Memoirs in Dublin 🇮🇪

As memories start to decay to time, memoirs serve as a reminder to myself that I lived through these experiences :)

✴️Exchange Trip to Dublin 2019✴️

🌟Occasion: Exchange University Trinity College Dublin was in Dublin so I had spent most of the time staying in the city 😂 Tbh the city center is nice, but you could feel the downward slide of society here sadly

😎 Vibes: 🌟🌟🌟

➡️ Notable memories

🔸Temple Street - Street filled with bars and cafes. the iconic Temple Bar is here as well and friends told me it was good but to me it felt like a tourist trap because of the prices 💰💰💰.

🔸Trinity College Dublin - Did my exchange here, tbh the school compound is nice to explore with its old architecture and open to the public!

🔸Phoenix Park - huge park with a zoo, roaming deers and large event spaces and monuments (slide 2+3)

🔸Guinness Storehouse - right across my accomds! tbh the Guinness taster during the tour was the best I had. but had a bad experience at the bar when the bartender would not serve a drink to me because he thinks I am underage 😤 (even showed him my driving license and ecopy of passport)

🔸Dublin Castle - Compared to other european castles, this was mehhhh experience

🔸Poolbeg Lighthouse - Did a 2hr+ walking near the seaside and nature to reach the lighthouse (slide 5). TBH abit underwhelming once I arrived there, there is nothing much there and I needed to go toilet which means i have to walk 2hrs back while holding the urge ☠️

🔸National Gallery and Museum - Cant remember much lol but it exist and i went.

🔸 O'Connell St - Supposedly the city's oldest and main street and used to be a tourist attraction. but its filled with homeless people and hooligans and druggies once past 5pm so not exactly welcoming (even the school warn us not to go there). the. Beshoff Fish and Chips here is loved by the locals, but was quite bad 😞 to me compared to the others i ate during my exchange

🔸Grafton Street - Nearby TCD, shopping street with all the big boutiques and local stores for shopping needs. end of the street there is the St Stephen Green Park and St Stephen Shopping Center (Found a singaporean man selling SG Pandan cake there but it cost $20 per cake)

🔸George Street's Arcade - Supposedly hipster street like bugis junction, but was underwhelming for me 😔 but the asian mart is nearby iirc

🔸Kilmainham Gaol - Oldest JAIL in the city. interesting tour inside making it a good experience (slide 9)!

🔸Jameson Distillery Bow St. - Did a tour here and bought a personalised bottle back for my fam! worth it must go experience if whiskey is your type of drink 🍻

🔸Howth - Good one day getaway from the city (slide 10)! connected by the local train. Can choose to trek to Howth's Peak about 1hr+ and u-turn to return back to the main town. tried dinner at the pub The Abbey Tavern and the food was great 👍

🔺Notable Pubs: Stag Head, The Brazen Head, Temple Bar, Arthur's Pub, The Abbey Tavern, Morelli's Takeaway. alot of places i cant rmb already oops 😬

🔺Surprisingly... online shopping (e g foot locker) for shoes here quite cheap so if staying long period can order and ship to accomodations

🤔 Reflection: To be honest, the city's historic districts and attractions are good in general. but my experience with the current generation of young people there was bad with instances of discrimination and a racially motivated attack (some hooligans throwing eggs at me and my HK friend on the street).

quite a pity that such a beautiful city is trifled with anti-social behaviours (its quite bad like you wont feel safe walking at night) from their younger generation. the older generation of people were great though! maybe cause they went through discrimination by the british when they were still a colony 👀 and understand it.

#exchange #ireland #dublin #traveling