After we had planned our trip for the tour Val found out TCU was playing North Carolina in Dublin and wanted to go. Hence the crazy flight to Dublin yesterday. The game was at 5 so we had most of the day to hit a few of the pre game festivities and see a few sights.

First stop was a bar that the band was going to march by around 11 but that didn’t really work out. It was raining a bit so we didn’t wait around to see them. Instead we headed down to Temple Bar to hear some Irish music and have a beer. We got a table so decided to have a sandwich as well. I had a delicious ham and cheese toastie. Temple Bar was a happening place even before noon.

After the bar we wandered around. We were headed to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral but came across Christ Church on the way. We decided to venture in.

The floors were my favorite part. A majority are replicas but a small chapel in the back did have the original medieval floors that you can still see. I don’t know what it is about floors and fancy tiles but I do love them.

The church is also home to St Laurence’s heart. He is the patron saint of Dublin. He dies in fence in 1180 but supposedly his heart was brought to the church soon after. So after a few centuries in the church someone stole it in 2012. It was found in 2018 so his heart is hopefully still encased in the stone.

Christ church was also used for scenes from the Tudors and some of the costumes along with some statutes were down in the crypt. Sadly the copy of the Magna Carta was not on display but they did have the mummified remains of a cat and rat they found in an organ pipe proudly displayed.

From Christ Church we buried through the rain the St Patrick’s. Another lovely church more on a grand scale than Christ Church which being the cathedral makes sense. It had a lot of battle flags and war memorials. The stone from the well at the original site is displayed in the church but nothing to top the cat and mouse. There was no crypt here so everything was pretty normal. It was pretty but I am glad we stumbled over Christ Church had we already done St Patrick’s we probably would have skipped it and I found it more interesting. Though I do love the memorial battle flags.

From the church we stumbled onto a Marsh’s library. The first public library not associated with a university in Ireland founded in the early 1700 by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh. It is still in use today. You can requests manuscripts and have them delivered to the reading room. Back in the day to ensure the books didn’t leave the library if you wanted to read one you were looked in a reading cage. The library had a Gulliver’s Travel exhibit. They had copies of the books in multiple languages

From the library we headed towards the stadium. We thought we would come across somewhere to eat but sadly that was not the case. Although it seemed to take forever to get there the directions were mainly down small residential streets. I think my maps was avoiding busy roads and thereby missing all the food. When we finally arrived the two pubs by the stadium were already packed so we just headed towards our gate to wait for it to open up.

It wasn’t a bad wait and we were quickly in the stadium. It was a nice facility and unlike at home they don’t gouge you for food and drinks. I had 3 beers for not much more than I could get one at a concert at home. And our chicken and fries wasn’t bad either. Foot long hot dogs were only five euros but I decided probably not the best idea. The kid in front of us had 2.

I only took one picture and that was the band and the Irish dancers who opened the game.

The game was not the best and sadly TCU did not win. They had some good chances but didn’t pull it together. I am sure playing in Dublin was a little different than playing at home.

I pulled Val away with less than a minute to play so we could get out of the stadium and ahead of the crowd for the walk back to the hotel. It was a long trek and I was glad to get back and call it a day.