Well the plan was to leave Belfast by train – until at the station when they piled us all onto coaches. Apparently the main station was closed for renovation, so we were bused 45 minutes closer to the boarder – instead of 15 minutes out of Belfast to the first station to get the same train that we eventually boarded – strange logic? Anyway we arrived in Dublin just after midday and walked 10 minutes to our hotel which was very close to the centre, near the ‘Spire of Dublin’
Luckily we were allowed to check-in early – so what do you do on the first afternoon in Dublin – simple, you head down to Temple Bar to sample a drop of the black stuff.
There are many pubs along Temple Bar, but in the image above there is ‘The Oliver St John Gogarty’, ‘The Auld Dubliner’ and ‘The Temple Bar’ which we frequented at various times during our trip. After our first drink we headed west towards the Dublin Castle which wasn’t very expensive to visit.
Nothing spectacular inside, but it was used as a hospital during the first world war and this was where James Connolly (of Easter Uprising fame) was brought to be treated for his wounds after he was captured. More about him later.
From here we continued onto St Partick’s Cathedral for some photo opportunities although we had great difficulty avoiding the crowds of people.
What crowds you may ask – I used my compact Sony DSC-HX99 with small Joby tripod and took long exposures which ‘ghosted’ the people away. After this we headed back along the Temple Bar.
We ended up back in ‘The Oliver St John Gogarty’ bar. It was quite busy when we arrived but luckily we managed to share a table with two lads who left shortly afterwards.
The atmosphere was absolutely terrific so we decided to stay there for a while listening to the music and later eating. Excellent steak and fish + chips with a few pints to wash it down.
This bar was now almost empty in comparison to when we arrived and later in the evening.
The evening was looking good for a clear sky, so we quickly headed back to the hotel to collect our main camera gear and tripod (as I was using my very compact Sony).
We wandered along the banks of the Liffey towards the ‘Samuel Beckett Bridge’ and waited for the sun to lower in the sky.
We had hoped the clouds would have caught the light of the sun a little more, but we were pleased with the shots we took.
Bateson's Travel log 