By Yevgeniy Levich

The most breath taking and memorable view of my European excursions was standing on a cliff’s edge, several steps from guaranteed wet, jagged, rocky death with the Atlantic Ocean laid out in front of me. Don’t get me wrong, Dublin is a wonderful city to visit, but the best choice I made while there was getting out of town. Ireland’s real magic lies in its small villages and amazing natural views.

Things to do: If you like alcohol then definitely go on the Guinness and Jameson tours. Check out the Jameson first for two reasons. 1. Liquor before beer, and 2. The personalized tour of the Jameson brewing process will make the self guided tour through Guinness easier to understand. Also, volunteer for the tasting at the Jameson factory if you can. Volunteering gets you three extra free shots (always nice), and a lesson in the fine differences between scotch, bourbon and Irish whiskey.

There is also plenty of architecture around—Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College to name a few. Trinity College has the Book of Kells exhibition, which deals with ancient Irish culture and mythology.

Of course there’s also “The Spire,” or as my bartender put it “a big fooking needle,” in the center of Dublin. Commissioned to celebrate the millennium but only completed in 2003, it’s a pretty controversial and arguably pointless addition to the skyline but it makes navigation at night significantly easier.

Nightlife: Maybe we got lucky, but when we went out on a relatively slow Monday night we ran into the best bartenders ever. I spent four hours learning and debating history, culture, food, sports, music and places to see with two intriguing Irish guys while running up a significant tab.
Another standout for Irish bars is the music. It’s everywhere along the Temple Bar. Most bars have daily live acts and there is even a nightly “Musical Pub Crawl” that I didn’t go on, but go if you aren’t up to finding bars on your own or want a bigger group. The acts we saw were all pretty decent, playing traditional folk songs and covers of popular songs with an Irish flair.

Get Out!: It’s easy and cheap (no more than 5 € for a round trip) to discover wonderful off the beaten path sites by just riding the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) to various small towns along the coast.
Personally my group got lost along the cliffs of the incredibly charming seaside town of Howth. Imagine finding strange dirt paths in between modern, expensive looking estates that lead to cliffs and hills with amazing views and sometimes mysterious ruins. They also have amazing, though pricey, seafood restaurants that use fresh fish caught from the bay, access by boat to Ireland’s Eye a picturesque but uninhabited island, and something you might not expect to see in Ireland, seals!
There are also daily bus trips to areas of interest further north including Newgrange, a giant monolithic temple that is older than Stonehenge, and the former seat of the Irish high kings, the Hill of Tara. It is said that from the hill, you can see 25 percent of the country on a clear day.

Costs: Getting to Dublin is relatively cheap–you can easily find tickets for under $90 via Ryanair. My hostel was about average in terms of room quality and only cost me 12 € a night. However, the cheap accommodations are balanced out by the relative priciness of going out. A pint can run you anywhere between 4.50 € and 6 €. The nice thing is that straight shots often costs as much as or even less than the beer.