The Life in Dublin

Mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da
Wack fall the daddy-o, wack fall the daddy-o
There’s whiskey in the jar

Our last, full day in Dublin started out special. We met an old aquaintance of mine, Lorraine, for breakfast at Bewley’s.

Lorraine and I at Bewley’s

I met Lorraine in New Zealand on two separate occasions, completely at random and liked her right from the start. We kept in touch on and off on Facebook ever since, so it was great to finally be able to catch up face-to-face! My mum even joined in the conversation, despite her misgivings about her English skills (she did just fine, no worries there).
The best thing about travelling, for me, is meeting people. Connecting with people and hearing their stories is a true gift, and with the introduction of internet and social media I can now keep in touch with them as well. It’s a true joy to me, I love it.

After a full Irish breakfast at Bewley’s (in Grafton street) we had to say goodbye to Lorraine, who was off to the horse show, so we made our way through the winding steets of the Grafton area. This place has seemed pretty alive every time we’ve been here, but on a Saturday I guess everything comes out 🙂 The streets where absolutely teeming with people, buskers, “living signposts” and the likes. It was both extremely rejuvenating and extremely tiring to meander through – we ended up making a lot of pit stops at local pubs and cafes

For any woman who likes to go shopping 😉

“Find us on Facebooook!”

“We are called Keywest and we’re on Facebook!”

The busking just never stopped, not that we’d want it too! The amount of creative talent on the streets of Dublin is mindblowing, and we had a right jolly old time dancing our way, well ok, wiggling our way from store to store.

“We’re gonna do a song by Public Enemy. Please like us on Facebook. Thanks.”

We also saw the Snickers-guys six or seven times, jumping about the place dressed as cavemen. Their costumes looked pretty hot (not like that) in the sunshine.

“I’m pretty sure…”

“…that Snickers is on Facebook!”

After checking out the bigger chains we started on the cozy and unique shops in the smaller “tucked away” areas. We “got-a-bit-lost-our-way” into to a small alley with a hidden away mall going right through the buildings on the ground floor. Don’t ask me to give you the directions, I don’t think I could find it again ever. It gave off a “Harry Pottery”/”Diagon Alley” kind of feel, except it sold old clothes and weird art rather than wands… But we found our way out to the real world again and hadn’t mysteriously lost several years in the process, so it was all good. And now was the time for food. By this time our legs were killing us and the busking and constantly full coffee shops were just plain tiring, so we dove into the nearest free space – only to find that it was the Shangri-La of the Vegan/Organic/Ecological/ZealouslyFreerange society O.o We dove back out again…

With grim determination we decided to wade through the throng and head for (by now) well known territory. Personally, I like trying out as many new places as I possibly can, but given the stress and the strain on my co-traveller, I decided to adjust a bit to her needs for comfort. Not at all unpleasant as we soon found ourselves in the Temple Bar area and right back with Patrick at Buskers.

Mum: “We’re leaving tomorrow.” Patrick: “I miss you already,” Lucky we don’t tip the bouncer :-p

Interesting interior… :-p

It’s our last day, we’re allowed to indulge ourselves a bit 😉

Buskers is, as the name suggests, all about the music (and cheeky interior decorators) ;-p

And as promised…

…tonight was no exception. (This guy was pretty good).

After stuffing ourselves on a good dinner and better dessert, we decided we hadn’t had enough music for one day and headed down the few meters to the world famous Gogarty’s Pub. There was practically as much life inside this pub as there was in the rest of Dublin combined! Gogarty’s is were we couldn’t get a table earlier in the week and the wasn’t a virgin’s chance in Sodoma we were gonna get one tonight, but that didn’t matter this time because we were done eating. We were there for music and drinks! And as soon as I saw the young woman surrounded by brushes, paint and glitter I instantly knew that I was sure as hell there for some face painting too!

Haisa is from Brasil and she’s painted more faces than… That painter guy who painted portraits all the time.

Haisa charges a modest 3 euros (unless you work at Gogarty’s, then it’s free) and you can choose between about 15 different designs. I went all out on the mega-Irish “HI! I’M A TOURIST!!1”-design and picked a nice, freakin’ huge shamrock all over my cheek. Luckily, the bar was full of tourists (and some Irish who wanted to amp up the cringe effect) so practically everyone had stuff like this on their face 😉

Gogarty’s is the perfect place to close out an evening in Dublin. I can’t speak for the food in the place as I haven’t tasted it, but the staff are friendly (even with the enormous stress they must be under) and look like they’re genuinly having fun with the customers, the location is great, the pub’s interior full of funny and interesting knick-knacks and the live bands… Oh, the live bands. You must. You simply must go check it out. 🙂