The Leonard Home

We recently finished the most incredible two week vacation in Europe! You can catch my previous post about the first four days of our trip, road tripping through Ireland, here.

We were called to Dublin for one very specific reason: College Football. I’ve been a fanatic all my life. None of my brothers liked going to the games, so 6 times every fall I had my Dad all to myself to cheer on his alma mater, Georgia Tech. The love he built in me for the school ran deep, so when it came time for me to pick a college to attend, there was only one real choice. So I followed in his footsteps, making my way to Georgia Tech. I spent four incredible years there, getting my degree, playing in the marching band, and meeting my husband. Now that we’ve both graduated we still go to every home game to cheer on our Jackets.

So when it was announced that Georgia Tech would be kicking off their season in Dublin for the Aer Lingus Classic, we knew we had to be there. We booked tickets and started planning the trip of a lifetime.

After four days road tripping through southern Ireland, we made our way back to Dublin. Our full itinerary isn’t replicable unless you’re in Dublin for future years of the Aer Lingus Classic, but I think the first two days are perfect for if you’re spending any weekend in Dublin.

Dublin Day 1: EPIC and Trinity College

We hit the ground running on our first day in Dublin. After we had returned our rental car at the airport, we got a cab and headed into town. We grabbed some lunch at a pub, then started exploring.

We started with a visit to the Portal, an installation that shows a live feed to another city. There are four locations right now- New York, Lithuania, Poland, and the one we visited in Dublin. The stream cycles what location it’s showing so you can stay and say hi to a few different locations.

After that, we headed to EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum. This was a really interesting look into why the Irish have emigrated so many places across the world and the impact they’ve had on the cultures of other countries. This is a hugely popular museum for people making a pilgrimage to their ancestral home, but Matt and I thought it was still a super interesting experience for people (like us) who don’t have familial ties to Ireland.

After our visit to EPIC, we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. I would highly recommend booking your timeslot in advance if you would like to visit (and I would also highly recommend visiting!). My favorite part of the tour wasn’t actually seeing the Book of Kells, it was visiting the Old Library. It was such a beautiful, reverent, space. After our Book of Kells experience, we wandered a bit around the Trinity College campus before heading out. We had friends who had booked an official tour of campus along with their Book of Kells experience and they loved their tour.

We went to Nando’s, the popular Irish Peri Peri chicken chain for dinner, then made our way to bed.

Dublin Day 2: Temple Bar, Guinness Storehouse, and More!

We started Day 2 with my favorite hobby- visiting McDonald’s in other countries- for breakfast. Then we began wandering through Dublin, starting with a walk to Temple Bar. It was nice to visit here in the morning to get some pictures before things got really busy later in the day.

After that, we wandered over to Dublinia, an amazing museum about this history of Dublin, with a big focus on the Vikings. I’d recommend buying a ticket for both the museum and Christchurch Cathedral, which are connected. You go through Dublinia first, and then the exit of Dublinia is the entrance to the cathedral.

After some lunch, we headed to Merrion Square park for a pep rally for the football game. While we were there for the pep rally, this park is one of the must-see destinations in Dublin because it’s the home of the Oscar Wilde statue.

After the pep rally was over, we hopped in a cab to visit the Guinness Storehouse. We’ve been to a lot of brewery tours, but this was something else. Even if you don’t like Guinness, it was a super interesting visit and the number one thing I would recommend in Dublin. If you do like Guinness, you’ll appreciate that there’s a tasting room midway through the experience, and then a pint at the end as well.

After the Storehouse tour, we spent our evening enjoying time with friends in a pub until it was time for bed.

This was a perfect full day in Dublin! If you aren’t trying to make specific times like we were, I would recommend doing all of these things but in a different order: Merrion Square, Temple Bar, Dublinia, Christchurch, Guinness Storehouse. If you do it this way, while you’ll have some long walks, it’s definitely doable without having to order a cab.

Dublin Day 3: Gameday!

We woke up and started our day with some shopping. I was desperate to find a wool sweater I loved and found the perfect one. We grabbed lunch at a pub, then started to enjoy all the gameday activities!

College Gameday was live from Dublin so we went to see the filming. It was really crowded but a cool experience. We watched the Georgia Tech band playing and were pulled for an interview with Irish National Television about our experience thus far in Ireland- super cool!

We went on a pub crawl hosted by the GT Alumni Association as we made our way from the Gameday set over to Aviva stadium. This was such a cool way to get to see more pubs than were in the city center where we were staying.

And then it was game time! We never anticipated a top 10 upset victory in Dublin to start off our season but that’s what we got! I think we would’ve loved our time in Dublin win or lose, but a victory made it that much better!

We celebrated our win with our friends in a pub until late at night- the perfect cap to our three days in Dublin!

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We had an amazing week in Ireland spread across our roadtrip and our time in Dublin. We loved the people, the pubs, the nature, and couldn’t have been happier with the mild weather.

This was such a special week, but the adventure isn’t over! Stay tuned for the remaining posts detailing our time in London and Paris!