a few new favorite places

what I want to remember from Dublin and London

I am not a travel writer. Everyone probably knows that by now. I am an expert in airports and planes as a means of transit, but before this trip, I can’t tell you the last proper trip I was on, definitely none as an adult. I’m not going to attempt travel writing, but I do want to remember these two weeks in October when I was 21 and in some of my favorite places in the world. So consider this like a diary, maybe.

Dublin

The Rolling Donut

If you know me, you know I love a donut, and one of my chief complaints about my hometown is that our only donuts come from the grocery store. As I wandered around Dublin, the number of donut shops caught my attention. We ended up at the Rolling Donut because it happened to be the closest open donut shop to Hugh Lane on the day we woke up late in the afternoon from jet lag and needed a 3pm breakfast.

The Rolling Donut sells a lot fancier, more impressive looking donuts than the one in my hand from red velvet, to my friend’s favorite, the Kinder flavor. But I am a lover of simplicity (and also sprinkles). My actual favorite was the basic sugar round, which is blissfully balanced and not too sweet with its plain donut encased in a very thin, crackly layer of sugar. My food preferences are infamously boring, so I found this glorious. Technically speaking, these donuts have a sourdough base, which adds a lovely complexity, and some of them, like my beloved sugar round, are even vegan.

It turned into a ritual in our few days in Dublin to get a donut (or two) and take them to a bench by the Liffey to make eye contact with seagulls while we ate.

Books Upstairs

Maybe I’m horrible at planning or maybe I’m finally learning to go with the flow, but I spent most of this trip finding my favorite places by wandering around aimlessly. I only discovered Books Upstairs, which is now my favorite bookstore ever, because I passed it on the way to Trinity. They had an entire window-wall of Intermezzo copies, which felt promising to my Rooney-loving heart. Inside was even better. Bookstores are inherently good, but some bookstores are great. It’s the curation, the obvious care of the booksellers, as you look around that elevates a shop. A fantastic selection, particularly of Irish Fiction (I guess that’s no surprise), art criticism, poetry, anything you could ask for really. I could’ve stayed there forever. (And I kind of did. Over four days in Dublin, I made three trips).

Trinity Campus // rugby

I absolutely love Trinity’s campus. I drug my friend there because I wanted to see where Connell and Marianne went to school in Normal People (and I guess Frances and Bobbi from Conversations too), and it turns out that the campus is one of my favorite spots in Dublin, even just to lay out on the grass.

Walking back past the campus, I spotted a rugby game on the far field and drug Cassie over to watch. I’d never seen rugby, and while I famously loathe American football, I was intrigued by this game. I found there was something lovely about this collegiate rugby match with students clustered up against the fence around the field, no spectator jerseys or face paint, cheering and invested but in a relaxed and honest and uncommodified fashion that feels impossible during American sports at any level. I nearly became a believer.

The Giddy Dolphin

The one true pub. We ended up here because we were standing by the door when it started pouring rain, and then we were entirely unoriginal, so we just kept going back. Spacious bar, tons of pool tables, cheap burgers that are thoroughly good enough. We did go back late one night and watched the live music. At one point, I leaned over to Cassie and went, “Is this…” She replied, “Stick Season.” But we agreed this rendition sounded like a guess made by someone covering a song they’d never heard, a new melody for Noah’s words.

Sprite Zero // Dark Chocolate KitKats // Meditape from Trinity Pharmacy

Here’s the random bits I became obsessed with in Dublin that aren’t unique to the city but are engraved in my memory of the place. Our first hotel had a vending machine with all kinds of wonderful things, but the dark chocolate KitKat was the winner by far for me. I love a KitKat, but honestly, they’re so sweet. The dark chocolate takes care of this problem beautifully, tempering the sugar. And Dublin has them in every corner store. Also, I’ve had Sprite Zero in the states, but it’s a rare find. Getting it at a bar felt revelatory (and I will forever maintain it tastes better out of a little glass bottle). And Meditape, the answer to my blister-prone prayers. I wanted to see if I could get the zinc oxide tape in the US, but it turns out this is an Irish product. It’s fantastic. Stayed in place, healed my truly horrific blisters, singlehandedly saved the trip.

Edinburgh

Bailey’s Hot Chocolate

This isn’t Edinburgh specific, but Edinburgh is the first place I had one because it was bitterly cold and windy, and a basement pub had a sign outside advertising the drink. I honestly couldn’t taste the booze, which was a little scary. Also, these glasses are wild.

Cafe Nero

I wish I had a photo that did this European coffee chain justice, but this is all I have. I believe this is at our first Cafe Nero, which was in a Blackwell’s Bookstore. We went to a number of Cafe Neros and enjoyed their consistently great tiramisus.

Cheese Toasties

This is a toastie from Dublin in the photo, but Edinburgh gets the distinction of having the best quality toastie for the price. $5 seemed like a steal, especially in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile area, which felt like the world’s biggest tourist trap. The Deli Global was a tiny little shop with a few stools, and it was exactly what I needed post-flight.

Trains

We took the train from Edinburgh to London, which was fantastic. Even though it took much longer than flying and I’d already developed an affinity for Ryanair, there’s nothing more romantic than a long train ride through the English countryside, staring wistfully out the window. So many sheep. It was glorious. We both got our own row of seats, and I spent most of the ride reading. Besides getting stuck near Doncaster for a while, the trains thoroughly lived up to my childhood romanticization and provided a much needed rest from all the wandering.

London

Hampstead Heath

This is going to sound weird, but it’s the only way to say it. The first morning I walked around Hampstead Heath alone, earbuds in, I wanted to cry. Not in a sad way or even a happy way. Just overcome by a sense of rightness maybe? I felt an honest connection to the place I’ve rarely felt anywhere else, even after I destroyed the bellbottoms of my jeans in all the mud. I didn’t articulate the feeling well at the time, and I still can’t quite encapsulate it.

It’s amazing how easy it is to forget you’re in a city while standing in the middle of the Heath. I wandered around without direction, vaguely propelled by the notion of wanting to see the bathing ponds. It was just what I needed.

Waterstones Piccadilly Cafe

What’s better than working on writing in Europe’s biggest bookstore? I don’t know. The cafe is set up on a little second story platform over the stationary section of the store, so it looks out over the entire first floor. The floor to ceiling windows make it light and airy, and the tables are perfectly set up to spend a few hours working surrounded by others who have books and highlighters or a laptop of their own. The cup-shaped cinnamon roll was utterly fantastic, and I only want to drink tea out of a little personal teapot now. I’ve never been a huge fan of working in public, but this experience made me realize why people get dressed and leave their house to work.

Lemonia

After a series of unfortunate events in Primrose Hill, I ended up having a much fancier lunch than I intended, by myself at Lemonia. I ducked into this Greek restaurant because I recognized the name from a list of Harry Styles’s favorite restaurants and was greeted warmly by the hostess. I ordered the grilled halloumi and vegetables because I’d never had halloumi before, but Google assured me it was cheese, and I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like. The food was truly incredible with a remarkable depth of flavor, including the rice. The restaurant was so homey, and the kindness of the staff offered a much needed boost. It wasn’t my intended stop in Primrose Hill, but it turned out to be my favorite London meal.

Itsu

This is the answer to my endless restaurant request back home: A fast casual sushi restaurant. I passed a few Itsu’s in London before ending up at the one in Oxford. There were so many different delicious-looking combinations of salmon sushi. I also loved the cups of edamame. Flying out of London from Gatwick, I found an Itsu and proceeded to have another round of sushi, this time at 7 AM.

Old Queen’s Head

Another celeb recommendation brought us here. I didn’t know where to start researching places to eat, so I started googling “*insert celebrity name* favorite restaurants London” and then choosing the cheapest possible places. That led me to this fantastically well written but totally absurd article about Paul Mescal, so off we went.

The Old Queen’s Head has an incredible vibe (I mean, look at the photos), great service, and really good burgers. Also, I’d call it the site of my first ever proper night out. In my town, you always have to drive to the bar, so I always have a certain anxiety about drinking much of anything, but London had no such problems. I took a cue from Mr. Mescal and ordered the whiskey sour (even though the idea of drinking egg whites made me a little queasy). I thought it was utterly fantastic (not something I say about alcohol often). We had a few rounds of drinks, and because we started at 4:30 were in bed, chugging water and watching Fleabag, by 7:30. I now have a new favorite drink.

Urban Social Cafe

I enjoyed the vibe of the high street we walked from the tube station to the pub in Islington so much that I decided to go back the next day to look at charity shops and have another cafe work session. I landed at Urban Social, which looks tiny in the front and then opens to a spacious, almost garden-like extension in the back with plenty of tables. I soaked up a final day of the companionable togetherness of writing surrounded by other people working a few tables away. And I stayed so long that I ended up having what amounted to dinner there too, which I ordered off a QR code on the table that made it exceptionally easy to order the world’s fanciest (and most expensive) cheese toastie.