Places: Visit Dublin!

Dublin, Ireland’s capital  – such a beautiful, historic and cultured city! Ireland gave to the world some of the most important writers, such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats, among others (and you can find them at the Writers Museum) and fantastic rock bands like U2 (keep in mind Bono and The Edge’s hotel there, The Clarence), The Cranberries (from Limerick, in the mid-west), and singers like Enya and Sinéad O’Connor, for example. Not to mention the Leprechauns 🙂 It’s really a country with rich culture. Let’s have a tour?

Ireland’s patron is St Patrick and every March 17 there is a parade along the city celebrating him, The St Patrick’s Day. The St Patrick cathedral is also a must to visit, with its fantastic gardens, where you find tables and chairs to sit and enjoy a book – that’s what many people do.

Another day where you can find activities is the Bloomsday, on June 16th. It’s dedicated to the main character of James Joyce’s famous book, Ulysses. It recreates the walk of the character on one day around Dublin. You can also visit the pub where Joyce’s mother was born, The Vaughn.

The City has many museums, such as many whiskey museums and The Irish National Gallery of art, with traditional Irish painting, as well as contemporary. There’s the National Museum of Ireland, too, and you can also visit the Government Buildings.

You can also visit the Guinness Brewery and get to know how they produce the famous beer! By the way, pubs are another attraction in the city – there are many, some with traditional Irish music.

Parks: the city is not short of parks! There’s the famous enclosed Phoenix Park, one of the largest walled city parks in Europe,  and Bushy Park,  for example, with beautiful trails and even a cascade.

It’s also worth to visit the Custom House along the Liffey River. It has beautiful architecture and close to it you will find the Ha’Penny bridge, named so because of the toll it charged when it was built, 1816.

You will have a lot of fun at the bohemian district of Temple Bar, with the Temple Bar itself dominating the place! Have a pint of Guinness there and watch the people around, it’s really great!

Now, let’s go shopping! Go to the most famous shopping street in Dublin –  Grafton Street! You will find all the major shops there, such as The Body Shop, Marks & Spencer, Lush, River Island, Karen Millen, Vero Moda, Next, Ted Baker and many many more 🙂 Also Irish brands and then… Brown Thomas. It sells all the major luxury brands – you name it, Brown Thomas has them! Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, anything – as I said, the store has them! Dublin also has many shopping centers, so prepare yourself for that! On Grafton Street you can also discover really good bands – you can even buy their CDs there!

At the end of Grafton Street you’ll find St Stephen’s Green, a city public park, opened in 1880.

The Georgian architecture in Dublin is remarkable, and the city is also famous by the doors of some houses. There are even calendars and books named after them – The Doors of Dublin.

The transportation in Dublin is very good, with nice double decker buses and the LUAS (in Dublin) and the DART trains. The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) can take you to the outskirts of Dublin, where you can be next to the sea – like the marvellous Dún Laoghaire.

Food: Dublin has very good restaurants and very nice to try are traditional coleslaw (cabbage and carrot salad), soda bread and fruit scones. You will like them!

There’s much more to see, to know and to visit, like the Dublin Castle and maybe a ride on The Viking Splash Tour (a boat on wheels) and fiacre rides, and many other museums, but here are the main attractions, especially if you take one of the reasonable priced Ryanair flights and have a few days to spend there 🙂 It’s totally worth it!

Photos © StylishlyBeautiful.com by Denise S.