Dublin
The
Homeland, best weekend of the trip, and my favorite city we’ve been to!
Travel and the Stadiums:
I was so exciting to go to Ireland.
I am very Irish and it has always been a dream of mine to go to Ireland. Being
of Scottish, French and Irish ancestry, I have had the chance to visit Scotland
and France but never Ireland. Needless to say, I was very excited to visit
Dublin. We left Coventry at 5:30 am and arrived in Dublin around 9 am that
morning. Upon our arrival, we rode straight over to the famous Aviva stadium,
which is home to the Irish national football team and the Irish Rugby national
team. The stadium we saw was the new stadium, which was recently opened in May
of 2010, after they demolished the old stadium in 2007. The new stadium at its
max capacity manages to fill 51,700 fans in the stadium on a game day and
65,000 for concerts. The arena itself is beautiful. We have seen many arenas on
this trip and from my own experience; I say confidently that it was definitely
one of the top 2 stadiums we have seen. From the facilities to the tour guides,
everyone was friendly and accommodating. We got to listen to the stadium
manager, Martin Murphy, discuss the progression of the stadium and the
operations of the grounds. It was very interesting sitting there in the press
conference/media room listening to the manager discuss the ins and outs of the
stadium’s day to day projects as well as the operations on game day. He
described the rebuilding of the stadium and it costs them $410 million euros to
build the new, beautiful stadium. It turned into a government-sponsored project
quickly once they realized the communities demand for a new stadium in the same
great location. With the new and improved stadium, they now hold anywhere from
19.5 events annually between concerts and game events. Mr. Murphy explained how
customer driven the arena was with their new entrance and exit ways, the number
of police and staff on game days and have over 70 people working in the stadium
daily (compared to the 3 before). Their biggest objective in driving a stadium
completely customer based was that they wanted to make sure that the benefit of
seeing the game live outweighed watching the game at a pub or at home. With
this mantra as their drive, they have created a friendly environment and a
stadium more successful than ever before. They had an amazing presentation for
us, which was confidently delivered and was very persuasive in the stadium’s
capabilities. They were very accommodating to our group, letting us see their
conference rooms, media rooms and live studio sound stages. I think this was
best stadium we have visited yet.
On our second day in Dublin, we
walked from our hotel over to Croke Park. Croke Park is the famous stadium in
Dublin, known for being home to the Dublin Gaelic Football team and the Dublin
hurling team. We came to find quickly that the stadium is very proud of hold
these historic Irish traditional games. When we arrived, we first went on the
stadium’s Skyline Tour. The Skyline Tour was beautiful and exceeded all of my
expectations. The breath taking views of the city, the Irish Sea near by and
the rolling green hills in the distance, made for a picturesque tour of Dublin
from atop the stadium. Although the harsh wind and cold made for a freezing
hour or so, it was worth every moment to see the views we saw that day. Once
our tour came to an end, we returned our harnesses and returned to the stadium
tour. Our tour guy, filled with attitude, gave us great descriptions of the
history that was laid in the historical grounds of Croke Park. The stadium was
built back in 1884 and has since been the home to the Gaelic games and is the
headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). We were taken in to the
locker rooms of the grounds and got to see a bunch of the Gaelic team jerseys
that are involved in Gaelic football and hurling. Along with the museum and
exciting games, he went into depth about the history of the stadiums building
and story. I had heard of Bloody Sunday but I did not know that Croke Stadium
was where the sad event took place. It was shocking to hear that we were
sitting in the very same seats that were attacked that day back in 1920. One of
the things I also found to be interesting was that standing area of the arena
seating. In America, I do not think you would ever find a big time stadium with
designated standing seats where people would stand for hours to watch a game,
if they could go watch the game sitting down for free at a local pub. But
apparently in Europe this is a common accommodation to have in stadiums. The
“seats” are cheaper but you do have to stand for the duration of the game. The
standing zone itself looked big, but rather small in comparison to the stadium
as a whole. I would stunned to hear him say that it held about 15,000 people! I
thought it held at most 3,000 and that was a lot in my mind. Ultimately, the
stadium of Croke Park may not have proven to be as extravagant as the others we
have seen such as Arsenal, Aviva or Wembley, but the story behind the stadium
was far more interesting than most of these modern, decade old stadiums we have
had a chance to tour.
Dublin Night Life and Free time:
Aside from Stadium Touring, we
stayed at the Gresham Hotel right in Dublin which was the best location. It was
central to great shopping, the river that ran through town and Temple Bar
Street. We had the most amazing food in Ireland. My first night there a few of
us when to Quay’s Restaurant and I had Irish Guinness Beef stew which was
AMAZING. I ordered a Smethwick’s beer to go with it and it was superb. After
the restaurant we went downstairs to the Quay’s pub and hear some live music,
which was honestly some of the most amazing acoustic live guitar I’ve ever heard.
I was very impressed by their skills and it was great to hear. The rest of the
night we checked out some of the famous pubs on Temple Bar street. We were in
Dublin during Temple Bar’s Beatles Festival so all of the bars had live bands
blaring the Beatles. It was a great time just traveling up and down the cobble
stone streets listening to music and seeing the nightlife. Our whole group
actually met up at this pub called The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in
Dublin. It was built back in 1198 and was a fun atmosphere. We actually ran
into some Alpha Delta Pi sisters from Georgia Tech there and talked with them
for a bit. Fun running into sisters in another country!
The next day we went to the
Guinness factory for a tour, which was an experience unlike any other. We
traveled through the whole Guinness making process and made our way up through
the tasting to the 5th floor which was a gravity bar with amazing
360 degree views of Dublin. We also learned how to pour Guinness at the
Guinness Academy, which was so cool because I never knew there was an “Art” to
pouring Guinness and perfecting it. Very weird but it was a great experience. Before
we went to Ireland we all decided to try a Guinness in London and compare it to
Ireland. We heard they were extremely different tasting and believe me, I do
not like Guinness but it tastes SO MUCH BETTER in Ireland than anywhere else.
They explained to us that it is the “Shannon River water” or that it doesn’t travel
well. It is also manufactured in the states by Budweiser and tastes 100%
different than it does in Dublin. Go to
the factory if you can – it was very fun. I already miss Dublin so much it was
my favorite city so far and I wish we could have stayed longer! I’d love to go
back for longer very soon if I can! It’s an amazing and beautiful city with the
nicest people!
Gaelic Athletic Association crest at Croke Park
Gaelic Football and Hurling kits at Croke
Croke Park
Kyle and I on the Sky View tour on top of Croke Park
Views of Dublin from Croke
SkyView tour
View of the Irish Sea from Croke
Me over Croke
Croke pitch
Arrival in Dublin!
Aviva Stadium (with a covered pitch to protect the grass from too much rain....it was POURING)
Aviva
River Liffey that runs through Dublin
River Liffey in town
The REAL Auld Dubliner (not the one on University in Tucson)
My AMAZING Irish Guinness Beef Stew at Quay's Restaurant on Temple Bar Street
My first Smithwicks so good
Original Irish Guinness
Live music at Quay's Restuarant
Original Temple Bar Pub
Famous Temple Bar Pub
Meeting ADPI sisters from Georgia Tech in Dublin at The Brazen Head
Nate and I at Fitzsimon's on Temple Bar listening to Beatle Tribute Bands
Guinness Factory
Factory tour
How they turn the water that will eventually become Guinness
Past advertisements for Guinness
Guinness bottles over time
Where I learned to pour Guinness like a Champion at the Academy in the Factory
Cheers!
