Eurotrip 2013: 2 days in Dublin

In:Travel

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Post written on: 28th June 2013

Hello, how’s everyone? I’m currently in London now and will leave for Paris in two days. Was previously in Dublin attending an international conference, which is why I even set foot in Europe in the first place. Have to be so very thankful that my FYP/thesis was accepted to be presented in this conference. Let me share a bit more about what happened in Dublin!

Roy and I flew on Monday the 24th and reached Dublin on the 25th in the early afternoon. Our accommodation was at the Arlington Hotel at O’Connell Bridge, we took an air coach from the airport which costed 7euros per pax. P/s: There was free wifi on the coach! A Singaporean can never live without Internet, really. I mean, most of the time we are surfing social networking sites and staying connected.

Lisa & I. Thank you for all these years in university!! :’) Would never have made it through without your presence (and craziness).

Just one of the many nice looking buildings around.

Lisa & Alvin met an ex Singaporean who recommended this place for us to dine at! So we went there for our lunch. Food was pretty expensive at more than 10euros per person.

There are a lot of restaurants/pubs in Dublin. Drinking is a great part of their culture I think, hey they brew Guinness!

Us being goofy, um actually we are like that 99% of the time. And Lisa & I love to disturb Alvin hahaha. Don’t judge him by his dressing, although we always do HAHAH. We love you all the same Alvin.

Oh and I had my very first Penneys/Primark experience where I spent 100euros T.T Actually Primark originated from Ireland, and it was (still is) called Penneys in Ireland.

This building looks like a castle lol. Most of the buildings in Dublin are short, like only max 4-storeys high.

Our breakfast in the hotel early next day. It was good It wasn’t like the best 5-star restaurant food but was good enough for all of us. We were very pleased with the breakfast and went for quite a few rounds! After breakfast, we headed to the Dublin City University to attend the IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research) conference where we presented our paper and also sat through other communication scholars’ presentation sessions. I must say those people are really good at what they do. I don’t think I could ever dedicate my life to research haha. Some presentations blew me away, I felt so stupid.

Tapping on free wifi to update my Instagram!! (@urbandollsg) You can view my random updates about my Eurotrip on my Instagram, including my videos hehe. Anyway, can you believe I actually forgot to bring clothing for the conference?! I totally forgot about packing formal clothes so I just went to Penneys/Primark to get a top and blazer. Lol, luckily they didn’t cost much!

In the conference room while exchanging opinions with fellow guests from the media/communication arena.

My research team!! Lacking Jaslin, and Rajiv. It would have been great if our entire team was there. Anyway, my FYP group cannot be thankful enough to have received supervision from my professor (center) with his research team. Throughout the 8 months, they provided extensive help and were extremely patient with us. Can’t believe they actually could withstand our group’s epicness. And I can’t believe it’s all over.

Had an expensive dinner the other night so we saw a signboard with a promotion sign so we stepped into this random place for “Dublins Best Fish & Chips” which was… shit.

Bahah we went pub crawling in the night to immerse ourselves in the Irish culture. Their pubs/clubs are very different from ours with live folk music. In Singapore, the clubs blast loud pop music and people are dancing or making out haha. But in Dublin, everyone is just enjoying a chill night out with some beer. By then, we were all too tired to enjoy as we had a long taxing day and were dead beat. We were 90% dead in the pub and falling asleep while standing. So we decided to head back to our hotel  to prepare for our flight the next day. Lisa was heading to Toulouse, France, Alvin was heading to Edinburgh, Scotland while Roy & I were headed for London, UK. All of us were going to different places. That marked the end of our FYP project. From nothing to something, we really came very far.

That is actually about it for Dublin! Honestly, there isn’t anything much to do there. It is a very small city, 1/10th the size of Singapore. We did walk past some tourist attractions but were too lazy to enter the places.

I am currently in Florence, Italy, now and will head to Rome after this! My last stop is in Madrid! Please stay tuned for my London, Paris & Venice posts guys. There are too many pictures and things to share. So far, my favourite places are London and Paris! Take care y’all!

Sending love from Europe,