Being somewhere I visit every year to see family, I'd never really 'done' Dublin as a tourist. But this year, in the name of journalistic integrity, I decided to check it out. My journey began on a bus from the airport into the city. Being friendly with the locals can help you out, as a quick chat with the bus driver meant that I was dropped off right outside the Spire, a tall pin-like sculpture in the middle of O'Connell Street.
My first destination was the tourist office to pick up the map. If you're an avid reader of Ciara's Country, you'll know of my love of free walking tours but had arrived into the city too late to catch that day's, so decided to invent my own. From the Spire, I crossed the River Liffey, admiring the famous Hapenny Bridge on my right, and headed into Temple Bar. This street is famous for its busy Irish pubs and bars so is the perfect place to stop for your inaugural Guinness or Irish whiskey. If that type of activity floats your boat, you'll find whiskey shops offering tastings all over the city, and the Guinness Storehouse further up the river, which is Dublin's number one paid attraction.
With little time and even less money, I continued on to check out some of Dublin's stunning cathedrals - Christ Church and St Patrick's, the latter of which has a lovely garden in front which was filled with happy tourists and locals alike. Dublin is well signposted, so it wasn't hard to make my way to St Stephen's Green, which turned out to be a lot larger than the map would have had me believe. This is the city's answer to Central Park, and has lakes and green spaces galore to spend a few hours wandering around. For the culture fiends among you, the Green also has a vast number of sculptures dedicated to historic events, poets and more which you can check out too.
The north-most corner of the Green leads you straight onto Grafton Street, perhaps Dublin's busiest street. This is where you come to shop and you'll find all your high-street favourites along here. I'd also heartily recommend heading into Butler's Chocolate Cafe if you fancy for coffee and cake or lunch. Butler's is a true Irish institution, and their chocolates should be tried at least once in your life - the same applies to Lily O'Briens which you can buy in most Irish supermarkets. Yum!
At the top of Grafton, I took a quick detour to see the statue of Molly Malone, based on a famous song set in Dublin. Heading back the other way, I wandered past Trinity College, one of Ireland's top universities and home to the Book of Kells, a beautiful illuminated manuscript Gospel book which you can get a close look at if you can bear the queues. Trinity College library is also worth a look at as it looks like something straight out of Harry Potter.
I found myself outside Pearse Station, nearby to my second recommendation for something to eat - Kilkenny Design. As well as having decent food and always being packed to the brim, the downstairs of Kilkenny Design is also a haven of Irish craftsmanship and you can pick up just about anything you want there, from jewellery and clothes to paintings and gifts, all produced in Ireland. Something a bit different from 'Made in China', eh?
Here I crossed over the delightfully named Butt Bridge to admire the impressive Custom House before catching a train to continue on my journey. All in all, my route took a little over two hours, but stopping for something to eat or spending more time in any of the destinations I've mentioned will of course add to that. Nonetheless, a great way to pass the time!
My second day in Dublin brought me to another great part of the city - Phoenix Park (not to be confused with the city's main sports stadium Croke Park where you can catch a thrilling hurling game in season). Unlike many of the London parks I'm used to, you can drive right into Phoenix Park, which is fairly handy given it's size. Here, there's plenty of places to walk around, and if you're lucky, spot some deer.
However, my destination for the day was Dublin Zoo which despite being very expansive itself somehow manages to stay contained within the parks boundaries - as is the Irish President's House, for that matter. I'm lucky enough to have a cousin who volunteers at the zoo, and she was an excellent tour guide of the day, especially when telling me which animals had new babies which you might not notice if you weren't told e.g tiny baby monkeys that blend into their mothers fur. N'aww.
Dublin Zoo has a great range of animals too, including elephants (and babies when I visited) which is more than those of us in London have. We also saw meerkats, sloths (which is more than I can say about my experiences in Costa Rica, which you can read about here), chameleons, crocodiles, sealions, penguins, rhinos, gorillas, lions, lemurs and tigers. Phew, that's a lot of animals. A fab way to spend the day and catch up with my cousin. Say hi to her from me if you visit, and I'd highly recommend you do!
Ciara's tips for Dublin: the city is small and very walkable, meaning that you can take your time to walk around and explore. By all means, take an organised tour but I'd also encourage you to do some wandering of your own - you never know what you might stumble across (and I'd love to here what you do!). If you feel like leaving the centre, I heartily recommend catching the Dart out along the coast (in the direction of Bray or Greystones) - get off at any of the coastal stops along here for a pleasant walk along the beach, or just gaze from the train window at the shoreline. Who'd have thought that Dublin of all places would have a beautiful sea just 20 minutes from the centre? If you're taking a family trip, I can't recommend Dublin Zoo enough - I could have easily whiled away many more hours there and you'll get to see animals you can't see anywhere else this side of the Serengeti.
I hope you enjoyed touring Dublin with me! If you did, be sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry
as there'll be plenty more where this came from... big travel plans coming up... I'd love to hear your
thoughts too, so feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get back to
you as soon as possible!
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