Boco (Dublin, Ireland)

Aaah... Dublin. A promise of liveliness everywhere you move, friendly people, music that makes you dance and stories worth to hear. That was the kind of expectations we had as the weekend before Christmas was approaching. I was going through the last days in my work, Tinka was having busy times in her work and school, plus as much as you try to ignore it, the crowds on the streets going crazy for Christmas presents just make you feel nervous. The colleague in work who proudly announced "she already had all the presents ready, since she started her search in September" did not add much to my high spirits. Thus Dublin looked as both: a great getaway and a chance to get some presents with green colours and a touch the legendary of Irish luck.

Tinka ready for Dublin

We flew over from Bristol in a small plane of Aer Lingus. It was so small it even had visible propellers instead of the kind of classic air turbines. When I was little, I was afraid of these kind of planes. Some kind of irrational fear made me think they must be more frequent to collapse. Fortunately, I grew up meanwhile and the whole journey went all right.


We arrived to Dublin and took the public transport to city centre. It takes just a few more minutes more than the direct "express" and is less than half the price. Plus we had to ask an Irishman for advice, and he turned out as a first of many proofs of the Irish friendliness.

Temple bar

We decided to take a walk in the centre before going to our hostel and experience Dublin in night. We did not realize it initially, but we kind of took the exact path through the party quarter. First O'Connell street, where people snack in fast foods before or after going to the being to pubs. And then the Temple bar street, full of 'em pubs, music and (mainly) drunk people walking around. As we were in tourist clothes, with backpacks and being quite tired, we did not really enter any of the places, neither we wanted to, really. But we decided to try the next night. After all, it is one of the must-dos. And the music seemed very inviting.

It was not, however, only the music in the pubs. Surprisingly, the streets were quite filled with buskers, even in the night and despite it being quite cold. The Friday night was not special and we have seen many other musicians throughout the weekend, most of them pretty damn good. It seemed as Dublin is ideal city for busking and music in general and although I now go through a quite period in my musical "career", I would like to go back to Dublin once and play... Somewhere, on the street, in a pub... :-)

Some (probably well known) busker/musician

We eventually got to our hostel, just off the main city centre area. The International Youth hostel in Dublin is very big and we found it an extremely nice place. It has a friendly staff, free breakfast in the adjacent lovely church (!) and is placed in a building that breathes of history and gives a unique atmosphere. The hostel is basic, but offers everything you need. There is no luxury, but rooms are clean and safe. There is no special service, but you can easily get lots of information you may wish for as a tourist in Dublin. I hope hostels like this will never disappear and even if I was super rich, I would still rather come to this place, rather than being "pampered in luxury" in some posh hotel for hundred of pounds. Those could be used better - perhaps as a donation to International Youth hostel!

Breakfast in church

The next morning we woke up to a sunny day in Dublin. Wohoo! Yes. It is a wohoo, though perhaps just a small one. There was a free tour in the city centre starting at 11am and one of our first findings about Dublin was that it does not rain nearly as much as people think. Hm, should we consider relocation from Cardiff?


We were assigned to a group with James, an awesome guide who, in less than 3 hours, made us feel like we've been born Irish. We got a sense of everything: accents from different parts of the country, important milestones in the history, fascinating (true) story of Veronica Guerin (just google it, and watch the film) or Irish humour which led to honouring non-existent people with a plaque on the bridge. Not a second did we feel bored and the whole principle is amazing. The tour is for free, but you can tip your guide. James mentioned it only once, yet I'm sure no one left him without appreciation. He wants to make the tour nice, and you just want to pay him.

Veronica Guerin.

One thing we did not try was the beers and pubs. James did mention, however a pub crawl taking place the evening and we decided to join in. We had some time to spend before that, and as we were hungry, and as I wanted to write this blog, we went for a pizza.


Boco was a tip from another tour guide, Peter, whom we met in the hostel. Peter lives in the area and so we trusted him with the choice. Entering the pizzeria, located not too far from the hostel, we had some doubts though. The street itself already looks a bit busy-ish and untidy-ish, not exactly a picturesque walking promenade with beautiful architecture. The first steps inside were even more hesitant, as we were met with almost empty place, with just a few people sitting behind the bar. However, our questions about pizza were answered positively and we were led to the (now completely empty) back of the restaurant, by the pizza counter and wood fired oven.





The interior is interesting, although by no means inducing pizza atmosphere. Some sort of metal nets make the borders of "booths" with the tables and benches. On one hand, this is quite in a modern, hipster-ish style and it can also be the case that this was a metal saved from the scrapyards. On the other hand, we did feel like in a cage a little.

Tinka - studying the map of Dublin very closely : -)

The pizza menu is simple, yet interesting, offering around 10 nameless options. We chose one "safe bet" - a tomato-based pizza with goat cheese, caramelized onion, mushrooms, rocket and some chilli oil - and one "experiment". That one was on a white base, with garlic, honey, pine nuts, ricotta and spinach. Wild, huh?

There was only one chef, but since the place was virtually empty, we did not wait long at all. Tinka started to examine the experiment, while I begun to admire the safe bet. One major point was scored straight away. The dough was indeed very good. Solid circles with proper crust, very well baked. No wonder, the temperature in the oven reaches around 500 degrees, as we were told. I must stop at this point and refer back to my recent post from Whistler, where I said that the temperature is not that important. Well, that was not very well put. What I wanted to say was more like this: if you have a good wood-fired oven, you should get a quality pizza base from it, regardless if the temperature is not exactly right. However, it does affect the type of crust you get. Too low temperature means longer baking and a crispy (more stone like) base, and less of the fire-licked char on the crust. The opposite for higher temperature. That's why this one was an interesting one, as the crust was more as if baked on the lower temperature and a little too much crunchy for Tinka's likings. Weird, huh? Well, possible explanation is that the place was quite, thus oven was not heated up to the max. But temperature is not the only thing that influences crispiness; the type of flour or ingredients in the dough matter too. Base and crust sound like simple things, yet it is a science on its own and I'll likely never really understand it, just like it is with women.

The "safe bet"

The "experiment"

The sauce was one from the "better standard" category, yet not too special, plus it could have been more equally spread over the top (it was mostly in the middle). A bit more olive oil on the top (or simply on the table to use by the customer) would help a little too, as it was a trifle dry on the outskirts. Other than that, I really liked the "safe bet" pizza and it did definitely woke up my taste buds, especially those that hang around in the spicy neighbourhood.

Tinka was meanwhile deciding whether she liked the "experiment", initially commenting in surprise: "it tastes sweet!". However, with each new bite, she turned more towards the "yes" option, with just occasional feeling of a distaste. I liked the combination straight away. Spinach with ricotta is a proper start. You cannot really mess up anything with honey. And garlic is simply my favourite. But an occasional bite still tasted a little awry and we eventually pinned it down to the garlic, which likely got burned here and there.


Overall, though, this was surely in the top 10 of my pizza hunts, at least when it comes to the actual pizzas. Service was really nice and friendly too, up for a small chat. We found out the place started serving pizzas only a while ago and had originally a Mexican kitchen. Had we come a week before, we would likely have a pizza for free, as the recipes were tried out and tuned with feedback. And although it was not perfect yet, stopping for food is definitely worth it already. Peter's recommendation thus can be confirmed as a good one.

Crowds of shoppers with "the Needle" in the back

Shortly after the dinner, we met by the Needle again for the mentioned pub crawl. James was there, as was his two Irish friends and few other travellers, some of them from the earlier walking tour. And although I am not really much of a pub/bar person, this night was fully worth it. We were taken consequently to 4 places. The first one was more of a typical sports bar, not really specifically Irish or one we would admire much. But we had some good conversations with our fellow group members, e.g. with a French girl whose dream was to work for a luxury brands like Bvlgari. Not really our cup of tea, but a good conversation, and we hope to have given her some food for thought, e.g. what is and isn't ethical when it comes to production of some luxurious products.

As a minor digression, I often think how to spread the good among people. One option is to do it the obvious way. Leave for somewhere like west Africa and teach or volunteer as a doctor. But another one, the less obvious, and probably harder way, is to go to one of these big corporations where all the money is and try to make a difference there. It seems counter-intuitive, "joining the evil businesses", but since that's where the money and power is, even a seemingly small change might have - perhaps indirect - but big positive impact. But as Tesco says (not that I'm fan of Tesco), "every little bit helps" and perhaps this French girl will remember our conversation one day, perhaps in Bvlgari, in a position where she can change things.

But back to the bars now. The second one was now much more awesome, much more Irish-ish (hm or just Ir-ish?) with a live musician Ray Scully. Ray was playing solo, however, with effects, superb usage of looper, mic and a drum occasionally played by his feet or on the body of the guitar, he sounded like a proper band. And although playing mostly popular covers, it was really good stuff.

After that, we moved on to another bar with live band, this time a bit too loud for our gusto and we could barely talk, or even hear properly some instruments. The best part of the evening however came in the last bar. With my guess at the average age being around 40, this bar was the most lively one, with people dancing and singing to a half-live band (mostly singing to accompanying backing tracks). Some true hits were played, Christmas songs could not be left out. Biggest thanks for our fun however goes to the James and his friend, who were instrumental in the fun of the whole evening. They made us sing, dance and their good mood was contagious. As I said, I am not one to party in bars, but if I ever was to enjoy it somewhere, it would have to be in Dublin.

Wellington monument in Phoenix park

After a short night of sleep, we checked out the next morning and decided to get a bit out of the main city centre area to see the monument in the Phoenix park. Tinka was a proper tourist and her eyes twinkled with everything in the city centre, but I hold the theory one needs to see also beyond what is meant for the tourists. And although the walk to Phoenix park is no excursion to ghetto, it does show some difference to the very centre of the city. Mainly architecture-wise, Dublin could be a bit less picturesque than in the centre, and definitely less picturesque than in UK. Still though, it is a nice city and it is clear Ireland has gone upwards a lot in the last half a century.

We ended our stay with a bit of souvenir shopping and a lunch in a Chinese restaurant and soon we waved goodbye to the evening lights of Dublin, back on the small Aer Lingus plane to Bristol. Did we really want to go back? Cardiff is a nice place. But there just is something about Ireland. The friendliness of the people for who it's always fun-time, the rich history to unravel and to learn from, or the omnipresent music from all around... We will be back, at least for a week next time. Meanwhile, be sure the Irish songs will be heard from our home in Cardiff.

Dough - 8
Ingredients - 8
Sauce - 7
Atmosphere - 3
Service - 8