Grafton Street is Dublin's shopping spine and its open-air concert hall at once: a pedestrian run of red-brick frontages where the buskers are good enough that people stop, properly, and listen. Walk it in the afternoon when the playing is at its best and the light comes down the street.
Start at Molly Malone's barrow at the foot, take the eye-roll from the locals, and head uphill into the music. Glen Hansard busked here before the films; the standard is still high, so carry coins. Halfway up, Bewley's holds the Harry Clarke windows in its back room — go in for them if the doors are open. At the top, the Fusiliers' Arch marks the way into St Stephen's Green.
Through the arch the park does the rest. Bear left to the pond and its little bridge, find a bench among the lunchtime crowd, then finish at the Victorian bandstand still used for summer concerts. The Luas at the top of the green takes you on. A park that earns its keep dropped between the shops.
