Dublin loves Christmas

  Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Wednesday, December 24, 2008

December 24

Come on, hurry up!! Let's flee from Christmas with family and all that hypocrisy!
I was wishing to go to Ireland for years and now it's my opportunity. My friend and I arrive at Dublin's hostel at noon and the first thing we do is going to a supermarket to buy food. People told us that Dublin was a specially expensive city, so we'll try to avoid spending the most. We equip us with pasta, tomato sauce, yoghurt, bread, nutella, bananas and beer cans and now we are ready to wipe out the country!
The first thing we find is that Dublin is quite asleep at Christmas. Everything's closed! We walk down Earl Street where we find James Joyce's statue, then we take O'Connell street the city's main artery where is located the Dublin's tallest infraestructure: The Spire.

O'Connell St. with The Spire

Then we cross famous (and lovely) Ha'Penny Bridge and go to the south bank of river Liffey and... WOW!! We are in Temple Bar!! for me the best part of Dublin city. It's awesome with its cobbled streets, coloured facades, lots of traditional pubs and restaurants, weird shops... it's totally amazing!

me at Temple Bar

Later we arrive at Grafton Street, a wide pedestrian street full of luxurious shops and some moderate-priced too. There we take a photo with arch-known Molly Malone and her generous bust ;)
Without knowing how we arrive at famous Trinity College; the building is spectacular and the gardens are a delight. I wish I studied at a university like this!
At night we return to the hostel and the kitchen is full of people: friendly argentine, italian, swedish, american people... Do all this people hate Christmas too?
After supper we go to Temple Bar but almost all of the pubs are closed (is Christmas eve, man!) so we return to the hostel and drink some good beers with other guests. Nobody says "Merry Christmas" so that's perfect!

Chatting with some friends ;)

December 25
If yesterday was so depressing because everything was closed... today is even worse! Nothing to do in Dublin on Christmas day. We're lucky because the hostel has organized a free walking tour through the city so we spend three hours following Ali, the guide. He takes us to the City Hall, Dublin Castle, Christ Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublinia museum, Temple Bar, O'Connell street and the tour finishes ar St. Stephen's Green park (closed at Christmas day, f***!).

balloons over Christ Church

Later we go back to the hostel and eat macaroni again. There's nothing to do in the street and the weather is terribly cold so we stay at the room having a good siesta (hey! we're spanish! siesta is something sacred for us). In the afternoon we go to Merrion Square and see the Oscar Wilde strange statue. We roam the streets looking for a 7/11 or something like that to buy some wine and finally we find a Polski market and we buy a bottle of italian rosatto (super expensive IMHO, but it was the cheapest bottle we found). Tonight all the pubs are closed again, so we stay in the hostel drinking wine till 2 a.m.

Temple Bar