Ireland day 1394. Wednesday 23 July 2025- Essentials

Today’s summary	Val still away so I had a free day. Spent the morning on domestic chores then in the afternoon went into Dublin to collect some shorts from Decathlon, and to get a Spanish textbook from International Books on Frederick St. Reheated ham and potatoes from earlier in the week for dinner. Rail travel videos for the rest of the evening.
Today’s weather	Overcast and mild with a shower in the evening. Very little wind. Appx 18c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Essentials shopping in Dublin

Commentary

Whether you deem the title of this blog to be accurate or not depends, I suppose, on whether you think short trousers and Spanish textbooks are essential.

Well in my narrow world view today, they had become quite important – though I admit “essential” is perhaps slightly over stating it. But whatever the semantics, my day revolved around securing these articles from various shops in Dublin.

First though, as Val is still away on her Danish adventure, I thought I better deal with some domestic chores before she came back and faced a calamity. Mainly this involved getting rid of the piles of rubbish, doing the recycling, and buying toilet paper. Yes I really am tripping the light fantastic.

Eventually, the basics were sorted and I was ready to go off and deal with my more essential matters. So I caught a handy Dart into town and made my way over to my first port of call – Decathlon on O’Connell Street.

A few months ago I bought some shorts from this outlet and I remember bemoaning on this blog a few days ago the fact that by the time I had decided I liked them and wanted another pair, they had been withdrawn. Anyway, eventually I managed to find a similar pair- though not quite identical – on the website. So I ordered them for “click and collect” from O’Connell street.

As I’d had an email this morning notifying me that they were ready for me to pick up, I dropped in, tried them on (they look ok) and duly collected them.

At almost the same time as the Decathlon email came in, I also got one from the Cervantes Institute. I’m doing a Spanish course there starting next week, and was advised that I needed to get a recommended textbook in advance.

So my next stop was International Books in Frederick St – just off Nassau Street opposite Trinity. Fortunately, the book was in stock though it wasn’t cheap at almost €40. I had a quick look at the content and it was daunting. I hope I haven’t dived in at the deep end and signed up for something too difficult. It’s so humiliating being bottom of the class all the time!

Once I’d finished collecting my essentials, I took a slow walk across Dublin to get some refreshments at the Chester Beattie café. It was crowded in the city centre – the milder weather seems to have brought out the crowds – and buzzing with life.

Afterwards I made my way back to Pearse via Temple Bar (pictured at the top of this blog) and caught a Dart to Malahide. As by this time it was approaching rush hour, I only had a couple of minutes to wait, and I was back in Malahide before 5pm.

After a refreshing cup of tea, I made myself some dinner – ham and roast potatoes from earlier in the week, pepped up with some tomatoes and mustard. It was actually very good. Especially with the even-more-refreshing-than-tea bottle of beer which accompanied it.

My evening will be rounded off, I think, by a couple of YouTube videos on rail journeys round Europe. I’m enjoying the series produced by “The man in seat 61”. I always thought I had slightly trainspotterish tendencies but he’s on a different scale. Very reassuring.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The man in the mirror is modelling the latest development in the world of cut price legwear. I think they look ok – he said slightly hopefully?	Spanish textbook. OMG it’s so hard! I am a bit worried the whole course is going to go over my head. Oh well. At least there isn’t an exam at the end of it

Window on another world – the video portal on North Earl Street. I think today we were looking at Warsaw	Dubh Linn garden – outside the Chester Beattie, where I got a late lunch. Actually it was cake and coffee, but that counts, doesn’t it?



Oh yes! I can relate to this