23 August 2008

dublin


after a small absence, i've returned from a little trip to dublin with alan. a nice little getaway, & so nice to go somewhere new, as i'd never been to ireland before. we stayed in a little bed & breakfast called the abc guesthouse, with helpful owners who made getting into the city centre very easy, & cheap thanks to the incredibly frequent buses.

on the first night we went into town for dinner & a wander, but didn't stay out late thanks to being incredibly tired after a day of travelling. we wandered down o'connell street, past the general post office, which you can see above alongside my terrible attempt at long exposure!

on our first full day we went to the temple bar area to look at little galleries & such. a couple of the exhibitions were pretty disappointing, but we found an ace little tea shop called 'joy of cha', & some interesting second-hand shops. the irish film institute felt like dublins equivalent to the dca (but not nearly as brilliant or resourceful). we also wandered down grafton street & into the market arcade where i bought the badges that you can see in the first picture, they were a bargain. we went to the national museum, & a swell little gallery called gallery 29 that sold lovely vintage posters, including huge prints of the old british rail advertisements. the picture above is of the glass awning outside the olympia theatre, i loved it. we went to wagamamas for dinner, then sat in a pub for a few hours drinking guiness & corona, & listening to some terrible/brilliant classics.

on friday we went to kilmainham gaol, which has a very interesting history that i could never recap here. it was made nicely digestible by our guide too. this took up most of our day, so in the evening we went for a tasty dinner at a restaurant called alfie's near grafton street. afterwards it was off to bed, thanks to an 11 o'clock flight today.

my lovely travel buddy & i in front of the ha'penny bridge. i think the worst thing about coming back from a holiday for me is having to catch up online when i get home!

benjamins - little tin heart

6 comments:

John Alan Birch said...

Twas a fun holiday :) thank you for going away with me for a few days! oh and thank you for your photos xxxx

Jen Collins said...

no no no, thank you! i would've been lumped in dundee some more had you not come. (:

Sanna Dyker said...

What a swell little trip, and i love those badges, and thank you for mine, i love my wee polish? dude. I like the sound of that vintage poster shop too. Glad you both had fun, nice to have yous back too though xxx

Jen Collins said...

not a problem lovely. (: i want to hazard a guess at polish or russian, but i'd need someone who actually knows to confirm it.

Craig Gallacher said...

Very good. I should really go there sometime soon. I think you might like this fella's house:

http://morewaystowastetime.blogspot.com/2008/08/house-voyeur-midcentury-cool-in-oakland.html

Jen Collins said...

yes, do. you only need a few days to cram everything in, take a couple more if you like doing things slowly. it's expensive eating/drinking however.

that's a pretty splendid house. look at that view! i'd buy that graphics tray in a second. they're certainly people of taste, there's a jason munn print. cheers for sharing.