Dublin

Although we did not arrive in Ireland until noon, I woke up early that morning like a child on Christmas. Through my grandmother was born in the United States, she was 100% Irish and spoke with an Irish brogue until the day she died, so I have always wanted to visited the land of her heritage.

My friend Jo and I hopped on the port shuttle bus and headed downtown. Just before the bus stop we saw this store. We just looked at each other and nodded, there was no question as to where we would stop first. We loaded up on chocolate (and Jo had what she described as the best mocha she has ever had) before we started to explore.

We wandered in and out of the shops along Durbin Street, Dublin’s main road. We found a shop that sold fascinators and spent a good ten minutes trying them on. I have an obsession fascinators and if I ever move to the British Isles I will wear one on a regular basis. We walked into a cheese shop because every adventure with Jo involves cheese, chocolate, or both. We found a street cart selling jewelry where I found a dainty shamrock charm for my bracelet.

At the end of Durbin Street we found a park, but the park was packed full with thousands of zombies. We weren’t real sure what we had gotten ourselves into the middle of, but we found out later that it was a parade to support cancer research. It made for an exciting end to the afternoon.

The next morning none of my friends wanted to get off, so I headed into the city on my own. I wanted to see St. Patrick’s cathedral, but it was closed for mass and it’s fenced off so it was difficult to get a great exterior shot for the front. A city park lines the back of the cathedral, so I got a few shots from there. From the cathedral I headed to Dublin castle, but on my way it started POURING down rain and as rain was not in the forecast I was not prepared. I walked past the castle and kept on walking until I got to the shuttle bus stop. I looked like I had jumped into a pool, but that’s okay.

When things cleared up a little later I was able to get a few nice shots from the sports deck. I definitely need to go back and spend a week or two to see everything I wanted to see.