooked a bus transfer to the city which we caught and then walked to our hotel for check in.

We were staying at the Belvedere hotel and it was nice. the room was a little run down and carpet a little grubby but it was clean otherwise and the room was large and in a good location.

We then headed out for a walk which mostly went walk - refreshment - walk - refreshment with music- walk - refreshment with music etc it was a chilled out sightseeing day

It was a relaxed day with lots of Guinness and lots of live music. After a long day we decided on a fairly early night.

the 15th was much the same and included a visit to the castle and dinner at...

... Hard rock of course!!

16th was our anniversary and for this day I had prebooked a few things... first up was a morning tour of the Guinness museum where we also had lunch

There you can see the backside of water (Disney joke ;-) )

from there we walked to Jameson

Would highly recommend a visit to Jameson, even if you don‘t do the tour the bar is nice for a drink or 2.

That evening we went back to the Temple bar area where we had some drinks and shared some plates of food

The following day we had Eddie rockets for lunch

And as it was so cold we ended up going to the cinema to watch American Sniper before heading back to the airport.

It was a short visit and it doesn't seem like we did much but we loved it. The City has a great vibe and we couldn't wait to come back.....

......Well dear readers, you don't have to wait long because within a week of being home we had booked to go again with our usual travel companions - Gav and Suze!!!! Yey.

This was booked for the Easter bank holiday weekend and after some searching we had decided to book a holiday rental through homeaway.co.uk.

The trip was 21:10 flight from Bristol Thur 2nd April - 14:50 flight Monday 6th. Due to our late arrival we hadn’t to give their agent a 20euro late arrival fee which we were not made aware of at the time of booking which was disappointing. We fitness the bus to the city centre then walked to the apartment which was a little further out today. I think we just chilled then went to bed ready or our first full day.

A couple of our apartment

The plan for today was to visit the Kilmainham Gaol before having a general wander and some drinks

but we hit a stumbling block

Uh huh!!! something we didn't know before we came is that it is impossible to buy alcohol on Good Friday as it is a Catholic holiday. not in pubs, not in shops - should have bought something at the airport! I have a feeling that this was lifted the following year but don't quote me on that.

We had our wander but with coffees and ice creams instead

We also did some shopping before heading back to the apartment where we tried to get a netflix link up..

See what no beers does??? (joking we were all happy enough I think it's concentration ;-) )

I'm not entirely sure what we did this evening but I have a feeling we bought some food from M&S downstairs and chilled in the apartment.

The Saturday Gav and Suze went to the Guinness experience and as we had recently done that we had a lie in then went for a walk

and a coffee

before meeting back up with them

We meandered through town stopping for refreshments making our way to Jameson. It was very buys so they couldn;t get on the tour so instead they opted for a whisky tasting whilst I tried a beer made in jameson barrelss

We went to a few more bars and for dinner found a smokehouse where Carl and Gav shared a dustbin lid of food

The following day started at the castle and was another day of wandering around seeing the sights and enjoying the atmosphere especially all the live music in the bars

and went to TGI for a late lunch

That evening we made friends with a couple form Belfast

On the was home we got some Subway which Gav swore we didn't have...

Carl and Gav were messing around as per usual so Suze had to separate them (Children!) seems Carl found it hilarious though.

The following day was a slow start, we checked out then strolled around the town, they had a fair and some exhibitions about the Easter uprising.

Then it was time for our coach back to the airport and the end of another great weekend in Dublin. There isn't much to do/see in Dublin but it is a great city to visit for a chilled weekend away there is a great vibe. It's not cheap with pints being around 5-6 euros.

Experience it at least once ;-)