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Follow me to Dublin

Hello my babytiful friends!

As many of you already know, we live in Dublin (Ireland). I moved here in January 2003 to improve my English as I wanted to became air hostess and travel all over the world. At that time I moved to Cork and I fall in love with Ireland and its people, so here I am! In 2006 I moved back to Spain for a year and after, I came back to Ireland but this time to live in Dublin.

Many of you ask me for tips and places to visit, so I decided to write a post with some recommendations in case you come one day and visit this beautiful place! If you want to read about the best playgrounds just read this post.

Where to eat:

There are so many different choices, and you can vary from the Irish cuisine to Spanish, Korean, Mongol, Italian…you will never get bored! Here I recommend some of them:

Brazen head: 20 bridge st lower. Officially is the oldest pub in Ireland dating from 1198. Their Irish stew is delicious! You can have lunch here before heading to the Guinness Store :)

Johnny Fox: Glencullen co Dublin. This popular pub restaurant is the highest pub in Ireland, its located in the mountains like 30’ away from Dublin city center. I love it as it has traditional decoration and live music. There organize the “Hooley Nights” with Irish dancing and dinner. If you do the Glendalough tour / Powerscourt Garden this is a must visit for lunch or a pint!.

Hole in the wall: Blackhorse venue. It has been recognized as the longest pub in Ireland, you will find it along Phoenix Park. The name comes from a tradition which existed here for around 100 years, which is the practice of serving drinks through a hole in the wall. They serve delicious food and also they have live music. The decoration of the whole pub for Christmas is just amazing!!.

Elephant castle: 18 Temple bar. It the heart of Temple Bar, they don’t take bookings and sometimes there is a big queue, but their chicken wings are really worth it! You can pop in there to check availability as they might keep a table for you after 1 h, so you can grab a drink in Temple Bar and come back to have dinner/lunch.

Skinflint: 19 Crane Lane. At the side of Temple Bar in a narrow street, you will find this original place for amazing thin pizzas and lovely homemade lemonade.

Cornucopia: 20 Wicklow st. Vegetarian restaurant close to Grafton st. They sell their own book with the recipes.

Where to have nice coffee:

Network: 39 Aungier st., in the south of the city center. Nice coffee and pastries.

Butlers Chocolate: they have different locations across the city. They give you a chocolate with each drink! Their chai latte is just delicious!

Foam cafe: 24 Strand Street Great , in the north side of the city center close to the Italian quarter. Very quirky with amazing homemade cakes!

Dunnes Stores coffee shop: Henry st., coffee shop on the 3rd floor of this store. So bright, big and they have a terrace!

Where to sleep:

There are plenty of options to stay, from apartments to hotel, B&B, hostels… you can chose to stay in the city centre or even a bit further as the city is not big so it’s so easy to reach the city centre, especially if you stay close to a dart or luas station.

I recommend to stay in a B&B for an Irish experience, you will stay in a house where you pay for bed and breakfast :)

Also, you can search for accommodation through Booking.com or Airbnb . Use these links to book your accommodation and earn some cash when booking them!

What to visit:

You can take the city sightseeing bus, do any walking tour or visit the main attractions on your own.

Trinity College: university of Ireland where you can visit the grounds, Book of Kells, Old Library (the magnificent Long Room which houses 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books in its oak bookcases.), Zoological museum and Science Gallery. You can find further details here.

Kilmainham Gaol: Built in 1792 it is Ireland s most famous disused prison. It held throughout the years many famous Nationalists and Republicans. More info here.

Christchurch cathedral: founded in 1028, is one of the cathedral in Dublin where you can visit the medieval crypt and see the mummified cat & rat.

St Patrick cathedral: founded in 1191, is the national cathedral of Ireland. I love the floor of the cathedral and the playground outside in the garden!

St Stephen Green: this is an urban park in the south of the city center, with big gardens and a playground. Perfect to go after a visit to the Little Museum across the road. This small museum has been created by public donations and included a U2 room.

Phoenix Park & Farmeleigh Garden: located in the west of the city, Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed public park in Europe. In here you can visit the Zoo, the Victorian walled garden, Farmeleigh garden, papal cross, the Magazine fort, the visitor centre and also see the deer!!. As you can see, so much to see in the park! They also hire bikes and the sightseeing bus goes there. More info here.

Deer at Phoenix Park

National Museum: Kildare st. Its free and it’s about Archaeology. You can also visit the Museum of Natural History, in front of the Merrion sq park. Both are free.

Guinness Store: in the St James Gate Brewery, this production site has been home to the Guinness Brewery since 1759, when Arthur Guinness signed a lease for 9,000 years. I don’t like beer but this is a real nice experience and you end up the visit up in the Gravity bar they you can taste the Guinness. Remember to buy your ticket online for discounts and skip the queue J

Jameson distillery: in Smithfield, you can walk or take the luas to visit it. You can learn how the whisky is made with only 3 simple ingredients: water, barley and yeast.

Shopping areas:

Henry st: street in the north side of the city center. You will find shopping centers and shops like Zara, H&M, Pennys.

Grafton st: street in the south side of the city center. You will find shopping centers and shops like Zara, H&M, Other Stories.

Carrols shop: this is a souvenir shop where you will find so many different items to buy as a souvenir, good price and quality.

Tours around Dublin:

Howth: a fishing village around 15 km away from Dublin, you can go by bus or train (Dart) but I recommend going there by train. You can walk along the cliffs and see the lighthouse (amazing experience) and once you are in the village, you can visit the open market where you can enjoy “churros” or a nice cake, walk to the small lighthouse at the end of the fish shops and if you are lucky see the sea lions!.

Cliffs at Howth

Malahide: small village around 20’ away to the north of Dublin, you can take the train to go there. Once you are in Malahide, have a nice walk along the beach and visit the Malahide castle with its gardens, playground (one of my favourite!) and have a nice lunch and coffee at Avoca (http://www.malahidecastleandgardens.ie/the-visitor-centre/avoca/).

Glendalough and Powerscourt Gardens: the best way to visit these places is renting a car or by an organized tour as they are located in the Wicklow mountains. For Glendaloughhttp://www.glendalough.ie/ you can enjoy a nice and fresh walk to see the two lakes and the monastic city. For Powerscourt garden http://powerscourt.com/ you can enjoy a walk in the different gardens, see the pet cemetery and also see the waterfall (where there is a playground).

Glendalough monastery

So, as you can see there are so many things to visit in Dublin! Hope this will help you to organize your visit! If you need more tips or want to ask more details, just write me at babytiful@outlook.com

Have a great week!!

Carol

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”

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