Temple Bar – Lively street with euphonious music
Written by sreedev
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| Talented guys in merchant Arch |
Stories about this place made me curious ever since I heard stories about this place from my friend who went to Temple Bar. From airport I reached my Hotel Cork International in a taxi, which is located on the northern side of Dublin. At entrance, receptionist was waiting to receive me with her gorgeous smile, advantages of luxurious business trip. I checked in and she pushed a street map of dublin in my hands as she was walking out of my room after showing me around. I wowed around room for some time. It was the first time I was staying in such a huge room and I hardly knew the functionalities of fecilities provided to me. After that I dove in to street map of dublin in search of Temple Bar. I was expecting my friend Sunil to reach Dublin on my ninth day in the city. I was not in a mood to visit temple bar alone, so was waiting for him to come along. Temple Bar is a small street at southern bank of river Leffy jam-packed with pubs and bars. Its one of those rarest place in Dublin where you can find lively crowd till late nights. Lucky me; I was here during the most happening months, November December and January. I was restlessly waiting for Sunil to reach Dublin.
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| Leffy Bridge |
Sunil reached on date as expected. Our first Saturday we set out for shopping in Dublin city center and then planned to visit Temple Bar. Temple bar is exactly on the other side of Leffy bridge so we walked from City centre to Leffy bridge. Lefty bridge is a pedestrian bridge built over river Leffy, which has high traffic levels on most of the days. Since it was made centuries back there are many stories related to this bridge. One such story one a cab driver told me is, “Decades back when this bridge was the only way to cross river Leffy, government use to charge hefty amount on each person who uses the bridge. At those times, couples used to carry one of them on others back to skip the charges”. Storming these stories in my head I walked through the bridge, I could smell the cast iron which the whole bridge was made of. The side grills of the bridge was designed in artistic shapes. After crossing the bridge we entered a narrow aisle. The floors of that Aisle was made of black stone bricks and all the buildings has s vernacular architecture. We couldn’t find anyone tottering around as I was expecting, but the street was filled with country music and people attired in characters(Ice man, Dracula etc). We found the main temple Bar and we went in. An amazing country Irish music from a corner snatched my whole attention. A beard muscular man in blue denim sleeveless jacket doing Irish music flawlessly, he was holding his reddish-brown Guitar in style. He reminded me of cowboys in Hollywood classics of 80’s. He hardly had space to sit, But sitting on a tall stool he was making the whole crowd bounce to his music. I tried to shoulder a way through the dancing mass, but I was jammed, and failed miserably to reach the bartender. I haven’t seen a bar flooded with such insane crowd. It was impossible to even move in that crowd. The whole space was filled with ecstatic dance, smooches, cheers and howls. That ambience was passing exquisite shivers down me, but for obvious reasons, we had to leave that place.
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| Smithwicks |
We came out and sauntered in quest of another good bar. A very less crowded space lighten up in red, pink, blue and yellow came to our notice; it was Merchant arch Bar. The ambience and the slow Irish music pulled us in. We found a nice place to sit and climbed up the high chairs facing the two handsome boys who were doing traditional Irish music sitting in a case like podium. A beautiful blonde came to us with a dazzling smile and gave us the menu. Most of the dishes where out of our knowledge but I was pretty sure about what beer to order. We ordered a set of Smithwicks(Irish beer, One of the best and finest beer that you can get in Ireland. Its smooth and sweet), a meat burger with french fries and a roast Turkey with sweet sauce(Turkey dishes are very common in Ireland). The order took around 10 min and mean while we got in synced in with the music and the crowd who were cheering. Our gorgeous waitress came and served our order with all her sweetness. I was all lost in her charm while she was serving the dishes with a smile. Boys were puping up the music and we started taking our gulps. Some how the tempo of the music was charging us to swig the beer and order next one. Thats the magic Irish traditional music, its really goes fine with beers. These boys started taking request from crowd and started singing improvised. A bunch of girls sitting on the corner cuddling up with their wines started cheering loudly as the boys started a fast number. When the tempo started to catch up, these girls came out and started dancing. Then the scene gradually changed and most of them came out from their seats and started dancing around their respective tables. A man in Ice man attire knocked on the glass door noticing the shouts of these girls. Girls pulled him in and one girl in them requested me to take their video dancing with iceman, my cam was already on roll. Iceman ran out when the girls started giggling him. Lena, the girl who requested me to take their video, though its not her real name but here I will mention her as lena. Later me and Lena talked and I watsapped her their video. She was elegant, notably tall and so friendly. I was so delighted to talk to her and was astonished to see how people in these cold countries celebrate their Christmas, for it was my first experience too. From that bar I became a huge fan of Irish traditional music and till now am a keen follower of the same. It was getting late, so we finished our beer and came out half minded. Christmas days were never been this awesome to me. Me and Sunil took the cab and went to our respective hotels.
Whatever, Temple bar is one of the most costliest place in Dublin, food and drinks costs around double than elsewhere in Dublin. Yes its over hyped for those who are expecting a mini Amsterdam from this place. Otherwise it’s nice place to chill out and I don’t think there is any other place like Temple bar in Dublin you can spend the nights. Most of the cultural and traditional Irish music can be encountered here. The lively crowd and the variety of pubs makes this place a must visit for anyone visiting Dublin.
