Oscar Wilde was quoted to have said (or wrote) “I drink to keep body and soul apart”, and when I woke up with a pounding head this morning, I felt that my body and soul are certainly apart.

Problem is, I had not a drop to drink. I am mid-way through a five country cycle tour and we are currently on country number three – Ireland – after having ridden through some amazing scenery with some very challenging ascend and descends in England and Wales, and my body is fatigued.

I had full intention to use our rest day in Dublin to do a bit more cycling and running to see the surrounding sights, but when I fell asleep again after breakfast and didn’t wake up until 2pm (very out of character for me), that was the sign that I am not just fatigued, but in fact, quite sick.

However, the sun was out and the sky blue, in this seemingly un-Irish weather (I am just kidding, the sun comes out more than a day a year in these parts), I didn’t want to waste an afternoon in Dublin.

There is a lot to see in Dublin. Trinity College, various museums and galleries, Temple Bar for drinks and meals and bustling shopping streets to delight yourself with.

But I wasn’t in the mood for sightseeing, so I went in search of comfort by seeking out cafes, bookshops and eventually hanging out with Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square.

I am Aussie, and we are particularly known for being coffee snobs. So the first thing I did was to check out great cafes to go to.

I am not a fan of review websites, so I sought the assistance of bloggers for their recommendations. I found this great blog aptly named Dublin Drinks Coffee which has a great round up of coffee news and list of Dublin cafes. So I took notes and headed out to town.

Then, I got lost. Well, not really but I stopped looking at my map because Dublin is beaming with life today. The city is booming since Google moved in and now, on one end is the tech hub which will surely keep thriving because of the eventual consequence of #Brexit, and the old town area is full of visitors keen to take in the sights of this great city.

So I followed the flow, reacquainting myself with a city I thought I was familiar with but I do keep finding little gems a long the way. By the time I had done a small loop, I was tired again, and my entire body ached from the cold/flu that is lingering within so I spotted a bookshop – Books Upstairs – (it’s always a bookshop for me) with a quiet cafe upstairs and went in in search of solace.

It may not be everyone’s preference in how to spend an afternoon in Dublin, for my peers from the cycling tour are all off doing their Guinness Tours and Food Tours. However, for me, this was the perfect way to spend one afternoon in Dublin, one of the UNESCO Cities of Literature.