Match day: Leinster
Six of us decided to take the trip to Dublin to watch Sale Sharks play away in the Champions Cup. With Dublin being the home of Guinness and all of us fans of Guinness, things were going to get loose.
Friday
With flights at 7pm we decided to get to the airport early and sink a few pints of Guinness before flying and there was some early drama as we almost missed our flight because we were waiting above the gate rather than noticing that the gate was indeed downstairs. For all the pre-trip excitement, it would’ve been a heart sinking moment watching our plane take-off from the airport.
The flight lasted about 45 minutes and we were coming into land before I even could finish my beer. As soon as getting through boarder control, we had the first taste of Irish Guinness while waiting for one of our friends to arrive. It was lovely, just like a milkshake.
Typically, Matt arrived in another terminal and we ended up waiting for one another in the wrong terminal so we were delayed getting to the Airbnb. However, once we linked up the pub crawl was underway.
The first pub we got to was called ‘The Lobard’ and, excited, I went to the bar only to find a very angry barman. I’m not entirely sure why there was a bit of an argument but nevertheless we finished our Guinness and moved on.
Our pub crawl ended in a Temple Bar bar. Temple Bar has been described as a tourist trap and it is. But at the same time, if you want to have a dance to live music with people all over the world, Temple Bar is the place to go. We went to a bar called ‘Bad ass’, I’m certain it’s not the best bar in the area but it was one of the first bars we saw when we arrived and got stuck on the Guinness.
After a €16 kebab and some drunken confusion over a bottle of water, we called it a day.
A couple of Guinness down in Temple Bar
Getting on our flight feeling merry
More merry-ness
The boys!!!
Excitement on the plane
Alby with his sweetheart Matt
A Guinness for Ed, our friend who couldn't make it
First Irish Guinness, delicious
Saturday
On Saturday morning, we were moving nowhere quickly. Breakfast options were limited to black coffee and doughnuts and with the guys moving at snail pace, we didn’t manage to get out of the flat until 11:30.
The first stop of the day was the Guinness storehouse and I was feeling hungover. We did a ‘pour your own Guinness’ and was shaking while pouring it, not with nerves.
Not to fear though, as we sat and drank our Guinness a few tourists gave us their drinks as they ‘didn’t like Guinness’ and this was a consistent theme of our time at the storehouse.
As we headed upstairs to the sky bar, we ordered our first round and the bartender didn’t take our free drink tokens so the first round was on Guinness. The free beers kept coming as other tourists gave us their tokens and we continued to say, ‘yes we like Guinness, thank you very much’.
As time ticked on, we had to leave for the rugby. If you’re hoping to read if the Guinness storehouse exhibition is any good, well I’m afraid you’ll have to go elsewhere we only saw the inside of the bar. The beer is good though.
Sale were playing at the RDS Stadium which was a about a 40 minute taxi journey from the Guinness Storehouse and pretty much the whole way, we had the taxi driver telling us all about his tire sensors on his Ford Transit. I’m not sure what that was all about.
We had a few beers in the pub where, I’m ashamed to say, Guinness was used as a dunk for chips. It wasn’t a proud moment. The RDS is a cool stadium and has a traditional intimate feeling, but it is not cheap. I spent €20 just on a burger and chips when we were there.
The game was good and Sale gave us a glimmer of hope after the first half before Leinster ran away with it in the second. The atmosphere was good and we had a bit of banter back and forth with the Leinster fans.
After the game, things got a bit weird. We went into a pub close to the ground and couldn’t get near the bar it was that full. However, one of my friends found a quieter part of the pub downstairs which ended up being part of a surprise birthday party. It tuned into chaos.
After the party, we headed towards Temple Bar, but people were flagging so everyone’s night ended up heading back at different points.
Around the Guinness storehouse
Around the Guinness storehouse
Somehow after the shakiness of my hands
Views from the 'sky bar' at the Guinness storehouse
Views from the 'sky bar' at the Guinness storehouse
A lovely sunset on approach to the ground
We had a great view of the game
So we got a bit of a lock in...
Guinnei
Blame it on the Jägers
Yep...
Irish party food. Goes well with 10 pints of Guinness
Time for a scrum
Sunday
Sunday was best summed up when I woke up and first saw Luke who said, “I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus”. The only other phrase I heard him say apart from that all day was, “I really don’t need this right now”. So ,Sunday morning was spent in silence with everyone making little eye contact, finding the floor very interesting.
The first challenge of the day was spent walking around Dublin trying to find somewhere to eat and it took us about two hours and there was Luke saying he, “really don’t need this”. I got hungry on our mission to find some food and tried to wash away the hangover with a McDonalds salad and milkshake .The only excuse I’ve got for that is that maybe I was still drunk.
It seemed like nowhere could fit a group of six in until we got to ‘The Stage Door Café’. The Stage Door Café is a weird place. The staff there had an energy that was different to ours. We were welcomed with the chef saying, “I hope you’re not German” and the chef and waiter decided that one of the guys in our group was gay and was referred to him as, ‘the gay in the corner’.
This was one of the instances where Luke went, “I really don’t need this right now”. None of us were up for the banter and two of us were unable to eat at all. The food was decent though and off we went. We wound the clock down by having a walk up and down the river and stopping off every now and again for a Guinness, which Luke really didn’t need.
After having a last Guinness at the airport had a trouble free flight concluding a weekend that has taken some time to recover from.
Down but not out, the guys eagerly wait to get back to Manchester and their beds