Belfast and Dublin Tour - Part 3 / Tuesday, February 27, 2007
No. 2 City Hall
Ok, firstly I must say its not that bad an attraction. Famous figures, the city's history, well what can you expect from a city hall.. Not that its not good and all, but being to all the other landmarks and guided tours, another tour on the history of Dublin gets a bit boring... Not to mention that the museum at the bottom is not free and its not a particularly huge museum. Only thing interesting thing is the stack of carve images of histories on the sheets of glass, as you can see from above... Well, if you are really a history buff, no harm going there...
No. 1 Bram Stocker's Dracula Experience
Ok, this one tops my chart of the worst attraction ever!!! As first look at the brochure, it looks so cool!! Only opening on weekends, being at the city outskirts, birthplace of the Dracula Author and all, we thought that it was a real thrill and all... BUT... After taking some 1 plus euro bus ride there, we were expecting a castle or something, but no... its a bar!! wat?? This attraction is exactly on top of a pub.. No wonder it only opens on weekends.. Ok, since it is included in our Dublin pass, why not try it.. By the way, the original price is 8 euro!!!
The entrance is in some door behind a pool table and is shared with toilets along the way. Yeah, going through the series of stairs and walkways with gruesome images and all is really dumb... And I thought Haw Par Villa was bad enough... Within 10 minutes of climbing up and down, going round and round, the exit happens to be the entrance too... The whole place is the size of normal terrace house... -___- We were expecting the 2 movie screens that were supposed to show some Dracula movie to work at the end.. But no!! Gosh, after the horrendous trip, we decided to walk all the way back to the city, which is some 4km... -___- Wat a waste of time and money.. Dun ever come here if u are deciding to visit Dublin...
/Hopped!
1:54 PM
>>>
Belfast and Dublin Tour - Part 2 / Thursday, February 22, 2007
Next stop Dublin!! Kinda similar to Belfast, just give u all a low down on the attractions there:
Top 6 spots in Dublin:
No.6 National Museum of Ireland (All the 3 different kinds)
Ok, not that we are very 'gian' on going to all the museums, will be kinda boring after awhile, but since its included in our 'Dublin Pass', why not visit them!! 4 free postcards too for each museum, so cope all 12 of them.. ha.. =) Anyway. the museums are free, so why not go there and have a look.. Some of them are really interesting...
No.5 Trinity College
Quite a famous college with all the famous people that have come from there.. The book of Kells are one of the more famous books that are held there... Cool place, but too bad the Book of Kells is not included in our Dublin pass so we did no go there, but if u are there, go see it, I heard its must to go, but we were just too sian of museums liao, visited dunno how many...
No.4 Dublin Castle
This is another must go and it includes a tour.. Yup, you guessed it, its included the Dublin pass... The castle served as a real castle in fortress last time.. Ya, with all the moats, towers and all.. Well, alot of nice rooms and corridors, now you really see how the royalty enjoy.. See the throne up there? Its supposed to be for Prince dunno wat.. forgot his name.. But its really a huge chair.. Imagine how big is he.. Then later came a gal who stepped up as queen.. They had to build a stool for her below the chair so she could rest her feet there, otherwise it would be hanging in the air.. =)
No.3 Old Kalimahan Goal
Gaol... Not goal... So its an old jail u say, what is so great about this.. Well, if you know Dublin's History, u will know that this is an important historical site.. (Ya, I think now i know Dublin's history more than I know Sweden's) All the tours they have talk bout their history, seems Dublin is a troubled country in the past.. Anyway, this jail is supposed to be a jail that keeps 1 prisoner in a cell, but due to overcrowding, it had 6 in a cell at its maximum.. Anyway this jail is insane and creepy.. Imagine there were alot of child prisoners as young as 7 years old. They were jailed for stealing onions or knocking on a public door without permission!!! CRAZY!! There were lot of politicians jailed and put to death here too.. So yup, its really a historical place and really worth the visit.
No.2 Christchurch and St Patrick's Church
These 2 churches are like a must see when u visit Dublin.. Its included in the pass but its not that expensive too.. These are probably one of the nicest and grandest church I have been to.. BUT! there are alot of people buried underneath the church.. that include famous people, people who have made great contributions or something.. Kinda scary going down to the crypt to look at the plaques and all.... But it is a must come... You wont feel like you wasted ur money here... =)
No.1 Guinness Brewery
Eh need I say more? Who woudnt want to go to the Guinness Brewery? Free Beer, free sight overlooking the entire Dublin area on its SkyBar? A bit pricey but its a one in a lifetime chance, so I say go for it!! You get a nice souvenir too.. A drop of Guinness in a Paper Weight!! Kinda cool, and of course you get to buy lots of souvenirs there to make ur frens jealous.. ha.. Oh ya, tried a bit of Guinness, does,nt taste bad at all.. Being a dark beer, I thought it would be rather bitter but nope!! Its really nice, a nice flavour to it.. Definitely better than Tiger Beer .. Oops.. But really, its the truth.. Even the whole Brewery is nicely decorated and shown to the public.. Tiger Beer Brewery, pls pls pls look at this and improve!!
/Hopped!
9:19 PM
>>>
Belfast and Dublin - Part 1 / Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Yup, after so long, Ive decided to post something on our Belfast and Dublin Trip. Shall split up and blog in a few parts cos its quite long.. lol..
Belfast, northern Ireland.. Its part of UK not Ireland so it uses pound not Euro... Yes, so its more expensive then Dublin.. Took RyanAir to Dublin then its a 5 hours bus ride from Dublin, if Im not wrong... It only costs 50sgd to fly there... cheap right!! Our favourite budget airline henceforth...
Ok, the first thing to comment is that the hostel we were in sucks... Its not cheap, costs around 25 Euro. Firstly, the linen are dirty, we kept on scratching throughout the night. Secondly, its noisy throughout the night cause the floors and beds creaked, can hear footsteps from upstairs so clearly!! Oh, its the Linen house in Belfast.. If you ever visit Belfast, look for some other hostels!
Other than that, Belfast is cool. Oh ya, we found a superb place that you can have breakfast for just 1.99 pound.. With egg, mushroom, potato bread, french toast, bacon, sausage, tomato.. Its a steal!! Its called 'Uber Fry' , cant find the picture to show you all, maybe we were too hungry to take photos.. lol... The next day we went to the place for breakfast again, but they ran out of Uster frys', so we went for pancakes instead.. 1.90 pound.. but only 3 pieces, so bo hua, but its the cheapest.. lol...
Belfast really is an old town with lots of spectacular buildings:
The City Hall
Christchurch - Largest Church in Belfast
The Big fish (With a group of Ireland Ah-lians)
St Georges Market
Icon for Belfast (Forgot her name.. lol)
Albert Tower (It claims that it is actually leaning?)
Guest what this is? A shopping Centre!!
Queens University
Belfast is so small you can actually walk around the whole city. Oh ya, did you know Titanic set off on its voyage from here. Amazing right...
The harbour that carried the infamous Titanic
They also have these tours to see some nature attractions like the Giant's Causeway in northern most Ireland, seems nice, but we had no time for those and I think most of them are best in summer too...
Other than that. Belfast is really a small city, but with its superb tourist guides all around the city and not as crowded as other cities, its really a good place to come and visit. Except for the fact that their currency is in pound!! Argh.. I think I have a fear of pounds now...
/Hopped!
11:01 PM
>>>
