mall madness

marks&spencer food hall. look at them go! 

busiest store by far around the holidays--the liquor store

tried to take a picture of a guy (very drunk) who serenaded the entire liquor store

last minute scramble

final Christmas markets-Henry Street, Dublin 1

So we did some grocery shopping and walking around in the final days before Christmas. It was complete madness. At the Marks&Spencer food hall the people were like vultures, snatching up whatever they could get their hands on. The line took about 15 minutes. Then at Tesco, I waited in a line about 30 minutes. Finally, we stopped in to an off-license to get a nice bottle of Whiskey for the holidays and the line was literally all the way around the store. When we walked in the door, we were already standing in line for the till. I have not seen people buying such large amounts of liquor in my life. Shopping carts FULL of booze. Wow.

On the way out, a guy in the doorway was slightly inebriated (ok maybe a lot inebriated) belting out his very best version of a love song. I think he was singing it to the actual liquor store.

My favorite thing about the last-minute scramble of Christmas shopping was the amount of men carrying shopping bags around. I think it's at that point where the moms have done all their shopping and they have sent dad to get the final gifts 'from Santa'. I have never seen so many men walking the streets with giant bags full of toys and gifts. It was actually lovely to see.
Irish Vocab:

"food hall" = grocery store

"off license" = liquor store