I am very stoked to be going to Dublin for the first time in my life!

I will be travelling for work to Dublin and staying there for a week-ish in august. That week will probably be busy with work stuff, maybe the odd evening here and there will be free. So what I am thinking is: arriving about 2-3 days early (before my work stuff starts) explore/chill, then do my work stuff for the coming week(~4-5 days), then either stay another 2-3 days in Dublin (is that too much time in Dublin!?) OR, since i am already in this part of the world, check out other parts of UK? (Scotland maybe? England?)

I am currently 50/50 on just staying a bit longer in Dublin or going to London (Reason for London is I know a couple people there so could meet up with them). I see that there is a Ferry I could take, that seems like it would be fun? (anyone done this?)

So anyway, scenario one is 2-3 days in Dublin 5 days of work (which will have variable free time, so I would not count this as "time in Dublin" since I may be too busy to enjoy Dublin) another 2-3 days there after work thing has ended. (either stay in Dublin or checkout another city in Ireland)

OR scenario 2: 2-3 days in Dublin 5 days of work as described above then X amount of days in London maybe? (how many days are good in London? 3? 5?)

Hopefully people can chime in with their experiences!

budget: no real budget- happy to spend a bit to have fun. but im not super rich or anything... let's just say i will not be staying in any hostel or cheaping out on stuff, (but wont be doing any "fine" dining)

things I like doing: aimless wandering in cities/nature, museums, meeting locals, people watching