On my first day in Dublin Bogdan told me that there are 12 Michelin Star restaurants in the city. For those, who is maybe not aware what Michelin Star is: "It is a mark of distinction awarded by the Michelin travel guides to a restaurant in recognition of the high quality of its cooking. A restaurant may receive one, two, or three stars, representing very good, exceptional, or exquisite cuisine, respectively." It would be very foolish to miss such a good opportunity and not to try one of those. The same day I made a reservation for a dinner in one out of those 12. The name of it is l'Ecrivain. It has one Michelin star. The dinner was scheduled for Day 7 of my trip, Thursday. Suddenly I realized that when I was packing my suitcase, I didn't think I would go to any fancy restaurant or a Broadway Show. (Actually London Broadway show might have been the only one I didn't wear a dress to. No, don't get me wrong, I didn't wear jeans either. But still.) I didn’t have anything in my suitcase for the occasion of going to Michelin star restaurant. For a girl who grew up in the family where was never enough money sometimes for toys, sometimes for clothes, sometimes even for food, Michelin star restaurant is maybe a life time experience. I could not afford not to look my best for the occasion. I needed a dress!
Remember on the first day of my journey I promised that I would not spend any day just watching TV in my room, that I will keep discovering new things about new cities, shopping would count too? So first part of the Day 7 was decided to spend shopping for the perfect dress. Remember also in the beginning I mentioned that U 2 is like a national treasure for the Ireland. So this weekend is their concert and all rooms in the hotel we were staying at were booked for the weekend. We needed to check out from there and move to the different one. So my morning started from finishing packing and dragging the suitcase downstairs. Btw check out from the "old" one was at 12, and check in at the "new" one was no until 3 pm. So I left my suitcase at the "old" hotel, I would need to come back for it in 3 hours, which means I had 3 hours to find a perfect dress. I headed towards the center where all the stores are.
Every girl can agree with me that shopping can be very long and very stressful and with no results at the end. So I needed energy. I stopped by at the coffee shop "The Art of Coffee" that we were bypassing the other day. It looked very cozy and had a great view on the water dock. I got myself cappuccino and a croissant, and took a place right by the window on the very comfy couch with a lot of colorful pillows. They serve croissant here with additional butter and very-very tasty jam. My brunch became a ritual of enjoying both the view and croissant with cappuccino. I think the cafe took the second place at the World Latte Art Championship. After I finished my ritual I was ready for shopping.
Basically the first store I saw was Mango and I knew it was the right choice. When the amount of hangers in my hand became more than I could possibly carry I went to try the dresses on. All of them were too big on me, even though they all were XS. Apparently European XS is ours (I mean US one) 2. And when I already started to think that the hope was lost, I noticed a little black dress. Yep, always the right choice. It looked perfectly. And now I only needed a purse to go with it. Yes, I brought the purse with me, I'm a girl, I don't go anywhere without the purse, even if I already have a backpack. But the purse couldn't handle the amount of pressure of this trip and broke on my second day in Dublin. If not a Michelin restaurant I probably would keep struggling by carrying backpack around till coming back home. But I simply could not take backpack to Michelin restaurant. So I looked for the purse. I looked for something to go with my beautiful fucsia color flats. But the closest color they had was red. And I was not in the red mood. Yes I could have bought a simply black clutch. But that would be too boring. "I'm in Ireland" I thought. Guess what color of purse I bought. Emerald one. It was simply and very stylish in the same time.
Now it was time to collect both my and Bogdan's bag from the "old" hotel and move to the "new" one. And it started raining. In Ireland the weather is very unpredictable: it can be sunny and raining at the same time. It was not easy, but I moved all our stuff and checked us in without even his ID, which, I personally think, is weird, but I don't complain.
It was time to get ready. I'll skip all the details. Around 2 hours later I was ready.
We met at the restaurant. I have to mention, I was 2 minutes away from the restaurant, when it started raining again. I don't complain. I actually prefer that to humid and hot disaster that is in NYC right now. Everything was very fancy about that restaurant. My umbrella was taken from me.( I actually forgot it there too) While I was waiting I was offered peanuts and olives. Waiters spoke very quietly. We were seated right away. The menu had 2 options: tasting and 3 course ones. The difference was obviously the price. But not a big difference. 15 Euro. Also the menu had a note to limit the amount of the phone usage. After a quick look at Tasting menu I decided that it didn't look good enough for me so we went with the 3 course meal. Under each meal in the menu there was a suggestion of the vine that should go well with that meal. We ordered and the food started to come. And very soon it became clear to me why the price was what it was. In addition to the food that you actually ordered you get different extras with each out of 3 courses. It was a real one time experience. And definitely we enjoyed the food. It worth every euro we spent on it.
One more great new experience I can add to my thrift-box of amazing experiences in my life...
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