I have enjoyed my time living in Dublin so much thus far. A lot of my time has been spent at DCU on campus and in practices, so I was ready to go into the city and explore. On Friday, Ashley and I was able to go into the city for the first time since arriving to Dublin. It was both of our first time riding in the bus in Dublin and figuring out which bus route will get us to O’Connell Street in the city. The city was everything I expected and more. Our day started by eating lunch at this smoothie/coffee shop that also had Acai Bowls. We then walked down along the river stopping in every little boutique ship we could find. One thing I noticed about the city from walking the streets was the beautiful buildings and art around the city. On every major street there was a local artist with a microphone with a crowd gathered around him or her listening to them sing and perform. When I was walking around the city, it felt like being back home visiting a big city like Chicago or New York City.
I have to say, shopping in the Ireland is a lot different than shopping at home. The first reason for that is because the sizes are different. You may be looking at something that may be your size but the tag reads “34 or 35.” And that goes for shoes as well, I wasn’t sure what size I needed because I never bought shoes from a European County before. Even though I couldn’t understand the sizes I still managed to spend a lot of money on clothes that day. We spent about 45 minutes in this Irish Gift Shop called Carrolls which had everything from T-Shirts to flags to jewelry. That is where I bought my first Ireland T-Shirt and I plan to get lots of Christmas presents in the future before returning to the states for the Holidays.
We were recommend by our teammates to eat at this restaurant called Brunson, which is a burger shop in the city. The food was AMAZING! What I will remember the most about the restaurant was the menu was on a business card. Our teammates also gave us a list of restaurants to eat at in the future as we make more trips into the city over the next 9 months. My first experience being in the city Dublin and touring/shopping is a day I will never forget.
