I went to Dublin and fell a little in love

Before I boarded the plane to Ireland, I thought: it will probably rain there. Now, upon my return, I checked that prejudice through the internet search engine, and what turns out? In the Netherlands, it rains on average more than in Ireland. I could have known I was wrong with my prejudice because when I arrived, it was just incredibly sunny. Cynically, I packed my sunglasses (‘I probably won't need them‘), but with my tail between my legs, I put them on anyway. Okay, Dublin, that was your first plus point. Of many.

The flight time is also quite nice, within two hours you're there and the airport is about twenty minutes from the city center. Very good indeed. And that hotel, it was right in the middle of Dublin, with a real rooftop lounge bar that conveyed that aforementioned sunshine very well in a 360-degree view of the city.  You won't see me having a morning mood when I'm scooping my scrambled eggs during this view, you know. And then on we go, walking – Dublin isn't that big so there are taxis, but only for the real divas. You can also rent bikes, but you don't see many of those on the street. You absolutely want to catch the following points when you go to Dublin.

Trinity College (The Long Room)
Book lover or not, this library (The Long Room) is so beautiful. And gigantic. Really, you can't take your eyes off it. It belongs to the old university Trinity College, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1592. ‘Just’ going in and out isn't really going to work, because nowadays you have to buy a ticket to enter this library. For the real bookworms: the most famous piece, The Book of Kells, can also be viewed with your admission ticket. Around the university, there are many nice bars and cafes to grab a drink.

The Temple Bar
This is the most famous bar in Dublin, and yes, that also means it's crawling with tourists – as far as that is the case in Dublin. Nowadays, The Temple Bar no longer refers to one pub, but to the entire district. So here you come to enjoy Guinness and pub food. Definitely aimed at tourists and thus a bit more expensive than the other pubs, but guaranteed to be cozy. Anyway, Dublin isn't really that crowded with tourists yet, so I didn't find it very disturbing myself.

Tasting beer or whiskey
You have to love it, but once in Dublin… Yes, then you have to go for it. Guinness and whiskey it is. The Guinness Brewery is of course the best place to learn everything about Guinness beer – and to taste it. But the Irish whiskeys can also surprise you. Honestly, I'm not really into whiskey and ‘unfortunately’ I wasn't converted by the whiskey tastings, but it's interesting and the Irish are genuinely so proud of their products. I later had it mixed in a cocktail, which went down very smoothly. Thinking in solutions, huh.

Shopping
Of course, shopping is part of a weekend away. Here it's no different, because even though the city isn't super big, you can shop really well. The two most famous shopping streets are Grafton Street and Henry Street (with cozy Christmas lights in winter). Here you find the more well-known and larger chains and the giant department store Brown Thomas. I personally found the streets around it very nice too, where there are plenty of vintage stores. In the Creative Quarter, you'll also find many cute boutiques. So nice, from vintage designer Chanel bags to thrift stores with old record players.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks at one of the nice spots in Dublin
A city trip or vacation equals eating for me. A lot of eating. Luckily there was a gym in the hotel, otherwise, I would have come back quite doubled. Because yes, there are so many nice spots in Dublin to eat, even though you might not expect that they have very hip places here. Again those prejudices, huh… I've come back from that too. My favorites? 777, The Winding Stair, Brother Hubbard, Lucky Tortoise, Sophies, Roberta’s, Delahunt, and Coppinger Row. For later in the evening, you're good at Sams Bar or Grafton 37. For the bigger clubs, you move to Harcourt Street.

Well, you hear it: I'm completely converted. Compare it to the reason why Tinder is not for me; when it comes to appearance, I don't know if it's an immediate match. You have to see someone, get to know them, experience their presence. So from now on, I will leave prejudices about a city aside, because Dublin absolutely gets that superlike from me.