An Irish Adventure

I am not an adventurous person in the slightest. I like my home comforts, my own things and my own bed. But, a couple of months ago, myself and my friend Sarah spontaneously booked a few days away in Dublin.

Okay, it wasn’t completely spontaneous. We had talked about it for a while. But it seemed like one of those things that we would say was a good idea, but never actually get round to doing. We went out for lunch one day and then went into the travel agency next door. Within about ten minutes we had booked and paid for our holiday.

Things didn’t go completely smoothly, as we missed our flight. I’d like to say there was a proper reason for this, but actually, Heathrow airport confused us and we thought we were closer to the boarding gate than we actually were. As punishment for our stupidity, the next couple of flights got cancelled.

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After getting up at five in the morning, we finally reached Dublin at five in the afternoon. But we had a lovely Irish taxi driver who picked us up from the airport. She gave us a bit of a tour of the city and gave us some tips on where the best places to visit are. She said that we would probably fall in love with Irish men and never go home – it sounded like a good idea!

Our hotel was amazing and right opposite the train station. We got the tram to the Guinness Factory and the Zoo. The city was really busy and the thing that surprised us was that there aren’t actually many Irish people in Dublin. We met many French, German, and Swedish people, and loads from the UK. It is a great area for tourism and we loved the live Irish music. It was such a friendly atmosphere and, unlike my usual clubbing areas, there was no one passed out or throwing their guts up on the street. The glamour of London, eh?

On the last night we sussed out a few clubs where Irish people like to go. I had been very good at pacing myself the whole holiday, but that night drinks were €2.50 and my self-control went out the window. We staggered into our hotel at 5am and only managed a few hours sleep before having to get up and check out. The next day we struggled to stay awake as we sat in Starbucks, reliving the bits of the night before that we could remember. Embarrassingly, I went through my receipts in my purse and discovered that I’d been buying beers roughly every twenty minutes!

I didn’t quite imitate this scene from PS I Love You, but one of the bands did play the song and it was amazing!

It was such a nice feeling to go somewhere a bit different but not too far away from home. It gave me an excuse to talk to new people and do new things. But perhaps that is something I should try to do anyway? I am not yet a mountain climbing, white water rafting, thrill seeker but I feel like I have ticked off one of those places I’ve always wanted to visit.

I’ve never thought that I was much of a city girl, as I hate the busy nature of it and seriously lack a sense of direction. But Dublin made me see things differently. It had such a friendly atmosphere. So, although I didn’t fall in love with an Irishman, I did fall in love with the place, and I definitely want to do a return trip in the future.

We all have our different levels of adventurousness, and I guess the more that you get out there and do the stuff that you want to do, the more you get a taste for it. When I’m old and people talk about places they want to visit, I want to just be able to casually drop in: ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been there’.

If you enjoyed this article, why not check out ‘A New Year, A New Adventure’ and ‘Step Out Of That Comfort Zone’?

Tags: adventure Ireland Joy mini break PS I Love You

Categories: Adventureland