After being here in Dublin for 3 and a half months, I've found a lot of things I like to do. Ireland is a wonderful country and there is always something going on. Given, I'm not the most exciting person but a lot of simple things really make me happy here.
I like going on long walks throughout Dublin and seeing everything that is around here. I like walking around until I get lost and finding out new roads, new parts of town, new places to shop. It's fun and exciting to discover new parts of the city. Though finding out how to get home is not always easy. I don't have a very good sense of direction so I usually have to ask people how to make it back to my part of town...
I like going to the parks in the city. It doesn't get that warm here, but it has been in the high 50's lately. I like going to the park and finidng a bench to sit on and read a book or do some work. It's very relaxing and the parks here are beautiful.
One of my favorite things I like to do is to go shopping. There are some great places to shop in Dublin. I love going up to Grafton Street, a walking only street, and just looking. It's too expensive to buy some of the top end items they have on Grafton Street. If you walk up a little further, there is another street, O'Connell Street. The side streets are also walking only and they have great stores to shop at. Lastly, there is a big mall that, although I've only been there once, I loved going to. I hope I find time to go back before I'm done here. There are tons of different stores here that you wouldn't find in the US, so it's very interstesting to shop here.
I like going to the tourist and historical spots in Dublin as well. Such as going to the Guinness Factory, the Jameson Distillery, the Dublin Castle and other tourist spots. It's fun to just... be that embarrassing, random tourist for a few hours even though I have been living here for a while.
Since I live towards the city center I'm about 3 miles away from the University I am attending. In order to get to class I bike to the university every day. I love waking up and biking to and from class. It's a lot of fun and I get good exercise in. Because I'm too cheap to join a gym, I'm really happy that I get to bike.
I also like finidng new places to eat in Dublin. I am a big food fanatic and so I love trying and eating great tasting food. There are a lot of Irish Pubs that I like checking out. I have yet to eat a bad meal here, every restaurant has excellant food. Their seafood is also amazing.
There really isn't anything I dislike about Dublin, and Ireland in general. So it's hard to pick my absolute favorite things to do. But these are defenitly the most relaxing, which is something I really enjoy. I really like going around Ireland and visiting different places as well. This country has so much to offer and is absolutly beautiful. I love being here, and it's going to be very hard to go back to America and accept that I probably won't be coming back here for a long, long time.
