In Dublin's Fair City...

 We recently took a trip to Dublin and thought we'd share a few pics of our favourite spots of the day with you! You might notice that (contrary to our character) there's no posts about the food/drink of the day here - but never fear, it's coming in a later post. For now, enjoy some of the best spots and shops of Dublin (as far as we're concerned) and feel free to share your favourites!

Avoca on Suffolk Street (right off Grafton Street)

Buskers and Concrete Mural in Temple Bar

Our favourite stumbleupon of the day! 'Find' vintage store in Temple Bar

'The Secret Garden' - A pop-up restaurant by Lidl in Temple Bar

Ha'penny Bridge's 'Love Locks'

St. Stephen's Green

The Winding Stair Bookshop on Lower Ormond Quay

We found some really nice wee gems this time around as well as re-visiting some old favourites. Avoca is one of the aforementioned favourites. It stocks homewares, clothes and books as well as little gift type items. They have shops all over Ireland, (Albert Street in Belfast, in case you were wondering) and the standard is the same across all the ones we've ever visited. If you want to treat yourself to a new mug or some cool kitchen tools, check it out! Our personal favourite is their blankets though, Avoca have long been famous for their knits! If you're feeling hungry, they also have an amazing café and some stores stock food and preserves to take away!

We're on a bit of a home decor kick at the minute, given that we're only just now trying to tie up the loose ends around our house. As a result, we visited Muji  - a Japanese company selling really simple, affordable storage options and stationery. We picked up few notebooks, but unfortunately no storage! If you live in the North, it works out cheaper to have it shipped from their online store than to pay in Euro, so we're planning on doing that! The star of the day, home wise, was by far 'Find' in Temple Bar. It's a cute little store selling the ever-trendy vintage and upcycled homewares. We were particularly taken with their wooden furniture painted in lovely pastel shades using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint which they also sell. However, we obviously weren't going to lug big pieces of furniture around Dublin and home so unfortunately we had to pass! We did end up getting a beautiful silk scarf and a wee wooden tray though as we definitely just could not resist.

Aside from stuff for the house,our next biggest money trap is books. We have endless amounts of them, despite our reading progress having slowed to a snails pace recently! As a result we stopped at The Winding Stair and The Gutter Bookshop . We picked up a really nice Moomins book in 'The Gutter Bookshop'  (after a long hour lounging in the seats reading children's books) and had a nosy around The Winding Stair. I imagine if I was a Dublin native, I would love the Winding Stair for a long day of sitting around part-reading/choosing new books - it has a really nice atmosphere, perfect lighting and both new and second hand books to choose from.

Other than shopping, we spent the rest of the day eating, drinking and dandering around the city. It was really sunny, and Dublin really is one of those cities where it's nice to just walk around and soak up the atmosphere, plus if you're eager to chill out you can head to St. Stephen's Green and lie on the grass/watch the ducks! It was a really nice day, and as you can see, we were tuckered out by the end of the day! We hope to be back soon to visit the shops we missed out on this time! If you have any favourites, share 'em with us for next time!