All in all, Dublin is a fantastic city, about 2/3rds the size of Bangalore with a population of 3 million and about the size of Mysore. It has a unique blend of the olden European Architecture cris-crossed with the modern 'open' architecture.
I found the people to be pretty friendly and opinionated. The most longstanding memory of Dublin would be the large family life, very similar to India. During all my outings, I observed lots of families moving around with Grandparents to Parents and Children, very similar to our Indian culture. Strange, that we are losing it out here back in India, where it actually originated and still famous for.
By the way, everybody, every single one of them (Dubliners) know the word "Bangalore". Momment I say, Bangalore, we could see their eyes lighten up !
Here are some more:
Pretty expensive (Expensive than LA), A liter of mineral water costs Euros 1.33 while a can of beer costs the same ! One banana costs 30 Indian Rupees ! (Thats for the conversion freaks!). A good dinner costs about 10 Euros (Rs. 600).
Very crude mobile phones in use (Nokia 3310 is the top model there!). Dublin is the pub capital of world and the only thing Dubliners probably do overin the evening is Drink ! And they are so drunk by the time they are out of the pubs, they would have lost control and then dirty the roads, litter all along. As bad as M G Road on a Sunday morning.
All said, Dublin is a beatiful city, with lots of parks, greens, good transportation, and nice people. Food is not at all an issue here. Lots of Indian restaurants, but most of them serve only North Indian. Idli - Chatni, Masale Dose eaters will be dissapointed ! No Pani-Puri, Alu-Puri either !. Loads of restaurants from other countries as well. Temple bar area is the best for such eaters.
I have posted some selected snaps and will let them do the talking. Enjoy and dont forget to comment.
Departed Bangalore on 29th July, 2006 on Air France to Paris. From Paris we took CityJet Airways to Dublin and arrived at Dublin on 29th, Sunday. |
Assorted snaps from in and around Dublin. Ireland has few major cities. Dublin is the capital. Belfast and Cork are the other two main cities. Dublin is known for it's pubs, castles and greenery. |
Unanimously, everybody agreed to cover the city by foot! It was tiring but it was worth it. It would have been easy to take a Dublin bus tour, but this, we felt was much much better. |
There are many tour operators who operate daily tours in and around Dublin. Our Hoteliers suggested that we take the Wild Wicklow Tour and it was worth the price of Euros 28! |
Monday was a Bank Holiday and hence we got the long weekend there at Dublin. So I and Alok wanted to explore more of what Dublin could offer and took to the sea side village of Howth. We took a train from the Pierce station to Howth. The return ticket costs Euros 3.50 which was very affordable. |
Dublin is a great place to do Window Shopping but not to shop. Its expensive. For an Indian who does the Rupee - Euro conversion, he has very little to choose. Inspite of that, the fun of shopping never seizes. |
