DAY 23

Today we arrived in Dublin at around noon. With the itinerary change we are staying all the way until about 2000 tomorrow evening, which will give everyone a great chance to go out and see Dublin’s day and night life.


I was off the ship by about 1300 with a few other people. We took the shuttle bus into downtown Dublin, which took about 15 minutes. We were dropped off near the center of town on Kildare Street. A short walk and we were on the main street with all the big name shops. The shopping district is split into north and south; each side having a main street. Grafton street is the main street on the south side of the river Liffey and Talbot/Henry/Mary Street is the main street on the north side.

I quickly realized that Dublin was quite an expensive city when it came to merchandise with prices close to twice that I would pay in Vancouver or even Southampton. A passenger on the shuttle bus ride over said since joining the EU Dublin has grown a lot, thus increasing the standard of living and at the same time the cost as well.

All along the river there are small bridges that connect the two sides of the city. The traffic didn’t seem to heavy around the city, but it was only a Monday afternoon.

I walked as far as I could and made it to a lot of nice landmarks such as the Christ Church Cathedral, the Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College, St. Stephen’s Green, the spire, etc. I started at around 1330 and didn’t finish until about 1830 so I walked continuously for over 5 hours. Needless to say my feet were a wee bit sore by the end of it and I felt like sleeping for several hours.

I was planning to get out in the evening to the temple bar area for a few drinks with the others to see the vibrant Dublin night life, but I opted to stay in and cover for a colleague on duty to let them get out and stretch their legs as well.

When I got back to the ship I went for dinner in the officer’s mess where it ended up being just me and the Chief sat across from each other the whole time. He’s a good Chief, originally from England, who now resides somewhere in New Brunswick with his wife.

After dinner it was back to the cabin to write this and then for some Z’s.