SUMMARY :: Dublin

When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.
James Joyce

YEAR: 2013
DURATION: 1 week
INFO: Spent a week with my mum who is 73 years of age now, so the high speed stuff was out of the question. Lucky then that Dublin is a vibrant city with 1,2 million people and plenty of pubs to wind down between sights.
FAVOURITE PLACE: Didn’t find a specific place this time, but however touristy it might be I recommend a visit to Gogarty’s pub in Temple Bar. The music and atmosphere there is loads of fun!
I RECOMMEND DOING: Chat with the locals as much as you can. I know this goes for every place I visit, but the people of Dublin were my favourite thing, they are so laidback and friendly it was pure joy to interact with them. (Be adviced though, if your culture values the formalities more, they might come across as a bit too chummy). With regard to an actual thing to check off your list I would recommend going to Grafton street and then getting lost down the little side alleys there. Grafton street itself is nice enough, very touristy, but easy to find and to find your way back to. The little shops and cafes that pop up in the streets branching off Grafton street are little gems (for the most part). Also, buy a two day pass on the green buses and hop on one with live commentary. Seriously. You wont regret it.
I RECOMMEND EATING: A full Irish breakfast at least once. It absolutely gorgeous, it’s pretty much a full English, but with white pudding and whatever other knickknack the restaurant or cafe deems necessary (the rules are a bit iffey some places) 😉 You wont have to eat again until very late too, so feel free to splurge on this.

FAVOURITE CHEESY SOUVENIR: I got three this time. The necklace my mum bought for me at Kylemore Abbey, a lovely Guinness christmas bauble and a perfect little leprechaun hat for celebrating St. Paddy’s. Sometimes you gotta love the cringeworthy souvenirs ❤

The Irish Harp

I have a (not so secret) dream to one day decorate a traveller’s christmas tree with baubles from all over the world…

Always after me lucky charms…

We had a couple of hours for breakfast in Dublin before Kieran was picking us up to drive us to the airport, so we headed down O’Connell Street to have another Full Irish at Kylemore’s. After sitting on my mother’s suitcase to get is closed, that is…

“It closed perfectly when I packed it back home…!”

The streets were packed with people this day, dressed in either red or blue. Fans of Hurling come to see the semi finals between Dublin (blue) and Cork (red). Vendors were milling to sell different goods in the selected colours and entire families of people in similar shirts wandering about trying to keep an eye on their kids in the throng. The atmosphere was really good and completely free of hooliganism – a nice contrast to the Tottenham – Arsenal matches in England 😉

“BlablablablaCOLOURSOFTHEGAAAAME!”

“Give me a C! Give me an O! Give me an R! Give me a C! Give me an A! Give me an I! Give me a G! Give me an H! What does that spell!?!?!?
CORK!”

Finally we got picked up by Kieran at the hotel.

Mum & Kieran

And what’s the first thing I see at the airport?

We are indeed on Facebook…

I loved Dublin, it was slow enough to spend a week with a not-so-mobile citizen, but fast paced enough for me not to get bored. The people were lovely and the city itself showed her best colours while we were there. I can imagine it’s a bit more dreary if you’re wandering about in the rain, but that’s true for every cityscape, really. We were lucky with the weather, but the rest of it was local and permanent charm.

See ya, Dublin.