Dubliners

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After a week in the country, we're back in the big city. Dublin is awesome-- sort of reminiscent of London in a way. London with an edge, maybe. Frenetic, crowded, tons of restaurants and pubs, lots of young professional types hurrying around. We seem to be in the way. And underdressed. We're staying at the Westin, right near Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green. The location is excellent and we've been hoofing it all over the city seeing some of the sights and trying not to get trampled.

Some of the fine things we've seen thus far:

Dublin Castle: The seat of Dublin's government for eons. Reminded us of the White House. We got strangely excited when we saw them setting up for the World Bank meeting (to happen there Thursday).

Christ Church Cathedral: It was Catholic, then it was Protestant, then it was Catholic again briefly, now it is Protestant. Irish history in a nutshell, perhaps?

Trinity College/ The Book of Kells: We loved this. Particularly the gorgeous old long library (even though the dust from all those old books immediately set off Erin's allergies in a bad way). They don't let you take photos, sadly. You'll have to Google it.

The River Liffey: It's not exactly the Seine, but when the sun is shining, it's nice to stand out on these bridges and look at the city. The way it seems to work here is that it rains lightly for about 15 minutes, then the sun shines for about 30 minutes, then it rains again. You get used to it.

The General Post Office: Erin is an Irish history geek and got all choked up seeing the bullet holes in the exterior columns (Easter Rising, 1916-- check Wikipedia). The inside is still a functional post office, so not much to see there, but I appreciated it.

St. Stephen's Green- Dublin's version of Central Park. Pretty. Nice on a sunny day with families and street artists out and about.

We miss the outragous beauty and quiet charm of the Irish countryside, but it's nice to be back in the city. We went to Starbucks this morning (without guilt-- the Irish love their Starbucks, too, though we've only seen one store here in the city). We've had some excellent food and done some shopping (Dublin is a shopper's paradise). We're enjoying the energy
of this great city.

Today is actually a very important day for Northern Ireland. As you've probably read, today the new power sharing government took office in Belfast. When we go there in a few days, it will be a new, more hopeful place. Let's raise a Guinness to that.

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Photos

General Post Office, Dublin
Ireland's Declaration of Independence was read from these steps in 1916 by Irish rebels who were then shelled out of the building by British troops over a period of days. A major milestone in Irish history. Today, it's just a post office.

Kevin in the crypt under Christ Church Cathedral
The crypt is the oldest structure in Dublin.

Grafton Street
One of Dublin's major shopping districts.

Comments

[Jeanne]

Historical place, Historical times
How exciting that you were in Dublin, site of so many places of historical significance, and managed to be there for both a World Band Meeting AND even more important --- the first day for the new power sharing government to meet. And a good place to reacquaint yourselves with the faster pace of urban life, in preparation for your trip back home to frenetic LA. Hope you do find some great Irish bargains while you are there to bring home as momentos. Knowing you both, you will squeeze another week's worth of sightseeing into the next few days. Have fun, and please DO blog and tell us all about it!