Dublin and Irish Grub

Well, I made it just fine. No delays, no long lines. My air transit from Berlin to Frankfurt to Dublin went perfectly smoothly. On top of that, I knocked out as soon as I sat down in my seat, so I don't even remember the three total hours I was in the air.

Apparently, you get a stamp in your passport for entering Ireland. Somewhat ironically, it's in green ink. I find that highly amusing.

After getting our bags, my friend, Olivia, and I headed to the buses. The first thing I noticed is that the Irish drive on the left side of the road, and the drivers sit in what would be the passenger seat in an American car. (I must admit: I did absolutely no research prior to my trip, so I am relying on Olivia's list of sites to visit for this trip.) Anyway, kind of bizarre watching cars drive down the "wrong" side of the street.

We went to our hotel, but it was too early to check in, so we left our bags and went walking around the area. Apparently, Trinity College is close by, and there's a large park called St. Stephen's Green that's directly down the street. We headed there and took some pictures. It reminded me a bit of Central Park in New York, but much much smaller.

Walking from one corner to another, we found ourselves on Grafton Street, which is filled with plenty of shops and clothing stores.

We stopped by a discount bookstore, where we both proceeded to buy really cheap books. I bought James Joyces's Ulysses for only 3€, which I have seen go for $15 in the U.S. Brand new condition too.

At the end of the street, I saw a guy dressed in a leprechaun costume. I took a picture of him taking a picture with a random kid. Adorable.

I was hungry at this point, so we walked around looking for a place to eat. Along the way, I saw some cool looking buildings.

Soon though, we found an Irish bar that looked to have affordable food and good brews. We had some kind of vegetable cream soup with bread and butter. Not bad, but nothing special. I had it with a Kilkenny, which was not that great. It was fun to watch a few soccer games though—Celtic vs. Rangers in the first game and then Chelsea vs. Aston Villa in the second.

We made our way back to the hotel after that and used the internet in the hotel bar (which is where I am writing this post—no internet in the rooms. The Irish gentleman next to me just said something to his kid, and the way he says "about" sounds Canadian. What a hoot.). The hotel is cozy, and for the price we're paying, the quality is pretty stellar.

After dropping off our stuff in the room, we headed out for dinner. We took the bus to the city center (I wish they would flash the next stop, or at least announce it, like they do in Berlin—it'd make things much easier), and from there, we walked around, took pictures, and searched for the right place for a decent dinner. I was craving something with meat, so Irish stew, fish & chips, or something sounded good.

We passed up a few options, including "Dublin's oldest fish & chips place" and all-you-can-eat-Asian-buffet, and found ourselves in the Temple Bar district of Dublin. I was hoping for a "hole in the wall" type of place that would serve affordable but tasty food. After turning around one more corner (I was about ready to head back to the fish & chips bar), we found a suitable place called The Purty Kitchen.

It's not exactly a "hold in the wall" type of place, but it was pretty dang good compared to the other options we saw during our search. For 12,80€ a person, we shared a Traditional Fish & Chips and Irish Beef and Guinness Pie with a pint of Guinness each. Man, that was filling. Not only that, there was a live jazz band playing tonight, which made for a fun environment in the bar/restaurant.

We also explored parts of the city center before and after dinner, getting a number of good pictures. I expect they will look better in the daylight though.

We're back at the hotel now, where I am finishing this blog and then going to read a bit more of my new book. It is rather interesting (and somewhat unfamiliar) to be in a place where English is spoken regularly. In some ways, it's making me appreciate German even more actually. But Ireland seems to be a very beautiful place, and what I have seen of Dublin so far reminds me a bit of New York City or Washington, D.C. The weather is rather cool, but relatively warm compared to Berlin. In fact, it's like Seattle, so it feels great here.

Tomorrow will include much more exploration, so I will probably have more adventures to share then.

Toodles!

Sam