Friday 5th February 2011, 2.30 AM: Dan Summons walks into my room and a crazy 48 ensues. From Dan's house in Tonbridge Wells we drive to a place called Sevenoaks to find his friends; Matt and Joe waiting on the side of the road for us. The previous night we had already met Laps and Luke when we picked them up from their Uni house in Southampton.
From Sevenoaks we drove to Stanstead airport. Having already checked in online the previous night, we went through security, I got stopped for having deodorant in my bag, and headed straight for the Wetherspoons. 5AM and I'm on my first pint of Guinness with all the lads, boarding the plane at 6.15 I'm already 2 pints down and loving life!
The flight took roughly 50 minutes and was pretty turbulent. Arriving in Dublin the weather was dull and dreary. Plain sailing through security and customs and out the front of the airport to board a bus into the centre of the city. On they way in we drove past Croke park, enormous, all 82,300 of it! From then it was a matter of time before jumping off in the city centre.
About 45 minutes, a sore shoulder from my bag and numerous directions later we arrived at the Avalon House hostel. Deecent little place, a lot better than we thought. 18 Euros for the night wasn't bad, and the room was class, on two tiers, with four beds upstairs and 6 down. By the time we'd gotten to the room it was about 10 o'clock. Obvs being up for about 8 hours by then and only a few hours kip the previous night we got 40 winks.
1 o'clock we wake up and head straight for the Guinness factory, obligatory stop for Sub Way en route of course. I'd been looking forward to the Guinness factory since I knew we were going to Dublin, so was tres excited! Didn't get to look around the factory as much as I would of liked, especially the advertising bit, but was still deecent. As you make your way up the giant tower that is the museum you get to the gravity bar at the top, for your complimentary pint of Guinness. Buzzzzzz this is where it starts. Blagged a free pint for Summons' birthday, and everyone there sings Happy Birthday to him and 70 year old Joan from New York.
Leaving the factory Mulli and Ru need to go into the city to buy stuff for the night out. We leave them in the centre and tell them to ring us when they're finished. Obvs we want to find a pub. Come across The Oval Bar. Now my favorite place on earth and made the whole trip.
http://www.theovalbar.com/
This place was sooo deece. Old Victorian building, gorgeous inside, all decked in Irish flags for the 6 nations. We were on the 3rd floor and when we got their found that we got table service and didn't need to go to the bar for drinks, result. The lady that served us was cracking, gave us free food and all sorts. So when we left later on in the evening we left her a generous tip. We started off their intending on only staying for 1 pint, but that soon turned to 8 and we watched the rugby, which was great, even if i don't remember much of the game now.
When we left The Oval, 330Euros down, we headed back to the hostel and showered and changed before heading to a pub/bar/nightclub. Couldn't tell you the name of the place. After 1130 it was buy one get one free on drinks, result. The club quickly filled up past midnight and I soon found I couldn't drink anymore. Joe reckons at last count we were on 16 pints each. Not bad effort, shame we couldn't get to 20 though! About 2 o'clock me and Ru lost everyone so headed back to the Hotel.
Couple of hours sleep later and its on our way back home. Landed in Stanstead late afternoon and drove home dropping Forms and Joe on the way in Sevenoaks. Back in Bournemouth for 9 o'clock. Nackered!
Can't wait to go back though, such a good day!!
