After a very interesting night ending with a questionable Tinder match, my friend and I groggily hit the streets in search of breakfast, and we didn't have to travel far. Downstairs and next to our hostel, we found a great place to eat called Art Cafe Dublin that offered a delicious (kind of bland, but still good) breakfast for my friend and I before we headed out for the day. In this location, we still got a lot of stares, bold, open-faced stares and gawkers, which by now in Dublin we were used to, but we enjoyed ourselves regardless. The bland breakfast (complete with sweet beans which I definitely didn't try) was great for our upset stomachs from drinking too much the night before. We cut our breakfast short so we could begin getting ready for our trip to an actual castle nearby! Malahide CastleHey! It's us at Malahide Castle! This smaller castle is an amazing historical site not far from the city center! We caught the DART from Connelly to Malahide and it took about 40 minutes with 8 stops between from Dublin. Upon arriving, it was about an 18 minute walk from the station, and a scenic one at that! The castle itself is beautiful, not huge, but very old and impressive. We took a guided tour and got to see inside the castle and the grounds. The only disappointment is that the furniture they had on display was not where they originally should be (i.e. if you're standing in a room that looks like a sitting room, it was actually the dining room back in the day). This made it hard to visualize what the room would actually look like. The tour guide gave us a lot of information about the history and was very knowledgeable about the castle. After the tour, we decided to head to the butterfly greenhouse, which is included with the ticket and it was nice, very small but nice to see. We took a leisurely walk through the greenhouse and examined the gorgeous flora and fauna that they managed to keep protected from the elements. After, we headed back inside where they also had a massive gift shop and plenty of decently priced food! After taking our time at the castle, my friend and I headed back to the city center for dinner and a bit of relaxation before going to our next tour that evening. We visited a great Italian restaurant called Toto Ristorante Italiano which really hit the spot after a long day of walking. They were offering a deal which we took advantage of (kind of) and kicked back while we waited for our time to head to our tour at.... The National Leprechaun Museum!!Now, before you roast me for going to something so clearly corny, I'll have you know that their night time adult tour is known to be a "gas" (am I using the word correctly?). My friend and I bought tickets online, and headed over as soon as it began to get dark. The tour wasn't incredibly crowded, and we were glad for this, so that it would be more of an intimate setting and we wouldn't have to fight for space to stand. The museum was set up to be spookier and more frightening than it was in the day time, and our tour guide had us walk through this expansive museum while telling us lore and gruesome stories involving the supernatural. My friend and I had a blast, as the tour guide was great at storytelling, it didn't feel corny at all! It was also great that the museum is interactive, allowing us to climb on giant furniture and touch whatever we liked! Dublin: Night ThreeHands down, the best night of the trip, where the city was lacking in hip-hop/rap, the Academy Club made up for it. The Academy cost 10 Euros a person, and on a Saturday night at 11 when they opened, it was packed. The only problem is that the crowd is extremely young...like 18 years old young, but my friend and I didn't care, we just went for the drinks and music as they had many different levels of dancing to choose from. The décor on the inside is impressive, it has a circus theme which is something we hadn't seen before. One level we tried had house/techno and the second level had hip-hop and rap (be still my beating heart). The hip hop level had video games on it and a lot of open seating and room to dance which was great. If you think about it, the whole video games and really young crowd made me feel like it was something 6ix 9ine would have created, but whatever, it served its purpose. They had two separate bars with one being for cocktails only, the prices weren't bad and it was 2 euros to check your coat if you wanted. This was also the night I met a great new Irish friend whom I exchanged numbers with and still talk to currently! We wanted to stay longer, but had to head back to the hostel for a really early tour the next day.
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