The cosmopolitan city of Dublin is a mixed hive of traditional Irish countryside streets and modern architectures, with hipster pubs, fancy restaurants and vintage cafés across the town. It is the hometown of Guinness beer and Irish stepdance and now has developed to be a new hub of many well-known tech companies. In Dublin, you can trace back its rich history, experience the vibrant city life, or just chill and relax in a park.
I was in Dublin for 2 days and found it a very walkable city. Most of the tourist spots are clustering in the city centre. Even though I was not living in the city centre, I still managed to go to everywhere on foot. At the beginning, you might find it easy to visit most of the well-known places in your travel guide, but there are quite a lot of hidden gems all over the town (I love to address it as a town as it sounds warmer than a ‘metropolitan city’). For example, can you believe that there’s a bar called ‘The Bar With No Name’? So cool, isn’t it? If you have loads of time, do take your time to wind into the small alleys and find out the non-touristic spots of this lovely city. The combination of cobbled streets with international high tech industry does add a little bit more spiciness to the mysterious charisma of Dublin. Don’t worry, the Irish accent is lovely and cosy (at least to me).
St Stephen’s Green Park in Dublin
My first destination was St Stephen’s Green Park, Dublin. I love nature. It’s wonderful that in the busy centre they still spare 22 acres of lands for a peace from nature. St Stephen’s Green Park is a historical park and garden, located in the centre of Dublin city. People go there to relax and breathe in fresh air. City life can be stressful, but when you are immersed by all green trees and birds on the tiny paths or ducks in the lakes there, you will gain back the energy and encourage to go back and face the challenges of work.
Parnell Square
Thereafter, I went up to a bit north of the city centre across the River Liffey to see Parnell Square. Parnell Square is at the north end of O’Connell Street, the high street of Dublin. It is the traditional starting point for all of the most important processions and parades in the city. Somehow, when I was there, I just want to be silent and enjoy the historical feeling brought by its atmosphere.
River Liffey
River Liffey flows through the centre of the city. If you walk along the river, you’ll be able to be close to most of the must-see places in Dublin. Around 60% of the water of Liffey is used for drinking or industry supply. Also, there are powder stations building to generate electricity by the river water.
One of the most famous docks on the east side of Liffey is Grand Canal Dock where most of the worldwide well-known multinational companies are settled, for instance, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.
It didn’t take me that long to walk from the Grand Canal Dockside to the far west side of St Patrick Cathedral (another landmark of Dublin, near where I had my Fish & Chips)
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
I really adore this small but delicate campus in Dublin. When I was there sitting next to the lawn watching students passing by. Some of them were rushing maybe to the next class while some were so into the discussion with peers along the way, and of course, many outsiders (the tourists) having flashbacks of their old school day. I was one of them, all.
Some snacks
As a foodie, I strangely didn’t try that many local foods when I was in Dublin. What a pity! Donuts (so cute, aren’t they?) and Fish & Chips were the only two little treats I gave to myself that time.
Aviva Stadium
Aviva Stadium is a sports stadium in Dublin. Apart from sports matches, it also holds meetings for business and conferences.
Or you could just take a stroll or a sightseeing bus to explore the city…
My time in Dublin was quite short and I missed quite a few of the must-go spots. However, just wondering around the centre and capturing all the nice views by eyes already gave me a very nice memory there. There are many museums in Dublin, e.g. Guinness Storehouse, National Museum of Ireland, etc. If you are a history fan, Dublin would definitely provide a fiesta of the old time.
Let me just finish this short travel blog with a few more photos of the streets in Dublin.
