(Ireland trip) Dublin

So this is the first individual post I had announced in the revival of this blog. Since we arrived in Dublin and also left Ireland from there, I thought it would make sense to start here. And sticking to the chronology of the events might help me not forget anything. After all, it was a quite "intense", event-packed extended weekend in Ireland.

I don't think I took any pictures of Ashfield Hostel, the hostel where we stayed for the first and the last night of our trip. I mean, it doesn't look so incredibly interesting. It's just a normal, quite cheap hostel. But it had the best breakfast of all hostels we stayed in. And, big advantage, it's right in the city centre. Since I prefer taking pictures of landscapes anyway, I found it nice to have the Liffey nearby. So I took "a few" pictures of it, not only during daytime ...

... but also at night:

And of course, I couldn't help it but take a picture of one of the famous landmarks of Dublin: The Spire! If you have been to Dublin in the past but you're not sure whether you know this one: you probably passed it on a shopping trip on O'Connell Street. It's the needle monument:

Fun Fact: Seán Connolly, an Irish youtuber, mentions it in a video.

Speaking of shopping trips: we also ended up going to Penneys ...

And no, I didn't buy anything there. I actually only bought postcards in Dublin, I think. Well, and stamps for the postcards. In the fancy Irish post on O'Connell Street (close to Penneys ...).

Although the three of us had been to Dublin a couple of times, it looked a bit different this time.

On the one hand, the streets were emptier than usual, because there were no Dublin Buses running:

They were serious about the strike ...

On the other hand, the lampposts were a bit more crowded than usual. That's because there will be a referendum on same-sex marriage on May 22nd. The vast majority of the posters looked quite promising: