My Weekend // Dicey's + Dinner Parties

06 February 2015 - Dicey's Garden

Friday afternoon I discovered Dicey's drink special for the night was €2 any pints and ciders. I told the guys about it and and they wanted to check it out and so we did. Ah... what's there to say about Dicey's... It's connected to a hotel and seems to serve multiple purposes. It's part club/ pub/ lounge. Essentially it felt like if someone had a very large backyard and turned it into a party. A lot of it is outside space but the pubs here have outdoor heaters everywhere so it wasn't cold at all.

Dicey's Garden

The special ended at 10pm so Justus, his friend Jeromine, my roommate Arwin and myself got there around 9.15pm and waited at what seemed like THE SLOWEST BAR in Dublin. We must have waited at least 15 minutes to order drinks. There were so many people there (because it's the weekend, plus a rugby or soccer game was on) and can you believe they only had ONE bartender at that particular bar. There were other bars in Dicey's but the place was crowded so we just decided to get drinks from the one outside. Justus ordered 2 pints of Guinness, Arwin ordered one (and hated it ha!), Jeromine and I ordered two bottles each of Swedish brand Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime Cider.

 (L-R) Kenza, myself, Sascha, Jeromine, Justus

I tried Arwin's Guinness and it was the worst I've had in Dublin, honestly. The cider would've been great if it wasn't warm. But hey €4 for two 500mL bottles? Not gonna complain. Eventually Sascha, Kenza and her boyfriend Guillaume arrived.  Yoann didn't join us that night because he said he roommates didn't like the vibe. I was too excited about the cheap drinks to care about the vibe of the place but I now I definitely understand what they meant. I didn't enjoy Dicey's as much as I wanted. Maybe because it was too 'clubby' for me or maybe it was the excessive electro music they were playing. It ruined my buzz. Arwin and I left around 1am but everyone else stayed back.

07 February 2015 - Dinner Party!
Saturday I attempted to get some studying in. Around 7pm, I headed off to Chris' place for beer + dinner + movies + games. *SHOUT OUT TO KENZA FOR BEING A GRACIOUS HOST* Kenza is one of the five people who share an apartment with Chris. She's originally from Morocco and cooked fish for everyone. Chris forgot to tell her I don't eat fish so she made a separate dish for me (chicken and mashed potatoes! mm!). She and her boyfriend Guillaume (who's French) made beignets (fritters, essentially) for dessert. It was heavenly!!!! 

food + beer

After that we decided to watch a movie. We were naming favorite genres (mine is horror) and Chris put on Carrie. It was terrible hahahahah. I remember that movie being advertised everywhere but I didn't expect it to be so bad. We laughed a lot during that movie. After that travesty Chris, Sascha and I stayed up til around 2am playing Halo and trying to figure out where in Ireland we wanted to travel to the following weekend.

08 February 2015 - The Return to Dicey's....
Sunday Arwin, Chris and I made a quick stop to the Smithfield Market Fair. I was expecting a flea market similar to the Dublin Flea Market but obviously my hopes were too high. It was basically a small fancy flea market. The secondhand goods were overpriced in my opinion.

Sascha sent me a message to meet up with him to get our Irish Cultural Studies project somewhat out of the way (I'll explain that project in another post). 

me and James Joyce in SSG

We chose to go around Dublin 2 and wandered around the area, past Grafton Street to St. Stephen's Green and further and surprise surprise, we somehow ended up near Dicey's. I was certain this was a ploy of Sascha's but he insisted otherwise. Anyway we were exhausted and cold and hungry and had no desire to walk around so we popped in for one beer. Pints were €2 again. Dicey's also has a BBQ area that's actually really cheap so we decided to stay a bit longer. We had burgers and chips (fries) and more pints. In total I spent €9 on two beers + a meal. Not bad at all. When we left the lounge/restaurant vibe turned into a club scene. I don't know. Dicey's is weird. Anyway, it was really cold so we hailed a cab back to my place... Better than walking 30 minutes in freezing temps.

*This weekend Chris' housemates + my housemates are heading to Galway and Connemara!!! I can't wait for that!

-SX