Blogs from Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland, Europe - page 10

After Amsterdam, I got on a short flight to Ireland. :) THE HOMELAND!!!! I believe every person should go and visit where they came from, or at least their home country. So I think every O'Brien should go and visit Ireland. This was on my "must do's" for study abroad. What better way to finish off study abroad than to go to the country that the O'Brien's came from? O'Brien's originate from Cork (my dad says...) , but honestly who even knows anymore with all the O'Brien's in the world. What we do know.. is that we are in fact Irish. Very Irish. They say, O'Brien is about as Irish as it gets. Besides, we've got the pale skin, and the freckles to prove it. Haha! I got there, got settled and went to a pub ... read more

Skipped a day… been enjoying the Guinness and triple distilled Irish whiskey a little too much. Bo kissed the Irish for good luck, but it's been the same set of lips he's kissed for the last 20 years. As we write this, we are enjoying our new favorite drink: Irish ice tea. Discovered it while visiting the Teelings distillery. We hope to buy some bottles in duty free to share with friends and family when we get home. Teelings is the only operational Irish whiskey distillery in Dublin. There used to be many many more, until the US prohibition combined with changes in whiskey technology obliterated the Irish whiskey industry in the early 20th century. We don't have the natural beauty of Iceland here to enjoy, so we mostly partook in the local customs: Guinness, Irish ... read more

Not much to report today. Spent the day in Reykjavik doing laundry, sending post cards and shopping for knick knacks. We were amused to find only one laundromat in Reykjavik (the biggest city in Iceland), and it only had 4 washers! I guess Icelanders think washing clothes is for wimpy tourists. Had a nice flight to Dublin and got in close to midnight. These kids are getting good at burning the midnight oil. We of course did the obligatiry Ireland task: enjoyed a lovely, well-poured, full body, frothy, creamy, dark and viscous Guinness. Ah....... In lieu of adventure blogs, we offer a few small tidbits and anecdotes about Iceland: - We never saw the night or the stars - Toilet paper is stronger - All tap water is drinkable but some has sulfur - Gas is ... read more

Flight from Dulles to Dublin was good--great attendants, good food, little turbulence. Sat on the tarmac about 45 minutes before takeoff but otherwise uneventful. Aer Lingus did a great job. Got our stamp and our luggage! We had a Dublin Pass for the day which included bus into the city for which Mike was very grateful, especially after seeing the construction mess in Center City. About 4 million people in Ireland and over a quarter of them live in Dublin. Large, old, crowded city. Thousand year old streets and buildings are rarely even or wide and don't have elevators. Found our way to Trinity College, where we had reservations to stay the night, stored our luggage and set out to discover Dublin. Took us a few tries to get off campus as it's a gated walled ... read more

Today we challenged ourselves to visit every Easter celebration in Dublin. We must have walked a hundred miles. Okay I exegerate a bit but it's close. We attended Smithfield, a shopping and residential area north of the River Liffey. Then we walked to Phoenix Park. After a couple of hot dogs at Smithfield (I talked Kathy into it...but it didn't take much. An occasional hot dog isn't too bad for ya...right!), we walked back to St Stephen's Green for face painting. I got a lion :), The music was good and I spent the entire day showing off my lion face. I scared a couple of kids and at least a half dozen adults. After promising the cop that I wouldn't do that any more, Kathy and I headed to the Brazen Head pub to sooth ... read more