Recently I was able to spend a week in the beautiful western part of Ireland. Western Ireland can best be described as a combination of the greenest back country roads you’ve ever seen. But before I get to that let’s start at the beginning of my trip. I landed in Dublin which is the largest city in Ireland (1.8 million people). Ireland itself is a small island. The entire thing could basically fit over Indiana and it only has 4.6 million people. If you know anything about Ireland’s history you’ve probably heard of the famine and castles. Turns out that much of Ireland’s history is incredibly sad, but we’ll get to that later.

Dublin is a great city. It has a few very distinct districts in it – each of which has a different feel to it. The nice thing is that everything is in walking distance of everything else. From Dublin Castle you are only a 10-15 minute walk to just about everything worth seeing. Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the Guinness Factory are just a few of the many things in that range. (Fun fact: They are pretty sure that St. Patrick lived in England until he was kidnapped and held as a slave in Ireland. He escaped and went to Rome, only to come back as a priest.) Dublin feels a lot like an English city with lots of pubs and double decker tour buses. This makes sense because Ireland was ruled by the English for awhile, but Dublin was actually settled by Vikings as there weren’t any towns or cities in old Ireland.

So what should you see? Sights that are absolutely musts in Dublin are Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s also worth taking a walk down the River Liffey to see some of the old ships towards the sea. There are TONS of parks all over the city. Most of them are small, but a few make for nice area to relax in. Notice that I havent said the Guinness Factory yet… I could spend an entire post of this, but I’ll spare you. I’ll just say this: it is cool and offers a nice view of the city at the top, but if you’ve been to a tour of a distillery or beer factory in the US, you’ll be disappointed (especially if you’ve been to the Anheuser-Busch Tour). The “tour” is self guided and the entire places is set up more as a museum than a tour of any kind. You get one free beer and it costs $20 a person. Long story short: do it, but don’t have high expectations.

By far the best thing I did in Dublin was the Trinity College Library. It costs about $15 and you should purchase your tickets in advance online. This will save you a long wait, trust me. Why the Library? Well two reasons. Wait, three. Maybe four. Anyway, first it houses the Book of Kells. What a cool name. The Book of Kells is a super old bible that was hand written in a time when they took penmanship very seriously… I mean “it took us three generations, but we have finally finished it!” seriously. Then you head into the “Long Room” which if it doesn’t make you want to pick up a book and read, then you have no soul. Think Harry Potter meets Socrates. Located in this room is Brian Boru’s Harp. This is the iconic harp that you see on Ireland’s coat of arms – when it faces left. When it faces right, it is the trademark of Guinness and you’ll see it on all their bottles/glasses. You’ll be a little overrun with tourist at this point, but have a seat and enjoy the view for a bit. It is worth it before you return to civilization, aka the gift shop, where you can get the “I was there” t-shirt.

Dublin offers a great shopping district and has good places to eat all over the city. There are a number of museums that are free, but one that does cost money is “The Little Museum of Dublin.” True to its name, the museum is just a little old house where you can get a brief history of the city. Also, Dublinia, which will give you the history of the Vikings in the area.