The fair city in the Emerald Isle

So today saw the start of a long weekend in Dublin with my travel friends Fi and Carolyn.

Having reached Dublin airport from London and Manchester we caught a taxi into the city centre but with our staycity apartment not quite ready we headed to the Auld Dubliner for our first pints of Guinness (my first EVER) and a shared platter.

Heading back we couldn't resist the photo opportunity with the hags in bags statue!

Having offloadd our bags in the clean, spacious apartment (full of home comforts too) we headed off on the hop on hop off bus tour to get our bearings and give us an idea of where to wander tomorrow, and we were highly entertained by driver who not only provided us with a wealth of facts about the city but also jokes and a couple of rousing renditions of Irish songs!

Having got our glad rags on we had a lovely Italian dinner then decided to check out the craic in a couple of the bars.. Temple Bar itself, a lively and heaving establishment, Gogarty's where we enjoyed the live band and joined in the Irish spirit by having our faces painted and then finally back to the Auld Dubliner where we met a couple of local lads who swore to protect us from any less salubrious characters!

Made it to midnight before feeling mighty tired and flu-like so headed back for sleep!