When you work full time, it can be tough to fit travel into your schedule. I get it. Trust me! Let alone going across the pond to another country, for just a weekend. But, it can be done! Here’s how we did it:
I live in Portland, OR. I’ve liked having it as a travel base so far.
So, I took the weekend off of work. I have a strange schedule right now where I’m working Monday and Tuesday at one clinic and Friday and Saturday at another. So I can take vacation from one, and not the other and not feel like I’m messing everyone up! (PS: that schedule is about to change!)
So, I left on Thursday morning from Portland. I had a direct flight: PDX to Newark (EWR). Landed about 3 pm. Hung out in an airport lounge for a few hours and had lunch. Met up with a friend who was coming with us for the weekend. Read a book while waiting for our flight. Then, we boarded our 7:30 pm flight to Dublin. That flight landed around 7am! That’s one full day of travel, in case you’re counting.
My boyfriend met us at the airport at 8 am, having flew in from LAX. We grabbed some coffee (my daily morning necessity), and the three of us hit the ground running!
Getting there:
There are several ways to get around Dublin.
- Airline (express bus)- This one we did because it was cheaper than ubering or taking a taxi to the city center. 20e for a 3 day pass, which we did use!
- Public bus.
- Taxi- most expensive option.
- Uber- easiest but not always cheap.
- When NOT exiting the airport, most of downtown is easily walkable or you can rent a bike.
What did we do:
Day 1:
Breakfast at Queen of Tarts.
Christ Church Cathedral
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral
Teeling Distillery
The Brazen Head- the oldest pub in Dublin
Headed to the airBNB to check in and nap! Yes I said NAP! 2 hours! And, it was glorious!
Guinness Brewery- got there before it closed and didn’t have to wait in line, due to all the tourist groups having already shuffled through! The 360 bar is super cool at sunset!
PUBS! We did Temple Bar and Porterhouse Pub the first night. No hurry. Just unwind and enjoy the atmosphere. We met new people and listened to fun live music at Porterhouse!
Day 2:
Irish breakfast at San Lorenzo’s. Amazing. Highly recommend!
Dublin Castle
Trinity College, Library, Book of Kells, and the Long Hall
Bus ride around Dublin (I did accidentally nap on the bus!)
Jameson Distillery
dinner at PHX Bistro- excellent meal! Somewhat away from the hustle of the tourist area.
Pub Crawl!
We made our own pub crawl to round out our trip, thanks to the bartenders at Teeling! They were super helpful! We made ourselves a list of 7 authentic Irish pubs. We mapped them all out and walked to each one. It was super fun. We ran around like we were 21, enjoying new beers at each place and authentic Irish music. My favorite was our first stop because people just brought their instruments and jammed out together on couches at the bar. So cool to see! Just for you, here’s our list:
- Mulligan’s Pub
- Kennedy’s Pub
- Foggy Dew
- O’donoghue’s Pub
- The Cobblestones Pub
- Against the Grain Pub
- Grogan’s
Day 3:
Straight to the airport for an early flight (Early in the since that we had to go through security and customs, we left the airBNB by 6:45 am. After all of that we made it to our gate by 8:45 am. Yay!)
The return flight was 9 am Sunday. Dublin to Newark, and Newark to PDX. Arrive back in Portland, OR at 10 pm, due to a 1 hour delay in Newark. But, I was back to work bright and early Monday morning. I had no problems thanks to a full night of sleep and a cup of coffee in the morning! 🙂
This was by no means a relaxing vaca, but it was a super fun adventure to a new city and a new country for me! Weekend international travel can be done, with careful planning! Don’t forget to account for jet lag so that you actually enjoy your trip!
Happy Travels!
Endlessly Elise 