Getting Around in The Emerald Isle

Dublin Bus

Anyone wants to travel economically within Dublin or the so called capital of the Emerald Isle? Well, Get the Dublin Bus Pass! We purchased our bus pass online for 11 Euros/person (if bought along with Dublin Pass; or 16 Euros when purchased by itself), and the damn pass is good for 4 days. Such a steal considering The bus pass allows us to hop on and off the Dublin buss within the marked time. I believe they also offer passes of longer validity periods. Give it a check online! I’d recommend you to pick up the pass at the airport so you can directly use the pass to ride on Airlink, a shuttle bus that operates between city center and Dublin airport. Isn’t that cool that you don’t have to spend more Euros for the ride from the airport? Without the pass, one way Airlink ticket from DUB airport to the city center costs 6 Euros; a return ticket costs 10 Euros. Getting a return ticket saves you 4 Euros, but you will definitely save more by purchasing the Dublin Bus Pass.

Some of my friends in Indonesia will wanna ride this!

I admire the excellent transportation system in Dublin. For one thing, they don’t have a subway system. How is that good for me? Well.. I generally dislike subways. Their stations are normally not well taken care of (talking of those stations in Paris, London, and New York City). Subway stations in Toronto and Mexico City are nice though, they don’t smell like piss and seem to be well-kept. I gotta say Paris and London ones are probably the most unpleasant ones that I’ve been to. Nuff said.

Crisps I got at Marks & Spencer

Oh yeah, not only that Dublin has those buses, they also offer Dart (some sort of tram) for you to get around. Not sure if they have deals depending on number of days you travel, but we paid a return ticket of 4.75 Euros on our first day in Dublin. I personally think traveling on Dart can get a bit spendy; Dublin Bus is a better way to do it, whenever you have the option of course.

Dublin Pass guide book 

Hey, I did talk about another pass I bought along with the bus pass, didn't I? This pass is called Dublin Pass; explains it all, eh? :D. A three-day Dublin Pass costs 55 Euros. Again, buy the damn thing online and pick it up at the airport for convenience’s sake. Well you can have the thing mailed to your address but they’ll charge you for shipping; you like it free, don’t you? Well we do ^^. Anyway, this pass grants you free entries to various local sites such as the National Wax Museum, Guinness Storehouse, the Dublin Zoo, Kilmainham Gaol, the Old Jameson Distillery, etc. Well, technically you pay to enter those places, but if you go to enough places you can get your 55 Euros' worth. Let’s see here.. a regular adult ticket to Wax Museum will cost you 12 Euros, Guinness Storehouse charges 14 Euros, and Dublin Zoo adult ticket is priced at 15 Euros. Go to a couple more places then you will get a value of more than 55 Euros. You see what I mean?

Marks & Spencer!

It won’t be a miss though if you decide not to buy Dublin Pass. There are a lot of free museums in Dublin. Among them are the National Gallery, National Museum of Ireland Archaeology, National Museum of Natural History, and many others. Duuude.. It reminds me of London now where we hit quite a lot of free museums!

If you’re ever confused as to where to eat.. first of all, get a city map at any of the tourist information centers downtown, then hit Henry St -it’s pretty near the Center of Dublin, which is a pointed structure on O‘Connell St. There on Henry St you’ll find a bunch of reasonably cheap places to eat (looking at 5 to 10 Euros/person here). They even have a food court where you can eat at this Chinese, Thai, and Indian buffet (all combined) for 9.95 Euros. What a bargain! Meanwhile, I find restaurants and food stalls on Grafton St have a higher price range. I like Grafton St though, that’s where I’ve been getting snacks at Marks and Spencer. Their food items are rather healthy and quite reasonably priced. Today I got two small packs of food (some pasta salad & rice salad), a small bag of chips -they call it crisps here just like the Brits-, and a bottle of water for a little less than 10 Euros.

To shop on souvenirs, I insist that you go to Carroll’s! Did I tell you yet that I went the second time with my pal Kate yesterday? Can’t get enough of it LOL :D

Before hitting the hay I’d like say… Man I love Dublin!