As I mentioned before, my trip didn't end in England. Oh no, I flew from Leeds over to Dublin and spent 4 days travelling around beautiful Ireland. As I was flying over from England, I realized that I had no idea if the cars drove on the right or left-hand side of the road. So as the plane began it's descent into Dublin airport I eagerly looked out the window trying to find a car. And there they were... still driving on the left-hand side. *Sigh*... another 4 days with absolutely no idea where the cars were coming from. Crossing the road was an ordeal and a half!
I met up with my friend Julie and we drove back to her place and started the visit off with a midnight snack of rashers on toast (rashers being bacon of course). Now I'd heard over and over from my Irish friends Julie and Esther, that Irish butter is just absolutely the best ever! You may be asking yourself, what on earth is irish butter? How is it any different from other butters. Well, it's made in Ireland. Yep, that's it. But it really was yummy!
The next morning I toured around Dublin by myself, since Julie had classes that day. I got instructions on what bus to take, what stop to get off at, where we'd meet up later on and when. But we missed one crucial bit of information - namely, that the busses don't stop unless you stick out your arm and wave them down... Yep, my first bus just went a-zooming on by me.
When I got into town I saw all the local sights: Dublin castle, Temple Bar, Trinity College, the Spire...
This is a shot from the Trinity College campus - it was super pretty. They've got a ridiculously old and beautiful Library on campus, which houses the famous "Book of Kells". I didn't actually go in; it was a far too beautiful day to spend it wandering around inside.
I loved these signs. They had the most perfectly kept lawns I have ever seen. Seriously, you could have held a golf tournament on them - had they been about 500 yrds longer of course. But you couldn't walk on them, nor could you sit on them. What on earth is the use of a grassy knoll on campus that you can only look at?! Although I did get quite the chuckle over the hoards of students sitting on the very edge of the grass - a nice big square of people just hanging out and enjoying the sunshine.
After meeting up with Julie, we decided to check out the new Wax Museum in town. It was really neat, because it was pretty much entirely based around Ireland - Irish history, famous Irish musicians and athletes and so on.
As you can see, I know exactly what consititues appropriate behaviour when signing very important documents with a group of very important politicians at some very important point in Irish history (clearly everything I learned stuck with me).
Julie and I watching the sunset by the Ha'penny Bridge.
Guinness. It really does taste better in Ireland. Especially when coupled with a local duo singing Irish rebellion songs. Julie and I were fondly reminded of out days in Bamberg, whilst there - once again, Julie was just about the only Irish person in the Irish pub. The majority of the crowd was made up of a bunch of Dutch Civil Engineers, go figure!
These were great - just in case you forgot, this is where the traffic is coming from.
Yes dear friends, there is Tim Hortons in Dublin, Ireland. Oh what a wonderful thing that first sip was...
At the Promednade in Galway - I've now had my feet in the Atlantic Ocean on both sides!
Looking right.
Looking left.
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