Hi guys, welcome to another episode of Ultimate
Bucket List, and on today's show I show you around the spiritual home of the Irish Gaelic
Sports. Croke Park, the largest stadium in Ireland
and the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. This is the governing body of the Gaelic Sports
such as Hurling, Gaelic Football, Camogie and Handball. As this is located in Dublin, it's sometimes
also home to Dublin GAA, go dubs! And this mammoth looking facility has a mammoth
amount of seats. Built in 1884 with a capacity crowd of 82,300,
it's hard to believe that this is the third largest stadium in all of Europe. But what's it like to actually go around? Well firstly it's located in the middle of
a housing estate, so you're going to have to walk along some very dodgy looking streets
in order to get here. Boy that's really dodgy looking! In the meantime, you might come across this
place; the National Handball Centre, and the entrance to the Stadium Tours is literally
signposted all the way to the entrance. So follow the signs and into the car park
where you'll come across the Cusack End and … whoa there's a lot of kids here today! Boy, I hope I'm not stuck in a school group
full of all these people. Anyway right here you'll find the statue of
Michael Cusack himself, the founder of the GAA. And the entrance to the Stadium tours is right
here where it says the GAA Museum, in and amongst the club wall full of all the clubs
in Ireland. Whilst you're here actually check out the
Blackthorn Cafe named after Michael Cusack's Blackthorn walking stick. It's actually quite a nice place to chill
out and have a meal before the actual tour begins. Speaking of which, when the tour begins they'll
lead you out into the press conference bay, where you'll get shown a rousing video about
what it's like on All Ireland final day. The pageantry, the emotion. But once you finish with the film, it's time
to walk around the exterior of the stadium. You'll find some giant looking things here
such as these giant hurley’s, but as you can tell guys it's a massive stadium and you'll
be walking for quite a bit. You'll eventually come across one of the corporate
hospitality areas and more importantly the players-only lounge. As you can tell from the name of course, it's
used only by the players and their friends and family. If you take a closer look at the chandeliers
they're all Sliotar’s and Gaelic footballs, so that's pretty cool. Croke park has six identical changing rooms,
and this is so that no one team has an advantage over another. We step foot in this one with all of the club's
jerseys out on display. It's pretty cool to see the variation of the
playing jerseys and it's also nice to hear what goes on in a typical dressing room. Go Dubs! You get a small talk as to what happens in
a typical dressing room on a typical game day and you also get shown arousing video
as to what actually happens in here. Let's see what the shower and toilet facilities
are like … actually pretty nice! And given that there's six dressing rooms
exactly like this, this is quite fancy even by Premier League standards. Once you've had your pictures taken with your
favourite team shirts, it's now time to walk out into the warm-up area. And once again it has several warm-up areas
for every single team. It's a nice place to kick a ball around before
you actually step foot onto the field. It's here that you'll also find the medical
facilities and the massage stations. But anyway it's time to get the hell out of
here and walk out of the tunnel. You do a Tunnel Walk, kind of, in an amongst
a little bit of crowd music … where you'll be greeted by this tractor looking thing. As you can tell they're working on the field
right now, so we don't stick around this area for very long, mainly because the tractor's
in the way. So it's up the stairs we go and past the coaches
seats into the cup presentation area. So, if you win a trophy your team gets invited
up here. And the view from the trophy presentation
area pretty good. You're given a talk about what typically happens
when a team wins something like the Liam McCarthy cup, and he'll tell you a lot about the actual
stadium itself. Such as what the grass is like, how many seats
there are, you know the typical stuff that you would typically find in any typical stadium
tour. Looking around the stadium, apart from this
end bit here, the stadium is absolutely mammoth. And I'm sure if they developed this end here,
this place would reach over 100,000 easy. Unfortunately they can't due to the residents
behind the stadium. But it's a nice Stadium anyway even though
it looks like it's three quarters built. You get lots of education here before climbing
up the stairs and into the slightly more fancier seats. So from the rich-people seats, the view is
still pretty good. But if you're a rich person and you can afford
these seats, you also get access to this lounge, which is a lot fancier than what everyone
else gets. And currently I think they're filming something
here, so we don't stick around here for very long. It's up several escalators we go before we
reach the 700 section of the stadium. We're here outside of the press area. You get a short historical talk about the
voice of the GAA Michael O' Hehir, before walking out into the press area. And boy it's really steep up here! If you're a journalist, this is how you'll
view the game. But if you're a poor person like me who can
only afford the cheap seats, right at the top here, the seating area is pretty damn
steep. If you're scared of heights or if you suffer
from vertigo this is definitely a bad day for you. It's really steep up here, and it certainly
isn't as nice of you as it was down in the rich people seats. By the way you can actually take a tour of
Croke Park from the roof of the stadium if you want to. Yes, they do something called the Skywalk
where you can walk around the roof of Croke Park, but I didn't bother, obviously. Instead of walking around the roof, we end
up walking around the edge of the stadium. So you get a nice lovely view of Dublin especially
on a nice day like today, because usually it's pouring down with rain. That's the Handball Centre again. We walk around and into one of the Corporate
Hospitality boxes which are fancy. Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing a game from here! With your own Corporate Hospitality box you
get your own Corporate Hospitality seats. So this section right here is for your entire
box, so that's pretty good. And the view not bad not bad at all! I think if I was to get tickets to an All-Ireland
Final I'd probably have to buy one of these boxes just for myself. That's the only way you apparently get tickets
to these things if you're not affiliated with either team. But anyway, it's time to go back to ground
level and our tour is actually almost finished. You get a talk about all of the clubs that
play for the GAA, before waving goodbye and you can finish your tour here if you want
to. That said the price of Entry also includes
access to the GAA Museum. This is one of the nicest museums that I've
ever come across. As soon as you walk in, there's a giant video
playing about some of the most exciting moments in Gaelic Sports history. And the first thing you'll notice when you
come into the museum is that it's incredibly colourful. There's definitely a lot to learn a lot to
see and a lot to do here. The most important things are right here in
this display cabinet. In particular these two trophies right here. The Sam Maguire Cup which is awarded to the
victors of the All-Ireland champions of Gaelic Football. And this, the Liam McCarthy Cup - awarded
to the victors of the All-Ireland champions of Hurling. Together these two are the two Holy Grails
of Irish Sports. And it's pretty cool to see them up close
and personal, as I've only ever seen these on TV and on the internet. Speaking of which, there's plenty of artefacts
and exhibits to keep you entertained and occupied. Whether it's playing jerseys, things that
people have won, actual game used memorabilia, it's all very very educational. And if I'm being honest a little bit overwhelming! If you're a fan of the Irish Sports this will
be pretty enthralling and you can easily spend anywhere between an hour and two hours here. It's definitely worth taking your time to
explore some of the things that are on display here at the GAA Museum. You'll also learn about the tragic events
of Bloody Sunday, an incident that no Irish person will ever forget. All the exhibits are incredibly interesting
and you'll even visit the GAA Hall of Fame which denotes some of the best players to
have ever played their sports. And yeah you can definitely spend hours in
here if you're a massive fan. If you're a younger fan and you don't want
to be bored with education. there's lots of interactive things for you
to do. Yes, you can even test your Hurling and Gaelic
football, and there's plenty of things for you to try and do yourself. Such as high-catching, reaction times. But undoubtedly the two most popular ones
are the Hurling and the Gaelic football. How's my hurling skills? Well that's actually not bad. And my Gaelic football? Well that's one. That's two. That's two again. And that's three. And just in case you missed it because my
leg was in the way, there's three again. Easy! But overall a visit to the GAA Museum definitely
comes highly recommended. But before you go there's a gift shop! There's not much to buy here in the gift shop,
it's only really small but it's definitely worth buying a souvenir as a memento of your
visit. Overall if you are in the Dublin area or if
you are a fan of the Irish Sports, this definitely comes recommended. Special thanks to our tour guide Jonny - he
did a fantastic tour today. It's definitely worth visiting once in your
life, especially if you're a fan of the Irish sports or if you're here in the Dublin area. So Ninh, where does this rank on the hierarchy
of your stadium tours? Well, even though the GAA maintains that Croke
Park is a venue for Gaelic Sports only, it has hosted association football in the past,
so it does actually go on my hierarchy and it goes somewhere around here. It's a good tour and the museum definitely
makes it worth the money. The things that you do see around the Croke
Park tour, you don't get to see all that much of it. But you know what? It was actually better than quite a lot of
the tours that I've done, that have a lot more stuff on display, so I can't be too critical
about that. If it didn't include that wonderful museum
it'd probably be lower. But as it stands it's pretty good. Okay Ninh, I'm sold. What do I need to do? Well you'll need to come here to Croke Park. It's situated in the Northeast area of Dublin,
and to get here I decided to walk in, took about 25 minutes just from walking in from
the city centre, but public transportation is readily available. The cost to do the tour, it was about €15
and for that you get a full guided tour and access to the GAA Museum, so it definitely
is value for money. Is there anything else I need to know? Yes, officially videography is not allowed
though you can take as many photos as you like. And there's a lot of walking and a lot of
stair climbing on this tour, so if you're not good with stairs or if you don't like
to walk a lot, this might not be the tour for you. But overall guys, it's definitely worth visiting
once in your life. And if you have enjoyed this episode, please
be sure to like, share and subscribe. Comment on that comment section below, and
if you've got any other bucket list ideas, you know what to do. If I get enough suggestions, I'll probably
make a video about it. So guys, thank you very much for watching. From here at Croke Park, we'll see you in
the next episode. Ninh Ly – www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK