I have lost count how many times I have been to Dublin, but I love it there and always find somewhere new to visit, and this time is no exception!!
I have lost count how many times I have been to Dublin, but I love it there and always find somewhere new to visit, and this time is no exception!! I love Dublin for its friendly city vibe, it’s always busy, the friendly people, extensive bars, shopping and the sights to see. The main purpose of this trip though is to celebrate Darren’s Birthday. He has never been to Dublin and I don’t need an excuse so let’s go !!!!!
Travelling from London Heathrow and arriving in Dublin on a Friday night, we check in to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel on O’Connell Upper Street. The receptionist asked us the purpose of our visit and we tell them it’s Darrens birthday and the receptionist gave us two free drinks at their bar!! There really is only one place to be on a Friday night in Dublin Temple Bar!! It is almost the law that no trip to Dublin is complete without a pint of Guinness in Temple Bar. Mind you it is €9.00 for a pint!! Much more expensive than my last visit - pre Covid. Temple Bar is always busy and two or three people deep at the bar and tonight it’s even busier. We found out that there is an American College Football Match being played locally at the Aviva stadium, so tonight it is the busiest I have ever seen the bar. 50,000 Americans have descended on Dublin to cheer on their respective football team, it feels like half of them are in The Temple Bar.
We finally find a corner and sit to sup our expensive pints of Guinness. Luckily we didn’t have to battle through crowds to the bar again, now we have a seats we are served by the floor servers. There was still sometimes a long wait to get served, as they were just rushed off their feet, but at least we had seats. We planned on staying just for a couple of drinks but this is Temple Bar, Dublin and we got chatting to a crowd of friends visiting Dublin from Nottingham and the time flies by, before we know it it is heading on for 2.00am and we drag ourselves homeward bound. With live music and DJ set to boot throughout the night it was a great introduction to Dublin for Darren.
There is a restaurant next to our hotel called Murrays and we promise ourselves a trip there before we leave. However, today we are off to the Guinness Factory. Here we learn all there is to know about Guinness. From the first recorded shipment to Africa, Sierra Leonne in 1827 to the fact that there are 3 million pints of Guinness brewed every day! It’s a fun place, there is of course the chance to sample a pint at the end of the experience and there is lots of merchandise to buy if you’d like to take away a memorable souvenir. Tickets are around €30 per person, from Get Your Guide App.
Our dinner this evening was at Murray’s bar on O’Connell Street. From the outside it looks like a small venue but when you go inside it’s literally like a Tardis, tunnel shaped building and it goes on forever there are two floors downstairs equally as big but not open at the time we were there. The bar tender welcomes us as soon as you walk in and gets our drinks straight away. The pub has tv’s all around the walls showing various news and sports channels. We found a comfy spot in front of a TV showing a round up of the previous nights football and ordered. Our food was severed quite quickly and was good pub food. I had Lasagne and salad. The salad was fresh and washed the lasagne was hearty, tasty and filling, Darren had Irish Stew. Food and drinks for both of us was around €48.00. Drinks are slightly cheaper outside the Temple Bar area.
If you are a fan of James Joyce Ulysses book a visit to Sweny Pharmacy is a must, to be fair even if you are not a huge fan this quirky shop is still something to see. There is lots of memorabilia around the shop. The pharmacy is immortalised and kept as it was when Joyce wrote his Novel, and much of the paraphernalia ie. 100 year old prescription's are on display. The staff are mostly volunteers and love to spend time discussing Joyce and literary in general with visitors to the shop. Although it is now a used book store (also selling lemon soap) it is also a great museum tourist attraction. They also have daily reading groups anyone can attend, where they read Ulysses.
(Sweny’s Pharmacy. 1 Lincoln Place, Dublin 2, DO2 VP65).
The Pepper Pot was recommended in a travel magazine, for its unique ham and pear sandwich. O Boy they are delicious. With chunky doorstop bread a generous selection of salad then there is ham and roasted pear, with cheese, mustard and mayo - what a great combination! They do have a full menu, i.e. all day breakfast and a variety of cakes. The seating is around the edge of the shopping mall and you do feel a bit like you are in a corridor as people are still passing by to get to other shops. There are queues of people, waiting for seats at busy times (lunch times) but we saw that as a good sign. If you can overlook that, it really is an enjoyable food experience and it is certainly worth putting or you must do list. (The Pepper Pot. Powercourt Centre, 59 William Street South Dublin 2 DO2 CH28. The sandwich was €9.00.
And lastly but by no means least the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head, said to have been established in 1198. It is situated close to the Liffey and the Father Matthew Bridge on Bridge Street. It is divided in to two bars one is a dining bar the other serves drinks. Both sections are steeped in local historic artefacts and every square inch of the walls are covered in photographs pertaining to local history, local notable people and the pub through the ages. We did not dine here but saw some of the food being served, the servings look generous.
The Brazen head
20 Lower Bridge Street
Usher’s Quay
Dublin
D08 WC64
Food aside a recent addition to Dublin, is the New York Dublin Portal - it is the best fun. It is a live link from O’Connell Street to Time Square in New York. You can’t hear each other but you can have a great game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It gets people dancing and generally having fun. I don’t think this is a permanent fixture but it’s fun while it lasts for sure.
We visited Dublin in August 2024.
BOOKED THROUGH: lastminute.com
Flights with British Airways. From Heathrow.
Holiday Inn Express Dublin
O’Connell Street Upper
Dublin
Telephone 353 - 1 8788099
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