Two days in Dublin & Keaton Henson

This post is another throwback - this time to February of this year - when Kelly and I went to Dublin on Valentines weekend to see Keaton Henson live. I'd already seen him play in London a few months before but I knew Kelly really wanted to see him and by chance I checked to see if he had any dates left on his tour and there it was - the last date on the tour - Dublin. 

With it being only an hour's flight away from Glasgow and return flights only costing us £20 each we couldn't not go so off we went on another adventure!

Kelly skipping to the airport gate at Glasgow Airport

Now one thing I've learned from travelling anywhere with Kelly is that you cannot trust her to not lose her phone. In Amsterdam she had it pick-pocketed; this time she lost it before the plane had even taken off - and no, I'm not joking. 

We had just taken our seats when she turned to me and said "I can't find my phone!" - I thought she was kidding... A few phone calls from me later and it was very clear that her phone didn't make the flight. 

One phone down and an hour later we were touching down at Dublin airport and catching the Aircoach bus (number 700 service) from the airport into the city paying €12 for a return ticket. 

The Spire on O'Connell Street

Having not been to Dublin for nearly a decade since my Dad took my brother and I to see Muse in 2008, I have to say it was weird actually recognising places and knowing where I was going. We got off the bus at O'Connell Street Lower and walked across the river into the Temple Bar area to our hostel.

We were staying at Barnacles Hostel which is right next to The Temple Bar - one of the most popular pubs in the district. After checking in and dumping our bags we went out for a wander - a first night tradition for us it seems.

We wandered with no destination in mind - I would simply ask Kelly "left or right?" whenever it came to making a decision and she would pick one at random and we'd head in that direction.

As the dark creeped up on us we headed back to the Temple Bar area and settled on a GBK for dinner - too intimidated by the many stag and hen do parties populating the pubs on a Friday night to go in.

A pint of heineken for me and a strawberry & elderflower fizzy drink for Kelly

Full to the brim with burgers and beer (for me at least) we headed back to the hostel and did another tradition of ours - watched a film on netflix on my phone (Into the Woods in Amsterdam, this time Hurricane Bianca).

The next day was gig day and after a Starbucks breakfast and a browse of what was around us, we spent the daytime going to different galleries. First up was The Hugh Lane Gallery which houses a massive collection of paintings by the likes of John Lavery, Sean Scully and Philip Guston as well as a whole Francis Bacon museum area which includes his actual studio re-situated from his London home. 

The Hugh Lane Gallery

Kelly flipping off a Sean Scully

Philip Guston

Francis Bacon's studio

Next we headed to a contemporary art gallery back in Temple Bar to see the video installation titled 'Woodall' by Hilary Lloyd. Though interesting to look at on a surface-level the work itself did not impress and we quickly moved on to the Gallery of Photography to see 'Mother River' by Yan Wang Preston - a stunning exhibition of photographs documenting the journey of the Yangtze river from beginning to end - a distance of 6,211 km. 

Alongside these photographs was a second series of photographs recording every bed the artist had slept in during the four years it took to complete the project - almost a social documentation of how people live in different regions of China.

Hilary Lloyd 'Woodall'

Yan Wang Preston - for these two photographs she loaded the film backwards by accident

After seeing as much art as we could before the galleries shut - we wandered the streets some more, going in to several Carroll's stores (the souvenir shop) and getting lost once or twice before going to Pho Ta for a Vietnamese dinner.

Dinner done and rain halted temporarily, we headed to the Olympia Theatre for the show. Keaton Henson did not disappoint on second go round as both the set list and the atmosphere were different. My insides turned to mush and Kelly cried - enough said.

The next day we had our final wander through the city centre, purchasing the last few souvenirs: socks and fridge magnets (because we literally cannot help ourselves) and grabbing breakfast at Esquires Coffee on Upper O'Connell Street before catching the bus back to the airport (too early as usual). Then eventually it was back on a flight to Glasgow...

All in all it was a great trip minus Kelly losing her phone as-fucking-usual and I would definitely recommend heading over to Dublin to see their art collections seeing as we did none of your stereotypical drinking...

- Melissa  x