When I first read about the free walking tours that SANDEMANs NewEurope offers, I was a little apprehensive.

My first thought was “How good could a FREE tour actually be?”. It was just one of those offers that simply sounded too good to be true. To our surprise, the SANDEMANs New Dublin tour was worth every minute of the almost four hours that we spent scouring through some of Dublin’s most famous sights.

Where it Starts:

Between Dublin Castle and City Hall on Dame Street [Map]. Just be sure to look out for the tour guides in the RED shirts.

Meeting Times:

11AM and 1PM

What you’ll see:

Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn, Dublin’s Medieval Walls, Viking Remains, Norman Dublin, Georgian Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, The National Library, Famous Writers, Temple Bar, U2- Origins of the rock legend, Ha’Penny Bridge, Spire of Dublin, City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen’s Green, 1916 Easter Rising and more!

Cost:

FREE! Although, if you truly enjoyed this tour (which I guarantee you will), then be sure to tip your guide what ever you can afford to. These guides rely on their tips. In our personal experience, our guide was excellent and we loved the fact that he intertwined humor into the tour which made the history a bit more interesting.

The SANDEMANs New Dublin Tour is described as “A FREE 3 hour tour we wind down the quiet streets and bound through bustling boulevards, uncovering the hidden sites as well as the famous ones.” and in my opinion, it was that and more!

Guinness Storehouse

The St. James’s Gate Brewery opened up on December 31, 1759 after its founder Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the four-acre property for a laughable annual rent of £45 (approx. $70 USD).

Although the tour of the Guinness Storehouse is a little pricey for the budget minded traveler ($18.25 USD) it’s definitely a MUST see in my book. In fact, the Guinness Storehouse is the No. 1 most visited attraction in all of Ireland since opening in 2000.

Inside the Guinness Storehouse is seven whole floors full of history, facts about the ingredients, and information on how Guinness is made. You’ll even get to learn about the man they call the “fifth ingredient”, Arthur Guinness himself .

Once you’ve had enough of the history and you’ve explored all to be seen in the Storehouse, the tour points you to it’s seventh and final floor. The Gravity Bar.

Conveniently located at the top of the Guinness Storehouse with a breathtaking 360-degree view of the city of Dublin. That’s not all! It’s now time for all of you Guinness lovers to sit back, relax and sip on your complimentary pint of Guinness as you ponder what your favorite part of your visit to Ireland has been so far… Hmm? I wonder?

Cost:

€ 13.50 – Adults / ($18.25 USD)
€ 11.00 – Student / ($14.85 USD)
*Receive a 10% discount off adult admission – only available if you book online.

Temple Bar

Not so much the pub itself, but the area around it. Just a short walk over the Hay’penny bridge, through an alley of sorts and there lies Temple Bar. An area known for it’s late night revelers, and overly crowded pubs, but to me Temple Bar is much more than that.

When in Dublin I enjoy spending a part of my day strolling through some of Temple Bar’s seemingly endless amount of cobblestone streets that are lined with shops, galleries, restaurants, cafes, beggars and street musicians with dreams of one day becoming as famous as Dublin’s most celebrated rock band, U2. The Temple Bar area is also a great place to people watch. If that’s your thing, you’ll probably end up spending the better half of your day here.

Tip: Head over to the Bad Ass Cafe if you’re up for some good pizza!

If you want to check out the Temple Bar nightlife, feel free! Just know that you’ll need two things before you head out for your night on the town. Common sense, and MONEY! You’ll be home early if you think that you’ll only spend $50USD. Nightlife in Dublin can be VERY EXPENSIVE!

Fact: The Temple Bar has won the title of Irish Music Pub of the Year each and every year since 2002, (2002-2009).

You can always count on some great traditional Irish music being played in Temple Bar. Be aware, the Temple Bar Pub and the area itself is very touristy so you’ll need to keep your eye out for pickpockets. Otherwise, enjoy yourself!

St. Stephen’s Green

This beautiful public park was built as a gift to the people of Dublin from the Guinness family in the 19th century. Adjacent to one of Dublin’s most popular shopping streets (Grafton St), St. Stephen’s Green is a place that you could easily spend the better half of your day. On a sunny day during the summer months you’ll find that St. Stephen’s Green is packed with all of the Irish that are trying to take advantage of a day without rain! Most tend to either walk the park, lay out in the sun or bring a lunch and have a nice picnic while being surrounded by a plethora of flowers, trees and lush green grass. St. Stephen’s Green also has a pond that you can bring the kids to feed the ducks.

Have you been to Dublin? If so, feel free to leave a comment below about you favorite things to do and see!

My uncle and I headed into the city to run some errands for my grandmother who lives one block from O’Connell Street in Dublin City Center. Quite convenient huh? As we were walking down to the bank we walked by this statue of a hand that is behind these tall black gates that are usually locked.

I’ve walked past this statue about 3 million times at this point and each and every time I walk by it I think to myself… I wish I could just run in there real quick and jump up into the hand for a photo.

The first time that I walked by a few weeks ago the gates were open but unfortunately I didn’t have anybody with me to take the photo. But today I was in luck! Not only were the gates open, but my uncle was with me so he could be the designated photographer. Nice!

“The Hand” statue is my little secret because it’s not easy to find. It’s not smack dab in the middle of the city, and most visitors to Dublin have probably never seen it. It’s one of the many cool things to see during your stay in Dublin, but maybe I’ll keep it secret and we’ll see if you can find it on your own! That makes it more fun, doesn’t it?

Afterwards I headed down O’Connell Street past the G.P.O and over to the Ha’Penny bridge to snap a few photos while the weather was good. Good weather here lately is any day that it’s not raining! It had been very overcast for most of the day but hey, at least it’s not raining!

I crossed over the Ha’Penny towards Temple Bar where I spent a while listening to some buskers (street performers) play their music and although it’s somewhat rare to hear actual quality music, a few of these guys were great!

I have to say, there’s nothing better than coming down to Temple Bar on a nice day when everyone is out and the buskers are on every corner. It’s amazing to see some of these musicians with so much talent, yet most of them will never be discovered.

Until next time…

This month marks 23 years since I officially tried my first Guinness! Or, if you count shoving your hand into the head of a Guinness and licking it off of your hands then I guess that works too.

About a year ago I was rummaging through the trillions of photos that my mother has lying around in shoe boxes in our house and I came across this photograph, and what a great one it is!

All that we wished for this morning was that it wouldn’t be raining. It had been raining buckets all night and it even kept Liz up at times, that’s how hard it was coming down. Me? A tornado could have picked up the house and threw it down the street and I’d still be snoozing so I definitely didn’t hear any rain last night.

We headed downstairs and had some breakfast and as we were eating the skies completely opened up to blue skies, something Ireland hasn’t seen in a while now. It’s been raining, and raining, and raining here. When it hasn’t been raining, it’s been really overcast during the day. Depressing, right?

As soon as the skies opened up, it woke us right up! We finished up our breakfast and headed upstairs to get dressed so that we could take advantage of this great weather.

Once we got dressed and ready my uncle Richie took us into town and dropped us off at O’Connell Street in Dublin City Center. I took Liz for a nice tour around the city and finally got the chance to prove to her that Dublin really is a beautiful city when the weather is right. We took a stroll down Henry Street and stopped at a few cool little markets where Liz found herself a nice new ring.

Afterwards we headed down to the Haypenny Bridge where we took a couple photos before heading across the River Liffey to Temple Bar.

Of course we had to make a quick stop for some photos at the Wall of Fame in Dublin!

We strolled down Grafton Street, and made a big loop all the way back around to O’Connell Street where we stopped off into my grandmothers house while waiting for my uncle to pick us up again.

Last night we had made dinner reservations for 8PM tonight at Lil’ Caesar’s (no not the pizza joint), a great Italian restaurant located right across from Trinity College here in Dublin. Myself, Liz, and both of my aunt’s and uncle’s came along. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to get everyone together again especially for Liz’s last night in Ireland.

After a great dinner at Lil’ Caesar’s Liz & I headed out for one last hurrah in Dublin. We made our own little pub crawl where we had one drink in each pub as we sang and danced the night away. The first pub we stopped at was Temple Bar, which is an absolute must if you’re ever in Dublin. I couldn’t let her leave Ireland without having a drink in Temple Bar. It was a little crowded as usual, but what a great atmosphere it had!

After Temple Bar we headed over to the Quay’s Bar where we sang along to a live act that was going on inside.

The performer was pretty good and as soon as we finished our drink his set had just about finished so we headed across the street to the Oliver St. John Gogarty Pub!

Once again the place was packed, but that should be expected on a Saturday night in Dublin. We couldn’t stop laughing at some of the outfits that people were wearing inside. All of the bachelor and bachelorette parties were going on in town so there were men and women dressed up as everything that you can think of from schoolgirls, to spiderman, to catwoman, to a man dressed as a woman. It was crazy!

We headed over to our last pub night called the Gin Palace which is located on the other side of the River Liffey. It’s a nice place to relax and chill out without dealing with the crazy crowds of the Temple Bar area. We had one last drink there before catching a taxi back home at around 1:00AM.

All in all the weather was beautiful today, our tour of Dublin was lots of fun, our dinner at Lil’ Caesar’s was really good, and our night out on the town was so much fun! I think it made for a great last day in Ireland for Liz and I’m really happy that I was able to show her the sunny side of Dublin! Let’s just hope that the weather stays like this now!

Friday [6/27/08]:

This morning was an early one. We were up at 5:30AM to pack some last minute things before taking the 7:10AM train from Dublin (Heuston Station) to Galway for the weekend. We purchased the train tickets the day before so it was nice to not have to wait in line for tickets the morning of the train. Shockingly enough a round trip train ticket from Dublin to Galway set us back 47 Euro each (approx. $75 USD each). That makes for a pretty expensive weekend already!

Once we grabbed some seats for ourselves the train we both threw on our iPod’s and shut our eyes while the train whisked us off to Galway. Just as we passed the last stop before our final destination we heard a loud bang as we crossed a railroad crossing. Within a couple of minutes we were stopped dead on the tracks with no train stations in sight. Since we were seated in the last train car I ran to the back of the train to take a look out of the windows. Down the tracks in the distance I could see something but it was hardly visible due to the fog. Within ten minutes the conductor came on apologizing for the delay and that there was a minor accident on our rail. After about a half hour we found out that our train actually clipped a car while passing through a railroad crossing. Pretty scary! Our train was scheduled to arrive in Galway at 10:00AM but we ended up spending about an extra hour or so sitting on the tracks so we didn’t end up arriving in Galway until about quarter past eleven.

As we arrived my uncle was there to pick us up. We jumped in the car and headed off to his house in Ballinistack where we hung out, chatted and had a great traditional irish breakfast that my aunt cooked for us. After spending a few hours there we headed off to my cousin Michelle’s apartment which is located about five or ten minutes drive from Galway city center. Once we arrived Liz and I headed up for a nap because we had been up since 5AM this morning and we knew that we’d have a long night ahead of us. Friday and Saturday nights in Galway usually end up in starting to drink at around 7 or 8PM, heading out to the bars around midnight and staying out until about 3 or 4AM. I warned Liz ahead of time!

After our nap we woke up and got dressed for the night. We headed downstairs to the living room where my cousin Michelle, and Colin were hanging out. They picked up some liquor so we had a few drinks before we headed out for the night to a bar called the Rosheen? It was packed! You could hardly move in the place. Colin and Michelle insisted on buying us round after round of drinks. Before we knew it we had put down Vodka Redbulls, Jagerbombs, Rum and Cokes and more. I don’t know how they do it!

After the Rosheen we stopped into a chipper (take out restaurant that sells fries, and other fast food) and grabbed ourselves some of the worst french fries that Liz and I had ever experienced in our lives. Colin insisted that we try his favorite type of fries which were called Garlic Cheese Chips. Once we got home and opened the box we were horrified. They were french fries that were covered with cheese and garlic mayonnaise. YUCK! Needless to say we ended up having a few before handing them over to Colin.

We headed to bed around 3:30AM and didn’t wake until 11:30 the next morning. Neither Liz or I are used to this craziness back home!

Saturday [6/28/08]:

This morning Michelle, Colin, Liz and I headed into town to grab some lunch because breakfast was far over at this point. Colin decided to take us to an Italian restaurant called Milano’s in Galway and what a great choice it was. We had a great meal there before heading off to Connemara for the day.

Michelle was nice enough to take us along in her car down to a town called Roundstone.

On the way there was much scenery to be seen. The ride was filled with green hills, windy roads, rivers, ravines and random sheep roaming the streets.

At one point we jumped out of the car to try to take a picture with the sheep but they ran off quickly. It didn’t help that Liz was trying to call them by screaming BAHHHHHHHHHHHH over and over either. We laughed and laughed on the rest of our way to Roundstone.

Once we got to the tiny town of Roundstone we stopped into a pub called Ryan’s where we had a few sodas and cappuccino’s.

The word around town was that Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson were actually in town shooting a movie. We weren’t sure how true it was until we overheard someone talking about Owen Wilson being in a little book store that was right next to the pub that we were sitting at. Liz and I were really curious so we headed down to this closet sized book store. In the photo below you can barely see a person sitting in a chair through the door way, that’s Owen Wilson himself. As you can tell, Liz made a valiant effort on this one to take a quick paparazzi-like photo of him.

As soon as we walked in Owen Wilson was right in front of us. He looked up quickly and then proceeded to get back to what ever he was reading. Liz and I pretty much just acted like we were looking at books while we scooted by Owen a couple times. We thought about asking him for a picture but decided we wouldn’t bother him. It was a pretty cool experience, although I would have died to have the opportunity to meet my girl Jennifer Anniston! Within 25 minutes or so Owen headed off with a few people and our day in Roundstone pretty much ended too.

We headed back to my cousins place where we once again took a nap so that we could rest up before a big night out in the city. When we awoke Michelle and Colin were downstairs with a few friends. We hung out and had some drinks and some food while laughing, joking, and watching some really funny video clips on YouTube.

At around midnight we headed out to Halo a very popular nightclub in Galway. So popular that we waited about 20 minutes in line to get in before we were turned away due to the club being full to capacity. The night wasn’t over just yet though. We all headed off to a club called Karma which is located just down the street from Halo. Once we entered you could feel the heat wave from all of the bodies in the place. It was so packed that everyone was stepping on each other and you would simply expect to be pushed around every few seconds or so. We had a lot of fun and danced the night away until about 2:30AM.

After Karma we headed to Supermac’s where we grabbed some food before getting a taxi back to Michelle’s apartment.

Sunday [6/29/08]:

This morning we woke up around 11:00AM and Michelle dropped Liz and I down to the Galway train station so that we could catch the 1:20PM train back to Dublin. We took the earlier train because we wanted to get back to Dublin to pack for our trip to Spain tomorrow afternoon. Plus the EuroCup Final football match between Spain and Germany was on so I wanted to get back, relax and watch the game.

After our 3 hour train ride back to Dublin we finally arrived back home to my uncles house. We were relieved and starving! My aunt was nice enough to cook us a chicken for when we got back. We got right to it, and chomped on half of it before filling our stomachs. We did some last minute laundry and Liz headed up to bed for a nap while I worked on my website for a bit. As I was working I was also watching the EuroCup Final football match between Spain and Germany and Spain WON! I have a feeling Spain is going to be one fun place over these next few days and we’re going to be right in the middle of it! I can’t wait for the fun, and the sun in Alicante. Off to Spain tomorrow afternoon, will post again soon…

Adios!

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Day 7:

This morning we slept in quite late after spending most of our day yesterday in the blazing hot sun. We were both so tired! We woke up had some breakfast and simply planned on just relaxing and spending our day down at the water at Buza.

We walked down to Buza around noon time and the weather was pretty much the same as it has been for the last week now. Sunny, hot, and beautiful! We jumped into the water as soon as we got there, and as you’ll see below I jumped from the highest cliff at Buza right off the bat. Thanks to Liz for the amazing photography skills! This is one of the craziest photos that I’ve seen in a while!

We stayed at Buza and swam around for a couple hours before heading back to the apartment. It got a little too hot and we had basically just spent a straight week in the sun so we were sort of tired of it at this point. We headed back to our beautiful air conditioned apartment and froze for a few hours while we cooked dinner and chatted about how great our vacation had been so far.

Later on we headed down to Old Town for one last gelato. We strolled the streets of Dubrovnik while we inhaled our gelati. After doing a bit of walking around town we headed home and called it a night. Tomorrow we’ll wake up early to make sure that we have everything packed for our flight back to Dublin, Ireland!

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Day 8:

This morning we woke up around 8:45AM to get all of our stuff together and make sure that the apartment was in the same state as when we first arrived. We did most of the cleaning and most of our packing yesterday evening but still had a few things to do before our flight back to Dublin.

The owner of the apartment picked us up at 10:30AM and took us straight to the airport for our 12:40PM flight to Dublin. We hung out in the airport for a while and had a sandwich before we boarded the plane. Unfortunately we were sitting on the runway for about twenty minutes longer that we should have been due to some air restrictions but finally around 1:15PM we took off and we were on our way.

We landed in Dublin around 3:15PM and as much as we were sad about leaving Dubrovnik, we were both excited about getting back to Dublin. Even I was excited because I’ve been on the road for three weeks now and sometimes it’s just nice to get back to your home base even if it’s only for a few days.

Liz is heading back home to the states on July 6th so we’ve tried our best to jam pack as much as possible into this next coming week and a half. We’re spending tonight and tomorrow in Dublin and then on Friday we will head to the west coast of Ireland to Galway where we will meet up with some of my family and friends. On Sunday we’ll leave Galway and travel back to Dublin to spend the night before our flight to Alicante, Spain on Monday June 30th. We’ll be staying in Alicante, Spain until Friday July 4th.

All in all, we’ve had a great time so far. Croatia is a place not to be missed! Dubrovnik was one of my favorite cities so far. Now I’ll be showing Liz around Dublin and Galway for the next few days before we head back to another one of my favorites Alicante, Spain!

Til next time…

This past Sunday I flew into Dublin from Amsterdam fresh off of a three week, ten country trip across Europe. The last three days here in Dublin have been full of nothing but rest and relaxation before I head off for another three weeks of traveling the south of Italy, and Croatia. These past few days have given me plenty of time to unpack, get all of my laundry done, and repack all of my gear for another few weeks.

Tomorrow I have an early morning flight to Naples, Italy from Dublin. I’ll be staying at a beautiful hotel in Sorrento for five nights called the Grand Hotel La Pace. After Sorrento, I head off on my own to a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea called Ischia for four nights. I’ll be staying in a hostel there called the Ring Hostel. By the looks of the website, and the reviews it seems like it should be a lot of fun!

After spending four nights in Ischia, I board the ferry back to Naples to catch a bus to Bari, a port city on the east coast of Italy. I’ll be staying in Bari with Marina a fellow CouchSurfer/Hospitality Club Member who has been planning to host me for a couple of months now. I’m excited to see yet another part of Italy that I haven’t been to yet. Bari will also most likely be the last city that I visit in Italy on my trip to Europe. At this point I will have covered the following cities in Italy: (Verona, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompei, Capri, Ischia, Bari and maybe even few more!)

From Bari I will be cruising across the Adriatic Sea on a ferry on the 17th of June. I’ll arrive in Dubrovnik, Croatia on the 18th of June where I will meet up with Liz who will be flying in from the States to hang out and vacation with me! I can’t wait! She will be the first person that has come to visit me from the States since I’ve been here and it’s going to be such a good time! We’ll be spending a week overlooking the Adriatic Sea, and the Old Town of Dubrovnik from the balcony of our apartment that lies up on the foothills of the city.

On June 25th, Liz and I will be flying back to Dublin and I’ll spend a day or two showing her around the city before we head over to Galway, Ireland to hang out with my cousin for the weekend. We’ll probably spend two nights down in Galway before heading back to Dublin and we’re thinking about flying to Spain for a few days before she heads back to the States on July 6th. What a vacation this will be for her, and me of course!

This whole trip has been absolutely amazing so far and I cannot wait to see what is in store for me next. I feel like I’m addicted to traveling now. I’ve been asked many times if I’m sick of traveling yet, and the answer is definitely not! I constantly want to be gone. It’s nice to have these couple of days off to do laundry and relax, but I feel like I can’t sit still for too long. After I get back from these next three weeks of traveling, I will have had three days off in 6 weeks of straight traveling. It’s unbelievable! I’m having the time of my life over here and I have so much more traveling ahead of me…

—

Just a few shout outs real quick…

What’s up to… Liz, Eddie, Mark, Veracka, Will, Gonatas, Kyle G, O’brien, Bruno, Juliana, Ryan D, V, Jenna, Aislyn, Anna K, Aiste, Shawna, Mel, Mom, Dad, Grams, Robyn, Kev, Mary and everyone else out there that still keeps in touch with me. You know who you are! Miss you all, and I’ll see you all soon.

If there’s anyone else that I missed just know that it’s not intentional!

Today I headed over to Kilmainham Gaol, Ireland’s most infamous former prison now turned museum. Kilmainham operated as a prison for over 130 years as it was built in 1796, and was abandoned in 1926. It stands today as one of the largest unoccupied Gaols in Europe.

The conditions of Kilmainham were by far the worst that I’ve ever heard of. I know, most would say that no conditions are good when you’re in prison, but these conditions were absolutely horrendous! When Kilmainham was first built there was no glass in the windows, the windows were left wide open to the frozen winds and rain. Kilmainham Gaol consisted of 112 prison cells built to hold 1 inmate each. At Kilmainham’s worst the 112 cells held over 9,000 inmates!

The first stop along the tour through Kilmainham was the Prison Chapel which was pretty interesting. We were shown an audio/visual tour in the Chapel and it included some photos of former inmates and Irish rebels and also some footage from the aftermath of the 1916 Rising in Dublin City Center. Next stop was to the oldest part of Kilmainham a small hall with about 10 prison cells with a lot of history behind them. After that we walked outside into the prison walls and saw where the executions happened, it was pretty eerie!

My trip to Kilmainham Gaol was great. The price of the guided tour was great and most definitely worth the 6.50 Euro ticket price. The tour group that I joined was fairly large, probably about 25-30 people and the guide herself was very knowledgeable.

I would have to say that this is one of my favorite tours that I’ve taken in Dublin so far. The only other thing that would compare to todays trip to Kilmainham would be the Guinness Storehouse Tour which is also a must see!

There is just so much history to be learned at Kilmainham and I would classify it as another must see on your to do list if you visit Ireland!

Click here for more information on Kilmainham Gaol.