Birthday do in Dublin

They say that good things come to those who wait and as far as our trip to Dublin is concerned, that's certainly proven to be true. In early 2020, I was excited to be taking Ollie there as his 23rd birthday present. Well, after rearranging 4 times due to covid, we finally made it there for his 25th birthday! And while we may have had to wait a pretty long time for our trip, it was well worth the wait.

Regular readers will know that on every trip Ollie and I go on (of which there are a lot), we always have at least one piece of bad luck! This time, we had a delayed flight on our way there on Friday night. So we didn't arrive at our hotel (Cassidy's hotel) until about half 11! It was a warm welcome when we did arrive though, as our hotel room was really lovely with giant sash windows, an uber modern bathroom and even some mini bottles and wine and balloons to say happy birthday (they'd weirdly done these in Italy's colours though rather than Ireland's).

Because lots of places in Dublin seemed to shut early, we were against the clock to get out and make the most of our first night! So I had a quick outfit change (skinny jeans, guisppe lace black bodysuit, black and white trainers and yellow suede jacket) and we headed out to the first quaint pub we could find. Luckily there's not exactly a shortage of lovely pubs in Ireland, so we found one without walking too far and went for our first pint of Guinness! It was actually my first Guinness ever and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Something else I really enjoyed is the burger we went in search of after the pub had closed! We hadn't eaten since lunchtime so were naturally starving and struggling to find anywhere open and serving food. But our prayers were answered when we found a place called 4Friends Burger. I got a burger with a deep fried slice of camembert in the middle and omg I felt like I'd died and gone to food heaven. A very impressive first meal in Dublin indeed!

The next day, we had a full itinerary of exploring planned so our first stop was breakfast. We didn't want a proper sit-down meal that would write us off for the day so instead, we stopped at a cute little cafe for a bite to eat and a coffee. And since it was a birthday trip, it was only right that we had cake for breakfast!

And then it was time for my favourite part of any trip; wandering around and seeing what we find. It was beautiful weather so we had a lovely day for it and I was dressed accordingly in light jeans, white top, black and white shacket, black and white trainers and statement sunglasses to complete the look. On our travels, we saw the Spire of Dublin, the Ha'penny bridge, loads of beautiful churches and cathedrals and the castle (which seemed like less of a castle and more of a big open square to me).

We also had a little walk through St Stephen's Green and went through the archway, before meandering around to take in the city. Something I expected from Dublin was the old world charm and quaint cobbled-ness (which I got in huge doses). But something I also got which I didn't expect, was quite an edgy city with street art and lots of cool shops and bars. It was a nice surprise of a city actually.

By this point we'd started to get peckish so we were on the hunt for a restaurant. Sometimes when you're in a big/main city, the choice of restaurants can be a bit overwhelming, Plus you don't want to waste one of your only meals there on a poor choice! Luckily we struck gold with a tapas place called The Market Bar. It was a beautiful high-ceilinged venue and the food was amazing. They did a lunch offer for €17 which was bread and 2 tapas each so we shared the meatballs, fish skewers, calamari and patatas bravas (because you can't go for tapas and not get the bravas can you?).

Something else you can't do, is go to Dublin without visiting the Guinness Storehouse! It was about ten times the size than I expected it to be and it was so interesting learning all about the history and the processes. 

The best part though was reaching the top floor and having a pint of Guinness while taking in the incredible rooftop view of the city. They had a DJ up there and paired with the sun, it made for a pretty amazing afternoon.

Well, the Guinness Storehouse essentially gave us a rooftop bar bug, as I then wanted to go to another to finish off our day. We managed to find one called Sophie's (on top of The Dean hotel) which had arguably even nicer views and a cute outdoor heated terrace. We enjoyed a few cocktails while watching the sun go down, before heading back to our hotel to get ready for the evening!

Dublin wasn't an overly dressy kind of place so I actually changed my planned outfit for the evening, wearing black leather pants, printed top with mesh sleeves, black bag and black espadrilles (swapped out for the heels I'd originally brought to wear). I was glad I did too because I was definitely the right level of dressed up and would've probably felt out of place in heels!

We'd tried to be organised in our restaurant choice for the evening, having had a look at options a week or so before, but we ended up booking somewhere on the night while we got ready (as is our last-minute style these days). The place we went with was called Darwins and it was a grill and steakhouse sort of place. It ended up being a great choice; I loved the cool decor and the fact that they had to move us to a bigger table when we ordered the porterhouse for two as it was too big for the one we were sat at! The food was incredible although we did have a communication mix-up - the dish said it came with 2 sides so we ordered truffle fries and normal chips, not realising it already came with mash for both people so we ended up with quadruple potato! Well, when in Ireland I guess. They also treated/embarrassed Ollie for his birthday with a free dessert, singing and even a birthday hat that they made him wear! Naturally I enjoyed the whole thing tremendously.

And then it was onto the part you've all been waiting for; Temple Bar! It was as beautiful as I expected and felt like a real must-do in Dublin. We walked into live music playing, which was my favourite part about Dublin; live music everywhere. Although, I say 'walked into' - it was more 'crammed our way into' since it was basically one giant moshpit in there. For me, it was more of a tick-off item than somewhere I'd want to spend the whole night since you could barely move and the drinks were €12 for a single spirit and mixer! We ended up moving to a similar place just round the corner which also had live music and was really busy and atmospheric but with a slightly smaller price tag and slightly more oxygen.

The next morning we were getting ready to wave goodbye to the emerald isle, but not before a final foodie stop. Again, we celebrated with cake for breakfast (this time in muffin form, which we can all agree is a more socially acceptable breakfast option). Well, a birthday trip 3 years in the making certainly calls for it. And it was definitely worth the wait!