Long weekend in Dublin

If you're doing an OE in the UK it's almost a given that a visit to Dublin is on the cards at some stage. The budget airline Ryanair was having a sale and the offer was too good to turn down - return flights from Bournemouth for £20 each including fees and taxes.

We fly early on a Friday and enjoyed three days and nights plus Monday morning before coming home. Our hostel was a short five minute walk from the 'Knitting Needle' monument near the River Liffey (or as some locals call it 'The Stiffy by the Liffy'!). From there it's only another five to ten minute walk to the heart and soul of Dublin - The Temble Bar area.

Now there is actually a pub called The Temple Bar, which we visited twice, and it gets quite busy in the evenings but this is Dublin, the home of Guinness, and half the attraction of the city is it's drinking holes.

On the Saturday we did a tour of Croke Park - the home of Irish sport and in particular Hurling and Gaelic Football. These days you'll find international football matches and Six Nations rugby fixtures being played in front of the 82,500 capacity crowd but traditionally it's always been a stadium for Irish sports only.

The evening was spent back in Temple Bar trying out the different places lined along the old cobbled streets. We were fortunate enough that a Traditional Irish Music festival was on and at various times throughout the weekend you could get a taste of some Irish folk in any of the pubs dotted about the place.

On Sunday we did a day trip out of Dublin to Glendaloch and Wicklow with a small bus touring company. We ended up grabbing the last two seats in front of what was effectively a Ford transit van with seats! We didn't mind though and it did mean we were able to tackle some routes the bigger coaches can't handle.

We stopped off for a cup of coffee on the mountain range that overlooks Dublin before heading on to the small village of Laragh for some lunch and a pint. En route was a sample of rural Ireland - lakes, rivers, valleys, marshland and mountains. We were really lucky to have three days of brilliant spring-like weather and it made for a great day out. We finished the day in Glendaloch where you can walk around the remains of a monastery and further along to two lakes.

On Sunday evening we headed to one particular bar right by the river to check out some traditional Irish dancing. It was a pretty popular place and it did mean having to sit around drinking for a couple of hours to get a half decent spot (what a chore!) but it was an impressive show and worth it in the end.

Our flight home was mid afternoon on Monday so that left our final morning for one more thing...the Guinness factory! A trip to Dublin wouldn't be complete without a walk around the six storey building before finally pouring your own 'perfect pint' and enjoying it over some mint views of the city.