Dublin in 6 days

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Morgan humming 'Like a Virgin'

Here I am in Dublin. Arrived safely and was met at the airport by Richard. Spent the first day in bed recovering from the flu and eating soup. The second day Richard and I took the bus downtown to meet Morgan, Nico, and Renee who were also visiting for New Years. We had our first Irish pub food for lunch and the men had a pint of Guinness. Later we met up with James and Melissa at their home. James is a graduate of Carleton School of Architecture a few years ahead of us. He and Richard worked together at CIMS and he and his wife Melissa moved to Dublin in the fall. They spent most of the week with us touring Dublin as they hadn't seen many of the sights yet. Over the next few days we saw Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen's Green, and toured the Guinness Factory. We also visited a few pubs including Richard's favourite 'Cobblestone'. We saw the firm where he works which is on the North side of the Liffey. The five of us took a day trip across the country via train to the city of Galway on the West coast. The train ride was less than three hours and we got to see the countryside along the way. Lots of fields (potato fields?) and sheep. The view of the ocean and cliffs was beautiful and I touched the ocean for the first time! We wandered the old streets and ate potato after potato for lunch at a restaurant called 'Couch Patatas'. We saw some churches and window shopped a bit before we caught the train back to Dublin. Ireland's reputation for being rainy definitely seems fitting. Richard gathered his collection of umbrellas together and we used them just about every day. The weather was so unpredictable you couldn't tell what the next five minutes would bring. The foliage really loved it though as every green space was glowing with life, especially St. Stephen's Green which is a large park in the middle of the city. New Years eve snuck up on us and we had intended to go downtown and ring in the new year at Christ Church Cathedral but found ourselves without tickets to any pub event. Instead we stayed at James and Melissa's where we played a competitive game of Cranium (see video). The big excitement of the night occurred when we went out to the street to toast the new year and found ourselves without a key to get back in! Melissa rang every apartment in the building until our saviours from upstairs finally opened the door to let us in. We invited them in for a drink but they had to get back to their guests so we went up and joined their party. They were a group of friends from Cork visiting their friends in Dublin for a few days and were excited to meet a bunch of Canadians. One of them was actually from Norway and gave me tips on places to see. The next day we all slept in late and started to get ready for our departures to Helsinki (me) and Bern, Switzerland (Nico, Renee, and Morgan). The trip from Dublin to Helsinki was fairly uneventful. I flew overnight through Riga, Latvia and arrived in Helsinki in the morning on the 2nd of January. Stay tuned... much more to follow in Helsinki and the rest of Scandinavia...

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Photos

First Day
Everyone has now arrived. Nico, Morgan, and Renee freshly off the plane from Toronto.

Guinness Factory
View from the Gravity Bar into the factory.

Guinness Factory II
Richard enjoying a free 'Scoop of Plain' in the Gravity Bar after the tour.

Spanish Arch
Nico representing his home country in Galway.

The Ocean!
Touching the ocean for the first time!

New Years Eve II
Celebrating with a pint of Druid.

Comments

[Kelly Steeves]

Dublin daze...
Great idea to get the blog going Jessie-- I will make it a point of following your blog and even email you the Jennifer Luce blog addresses if you get an ache for what us in Ottawa (why would you though?) are up to. I located my girlfriend Aliisa's address and will be writing her and copying you soon on that-- she is magnificent and also a wee bit shy-- you can't help but feel welcome by a girl of the likes like her... and she will know of great shows to see in Helsinki no doubt too. We used to listen to Finnish band, Nylon Beat :) Update the heck of this baby and I will keep you Ottawa posted. I think Candice is coming to Kosmic in Ottawa this weekend for starters... Big kisses from across the Atlantic- and let me lget this straight, you never had seen the ocean???? Awesome! Kelly Alissa's address: [e-mail]

[Jenny]

Another Calatrava Bridge in California
Saw Jessie's photo of the Calatrava Bridge in Dublin. A similar, much larger bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava spans the Sacramento River in Redding, California. It also has a glass deck, (lit at night) and a huge, sweeping harp-like arch. It is designed to be a sundial, casting it's shadow on a marker at the summer solstice, when people gather at noon. (It's known as the "Sundial Bridge.") It's also adjacent to a great science museum, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, and an 8-mile river trail. Europe has many of Calatrava's inspiring creations, but there are fewer in the U.S. (Milwaukee Art Museum; soon to be new transit hub at ground zero among them).