NoJennyNo: Dublin: 5 Reasons to Dislike and Like

Hello from Dublin!
This was my first visit to Ireland. And for a long time in a while, I think since my first visit to Malta, I was fairly disappointed in visiting a new country. Our travels revolve around major events, so they are usually in cities that are popular with tourists. In that sense, my travels are filtered for their conveniency and modern comforts but I am bound to run into some that could use improvements. Dublin was one of them.

Without further ado, I present to you the good vs. bad about Dublin. Let's just get the negative out of the way.

Hailing on a sunny day

1. Outdoors.

I was told in advance that the weather in February is terrible, so I had low expectations and did not plan outdoor activities. Even if it was nice out, there isn't much sightseeing to do aside from Trinity College, Guiness Museum, and the park. It rained frequently, inconsistently. It would be sunny one second and thunderstorm the next. If it did not rain, it hailed, if it did not hail, the wind was bending the trees over. I'm not kidding.

Right outside the window of a 3rd floor apartment, a 15 ft tree casually dancing away at the wind. WTF.

What is even crazier is that people actually LIKE the weather. There were joggers outside, casually totting umbrella in one hand and a dog leash on the other. Mom were walking with their strollers and smiley babies in THUNDERSTORM. The Irish people and their weather were no joke.

2. Indoors.
We planned to spend most of our days cooped indoors so we booked a cute AirBnB apartment near the city center that reminds you of a wood cabin. It was described as a mixture of cozy and luxury, overlooking the mountains with fantastic wifi. The sweet owner baked us some goods, showed us nice places to eat at, explained every detail of the apartment before leaving with a goodbye.

What I didn't realize was that staying indoors was going to be just as terrible as the weather.

Sure, the apartment looks cute and it's got every comfort. It is quite nice for Dublin standards. But the buildings are not built to withstand the clammy, cold weather and the chill permeates through. Large windows and the heaters next to them can't quite battle against the windiest of days. Hot water only heats up twice a day, so you are stuck with lukewarm or chilled water for most of the day. I was shocked to hear the owner add 'like every other apartment...' In the heart of such a modern city, it was bizarre to see the locals accepting living standards that other countries take for granted.

The only silver lining was that we didn't need a whole lot of excuse to use the awesome fireplace.

3. Wifi
The biggest failure of our trip, when going outside wasn't an option.
To be fair, we were stuck with hotspot wifi, the kind you use as an emergency outdoor internet. The owner promised it would be fast, but sometimes I could only get speeds like 5mb download/.5mb upload, which barely is barely 'view one Facebook post at a time' speed. The cable wifi is better, but only 18 month plans are available. We were staying only for 10 days, which did not make sense.

Let's not even get into dealing with the providers.
Three, the only short term wifi option available, was by far the worst service I've ever dealt with. Talking to numerous US and Canada wifi providers (ATT, Verizon, Rogers, Bell, etc) for years has taught me patience when talking to these guys, but Three took the cake on this one. Their website missing pages and phone numbers to store locations was just the beginning.

It was like talking to a drunk plastic figurine.

The tech support did not know basic terms. Conversation usually went like this:

"Can you tell me the wifi speed? Your website says page missing.""It's 4G.""No I mean the speed per second.""It's 3G. Actually I don't know. Let me redirect you to xxx"
(Repeat for every single question next 30 mins)

In store support? The guy had to ask their online support to get the wifi device setup because he didn't know how to do it. He asked what password meant. And above all, he did not do what we came to do - activate our prepaid plan. We were charged per megabite used and 200€ after their own mistake, they never even refunded.

The experience was so bad that my computer became allergic to it and crashed.

No, really, the motherboard fried when the battery charger made contact with the Irish outlet. Greaaaat.

Enough, enough. Let's get to the good.

1. Nice people
The people were actually really nice. From the owner to the taxi driver to a stranger who gave us umbrellas when it was pouring out - it was unsettling how caring people were. Unaccustomed to such friendly behavior, at first I was on defense when people offered me their seats or help pick up something I dropped. Then I slowly realized, hey, maybe I've been living in too many cities with cold shoulders and nothing-good-comes-unless-you-tip attitude. It was a refreshing thought to say aloud, maybe there are genuinely nice people in the world after all.

2. Food
They surprisingly had really good restaurants. I made a lot of food myself, but with not much to do indoors or outdoors, we gorged ourselves on various restaurants on a nightly basis.

On that note, I will leave you with some foodporn. That's really all I did.

Valentine's Day Dinner at Pearl Brasserie

It's really French here. The servers speak French to each other and English with heavy accent to customers. I took that as a good sign, as authentic as a brasserie can be. It's quite fancy and I spotted a few awkward women wearing prom dresses and roses here and there. The food was spectacular and service extremely fast. We took a 3 course dinner which were all delicious.

Bruschetta and some mind blowingly delicious Spanish ham

Crab salad with avocado and yuzu, also great

I took the fleshy cod with capers and tiny shrimps. Really good.

Steak with red wine emulsion and celeriac puree

Chocolate praline tart was to die for. White chocolate ice cream to top it off.

Raspberry and lychee mille fuille, a great combo

Kinara Kitchen

I love middle eastern food when it's good. It's difficult to find a good one, let alone a high end one and was surprised to find one here. I was skeptical at the reviews at first - how good could it possibly be - but it was so good I begged to come back a couple times. The atmosphere is date night worthy and the food is fresh, with some amazing naan to go with. There are plenty of options, though my favorite was the fried potato cake.

Be aware, they know how to do spicy!

Protein platter

Dessert, honey dounut

F.X Buckley

Steakhouse at its finest. Again, being from the US and having tasted the best aged meats as well as real Kobe beef several times, I was skeptical at the great reviews. They age their own meat in the meat locker and the steaks are top notch, rivaling some of the best. I would not say it's the best I've had, but it certainly was top 10%.

Highly highly recommend if you are a meat lover.

The sign outside. It was dark and not easy to find.

All their beef are Irish and dry aged.

All-silver interior

The meat locker! It's displayed at the entrance, enticing all the meat lovers to have a bite. Mmmm

Menu for the steaks

Home made breads and dips, olives, hummus, and pesto. Probably the only vegetarian thing on the menu.

My chateaubriand, which was nearly fat free but mild and tender.

Bone in sirloin, packed with strips of fat and an explosion of beefy flavor. This was aged to perfection.

The entire table!

Can't forget the desserts. Chocolate pie.

Creme brulee

Brioche

The website says French and Spanish, but it's more French cuisine. This cute little bistro offers fresh brioche as their main bread, which I must urge not to eat it all because they will keep replenishing and you won't have room for the food. They are highly addictive!

Cozy exterior

Cozy interior.

Visible kitchen had a countryside French atmosphere

Took the 5 course surprise tasting menu

Amuse bouche, a toasted rillette, and brioche

Roasted beets, carrots, and other roots

Foie gras cream with mushrooms. Like whipped butter.

Roasted cod and celeriac

Venison with barley and sweet beets

Mandarin orange and blood orange sorbet with cake and meringue. Recommended to someone who likes citrus.

Farm

Like the name suggests, this restaurant uses local produces and seasonal menu around what is available. Though not out-of-this-world, it was good enough that it was worth a mention. I took photos of my favorites from the Valentine's menu.