Trip to Dublin, Ireland - 31st March to 2nd April 2006

A drinking weekend in Dublin, a city I have been led to believe is a party magnet. A very early arrival, too early to check into a hotel, meant that we had about 3 hours spare in the morning - during which we pretty much managed to walk around the entire city, and see most of what is there. So, for the rest of the weekend, we retired to various pubs to eat and drink.

Dublin has done very well to create the impression that there is lots to do there, apart from drinking and the odd meal. Other than the Guinness Brewery (which is basically just drinking and learning about drinking), there is little in the way of tourist attraction. Of course, there are shops there, but nothing you couldn't find in any town in England.

The most amazing thing about the city is the eye-watering expense of pretty much everything. One round that we bought averaged at 6 Euro per drink. The rest weren't much cheaper. Much of the food is London prices, but with a fraction of the quality or service. Living in London, I thought that nowhere had the power to shock me with its high prices - Dublin proved that wrong.

Finding ourselves in Temple Bar on Saturday night, there were countless people worth avoiding - Scousers on hen weekends, and various assorted chavs on stag and football tours. Avoid all that, and there are some great places to go drinking, and the Irish music that is pretty much everywhere was also of a generally excellent standard.

If you ignore the cost, avoid the chavs, and concentrate on drinking in nice places, it is an excellent place for a weekend out. I probably wouldn't go back too soon though.