DUB: Bags and Wings

Last week I was in Dublin. I'd been looking forward to the trip as I hadn't been there in two years and still have fond memories of my time as an Erasmus student in the 1990s. Yes, young reader, this was basically when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. To be honest, I didn't plan my trip wisely and due to a stop-over in Frankfurt basically wasted Monday and Thursday travelling and eventually only had two full days in DUB. This did not mean that I didn't put the layover time to good use and, erm, boosted the German economy. How did you guess, I bought a bag. A super lightweight unlined leather shopper by Picard, which was 50% and set me back a mere EUR 79. Too good to pass up. Here's a photo of me posing with it in my hotel room:

Unfortunately, I had hardly any time to explore the shops downtown and so just managed to squeeze in an hour of power-shopping on Tuesday night (shops mostly close at 7, which doesn't help). While I popped into Boots my colleague went to Brown Thomas, Dublin's upmarket department store and I told her I'd join her in the bag department in 10 minutes. I was still in the queue to pay for my bits and pieces when she turned up with a Louis Vuitton paper bag. Wow. That certainly was quick, but then again she has worked with me for almost 5 months now...

Here's a photo of her with the LV bag and a Penneys one. Penneys is the original Primark and somewhat less elegant and pricey:

No matter how little time I have in Dublin, one thing is always at the top of my list: a visit to the Elephant and Castle for their legendary spicy chicken wings. Seriously, these are among my very favourite dishes in the whole wide world. Obscenely vinegary and moreish. Even though they are technically a starter, only the hungriest of men who have spent the day doing hard physical labour can possibly polish them off and order a main course. My colleague and I shared them. I start drooling just looking at the picture:

Admittedly, the photo doesn't do them justice and you have to taste them to believe me. I never like chicken wings anywhere else (usually they come in a nasty BBQ flavour), but these are finger-lickingly divine.