10 Reasons To Love Dublin

Anyone in UCD or living on the southside will surely agree that the 46a is one of god's greatest gifts to the people of Dublin. It's regular and it generally takes you to wherever you need to be or at least close enough to walk the rest of the way. Given the weather in Dublin most of the time these are both attractive traits. There are very few other cities in the world where one bus can answer all of your prayers.

The lights go up, Michael Bublé starts to croon, and the Brown Thomas window uses Tiffany jewellery and Christian Louboutin shoes to paint a Christmas scene. Throw in a light dusting of snow and a hot chocolate and it doesn't really get much better.

Whether you're on Grafton St, Henry St or skulking around Temple Bar trying to get the shift off a tourist the quality of Dublin's buskers is second to none.

Spend a hungover day at Dun Laoghaire. Go for a swim in the 40ft. There is nothing like 10 degree water to refresh you after a hard night of drinking. Get some Leo Burdock's chips into you afterwards and you'll be good as new. Which brings me to my next point

Leave Dublin for a bit and you'll be craving a visit here on your return. There's a reason they've been around for over 100 years. Creating this level of perfection with a potato makes The Famine seem almost worthwhile.

There's nothing like jumping on the Dart and going all the way to Greystones just looking at the perfect coastline the whole way.

Dublin has got some of the best pubs in the world. The rest of the world might make fun of us for being alcoholics but if their pubs were as flawless as ours were they'd probably spend more time in them too.

The bullet holes still in the GPO from the 1916 Rising; the Ha'penny Bridge; St Patrick's Cathedral; Trinity College; Christchurch; the Guinness Brewery - Dublin is steeped in history. Walking around here after a few drinks and you can suddenly find yourself waxing lyrical and finding profound meaning in "The Rare Auld Times" like you never quite did before.

Jesus I miss being able to lift my hand at any corner, at any time of day or night and have a taxi within seconds. This is an underrated selling point of our lovely capital. Ever tried to get a taxi in Paris, Sydney or New York at 3am on a Saturday night? Good luck to you. In Dublin, they are tripping over themselves to take you home. Which brings me nicely to the creme de la creme of Dublin's nightlife.

No matter what we say, secretly we all love it. Go to Coppers before 12 when it's still free in and get a cheeky stamp before the queue starts then tear off for pre-drinks. Make a pit-stop in Flannery's to see if the talent is better there before inevitably dropping your standards and ending the night getting the shift off a guard from Cavan. True romance. It's true what they say - if you can't score in Coppers you may as well just chop it off. And the sheer genius of having an ATM on-site. How many times have we woken up with the dreaded words "Jackson Court Hotel" on a receipt when we purposefully only brought €30 out? You sly devils.