Out and About in Dublin!

Here are some of the famous tourist attractions in Dublin. I recommend you to visit these places when you are in Dublin!

Trinity College

This is the oldest university in Ireland, built in 1592, during the Elizabethan age. It is very beautiful with cobbled-stone plazas, Georgian architecture, large green fields, and such. One of the most famous attractions of this institution is the Book of Kells, stored in the Old Library of Trinity College. The Book of Kells is one of the oldest surviving texts of the 4 Gospels (probably written in 800 AD), and it is also known for its sophisticated, detailed, and vibrant drawings and designs. If you are interested in art, history, books, religion, and such, you definitely have to visit the Book of Kells! (So far I haven't gone in to see it, because I'm waiting to go with Kelly so it'll be free! But when I do, it'll be an breath-taking experience!)

St. Stephen's Green

This is probably the largest park in Dublin, and it is really relaxing to walk in! It is not as sophisticated as a lot of Victorian Parks in England or Canada I've seen in books or person, but it was definitely nice place to take a walk after hours of site-seeing.

Grafton Street

Based on my observation this would be the fashion district in Dublin! Very busy street, with thousands of clothing stores! From Aldo to Foot Locker to Tommy Hilfiger to Diesel and Louis Vuitton! Brown Thomas is like Holt Renfrew in Canada, but it has more brands and clothing than Holt! In addtion, there were quite a few street performers entertaining the busy pedestrians.

Christ Church Cathedral

This is the oldest cathedral in Dublin built in 11th Century when the Vikings and Celtic tribes were still around, and the interior proves it all! I did an audio walking tour, and the audio explained every history and detail of the cathedral. The cathedral indeed had a lot of history and treasures too! So many eye-catching sculptures, stained glass windows, paintings, artifacts... etc.

Dublin Castle

I didn't really do the tour of the castle, because I was pretty tired by that time, but I did walk on the outside. The castle was first built in 13th Century, but it had been destroyed so you can see some later architecture mixed with the old stoned tower. I was a bit disappointed with this because I was expecting it to be old and gray and such, but instead it looked more like an aristocratic mansion with a large court in front of the building entrance. But it was nice to see it nevertheless!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

This cathedral came a bit later than Christ Church Cathedral, but for me it had a lot more history, decorations, and artifacts than Christ Church. There was a lot of monuments, statues, and sculptures commenmorating important Irish personnel. Plus, since this was named in honour of the patron saint of Ireland, this building is a lot more famous and has more significant activities.

St. Audoen's Church

The church is the oldest parish in Ireland. It is now converted to a museum, but sermons are still held in the more contemporary chapel behind the museum. Outside the museum are the remains of the older chapel, with some faded tombstones. It was a bit sad to see the ruins since it used to be a prominent and significant part of Dublin during the older times.

Guinness Brewery

This is definitely a must see!!! Like, hello, Guiness is world renowned Irish beer! The brewery is located on the western side of the city (a little bit sketchy to be honest). On the outside you can see the old and traditional brick walls of the brewery. It's a large area, and much of the brewery still brews Guiness, whereas another part is designed as a museum. Inside the museum you could tell the company is proud and committed in educating people about their beer! It's very high tech and each station is about each brewing stage. And most of all, you get a FREE pint at the end at the bar! Or you could repeatedly get small portions of the beer for free at the testing lab, lol! The bar was located on the top floor, and it over looked the entire city of Dublin!

Book of Kells


This is definitely the highlight of my visit in Dublin! Thanks to Kelly with her status as a student at Trinity, I was able to see the exhibition for free! And let me tell you, it is so worth going! Not only does the college exhibit the Book of Kells, it also had collections of old bibles (primarily the 4 Gospels in Latin) from other parts of Europe, like France, England, and Italy, written in the 11th or 12th Century! It was phenomenal that after more than 800 years the colour in the drawings are still vibrant! And what I didn't understand was how were people able to write the texts so neat as if they were printed? LIKE HOW??? Each book is as thick as those big door-stopper dictionary (and it only contains the 4 Gospels!). The font is very big and some pages are just drawings with very intricate details! There was one page in the Book of Kells they exhibited and the page was solely a drawing (or design) of the first word of the chapter or Gospel!!! Like, how in the world would you know what word it was with all those drawings, designs, details, and colour that covered the one whole page? (I was not allowed to take a picture so.. you might have to google it to know what I mean.) Anyway, Mr. Holton would be proud! And I highly highly highly advise you to see the Book of Kells when you are there because it is an representation and combination of culture, history, religion, art of Medieval Europe, especially that of British Isles!


Other Attractions

The remaining places that I'm going to list is not of less importance, but it's just very straighforward without further explanation.


St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre is one of the larger malls in Dublin, but it's not as huge like Eaton Centre or Yorkdale with lots of shops in Toronto. However, I do enjoy the architecture, because the roof is transparent so it was really bright and cozy. There were a lot of high-end fashion or local designer shops that I will never see in Canada, but too bad that it's too expensive or else I would've shopped a lot!

The headquarters of the Bank of Ireland is located adjacent to the the front gate of Trinity College. It looks just like a traditional bank office in Europe, built in marble architecture with pillars, and the interior is large and filled with wooden furniture.

Like the bank, the General Post Office shares a similar architecture style. It is located on O'Connell Street, close to my hostel. It'll be convenient for me to mail the postcards back home!