Downing A Pint – Or Two In Dublin

Chas Makes Final Stop On Journey

Editor’s note: Welcome back to the fourth and final installment in a series of travel articles by Chas Chappell, a senior at Washington and Lee University. As we explained when we published the first story Sept. 4, Chas attended Oxford University for six weeks this summer to study English. As a budding travel writer, he also took time to write about some of his experiences as he explored several other countries in Europe on a budget. He has also produced videos to go along with the first three installments. You can find links to the videos with the previous stories posted on our website.

As my girlfriend Elizabeth and I took off from Rome, I wondered if the short stop we’d planned for Dublin would be worth it. There’s no way to properly explore the city with such little time – much less visit the gorgeous countryside Ireland is known for. In the end, my experience was well-worth it. I got a taste of Irish history and culture that I’m grateful for and makes me excited to return.

We touched down in Dublin at 2:30 in the afternoon. We had until 8:30 the next morning to pack in as much Dublin as we could. Our first move was to drop by our hotel, Destiny Student Ardee Point. At $80 a night, Destiny Student is more of a dormitory, which often offer better deals than most hotels. It offered easy access to the major sights of Dublin.

Our first stop was nearby Teeling Whiskey Distillery. Founded in 2015, Teeling specializes in Irish-style whiskey, offering tastings and tours of the distilling process. We didn’t stay too long because we wanted to visit one of Dublin’s most famous historical sites: St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The center of Catholic life in Ireland, St. Patrick’s dates back to the 12th century. Despite just having been to the Vatican, St. Patrick’s impressed me with some of the most beautiful stained glass murals I’ve ever seen. Stained glass in churches usually tells a story, and the panels in St. Patrick’s were especially clear. I sat and “read” about the life of St. Patrick, who baptized people in Ireland 1,500 years ago.

St. Patrick’s also has free masses with a full choir and organ. We sat and listened as we toured the back of the cathedral, which had memorials to roundtable knights and veterans of wars dating back hundreds of years. You can also see 1,000-year-old stones with crosses inscribed on them. Tickets to St. Patricks set you back about $13, and the experience is well worth the price.

It was a short walk from St. Patrick’s to Temple Bar, a neighborhood in Dublin known for – you guessed it — bars. It’s a lively part of town where the streets are filled with vendors and patrons enjoying an evening Guinness. But the star of the show in Temple Bar isn’t the drinks; it’s the live music.

The Merchant’s Arch was the first pub we stopped at. Fair warning that food and drinks are quite expensive in Temple Bar – almost $13 per pint of beer – but the ambiance almost makes up for it. Opened in 1821, the twostory pub wore its history on its sleeve, with plaques commemorating early adverts for Guinness and their own house craft ales. There was a live guitar player who sang a mix of Irish and American hits. We were excited to interact with some Irish folk, but the atmosphere wasn’t terribly chatty.

In search of some Irish to meet, we headed to Temple Bar’s namesake: THE Temple Bar, a beautiful and iconic pub in the heart of Dublin. Its bright red exterior gives way to a packed room where seats were a commodity. We got pints of Rockshore Irish Cider and fought our way to a good view of the night’s entertainment: the Buskin’ Bandits.

The fiddle-guitar duo gave one of the most electric performances I’ve ever seen. They did a medley of popular British, Irish and American music, racing from chorus to chorus and keeping the energy up. Of all the things I thought I’d be doing in Dublin, singing “Sweet Caroline” with a bunch of Irishmen wasn’t one of them.

Because seating’s so packed in Temple Bar, we ended up sharing our table with several different groups from around the world. First was a crew of Germans, who planned on renting a car and exploring the Irish countryside the next day. I told them about my prior adventures in Munich (read about them on the Lexington News-Gazette Website) and they told us about how much they loved visiting Las Vegas. Interesting pull, but I don’t judge.

There’s no drink minimum at Temple Bar, so in theory you can enjoy musical acts running well past midnight for free. We walked back to our hotel around 10 p.m. and Dublin was still teeming with nightlife. The well-lit streets allowed us to do one last bit of sightseeing along the way.

Our final stop of the night was Dublin Castle. Built in 1204, it served as the seat of British rule in Ireland for 700 years. It’s now a hub for Irish cultural ceremony, both ancient and post-independence from the UK. We didn’t have access to the inside as it was well-past closing time, but the walk alongside let us see into its main courtyard, gardens and central tower. Getting a normal tour costs $12 per person – well worth the stop if you’ve got more time than we did.

The next morning, we took a short walk through Dublin for one final bit of exploration before grabbing a cab to the airport. Dublin’s a great place to layover from, like Iceland and Portugal, because of its proximity to downtown, compact layout and its distance from the USA. They’ve also got a U.S. Customs Office in the airport with short lines, which means you won’t have to wait for hours in big lines back stateside.

“You guys bringing any alcohol back from Dublin?” the customs officer asked. “No sir,” we replied. “Why not,?” he said with a chuckle.

Boarding our homebound flight, I was excited to get back to everything I missed about the USA. Air-conditioning, ice in drinks – things I’d think about a lot on hot summer days in Oxford. On top of a checked bag, I also carried all the new, exciting, scary and rewarding experiences I’d found around Europe. Budget travel isn’t a breeze – sometimes it means relaxing days on the Lido beach, and sometimes it’s four hours in the Lufthansa service center. But through each installment of this series, I hope one message sticks: say yes to adventure – yes to challenge – and yes to Europe.