Dublin 20/03/08 – 24/03/08

After a disastrous first attempt to hop a flight to Dublin in September left us tearful on the floor at Heathrow as our plane took off from Gatwick, the Easter break six months later was a perfect opportunity to give a trip to Dublin a second chance. We checked the itinerary several times and, absolutely certain that the Stansted Express would get us on the plane this time, we left Liverpool Street Station to Stansted, were nearly first to the check in and sped through the gates. We were surprisingly lucky, with both flights being on time and our luggage arriving on time at the airport with us in good condition despite we hear many horror stories about Ryanair.

In Dublin, we saved the 6€ fee for the airport bus and took a local bus to the city centre from where the LUAS tram led us directly to our hotel – the Glashaus hotel in Tallaght, a good 40 minute sojourn from the city center.

At less than 200 GBP for 4 nights for the two of us, this three star new build was a real bargain. We were completely satisfied with our large room with a wall of windows and a large comfy double bed, flat screen TV, tea & coffee making facilities and hair dryer, though the door handle in the bathroom did break off on first use.

We didn’t go to the (usually empty) hotel bar, nor did the nibbles and meals on the menu appeal at all. In spite of the holiday weekend, the hotel and Tallaght in general seemed rather like a ghost town. The area consists of brand new buildings, most of which appear to stand empty, and a respectable mall with all the major chain stores and a 24 hour Tesco superstore directly opposite the hotel.

While we were satisfied overall with the hotel, there are two things to be pointed out when staying at the GLASHAUS:

1. The city centre is FAR. Walking to the city is only recommendable if you are prepared to set up camp for a night in between. For the rest of you: you´ll be dependent completely on the tram. The tram (LUAS) station is one minute from the hotel and offers frequent services (every 8 minutes), even on holidays, lasting, as mentioned, 46 minutes to the center. If you´re prepared to stay in the center all day anyway, the distance is just fine, but a trip to the hotel to freshen up before a long night out clubbing would cut an entire two hours from your itinerary to Tallaght and back.
2. Don’t rely on restaurants in the area. During our stay, there were only very few restaurants open – a Captain America right opposite the hotel (super-hero in name only), a Spanish restaurant and a few fast food places in the mall (including BK and McDonald’s). The Tesco is a great option to stock up before a trip out to the surrounding areas or a nice night in, and the Papa John’s at a few minutes' walking distance from the hotel served us mouthwatering pizza at a relatively (relatively being a key word there) good price. The area is still under construction, and we would expect that in a few years´time, Tallaght will be a perfect tourist location – the Starbucks going in right on the corner is a probable testament of developments to come.

We had three full days in Dublin and found this to be enough time to explore the city and even the surrounding areas. Day 1 we spent entirely in the city and did the typical tourist stuff – Temple Bar, Connolly Street, St Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street, etc.

We would have done even more, but were quite shocked by the prices for food and drinks which, even compared to London prices, were, well, they were quite frankly ginormous. Simple sandwiches run about 5€, and meals in restaurants start from 12€ (veg), and 18€ for the omnivores and carnivores.

While wandering through the adorable Market Arcade in the Temple Bar area, a little place called Honest to Goodness,

a healthy-type sandwich bar, caught our attention with the not-so-subtle rave reviews from various papers plastered in the window of this otherwise modest little shop. For around 6-7€, they offer a wide variety of creative sandwiches on different breads including creative creations with hummus and grilled vegetables or goats cheese, sundried tomatoes and pesto, both of which we sampled, and even Sloppy Joes (!), which we didn't. The soup du jour seemed to be a big hit as well, though we were so full after splitting these two sandwiches that we had to pass on the soup.

Day 2 saw us leaving Dublin on the DART, an overground train which connects the city with its suburbs towards the South following the coast to Killiney, a small town by the sea.

Though only 20 minutes from Dublin proper, the train ride inspires a feeling of seeing the ‘real’ Ireland, with green hills and the blue sea crashing against the rocky shore. Killiney, however, felt more like Italy than Ireland, with its palm trees, narrow winding roads with names like Sorrento Drive and Alpha Romeos speeding along them.

Killiney is apparently where both Bono from U2 and Lisa Stansfield both call home.

It was along these lovely ocean view roads that we made our way on foot from Killiney to Dalkey, passing from one mansion after another. Dalkey offers some enviable vistas of Dublin, the sea and the neighbouring villages down the Southern coast from whence we came.

After a coffee and cake break in a local bakery, we wandered through the village, with its very sweet high street loaded with independent boutique type shops and pubs. We took the DART from Dalkey back to Dublin at Colloney station.

Day 2 was definitely the highlight of our trip, as we both liked this part of our trip best and highly recommend to add a visit of Killiney / Dalkey or even more Southern suburbs (the DART goes until Greystone) to a Dublin city break.

That evening we explored a few of Dublin’s gay bars. First on the list was The George in Great South Street, but this seemed a men-only venue, as we could only see boys lined up at the bar. So we headed to The Globe instead, where ´the crowd´ was mixed equally, though for a Saturday night there were plenty of open seats. We then ended up in The Dragon. The venue is fantastic, a very stylish and modern bar with little private sit-in niches and an upstairs area and a dance floor in the back of the bar. Although we both were impressed with the chic bar, it was also strangely empty for a Saturday night on a holiday weekend. On the way back to Tallaght we popped into the Front Lounge at Parliament Street, which turned out to be the top address for the ladies, packed with gay girls of all types and ages (but there were men in there are as well). The atmosphere was very cool and we both liked the place immediately – would definitely be our prime location if we lived in Dublin. A Must for lesbians who want to explore the scene in Dublin.

As our trip to Dalkey and Killiney was so successful the day before, we decided to make Day 3 a day trip as well. We headed north this time to Howth, a small peninsula in the North of Dublin which you can get to easily within 20 minutes on the DART. Howth village is a little fishing village with a big harbor – where we saw walruses swimming in the harbor!

These walruses were certainly not afraid of the crowd of spectators...they swam right up to us hoping to get some fish. Another highlight was the market which was set up right by the harbor offering not only fruit and vegetables, but also Lebanese sweets, French crepes, and German breads.

After a hike up a steep hill toward the center of the peninsula, an accidental bus ride right out of Howth and a train ride back to Dublin, we decided to take the night easy as we had to be up and out of the hotel room by 730 the next morning for our flight back to London. We headed to The Lemon, an affordable European style cafe/restaurant, with a typical menu of crepes and paninis. Though I started off unenthusiastic about our order (tomato/pesto panini and a veggie and cheese crepe - booooring), we enjoyed both the warm panini and the crepe (which Dani refers to as a pancake, so you can see how thick and filling it was). This was really the only meal we sat down for during our whole trip, as the words 'Dublin' and 'on-a-shoestring' do not seem to go together at all.

That night it was a bit of football on the telly and a last night in the comfy queen-size before we trampled back onto the 730 tram ride to the city centre, we where we boarded the number 747 Airport Express back to the airport. We planned on taking a regular public bus, but we had just missed it and it ran only once an hour, so we forked out the 6€ for a tourist-packed direct ride to the airport, arriving in 20 minutes rather than the 50 minute stop-filled trip we were prepared to take. Note: From Tallaght on the red line, I think we may have been able to change at Heuston and go direct to the airport, rather than heading into town and back out again. It was just too early and too much hassle to figure it out at split-second´s notice. Back in London and home in Shepherds Bush by 2 in the afternoon, our 7 hour trip went smoothly, which is representative of our trip in general. Excellent.

P.S. we didn't mention Guinness once in the post. The Guinness factory is right in the city, and tours run regularly. We didn't make the trip to the Guinness tour, as we were never sure about the opening times on Easter weekend, and as we had found so many places outside of Dublin proper to explore. Dani did have a Guinness at our favorite bar on night 2. Tasty as any Guinness we'd had before, the rumours of it not travelling well are in our opinion a bit far-fetched. More a good marketing ploy than actual fact.