How I Discovered Dublin

When I was 25 I started a metaphorical trip of self discovery and self improvement. I wrote down a list of things that I wanted to do and how each one would help me improve not only my quality of life but my work as a professional as well. At first I stayed with a friend who worked as a staff manager on an Italian course New York City located. That was a true blessing since I quickly found out that the price for living in the heart of the City that Never Sleeps must be the cause of all that insomnia!

By then I had decided that one of the first things that I would tackle would be languages. They are an excellent way to train your brain and would allow me to travel to places that I definitely wanted to visit. I was looking to start a German course New York was as good as any other city to do it (perhaps better) but I somehow was still not convinced. The prices were not very good and there was no institution that really seemed reliable as far as the quality of their work.

At the time I did have a lot of things to occupy my time so I turned to other areas I wanted to improve or look into on my list. Eventually one of them lead me to a French summer camp where I was taking lessons on art history that had been long overdue (I recommend all graphic designers to at least acquire a basic understanding and knowledge of history nowadays.) The French camp was a nice although ultimately shallow point in my journey, but it was there where I learned that a few classmates from my University were just a few days from arriving at Dublin. They were going to celebrate that a few of them had finally gotten their degrees and I quickly called in to make sure there was room for me as well. The timing could not have been better as it turned out that one of the attendants had to cancel due to work getting in the way (which was awful for him and fantastic for me.)

My Trip Accross the Pond

Dublin Castle in all its glory!

I traveled to Dublin by plane (to London) and then train since I had a couple of days to kill and had often heard that, even though the process is longer and a bit tiresome, the trip itself is great and the scenery is beautiful. Trains also have the added benefit of being rather cheap, although they are not the only cheap way to move around in Europe. A friend who had gone to learn French in Switzerland actually found some incredibly cheap deals and got there through a flight from Geneva to Dublin. When we latter checked, we found out that, depending on the date you book your flight and on the date the flight actually takes place, you can find excellent prices for plane travel across Europe and to Dublin.

Boy was Dublin great! I got there a day earlier so I quickly arranged a mini tour of some places that were highly advertised and some that I was personally curious about. Among the former was the Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library, which ended up being a great way to spend my morning and find out what the former seat of the government was like. The Library was declared as the best European museum of 2002 and you can certainly tell. There is a lot of care put into making it more than a repository for information and into a great experience for a tourist like me. Among those places that I was curious about was the Bram Stoker Museum. I've been a fan of the world famous Dracula novel since I was a child and I still remember how frightened I was at nights thinking that Dracula would come for me. The tour was such a blast and the scary atmosphere really made me go back to my childhood.