is that the president of dublin?

This weekend Hannah and Kelley came from Copenhagen and Vaxjo to visit me in Dublin! Although the trip was short, we fit a lot of stuff into 2 days! We started out around noon on Friday taking the 16A city bus back from the airport and seeing the beauty that is the northern suburbs of Dublin... We got off the bus on O'Connell Street and started a walking tour of Dublin led by me. We walked down O'Connell and along the Liffey on our way towards Dublin Castle. We passed by the Temple Bar area, the Spire (aka. Stiletto in the Ghetto), and the Ha'Penny Bridge along the way and got a good feeling for what Dublin has to offer in the city center. I had already toured Dublin Castle and thought the tour gave a really good basic history of the Republic of Ireland along with a chance to see the building where major political events take place. By chance we happened to go to Dublin Castle on a day where one of these major events was taking place. Somehow, we managed to elude security unknowingly and walk into the entry way of Dublin Castle only to realize how out of place we were with backpacks and touristy clothes. All around us were people in suits and members of the press and we immediately realized we did not belong. One man with a camera informed us that the Castle was closed for the day for an award ceremony. As we were walking away disappointed he told us to stick around for 15 minutes because the President was due to arrive. Luckily, there were only about 10 other people in the entrance way so we got a great view of the President, Mary McAleese, as she was walking into the Castle. (she's in the light blue suit). We felt pretty special and very well informed as a group of obnoxious American students touring Europe approached us. They were very excited, but had no idea who they had just seen. One girl asked us who that was and I replied by telling her it was the President. "What? the President of Dublin?!?" I waited for her to realize her error....she didn't realize and I said, "no, the President of Ireland..." girl: "wow, that's even better!" Hannah, Kelley, and I laughed pretty hard after this happened especially because this girl then asked us if we were Irish after we had already spoken with American accents. Overall, Dublin Castle was not what we expected, but in a good way. Now I can say I saw the President while I was in Dublin:-)

After spotting the President we walked down Dame St. towards the Irish National Museum. We decided to tour it, because it has really good artifacts from Ireland, the bog bodies, and is a really beautiful building. We spent a while in the National Museum and then walked down to St. Stephen's Green. I had not been to the Green since January and have been saving it for spring so I could see it with flowers. In January, the Green wasn't very pretty because it was just a lot of brown in green and I was a bit disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised to see the change in the green. It was full of people, birds, and flowers which made me realize how far into spring we already are! We walked around looking at the ponds, gardens, and statues. Hannah and Kelley determined that Dublin is ahead on the spring race- and I'm very proud that my city is beating Sweden and Denmark!

After all this walking around with baggage we were hungry and tired so we walked to the LUAS and took it back to Dundrum. We took a detour to Tesco on the way to my apartment and then made tacos for dinner which were delicious. After eating a lot of food we cracked open some Bulmers and I let them experience the greatness that is Irish Cider. Upon finishing some cider we left for the Cobblestone pub. I had heard that the Cobblestone was a great place for trad music from some Irish musicians I met so I thought we would try to hear some Irish music. The Cobblestone bar was a hike, but it was very traditional and I think it was a good representation of a real Dublin pub. A lot of tourists go straight to the Temple Bar area, which is just overpriced and full of drunken tourists. Dubliners don’t go anywhere near it usually so it really isn’t a good representation of an Irish Pub.

The next day we got a pretty early start and went straight to the city center. The weather was not looking promising when we left Wyckham, but it was only drizzling. As we kept walking the rain kept getting worse until it was finally torrentially down pouring. By the time we got the LUAS stop we were pretty drenched...I guess we got the real Irish experience with some rain. As we got on the packed train towards city center the weather changed quickly and by the time we arrived at city center it was blue skies and sun. Luckily this weather lasted for our walk to the Guinness Storehouse and we were pretty dry by the time we got there. Surprisingly, I had not been to the Guinness Storehouse yet! I had decided to save the tour for when people came to visit, because I knew that was a pretty important sight in Dublin. I wasn't thinking that it was going to be that special, but the Guinness Storehouse ended up being one of our favorite stops.

The storehouse is a self guided tour that goes up 7 levels ending with the Gravity Bar, which is the highest bar in Dublin. The bar has 360 degree windows with great views of the city. Dublin doesn't have many high buildings so this was definitely one of the best views of the city I have ever had. We shared our pints of Guinness and Kelley proved to be a Guinness Champion finishing her pint and the rest of ours when we were full- I was proud! I can say that I didn't dislike the Guinness, but it is so heavy that I need to be hungry before I attempt finishing a pint of the black gold! I think I speak for all of us when I say the Guinness Storehouse is a must if you are in Dublin- it's definitely worth it!

After drinking our pints, we headed over to Connelley Station north of the Liffey and we took the DART (train) down to Dawkey. I had not been to Dawkey, but a friend of mine had said it was a good seaside town with castles and good views. While we were walking around the city the weather again turned to rain, but we persevered and made our way to the coast. Right when we got to a castle on the coast we saw THE best rainbow I've ever seen in my life. The rainbow was so defined and we could see it start over the water on both ends. It was definitely worth all the rain to see this rainbow! We then stopped at an organic food market and bought some amazing pineapple and strawberries for our fruit fondue extravaganza that night! We stayed in on Saturday night and made dinner and a lot of food in general and watched a movie. Unfortunately, Hannah and Kelley had to fly out at 6:45 on Sunday morning so their taxi came at 4:30 AM and our weekend was finished. I think it's safe to say we had a great weekend in Dublin! It was great to have them come visit me and now I'm so excited to visit them after the end of my program in April. I'm sure that Copenhagen, Vienna, and Vaxjo will be just as wonderful as this weekend was!