Part 32: Dublin Reunions
I (kinda) crash family trips and weddings in the Nashville of Europe
Coming Up:
Cold Intro: The Nashville of Europe
Friends in Different Countries
Pubs & Pints
How The Sausage (Guinness) Is Made
2 Pubs 2 Pints
Forty Foot is not forty feet.
The Pubs & The Pints: Dublin Drift
The Fate of The Pints: Pubs & Pints 8
An Elite Pastry
Cold Intro: The Nashville of Europe
I’ve only been to Nashville once, and I was maybe 17 years old when I went. I barely remember the place. That being said, the comparison of Dublin to Nashville is an obvious one. Sure, the weather in the two cities is vastly different, and so is the city layout is too. The people are different. Culturally, also very different. But! The food probably has a comparable level of fried-ness.
Why the comparison then? Dublin has the best live music culture I’ve ever seen outside of Nashville. Pubs in Dublin are about as ubiquitous as bars in Nashville, and just like Nashville, there are performers in almost every one. On top of that, when moving around the small and very walkable city of Dublin, you can’t make it from point A to point B without seeing a performer on the street. It’s awesome. Mostly at night, the popular pubs have bands playing crowd-pleasing covers, but if you find the right pub at the right time, you could hear some great Irish music.
Cause and effect give us our second strong Nashville similarity. Where there are bars and music, so come the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Nashville is a hot spot for these events, and likewise, in Dublin, you can’t go out to Temple Bar without having to dodge these groups coming from all over Europe.
The pubs, just like in London, did not disappoint. Each spot is old, dark, and welcoming, and there is no shortage of them. A great place to see a friend, to have a bite, to kill some time. A pint of Guinness just feels right in a place like this.
Wednesday - June 25th, 2025
Why Dublin? Why now? Coming into this summer with little to no real agenda, I had a lot of flexibility to move around the order of my trip. It being summer, I knew that I’d have friends coming to Europe at random times, and I could shift my timing around to meet up with people if possible. This was the case for Dublin.
Dublin had 3 intersecting paths. There was Maddy (USC friend whose family I stayed with in Sydney), who was in Dublin for her cousin’s wedding. There was Kate/Michael (more friends from LA, with Kate being another USC friend), who were in town for Michael’s family reunion. And then there was me, just aimlessly meandering through Europe. Multiple friends in one place? Add Dublin to the itinerary.
To kick off Dublin, I met up with Michael, Kate, and Michael’s cousin Gavin at a college pub right by Trinity University (beautiful school in the heart of Dublin). We began the night with what would become the rhythm of the weekend. Getting a pint of Guinness at a pub. I’ll try to tell the story of Dublin without it getting too redundant, but each day involved multiple pubs, multiple Guinnesses, and multiple attempts at “splitting the G” to various degrees of success.
Luckily for us, Michael is somewhat of a local, as he’s spent quite a bit of time in Dublin between studying abroad at Trinity, trips to see family, and even a brief stint for work, so he was able to guide us on our pub adventures. We went to a few spots before we worked up the courage to become wedding crashers. Well, kind of.
We met up with Maddy at another pub where she was with the parts of the wedding party that had already made it into town. While it would be fun to hype this up to Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn style wedding crashers heist, our presence was not quite as cunning or secretive. Michael, Kate, and I all know the bride and groom, who both live in Los Angeles (the groom is actually a subscriber (S/O Michah!) ), so it was less of a crash and more of a say hello and congrats.
We enjoyed some live music at the new pub and an exquisite solo guitarist cover of Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan before migrating to the last bar for a final drink. Dublin really has no shortage of bars to go to.
And of course, no night is complete without some crappy 1 am food. We collected Maddy’s father, Slim, on our journey to get some kebabs and enjoyed some underwhelming, but spot-hitting, late-night grub.
Thursday - June 26th, 2025
I met up with Maddy and Slim for a noon breakfast at an Irish pub known for its classic Irish Breakfast. Sausage, bacon, toast, a fried egg, blood sausage (controversial, but I’m a fan), and some hash browns. Plenty of fuel for the day.
After breakfast, we walked a bit out of the main area of Dublin to one of its main tourist attractions - The Guinness Factory. Here we met up with Kate and Michael, as well as four of Maddy’s cousins and two of Michael’s cousins. There was no shortage of cousins this weekend.
The Guinness Factory is a good activity to do in Dublin. It’s entertaining and a very well-done exhibit. I did not retain a lot of information that was presented, but enjoyed it nonetheless. All I remember is that there are 300 million bubbles in a Guinness. That’s enough for me. The exhibit ends on the top floor, which is 7 stories up and gives great panoramic views of all Dublin and its surrounding areas.
It’s hard to beat a nice cool Guinness with a view like that, so we decided to go for the next best setting, which is any Irish pub anywhere. We opted for a pub a short walk from the factory and enjoyed some more Guinness to go along with some light bites.
What to do in the nighttime? Perhaps, a few more Guinness? I was not joking when I said this Dublin leg of the trip had a rhythm to it. We joined the wedding festivities for the night, which was a pub crawl across Dublin. This involved a lot of — you guessed it — Guinness. It was a fun time hanging out with the squad and meeting cousins and friends and more cousins and parents and even more cousins. Dublin is indeed a fun city.
Friday - June 27th, 2025
In the morning, I hopped in Kate and Michael’s rental car and headed for a quick excursion out of Dublin. We were wedding crashing again. Luckily, we knew a fair number of the group after the bar crawl the previous night. The destination was Forty Foot, which is a popular cove for a swim outside of the city.
The Irish Sea is cold. We jumped off a small cliff (the name forty feet is deceiving) into the cove. If you’ve ever done a cold plunge before, this was a similar experience. I’d say a normal cold plunge is colder, but this cove was no slouch. I’d say about 50% of people who plunged in were swimming to the ladder immediately after. I tried toughing it out, and eventually the feeling of numbness in my hands and feet subsided, and the water felt much less distressing.
In the afternoon, I met up with Kate, Michael, and the cousins, and we did the usual Dublin adventure of pubs and pints. We explored the Temple Bar area, which is a popular area with a fair amount of tourist traffic. The centerpiece of the Temple Bar area, logically, is The Temple Bar Pub, a large pub with the exterior covered in flowers and lights. We enjoyed some pretty awesome Irish music over our pints, listening to a banjo/guitar/violin trio jam out.
For dinner, I split off from the fray and wandered out of the main Dublin area. In a small neighborhood north of the city, I randomly got dinner at an Indian restaurant and had a conversation with a local. There was a local soccer match going on, and everyone was wearing jerseys. I talked to the guy eating next to me about it, and he said soccer (football) is more popular north of the river, while rugby is more popular in the south. He also described the sport of rugby (while also indirectly implying the people to the south) as more posh. While it wasn’t a long conversation, I found it interesting how quickly I could learn about dynamics within the city.
At night, more of the same. Guinness, pubs, cousins. I met up with Kate and Michael, and the gang after their family dinner, and we spent their last night in Dublin doing the Dublin things to do (drink and watch live music). Cap the night off with some late-night pizza. That’s a successful night in my book.
Saturday - June 28th, 2025
I needed a break. Too many pubs, too many pints. Guinness is a filling beer, and our group had noticed that we really weren’t getting that hungry throughout the weekend since we were supplementing our solid meals with liquid ones.
Luckily, it was the perfect day for a break. Michael and Kate were heading out of Dublin that morning, and Maddy + family were busy with the day of the wedding festivities. At last, no more friends!
I did what has become second nature to me in solo travel. C&C. Time to seek out croissants + caffeine. I went to a pastry shop called Bread 41 (thank you, Pam, for the recommendation). I don’t always include the names of places I eat because the small details like that don’t always matter. But I had the best chocolate almond croissant I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot), so I thought I would include it as a tip for future Dublin travelers.
In the afternoon, I went to the Little Museum of Dublin, which, as its name suggests, was quite small. At the museum (which was in an old townhouse), an energetic teenager gave a very charming presentation of some general Dublin history in around forty minutes. The gist seemed to be that it was a Viking colony, and then an English settlement then its own republic. They don’t seem to love the British. And judging by how the English ruled, I don’t blame them.
What did I do at night? Nothing.
Dublin was full of friends, drinks, and celebration before a much-needed rest to cap it off.
I hope everyone’s holiday weekend at home is the same.
Have a great 4th of July, everyone.
Signing off from not the USA (unfortunately),
Jack
PSA: if you’re traveling to Dublin, be sure to include a Dublin detox trip extension at a destination that has fruits and vegetables available
I’m curious, are there liquid alternatives to Guinness? Different beer options?