011. Take That - 'Progress' Tour 2011 [Croke Park - Dublin, June 19]

Our trip to Dublin came about purely because I could not get UK tickets for Take That's 'Progress' tour. The day that the tickets were released was crazy, I tried at 9am and at lunch, after work as well and couldn't get anything. A friend said to try Ticketmaster.ie rather than the UK site, I saw Dublin still had good availability in the standing section and with only 2 minutes to make up my mind, we went for it!

It was an expensive trip away, but I'm glad we stayed an extra night to see the city of Dublin. We had a great weekend and it was so nice to get away. It felt bizarre to go on a plane for only an hour, I actually got a little nervous before we took off and I'm always so sure of my love for flying - odd.

We were lucky with the weather pretty much all weekend - hoodie and jeans was a good outfit choice, it got quite chilly at times. No rain on the day of the show was great, the night before had been torrential!

Here are a selection of the best pics of the night.

067. Visit 5 countries I've never been to before (2/5)

IRELAND: Dublin

We were in Dublin to see Take That play a concert at Croke Park stadium. We made the most of having to go so far to see the show and stayed an extra night and day so we could have some time to explore the city. More on the show later!

We bought a three day city bus pass which let us use the airport's Airlink transfer bus, the Dublin Bus network and the hop-on, hop-off open top bus tour for our entire stay. At just 26 Euros each, the passes saved us so much money - such a great idea, they don't put the posters in the toilets just for the fun of it!

We flew out from Stansted on Saturday lunchtime. Once in Dublin, checked in and rested for an hour or so in the hotel room we headed out for a walk into the city. Our hotel was in Parnell Square right at the top of the central O'Connell Street. We intended to hope on a bus all the way down to the river and Temple Bar, but it wasn't really that far so we just kept on going. Our exploring turned into a hunt for somewhere to eat dinner, finally we found the familiar TGI Friday's restaurant.

Sunday was our full day for exploring and doing the tourist thing. It was a shame because everything is so slow starting on a Sunday morning - with Irish hangovers and the church-goers, nothing really came to life until lunchtime. While we waited for the shops and restaurants to open we hopped on the bus tour to Dublin Castle and walked back towards the Trinity College through Temple Bar and Grafton Street.

I didn't take many photos of the city at all, there aren't really that many infamous sites recognised by everyone. So I stuck with a few of the statues (Parnell and Larkin), Temple Bar and Dublin Castle.