Northside Jaunt

This is part two of a series on the streets of Dublin. Not like 'on the streets' (aka in da hood), but the streets or areas I frequently find myself in. Each area has a crazily different feel, no matter how close they really are, and this is my attempt to show you my favorite spots in the city. Part one can be found here.

There are four things I feel you should know about my week:

1) I accidentally bought orange toilet paper yesterday. I am beginning to think that all Irish people are color-blind, as they mix colors like bright yellow, gray, and green together, and then color their toilet paper orange. Weird.

2) The espresso machine at the Italian place was broken this morning. I couldn't even get tea, because they get their hot water from the machine. I am not sure what I am going to do with myself, besides settle for a very expensive substandard latte from West Coast down the street. All I can say is, they had better fix it soon or I'm going to snap.

3) I am now obsessed with Sex and the City. I am hoping that by the time I get through Amy's DVD collection, I will be in love with New York and will have no trouble if forced to move there in a desperate attempt to land a job.

4) Jillian and I took a day to walk around Dublin 1 and 2. I will talk about Dublin 2 in greater depth in later posts, because it's where I spend most of my time and I love it. A lot. But the Northside, aka Dublin 1, gets one post all its own, and then I will ignore it like I always do, until I need to sell books or get cheap veggies.

It's not like the Northside is really all that bad. It's just...the Northside. There are fewer tourist spots, more malls, and everything suddenly gets a lot cheaper. This is because this is the 'poorer' side, I guess, with a higher 2-euro store-per-block ratio, more sketchy 'massage' places, and fewer panhandlers (they follow the tourists, usually). It does have some redeeming factors, however.

Tourist-wise, there are three, maybe four things that you would have to visit in Dublin 1. The first is the Millennium Spire, at the intersection of O'Connell and Henry Street. It's famous, and I'm pretty sure most people love to hate it. I've heard it called the Stiffy by the Liffey, which I suppose is appropriate, but generally I think people call it the Spire. Rumor has it that you can see it from anywhere in Dublin, and while my view of it is blocked by a large building in exactly the wrong place, you can see it lit up at night from the Library Square on Trinity's campus. This is also where they lit the Christmas tree that looked like a pile of balls.

The second is the General Post Office. This is the headquarters for An Post, the Irish postal service, and is in this huge building on O'Connell. Apparently it served as the headquarters for the leaders of the Easter Uprising in 1916, and there is an original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic on display there (we also have one at Trinity). Anyone interested in architecture should definitely check this building out -- it's absolutely beautiful.

The third is the statue of Charles Stewart Parnell at the corner of O'Connell and Parnell Street. I once did a paper on how having an affair with a woman named Kitty O'Shea (later, Katharine Parnell) helped to bring down his political career, but all I can remember is that she had a few kids by him that she passed off as her husband's, that Parnell was a great orator and leader in...something...and that he caught cold while giving a speech in Galway in the rain and then died just as his career was coming down around his ears. (NB: That picture to the left is not of the statue of Parnell. I think that's Daniel O'Connell. But you can see all the flags flying on top of the GPO if you look to the left of the statue. Clery's is the one with the flags on the right. I just liked the lamp post.)

Still, he's really famous, and so you can take a picture of the statue and then show it to your friends, saying, "Oh, of course you recognize Charles Parnell," and have them nod sagely in agreement just so they don't feel dumb in front of you and your superior Irish knowledge.

The fourth is Cleary's Department Store. This was, I believe, the largest family-owned store in Dublin...but Mrs. Cleary died at a ripe old age and I don't know who owns it now. Anyway, it's a beautiful old building, definitely a landmark, and apparently the place to go for all your Irish souvenirs. I bet it's cheaper than buying them on Grafton, anyway.

Actually, the shopping as a whole is pretty good on the Northside. In fact, the only Gap in Dublin (in Ireland, for all I know) is inside Arnotts, the huge old department store on Henry Street. The exchange rate makes it barely worth it to trek all the way down there for what will end up being a $150 sweater, but I have always loved Gap's clearance racks, and last time I went, they were selling all of last year's jeans for around $30. And on top of it, they size like Levi's does over here -- waist and inseam, rather than some weird size that means little to nothing.

I also used to shop at the H&M up near Parnell Street until they opened one closer to me. There is no H&M in Buffalo or Castaic, so being this close to two stores full of cheap accessories and trendy clothes is pretty much heaven for me. I also like Zara, which is part of the Debenhams department store on Parnell, but I realized last month that there is one next to the closer H&M, so now I hardly ever walk up to the other one.

There are, however, two stores I will happily walk up to the Northside for: Chapters and All Rooms.

Chapters is the largest independent bookstore in Ireland. Now, I know Hodges Figgis claimed to be the largest on some website or other, but according to some sources, Hodges Figgis is owned by HMV. At any rate, it is certainly not larger than Chapters. Anyway, Chapters has printed 'Irelands Largest Independent Bookstore' on their bookmarks, and despite the lack of apostrophe, I believe them.

Chapters is really two bookstores in one: there is the bottom floor, which is all new and bargain books, and then there is the upstairs. Upstairs is a full floor of used books, all in good condition, as well as movies and music, if I remember correctly. Great selection, pretty decent prices -- the only problems I have are that first, sometime you can find new books downstairs for cheaper than the used ones upstairs, and second, no matter now new your used books look when you bring them in to sell, they will only pay you one euro per book. But hey, that's one more euro than I had before...and also one fewer book to ship back to the States.

All Rooms is kind of like a D&K, or a dollar store, except it focuses on home goods, mostly kitchen and dining stuff, and the items are more than a dollar (or a euro, in this case). However, you can get some pretty awesome stuff there for not a lot of money. I ended up getting a set of nice heavy flatware for 2 euro a piece, and a great bowl for 3 euro. It's enough to make me wish I hadn't bought the random kitchen/bedroom pack from Trinity, really.

I have heard claims that grocery shopping on the Northside is better, too. It's true of the two places I have been: the Moore Street market and the Parnell Tesco. The Moore Street market is a place I really should make the effort to go more often; cheap produce pretty much lines the street, and it's all good stuff, lasts a while, and doesn't have that sort of plastic look that the produce in Tesco does.

I suppose if I were a better person (not to mention a better cook), I would appreciate this more, but for the moment, all I can say is that I managed to get a kg of carrots, a kg of potatoes, a crown of broccoli, five lemons, and something else I can't remember now, all for just the change in my wallet. Amazing.

The Parnell Tesco is where you go if you've got some time or you're looking for something special. It's twice the size of the Tesco near me, cleaner, better-stocked, and possibly cheaper. I could not believe the amount of groceries I managed to buy for very little money there last week. However, it's also quite a trek back to my apartment with a backpack that is threatening to drag me to the ground.

Then, of course, there is also the chance that you might get lost if you head into the Northside. This can be scary, I am not going to lie. There are alleys and drunk homeless people up there. But it can also be kind of interesting -- I got lost last week walking back from Tesco, and not only did Jillian and I find where all the bagel places have been hiding, we saw the back of the Customs House and found what appeared to be Hostel Central about a seven-minute walk from our apartment and a three-minute walk from the bus station.

We didn't go to Phoenix Park or the Dublin Zoo on this jaunt, which is probably enough for another post later, but since I'm talking about everything north of the river that is slightly in city centre, it has to be mentioned. Phoenix Park is a short walk from the LUAS line that runs through the centre of town, right near Dublin 7, which is a little more residential and a little less scary than Dublin 1. I wouldn't want to, you know, wander around there alone at night, but it's fine to trek through on your way to the park. We went in November and got lost, so we were not that thrilled with the park in general, but I'm sure it's beautiful in the spring and we are going to have to do some exploring.

In short, if you're looking for cheap and not particularly cheerful, Dublin 1 is the place to go. Otherwise, well...how about you take a nice walk down O'Connell to see the sights, and then head back to Grafton? The panhandlers will be glad to have you back.

(PS: Because I know you were concerned, I checked on the Italian place when I came back from grocery shopping, and lo and behold, there is a beautiful new shiny red espresso machine sitting there on the counter. People were carrying coffee cups out, which means that they are back in business :D )