We decided to try an audacious plan to visit Dublin over the weekend by taking an overnight train and ferry ride to Dublin, arriving Saturday morning, and returning to London again by overnight train and ferry arriving Monday morning. Quite exciting!
We arrived so early that none of the attractions and few cafes were open. So we just hung at one of the fast food restaurants at a train station. A good breakfast and a short nap later, we walked to Kilmainham Gaol - a former prison. It's a historic, sombre place with great political significance for the Irish because many of those who fought for independence were once imprisoned, and even executed ther
e.
The unique architectural aspect of the prison is it's panoptican east wing. It's constructed in such a way that from the observation landings, the wardens could look into every cell to observe the prisoners at all times. 
The other gruesome yet interesting nugget we found out was that the gates at the entrance to the prison were built not to keep the prisoners in, but to keep the non-prisoners out. Apparently hangings were such a popular social event that throngs of people would gather at the entrance to watch. You can see the two small white squares on the wall above the entrance was where the wood beams would have been.
And look how one of prisoners proposed to his girlfriend "you will marry me and nobody else". Period. 
It was quite a touching and tragic story though. They were allowed to get married in the prison chapel, but they were only married for one afternoon, as he was executed soon after. She herself was imprisoned at Kilmainham at a later date, where she spent some of her time painting this image.
After the prison tour, we took a bus into town and walked along the river Liffey, checked out the famous Ha'penny Bridge, explored the Moore street market (which turned out to be much less bustling than the guidebook made it out to be), walked down O'Connell Street, and checked out Temple Bar and the nearby Meeting House Square market (which is like the Irish equivalent of London's Borough market, but on a smaller scale). 
A funny window display :)
We had arranged to meet Julian (my JC pal!) at Trinity College. He brought us around the campus, to see the well-known Book of Kells, and the magnificent Long Room. He was a great tour guide! :) He could relate everything from the dates of the founding of the school, who founded it, to significant events since it's opening, and recent events of interest that related to the college :) Very impressive!
It so happened that weekend was when the Rugby Six Nations Ireland-Scotland match was on! As a result, Dublin was flooded with Scotland supporters...decked out in kilts! :) I've never seen so many men in skirts ;)
This particular shot is not too flattering for the guy. Looks rather effeminate =)
Julian, Jon and I watched the match in a pub. An exciting match it was! Ireland played really well, and deservedly won the match.
Jon & I head off to Tallaght after the match where our hotel was located - some 40 mins out of town. Turns out that we were one of the first few guests at the hotel. 
They had only opened the day before! You could tell that the staff were new cos they were so eager to please, plenty of hellos, some awkwardness on their part (e.g., sometimes they don't know which way to walk and they bump into the guests, prompting swift apologies with a big sunny smile). The place definitely has some teething problems, for example, the lift broke down on the second day and we had to walk down to the ground floor, the heating in the room wasn't that good, the water was also quite chilly; but overall it was a very comfortable place to stay.
My only gripe is the funny mismatch between the lift numbering and room numbering system. Normally if your room is 401, you'd expect it to be on the 4th floor. But nooo, they used the G, 1, 2, 3.. system instead of the 1, 2, 3, 4..system, hence room 401 is on the 3rd floor. Even then they don't follow the G, 1, 2, 3 system perfectly. Theirs is actually G, M, 2, 3... So just as you thought you've figured it out, they tell you breakfast is on the 1st floor and you suddenly realise there's no '1' button in the lift! It's actually on 'M'! Hiya...confusing lah. Need to standardise!
Our second day was really relaxed. Slept in - afterall we didn't get much sleep the night before with all the train-ferry transfers, had a yummy Irish breakfast (complete with black and white pudding), then head off for the Guinness Storehouse.
It was a very informative place, and a fun museum to wander about. I liked the Storehouse very much. Unfortunately, I don't like the product quite so much. I never really liked beer, much less stout. And even though Guinness from the Guinness brewery itself does taste richer and is much more creamy, I'm still not a Guinness fan; for Jon though, he concluded that the glass of Guinness he drank there was the best he's ever had :) He ended up drinking up the other half of my pint. I couldn't finish it! It started to give me a headache...even though the advertising says it's good for you! Think I'll just stick to cider :)
We spent quite a bit of time just hanging around the Guinness Storehouse after wandering through the exhibits. There's a nice bar on the top with panoramic views over Dublin, and one floor below is a relaxing area to just chill. 
We slowly sipped our Guinness while watching Gaelic sports on TV. I'm not too sure how the rules for Gaelic football works. It seems to be a mix of soccer, rugby and American football, and a whole lot more. It seems like almost anything goes! You can run with the ball, you can bounce it, you can dribble it; you can score by kicking it in the goal net, or you can kick it through the posts like in rugby...?!? Catch no ball. Will wiki it.
Dinner, then it was time to head to the ferry port and back to London. How quickly time passes!
