Hi EC. I'm making my first journey to the Anglosphere in March and I was wondering if there was anyone here with recommendations. Could be venues, gay clubs/bars, eateries, sights, anything! I'm willing to leave Dublin but I'd prefer to be able to return to my hostel for the evening. Any tips will be appreciated, thanks!
Dublin isn't in Scotland. I've only been to Dublin once and it was mostly around the Temple Bar area which has a lot of bars and is popular with tourists in general - the area gets pretty rowdy at night though so I'd bear that in mind.. if you're not used to that type of scene it can be pretty intimidating. If you're into arty things there's the Irish Film Institute and the Temple Bar Gallery and a few other art centres/galleries. Couldn't comment on the LGBT aspect though. I found this on TripAdvisor which might be helpful: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186605-c20004/Dublin:Ireland:Gay.And.Lesbian.Dublin.html I'll be honest and say that Dublin isn't my favourite place in the world - it's nice enough, but for a national capital I left feeling a little underwhelmed. It's no London or Rome. Looks like a good place to live though.
Make sure you hear someone Irish say "Dublin" for me. Shouldn't be too hard, hopefully. Sounds so cool... "Doblin"...
Just don't expect a bartender to draw you a shamrock in your pint of Guinness. It's done in England regularly but I got told in Ireland it's not the done thing.
The main gay bars in Dublin are 'Panti bar' 'The George' and 'The Front Lounge' the are all in the city centre and within a short walk of each other. It's quite acceptable to hold your boyfriends hand while walking around most parts of Dublin. (Temple bar is a rowdy tourist trap - mostly hen and stag parties at night) A day trip to parts of Wicklow would be worth the effort. The west of the country is worth considering, but you would need longer than a day trip.
Ha'Penny Bridge got interesting pubs around, and many of them have live music, which is a must if you go to Ireland, at least hear a couple of songs. If you are like me, you'll end up spending the night there, talking to everyone about everything and having such a good time, you won't forget it. If you are a lover of fine books, you just got to see The Book of Kells at Trinity College. It's another must. For parks, I loved St. Stephen's Green. And close to this park there is the statue of Molly Malone, think of her as the mermaid of Copenhagen, but good old Molly is to me way more interesting as a character. And talking about characters, you might want to ask about James Joyce when you are there, I think you might have quite an interesting topic of conversation at the pub. I was only there for a few days, and it was during the summer, so be ready for rain, sunshine and everything you can imagine. Feel free to tell us how it went, and if you enjoyed yourself there.
Ah, Dublin! If tourist-trap is your flavor, then Temple Bar, but otherwise I'd avoid, personally. Nobody's mentioned the Guinness brewery tour, which is great. The Abbey Theater is a classic piece of Dublin history if you'd like to see a show (or the Irish Film Institute usually has a great lineup, though it's admittedly in Temple Bar). Seconding the Book of Kells tour, and the Long Room (which comes with it). Also on the history/museum-ish side, there's Kilmainham Gaol, St Patrick's Cathedral, and Dublin Castle. And if you're a Joyce fan, there are plaques all around the city pointing out places mentioned in Ulysses, as well as pub crawls that, I believe, take you through them all. Have fun!
Lived in the city all my life and it's pretty small but depending on your interest/length of stay you'll always find something to do, and it's small enough to get around really easily. Though they're not strict gay venues you should head to either Prhomo or Thirst, both gay nights, if you're really into the clubbing scene. They're on Thursdays and Saturdays and you can probably find them on Saturday..yeah outside of that it totally depends on your interests, but there's loads to do