Shopping in Dublin

There are tons of places for good shopping in Dublin, so I've decided to create a post dedicated to specifically that. Most shops and malls are open until around dinner time, so if you have a full day of browsing planned, we've learned to do so early in the day. Sometimes, stores don't even open on Sundays. 

Grafton Street:

This is definitely one of the first places we strolled through when we arrived here. Grafton Street is Dublin's liveliest pedestrian shopping mall. It is a couple blocks in length and spans from Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green. Nestled inside the alleyways is also the Powerscourt Shopping Centre, filling a converted Georgian mansion. At the end of Grafton Street lies St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, which is basically an american mall, complete with a grocery store in its basement. The shopping centre is iconic, with its glass domed roof towering over the city. 

Henry Street:

My personal favorite place for shopping is north of the Liffey, near the Spire, right off of O'Connell Street. Henry Street is full of the most popular (affordable) shops, such as Forever 21 and Penney's. It is also pedestrian-only. 

Millennium Walk:

Also north of the Liffey, this is the span of O'Connell Street extending from the river up to the Spire itself. Curiously enough, before the 1980's, this area north of the river was very dangerous, and definitely was not known for shopping or tourism. Since then, the Spire was constructed, statues were placed to commemorate the nation's most famous legends, and nowadays O'Connell Street is bustling with tourists. 

Along Millennium Walk, you will pass the Daniel O'Connell Statue, the man known as "the liberator", for founding the Catholic Association and demanding Irish Catholic rights in the British Parliament. 

Further down the street lies another monument to James Larkin, founder of the Irish Transport Worker's Union. The original statue that used to stand in that spot, one of the British hero of Tralfagar Admiral Horatio Nelson, was blown up in 1966, a contribution to a local celebration of the Easter Uprising's 50th anniversary. This one was put in its place years later. 

Street Markets:


Temple Bar Street Market: This is probably my favorite market, I usually try to stop by every Saturday morning. Lining all the cobblestone streets with food and other vendors, we wander for an hour or so, trying oh so many free samples! My favorite are the crepes, nutella here is gold, add strawberries and bananas, and I'm one happy camper. 


Moore Street Market: The Moore Street market boasts so much history. Most of its vendors have been working the same stalls for over 30 years. This market is unique in that it's very popular during the week, whereas most other markets pride themselves on their weekend turnout. 

Museums, Libraries and Cathedrals

This weekend was a couple days full of adventures around Dublin. We were planning on going on a trip to Trim Castle, but we missed the signup due to lack of internet in London last weekend. Oh well, another trip for another free weekend. On friday, I went to the National Museum of Ireland- Archaeology and History.

The museum shows treasures of Ireland ranging from the Stone Age up to modern times. The museum boasts of its broaches, chalices, and other examples of Celtic metalwork. The most famous work in the museum is the Cross of Cong, which we actually learned about in our Irish history course here.

     

  

Furthermore, I also toured Dublin Castle, which hosts state dinners, foreign dignitaries, as well as all of Ireland’s important inaugurations. Built on the spot of the first Viking fortress, this castle was the seat of English rule in Ireland for 700 years. It is located at the cross of the Poddle and Liffey rivers, giving the city its name after the black pool that resulted from their intersection, dubh linn in Irish. I touched on this place a little when I first got here, posted pictures of its courtyard.

I had no idea what I was walking into when I got there. I thought it was just a medieval castle, similar to the other ones that I have gone through. Instead, it is very elegant and used for the events stated above. It was very cool and was built around 1230. Most of the original castle is gone but a few parts still stand strong! Wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, however here's the gardens behind the castle. Looks a bit like the quad at U of I?

Directly on the Duhb Linn Gardens (shown above) behind Dublin Castle is the Chest Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was a rich American mining engineer who retired in Ireland in 1950. He left his priceless eclectic collection to Ireland as a charitable trust.

My travel book boasts on its "small collection", but I'd beg to differ. The top floor focused on great religions of the world, displaying Islam Calligraphy and Asian Christian manuscripts. The bottom floor is an exhibit dedicated to "the written word", showing off books carved out of jade, ornate snuff bottles, and even the oldest surviving copy of St. Paul's letter to the Romans, dating back to 180 A.D. 

Next on my own mini-tour of Dublin, I stopped by Dublin City Hall, the very first Georgian building in the city. City hall overlooks Dame street, which is the southern border of the Temple Bar district. When you step inside, under the grand rotunda, there are paintings telling the city's history surrounding a lovely statue of Daniel O'Connell, the liberator of Catholics in Ireland in the 1800's.

After City Hall, we stumbled across Christ Church Cathedral. Sadly, it was closed for tours for some reason or another, but we still got to read some plaques and circle the outside. Christ Church occupies the same site as the first wooden church built on the spot in Viking times by King Sitric. The church boasts its having the tomb of the Norman warlord Strongbow, another man we've learned about in our Irish History course, famous for leading the thin edge of the English military that dominated Ireland for centuries. 

Now onto some more things that I have learned during my stay in Ireland:

• All of the Guinness in America is not from Ireland. It is made in the Czech Republic. Perhaps that’s why people say the Guinness in Dublin is the best in the world. Also ironic that the Irish drink American beer (Coors, Budweiser, Miller Genuine Draft) and the Americans here drink Irish beer (Guinness and Smithwick’s) 

• J-walking in Dublin is more of an art than a science. But it’s a necessary art, because you would never be able to walk around the city without it. It’s funny because they have paint on the street telling you which way to look but plenty of people still screw it up. It’s not very hard: just look both ways and be quick. 

• While the Irish speak English, there is definitely a language barrier at certain points. Sometimes it’s hard for me to simply understand the accent while other times I just simply don’t know what the words or phrases they say mean. But I’m learning… 

• I love having the tax included into everything. If a price tag says €5, you pay €5 but having coin money in denominations as high as 2€ stinks, you actually have to keep track of your coins. 

• Many people don’t think about mountains when they think of Dublin, but the Wicklow Mountains are just south of the city and can be seen from many places around the city and at UCD 

• 21 is also a big birthday year over here in addition to turning 18. The clubs here have age requirements that vary up to 21. So you can be 19, legal to drink, but not allowed to get into certain clubs on certain nights because you aren’t 21. So on their 21st, they celebrate 

• Irish girls wear way too much makeup and dress very scantily but Irish people can tell an American just by looking at their face, not even their clothes or listening to them speak. Also, Irish people say Americans have no taste in footwear

Smiles in the Square Mile

Back home sweet home in Dublin from my trip to London this past weekend! I went for five days (a bit longer than a weekend i suppose) with Ryan and some friends from U of I. After hearing the worst horror stories from my roommate Jason, we were blessed with the most beautiful weather I could have imagined. Arriving in London, we were greeted with an impromptu snowstorm, making the entire city our very own winter wonderland :)

We began Friday morning with quite the adventure on our minds! Staying in a Hostel in Hyde Park, we made our way from the northwest corner of London, all the way down to the London Bridge, in the southwest corner of the city.

On our way, we had the chance to see Leister Square, a popular square known for selling half price show tickets, Id compare it to Times Square.. we also passed through Trafalgar Square, probably one of my favorite places in the city. Its full of beautiful fountains, and headed by the National Gallery, where we wandered in, luckily seeing a collection of paintings by Monet...quite the fortunate place to stop and use the restroom, huh?

The Marble Arch

Picadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square & the National Gallery

Trafalgar Fountains

 We stopped by St. Paul's cathedral on our walk as well, Ryan really wanted to see it...quick stop.

After the cathedral, we made our way to the Tower of London, a museum that showcases so much English history, from suits of armor to the crown jewels :) You'd think I'd be sick of castles after seeing so many in Ireland, but NOPE!

Literally right down the road from the Tower of London is the London Bridge. I have a thing for bridges, so this is probably another one of my favorite highlights of the city :) Im pretty sure there were trips that you could take up to the top of the bridge, but we were just happy on the ground haha

After a long day of exploring and a well-deserved nap, we met up with some more people visiting London, and went out, making some one of a kind memories :) Sleeping in the hostel was not so bad at all, while the bathrooms were disgusting beyond belief, for 13 pounds a night, it was quite a steal. 

The next morning, the four of us split up, and me and Ryan went off to do our own thing for the day. We began with a morning walk through Hyde Park, which was absolutely beautiful.

We made our way to Buckingham Palace, crowded with people sticking their faces into the fence to catch a glimpse at the palace guards.

After Buckingham Palace, we spent the rest of the day in Westminster, hitting all those lovely tourist sights: the London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

Our day of adventure wouldn't be complete without a trip to Harrod's :) This place was HUGE, a whole five floors and square block big, just walking around it took an hour or two..

Back to the hostel, for another nap and a night out to Tiger Tiger...so handy meeting a girl on the tube there to get us in with no wait in line :)

The next day, we made our way to Abbey Road, home of the Beatles' recording studio, Baker Street, and the Portobello Market in Notting Hill.