The first day felt like a week. Even though our internal clock was in chaos due to jet-lag, we persevered in walking parts of Dublin and getting a small taste of the city. It’s not a huge city by any means, but it still feels very American. There are bright spots in the people and the pubs in particular, but overall, I’m not sure I want to return to Dublin.

One aspect of the city that does catch my heart is the presence of centuries old buildings amongst the hustle and bustle of our modern age. For instance, the Christ Church Cathedral. It’s beautiful, impressive, and long-standing.

And I’ll admit, there’s something captivating about European countries and their cities.

And it helps when wonderful things like this happen. At least with the sun setting around 4:30PM, you’re awake enough to see the moon rise over the River Liffey.

O’Connell Street became our home base.

Another fun part about traveling close to Christmas would be the Christmas markets that pop up everywhere. There are several in Dublin we’ve heard…the first here was rather small and a little disappointing. But we did meet a candy vendor who was from London but was Kurdish.

We found our way into The Celt on Talbot Street on our way back to Isaacs. (By the way, it’s an excellent hostel. Friendly staff and residents and also very clean.)

The Celt seemed to be very local and pretty chill.

However, The Celt’s menu was a little on the $$$ side, so we headed down Talbot Street to oShea’s. Our dinner consisted of bangers and mash and a roast beef sandwich…such large portions.