Has anyone studied in Dublin

I've got into a Uni in Dublin and I'm a bit worried I'm not going to have a clue after moving from the UK.
I was wondering if anyone knows the good places to go out and the main attractions for students. Also if theres anything I can do to make the intro easier for me, like the best student bank account in ireland with the best perks, or the best mobile network etc.
Any help would be great, Thank guys

Reply 1

zam

In general Dublin's a great city, exactly the right size in my opinion.
There's good shopping, good clubs and pubs and really really friendly people.
It's really easy to get around because things are quite close to each other.
Meteor is the best phone network with free texts if you're into that sort of thing!
It's also a brilliant student city. Especially for Trinity students because you're right in the city centre.
Have fun!

Reply 2

StarsAreFixed

I think first you'll be shocked at the expense of things. Course permitting, you should aim for a part-time job (to counter the expense, minimum wage and salaries in general are a good bit higher).

Ulster bank are offering I think €50, AIB offer a free student travelcard (you NEED this for any student travel in the country) and Bank of Ireland offer free flights (ONLY the flight, not the taxes and charges). AIB and BOI are the biggest banks by far..the ones in the least amount of danger as well. There isn't a student loan culture because of free fees. Student credit cards have absolutely pitiful credit limits, the biggest you can get is €850.

Meteor do indeed offer free texts. They have ***** coverage though. O2 do free texts to all networks, I beleive vodafone do as well. O2 are very expensive call-wise, Vodafone are expensive all round.

The really studenty places that the Dublin colleges are most affiliated with currently are The Button Factory, (templebar) Citi Bar, (dame street) Tripod (harcourt street) and Purty Kitchen. (templebar). All do heavy drinks promotions but you won't fine drinks for under €3. (There was a place that did €2 drinks, Redz, was shut down for letting in underagers). Citi Bar in particular gets a lot of aggro over its 'Twisted Every Tuesday' promos and stuff, so it's tough for the pubs to actually offer dirt cheap drink. The popular student places vary, sometimes the colleges are mad for Break for the Border (Stephen Street) and Turk's Head (Templebar) in Freshers Week and that's it. Harcourt Street has several clubs that are great and cheap and studenty. One night in particular is Antics@Crawdaddy, it's an indie/scene night every Wednesday if you're into that. The cheapest places are Q Bar and 21's on D'olier Street and Bondi on Bachelor's Walk (North Quays). The Pav (Trinity) does deals on cans of Bavaria too..

There's only one major cinema in town, Cineworld on Parnell Street. Savoy O'Connell street shows major films and there's one a bit of the way down the quays at Smithfield. Screen D'olier street shows the obscure films and there's often arthouse films and film festivals at the IFI in Templebar.

Dublin is divided into south and north (of the river liffey). Tradtionally the south is posher which it is but it has junkie infested areas like Westmoreland street etc. Henry Street (northside) and grafton street (southside) are the main shopping streets. If you're going to UCD this won't be much good to you but in Trinity (and near it...DIT and RCSI) people eat in the JCR (Pearse Street, cheap), Subway and Spar (nassau street) and the buttery (tcd campus).

Dublin is very compact but it's not built up near as much as London, things like homeless people and junkies are much more noticeable. It's not really rough moreso than any other city though. Taxis aren't that expensive, the Luas is great if you live on the (TWO lines), likewise DART for north and south coastlines (frequent signal failures..). The train isn't fantastic, overvrowded, and the bus leaves a lot to be desired but most routes are good. It's a great lively city, honest!

Anything else you want to know, let me know.

Reply 3

Apocalypte

StarsAreFixed

Student credit cards have absolutely pitiful credit limits, the biggest you can get is €850.

AIB has NEVER increased my credit limit from €400, even when I was working full-time on a year out from uni. Feckers.

OP, where in Dublin are you studying?