However unfortunately things didn't go to plan. We never did get to see the musical because our flight had a huge delay. Not 1, 2, 3 hours. 9 hours! Yes, NINE hours! Looking back, I still don't quite know how we managed to kill that amount of time. Thank god we didn't have kids with us! We were flying with Ryanair (first and last time) - everything was a complete shambles but I won't go into too much detail (I'll leave that for the compensation file..).
We arrived at our hotel at a much later time of 11.30pm (as opposed to the 2.30pm we had originally anticipated!). Thankfully the hotel was absolutely gorgeous (thanks to my pickings) so we settled for the night in luxury.
The next day, after getting over our anger, we took it easy, and had lunch in the hotel bar and restaurant. I was in love with the setting. We overlooked onto the gardens, which had gentle water fountains and pretty lights twinkling everywhere, as well as some roaring fires to keep people warm (not that anyone was out there!). The inside was just as nice, and the food, even though we ordered simple food, was to die for.
We caught the tram into the main centre and had a mooch around. We found Temple Bar (lots of people told me to go here prior to our visit!) and did a lot of window shopping. Annoyingly I couldn't buy too much as we were on restricted weight limits due to only having cabin cases. This was rather frustrating but I soon got used to it. Late afternoon we headed back to the hotel in order to get ready for our booked evening meal/NYE.
We spruced ourselves up and headed back out to a restaurant called 'The Boxty House' on Temple Bar. This was a quirky little restaurant with a really good menu. After that we just had cocktails in other pubs around this area, saw in the new year then went back to our hotel. The Irish sure know how to party though! "Crying cockles and mussels alive alive-o" stayed with me for days afterwards!
The next day, feeling fresh as a daisy (thank God!) we chilled in the hotel before heading out to find somewhere that does afternoon tea. (For those that don't know, I have a tradition whereby every new place I visit I have to have afternoon tea if possible!). We discovered The Temple Hotel that did it, so spent a few hours devouring that! (Review to come soon!). We did a little more shopping (I was surprised how many shops were open on New Years Day!). It was a horrible blustery and rainy day so we jumped on a tram back and played games in the hotel room. Later on we headed back out to a restaurant I had previously researched and had read good things about - The Bank on College Green. The building was stunning and the food wasn't far off either. So glad we went!
Our final day came - we checked out of our gorgeous hotel and headed back into the centre. We stopped for breakfast at a place called Flanagans - a friend had recommended this to us but we didn't think great things to it. After this, we braved the cold weather and took a last minute sight-seeing tour on one of Dublin's open-topped buses before having to go to the airport. Despite the cold, I really enjoyed this tour. It allowed you to see parts of Dublin that you wouldn't have seen otherwise, going out of the city centre and learning about their history, as well as a few famous authors, seeing the Prime Ministers house, the famous Guinness Factory etc. I really enjoyed it!
Although we had a bad start to the trip, it was nice to have a slow-paced chill out break. Usually our breaks are always so fast paced and tiring, so it made a change to not feel under pressure to get everything done within a few days.
We would definitely revisit Dublin again, but in the warmer months! It had such a nice atmosphere to it and the Irish are lovely friendly people!
What did you do over New Year?
Have you been to Dublin before?
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