Many years ago, when I used to work as a DJ, I toured through India three times within one year. In the course of my India tours, I met Shubham (alias DJ Arsenik) from Dehli. We here and there worked together, became friends and stayed in touch over the last approx. ten years. In autumn 2019, I was happy to hear that he moved to Dublin. So I thought I’d visit him and he could show me around in the Irish capital. This is how I simply fell in love with Dublin in January 2020 - what a wonderful city!
THE CITY TOUR
At first, I wanted to get a rough overview of the city. So I jumped on the hop on hop off tourist bus.
Dublin’s famous Samuel Beckett Bridge, that looks like a harp, "plays" many beautiful colours at night which makes it look even more spectacular!
My city tour ended at the EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. This is a place where storytelling is executed perfectly! A lot of multimedia and interactive features are offered to the visitors in order to learn more about the Irish identity and the reasons why they emigrated to the whole world. A great museum that you simply must see when you visit Dublin.
MUSICIANS AMONG THEMSELVES
We could scent some rock’n’roll air in the Irish Rock’n’Roll Museum Experience. The fact that many rooms in the museum are still being used as rehearsal rooms for bands today, inspirits this museum even more. And even my very personal music hero Michael Jackson recorded some songs here that are still unpublished. Michael Jackson even bought a house in the neighbourhood of this museum.
By the way, the museum had to return the original sound recordings to the Jackson family. Until today, there are still discussions going on about who owns the sound recordings and if the songs will ever be published or not.
Shubham and me > a DJ and a former DJane at the decks. Remembering the good old days!
MY PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT
My very personal sightseeing highlight was The Little Museum of Dublin. To be honest, I don’t even know where to start to describe this lovely museum. It’s small, cute and full of funny things that were donated by real Dubliners. It’s a museum to laugh in, to be amazed by and to leave with a grin on your face. You’ll discover the true Dublin from a very different perspective. Absolutely worth a visit!
The photos speak for themselves. I’ve never seen such a cute museum before!
Alfie Byrne (1882-1956) might have been Dublin’s most famous mayor ever. His nickname was "The Shaking Hand of Dublin". He was known for his hard work and willing to serve as many people as possible. For example, he wrote 15,000 letters within his first year in office. And as he shook so many hands, visitors of The Little Museum of Dublin could even shake Alfie’s hand themselves - only a plastic one, but still.
Our guide Brenda did a fantastic job. "A pint of plain is your only man" is something like the Irish national quote in which a beer is referred to as your last, best friend when times are hard.
SCIENCE
Last but not least, I attended the scientific exhibition about plastic at the Science Gallery, Naughton Institute at the Trinity College Dublin. The exhibition was called "Can’t live with it, can’t live without it" - what a true statement.
A very interesting piece was this tricycle:
Thomas Hoogewerf (Netherlands, 2019) designed this tricycle made of recycled plastic that has already caused quite a stir in Mexico City too. The artist is aiming at demonstrating the potential of recycling, inspiring people to re-use plastic waste and exploring new business opportunities. The bike’s design and blueprints are open-source, making it accessible and rebuildable anywhere. The artist believes that access to affordable, environment-friendly and high-quality transportation is a human right.
A pinboard in the exhibition invites visitors to contribute their ideas for future exhibition topics.
FOOD AND DRINKS
As I don’t drink alcohol, I simply skipped visiting the Guinness factory and the Irish Whiskey Museum. There was something else that much more caught my interest: scones! Scones are similar to muffins, I would say, but much more delicious in my opinion. They are served with butter, jam and sugared whipped cream.
And that is how it came that I tried my very first raspberry scone at Queen of Tarts. Splendid!
Later on, we went to Temple Bar where we had great live music, tasty burgers and drinks (alcohol-free for me of course, hehe).
Apparently, Temple Bar was the first pub in Ireland. Well, I have no idea if that is true or not. However, it sounds good in the tourist guide.
CONCLUSION
To sum it up: For me, Dublin is an international (student) city with an extremely high level of cuteness. Definitely worth a visit!
