Dublin Round Two

On the first of November, I took a spontaneous trip to Dublin with Marlee, Kim and Maddie with the sole purpose of going to this church that Marlee had a connection with.

We got to Dublin Saturday and had all evening and the next morning to just explore and see what we run into. This kind of plan usually is a grand adventure or a total waste of time. Luckily, Dublin was popping with interesting happenings this Saturday afternoon. 

We left our hostel and ventured down O’Connell Street and heard commotion and singing going on further down the road. All of a sudden we found ourselves among thousands of people. Apparently November 1^st was the day for the city’s Anti-Water Charges Protest, or at least one of them. So that was a cool experience running into that commotion. 

We continued walking and went to the Temple Bar area. There are always people there and you never know what you are going to run into. On this day there happen to be a group of really happy drunken men having a great time! And this was at like 4pm…

Temple Bar is such a popular place and a must go to in Dublin.. Apparently haha I didn’t know that until I was there. It was cool because we got to see the bar during the day and then we went back at night to see the night seen of the bar. Definitely a touristy spot!! It was fun singing Irish songs with the crowd there though!

Sunday morning we took a free walking tour around Dublin. Our guide took us to Trinity College, the Temple Bar area and Dublin Castle. I had been to Trinity College and the Temple Bar before, but it was cool walking through both places again with a guide who knew all the inside information that I would have never learned otherwise! I also got to see the Castle. Turns out it was bombed way back and now there is only one of the four towers still standing. The tour continued to a couple other places, but Marlee and I had to leave early to make it to church.

It is interesting what is on the same row as the castle now... ancient to modern all in one!

So the whole reason I went to Dublin this weekend was to go to a church with Marlee. Her church back at home has a connection with one in the Dublin area and she didn’t want to go alone so I went with her and I’m glad I did! It was such a fun experience! We took the light rail way down to the south of the city. When we got off we were in a subdivision with no phone data or wifi to help us navigate. I did find a map before we left though so we weren’t going in completely blind, don’t worry! We walked through streets for about 15 minutes and couldn’t find anything close to a church service! Just as we were about to give up, Marlee chose to check this one path just in case, and as we walked down this little pathway, we heard singing… and really good singing at that. All of a sudden Marlee yelled, “It’s Church!!!!” She then started running toward the music. It was so fun! We entered this little building, I think it was a community center, and there was a group of about 20 people singing. It was really cool too because there were no instruments, but they sounded so good!! Marlee and I joined in the back row and immediately felt welcomed. Throughout the 3 hours we were there, people constantly came and introduced themselves and started talking with us. It was such a fun and comforting experience!