Temple Bar

What can one say about the Temple Bar area of Dublin? For those who havent been there, its best to liken it to the French Quarter in New Orleans (before the destruction) without all the nudity. Its pretty much non stop beer drinking. Most of the bars open around 10am and close around 3am.

When we arrived around midnight on Thursday, we crossed the street to the beginning of Temple Bar (we had a great hotel location--Westin). Temple Bar is basically about a mile long with the majority of it being one street and the various side streets. It was more than crowded but nothing compared to Friday and Saturday nights when the folks from Wales invaded the city for the big Ireland/Wales 6 Nations Rugby game (Wales won by the way). We enjoyed ourselves on Thursday but Friday and Saturday was just a bit much.

Its also the only place I have ever been where men dance together without being looked at funny and no one offers to buy you a drink (at 5 euro a beer, its not surprising). In other words, the bars in Temple Bar arent pick up joints--they are drinking joints and the Irish take their drinking seriously! So despite the fact that girls are outnumbered almost 50 to 1, its just not the boost for the ego that one would expect (or hope). They just arent that interested when there is beer around! haha

We checked it out during daylight and really didnt find much difference from the night hours....tons of people in all the bars everywhere. I stopped to have my pic taken in front of the famous namesake bar (red pic) and before you know it, a bunch of drinkers come out of the bar to have their pic taken as well--happy, friendly folk!

So, I have been to Temple Bar now and can cross that off my list of things to do in life. And I really dont need to go back to it....Dublin, yes, Temple Bar, no.