I had to celebrate my 22nd birthday early, and thought what's better than taking the 158 mile journey to Dublin? Road trip (shout out to Lauren for staying awake for the trip)! I've never been before and had to get a trip down for purely the drink and shopping aspects the city had to offer. We stayed in The Fleet Street Hotel above TGI Friday's on Fleet Street, obviously. It's a lovely hotel with friendly staff that even handed out wine glasses on request! The location couldn't be better - walking distance from the shops and the famous Temple Bar, and close to other pubs and restaurants.
We had arrived to some sort of heatwave in Dublin and were able to experience t-shirt weather which is somewhat unusual for May in Ireland. Not to waste a sunny day, we hit up Trinity Bar on Dame Street and ordered literally a platter of food to go with our ciders. There wasn't much shopping done on day one but we did make the mistake of going to Penney's (Irish Primark) on O'Connell Street and later found a bigger one on Mary Street that even had it's own beauty bar.
For dinner we went to Hard Rock Cafe on Fleet Street in heels, which was a trek on the cobbles despite it being metres from our hotel. I absoloutely loved Hard Rock Cafe in Budapest and had to make a visit in Dublin - their steaks are great. After dinner we ventured to the world famous Temple Bar which was crammed with tourists and then eventually onto The Dubliner, both had your typical live Irish music. After The Dubliner closed, we wanted to dance and were advised to head to Dicey's on Harcourt Street after a very drunken rickshaw journey for €9 (queue drunken snapchat videos). Dicey's is definitely the place to head if you're looking for more than a quiet drink, it even has it's own outdoor dancefloor.
After a somewhat hungover awakening, we checked out of our hotel, paid for parking on Fleet Street (with discount for staying in The Fleet Street Hotel it cost us €18) and headed into town. Dublin has an impressive selection of shops from a massive MAC store to an underground Topshop. I tried to be good but eventually got carried away and spent a lot of money. My favourite buys were these beautiful blue/green heels I got from Penney's for a bargain €18 that can only be described as mermaid heels, and a t-shirt from Pull & Bear that reads 'Mermaids are real' - definitely trying to channel my inner Ariel. Overall I'm definitely a lover of Dublin, its atmoshpere and everything it has to offer. It can be expensive but I can't wait to go back! Féach leat go luath Baile Átha Cliath!
