I caught an early train from Killarney to Dublin on Sept 28th for my last stop before returning home. It was mostly a nice day – just a bit overcast but otherwise nice. There were even some sunny spots along the way, which were quite cheery.

The train ride went well, but it turned out that I had booked myself a backward-facing seat. Boo hiss!! You can’t tell when you book the seat what direction the car will be facing when en route. I rolled the dice and lost!

All was not lost, though – there wasn’t anybody sitting beside me, so I won the comfort toss on that one. 🙂

When I got into Dublin (just before 11 a.m.), I got a taxi to my hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn Dublin Custom House) and dropped my bags off.

I had picked that hotel because it was next to the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum. I have an interest in genealogy so I wanted to go to the museum to see if I could get some information about emigration to Newfoundland and maybe make some connections to the people in my family tree from Ireland – maybe through ship manifests or something.

It didn’t have that kind of information, but was very interesting all the same. In part because of the architecture.

It is in the restored CHQ (Custom House Quay) building. Shops, cafes and such, and the entrance to the museum, are on the main level and the displays are below ground, in the vaults that were used for storage of cargo.

One surprising thing was that, in one of the displays that showed the impacts of Irish emigration worldwide, Newfoundland didn’t really figure in much. Even more surprisingly was that the west coast of Newfoundland was the only part that showed up, not the east coast – the part called “The Irish Loop”. It’s interesting – something I’ll do some more digging on.

It was all really well done, I have to say. There was a nice mix of types of displays – visual, audio, interactive, etc. If you are ever in Dublin, I recommend checking it out.

Here are some pictures of one of the displays. It was a busy place so it wasn’t possible to get a photo sans visitors.

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After the museum, I booked a session with a professional genealogist for a little later in the afternoon. I ate my lunch on the main level of the CHQ and then headed back to the hotel to get settled in before the genealogy session.

I discovered quite clearly when I got into my room that I apparently love purple. In addition to the purple backpack and suitcases (which fit in perfectly with the room decor!), I should add that my Fitbit strap, tablet case and cell phone cover are also purple. None of it was planned – all items were bought completely separately (well, except for the suitcases, which came as a set). I may need to branch out… 🙂

The room was quite comfortable and had a lovely view over the River Liffy.

You can’t really tell, but there’s a protest march of some sort on the other side of the river. I’m not sure what it was about. It sounded like they were chanting “No more Duncan Hynes”, but I’m pretty confident that’s not what they were actually saying. 🙂 🙂 🙂

The genealogy session was a lot of fun! The guy working with me was Patrick. He was a hoot!! Mind you, I’m a bit of a family history geek, so my definition of “fun” might be a bit different than yours!

After that, I went to a pub that’s also in the CHQ building and had a sodie pop and people watched for a while before dinner.

The pub is on the main floor and has a nice, large outdoor seating area, too. The pub only serves tapas and I wanted a really nice meal for my last one in Ireland. However, downstairs is the affiliated Stack A restaurant so I opted to go there for dinner. Like the museum, is also located in the old custom vaults and is just spectacular.

Despite the quality issues with some of the photos, I think you can see why I say that. The food was amazing, too.

If I’m ever back in Dublin, I’m going back there for sure.

If you’re ever in Dublin, you need to go, too!

After a nice, leisurely dinner, I went back to the hotel for the drudgery of packing for my flight the next day and going through my receipts and stuff for Customs. Not an exciting way to spend your only night in Dublin, but necessary and, even so, it was still a lovely last night of my holiday.

The next morning brought me to the airport – after a lovely taxi ride with a super nice driver. No hitches or glitches with either of my flights, either.

And then, before I knew it, I was home.