Dublin: Day 3
By Céleste | April 7, 2015
For day three in Dublin, we purchased an all-day tram ticket. Our feet were pretty tired from day 2, so the ticket was really helpful.
Insomnia Cafe and The Natural Bakery
We took the tram to the stop where Phoenix Park was, and stopped at the Insomnia Cafe and Natural Bakery for breakfast on the way. We got coffee and some delicious scones, and walked to the park with them. Incidentally, Insomnia Cafe is like the Irish version of Starbucks. They are everywhere, and even non-Insomnia stores sell Insomnia coffee. It was good though, and not as pricey as a Starbucks.
Phoenix Park
Vincent had wanted to go to Phoenix Park, which is a massive park on the outskirts of Dublin. It’s honestly about the size of a quarter of the city. It’s crazy. We went in, seeing long fields, trees, and bushes. I wasn’t very impressed at first, and we sat up on a monument to eat our scones. It seemed like just a regular park, with nothing too special.
After eating, we walked by the Dublin Zoo, which is housed within Phoenix Park. We considered going inside, but decided we weren’t really interested in seeing caged animals and crying children. We pressed on. The park was pretty and vast, but again, not that impressive. I felt like I had seen so many similar parks, that I really couldn’t get too excited about this place. Then, in the distance, we saw something strange. People? Animals? Some kind of crowd.
We weren’t sure what they were at first. Deer? Elk? Looking them up later, we discovered they are fallow deer. We walked right into the herd of them, and I held out grass several times to try to feed them by hand. None of the deer would eat from my hand, though two of them breathed on my hand as I held it out. It was so amazing to be right among the deer, and they weren’t even frightened or skittish.
This definitely made the park so much more amazing for us. Vincent and I prefer outdoors and natural things in most places, and Dublin seems the most far away from outdoors that you could get (until we got to Oslo, of course). So it was great to discover animals in the city, at Phoenix Park.
National Museum of Ireland
We wanted to make sure we went to at least one museum while we were in Dublin, so we decided on the National Museum of Ireland. I guess we had already been to the Book of Kells as well, but that didn’t feel quite the same, as it was so small.
The museum itself was interesting, not too flashy or over-the-top. It was straightforward, with exhibits about clothing and furniture in Ireland, Irish silversmithing, and a yacht that had been used for gun-running in the 1900s. We were tired, though, so we hurried through the exhibits that interested us, and made our way out. Also, the museum building itself was once a barracks for soldiers, so there was a big wall in the back called the “soldiers’ urinal.”
Oscar’s
For lunch, we went back to Smithfield for sandwiches and fries at Oscar’s. The sandwiches were good — I had a pesto chicken one, and Vincent had a chicken caesar wrap. The sandwiches were well-priced, the staff was friendly, and we sat out on the patio, despite the smoking patrons.
Dubh Linn Gardens
Next, we headed to the Dubh Linn Gardens. Dubh Linn, from which the city takes its name, means “black pool.” The Dubh Linn Gardens are located behind the Dublin Castle, and are located above a former pool of water. Now, they are just a set of circular gardens, where city workers go to eat their lunches and read.
George’s St. Arcade
Next, we were off to the George’s Street Arcade. This was a little indoor market area, with specialty shops selling jewelry, food, coffee, and knick-knacks. It’s a covered market, and it’s apparently the oldest indoor shopping center in Britain and Ireland. We ended up buying a little painting from a man in the market, as our Irish souvenir. As I’ve said before, I like to collect something from each country we visit, so that we can put it in a collection at home.
St. Stephen’s Green
We next went to St. Stephen’s Green, which is a nice little green park in the center of the city. It was filled to bursting with people, and all the lawns were taken up by people picnicking, reading, or sleeping. I loved the park, and so did Vincent, and we lolled about, laying on the lawn and chatting happily for about an hour. We watched the ducks and geese, and we watched toddlers chasing them foolishly. We saw a man trying to feed a swan by hand (idiot), and we saw people with some strange fashion sense. This was a great place to people-watch, and just to relax as well.
It was a nice break for our feet in the middle of the day!
We didn’t go to Cake Cafe.
We were hungry for some dessert, so we decided to search out Cake Cafe, which we had read on Trip Advisor was a great local place for local people. It was a couple miles away, though, so we walked the distance and realized we couldn’t find it. We were distraught, because now we were in a less-traveled place of town, but we decided to look elsewhere for a dessert. By this time, I also really had to go to the bathroom. We started to walk back to St. Stephen’s Green, and tried a few shops on the way to get coffee and dessert. Several were closed, and one didn’t have a bathroom. At the last second, Vincent said, “Let’s just go into this pub…”
Doheny and Nesbitt
It was unassuming, and dimly lit, but the bathroom was exactly what I needed. I went to the bathroom while Vincent sat down and ordered himself a beer, and coffee for me. I was a bit sad that they didn’t have any desserts that looked appetizing, but they had free wifi and the waitress was amazingly friendly. We honestly sat there sipping and using the wifi for about an hour. After that hour, we started to get hungry, so we ordered some food. I had a shepherd’s pie and Vincent had an Irish beef stew.
This, I think, was our favorite meal in Ireland. We were just so hungry and tired, the food was delicious, and the waitress was so nice. We could have stayed there the rest of the night. When Vincent looked the place up on TripAdvisor, it turned out to be super well-reviewed — and we agreed! We pretty much finished the entire meal (Vincent helped me a bit). By the time we had finished, we were ready for another walk.
O’Connell and Grafton Streets
We decided to walk down two of the most popular streets, O’Connell and Grafton. The streets were both fairly busy, and we listened as an American family argued about whether they should eat dinner at McDonald’s or Burger King. We were very disappointed. We saw lots of statues and monuments, but we weren’t overly impressed. Maybe we’ve just been traveling too much, but I think it takes more than statues for us at this point. We were also quite tired, however.
Ha’Penny Bridge
We crossed the half-penny bridge to get back to the tram. The bridge used to cost a half-penny toll, then a penny and a half, and now there is no toll. It was packed with tourists though. It took us a bit of time to try to figure out how to take a picture of us on the bridge, since there were so many other people getting in the way.
The Cobblestone
Lastly, we went to The Cobblestone, which is a pub with live traditional Irish music. This was something that Vincent really wanted to see, so we made a point to go and get a Guinness there and listen to the flute player and violin player. We had a lot of fun listening, though there was no sitting room.
To top off the night, a woman came up to me, and in a thick Irish accent, she said, “Mind me pint for me while I go and take a wee?” That summed up Ireland for us.
