Dublin: Play by Play

Ok, so we figured out why we can't attach the video. We'll need to lower the quality on the camera before recording a video we want on the blog. The quality made it too big for the blog to hold. So sorry.

This video (that we can't attach) is when we saw Jackson off the last night we were there.

Some of the following will be sentence fragments and incorrect grammar & tenses--please forgive! We ate breakfast at the hotel daily so I won't mention that each day. The croissants were the best thing. We didn't try the baked beans or blood pudding (or whatever it's called). Martin did try the gross looking broiled tomatoes and the mushrooms, but didn't get them anymore.

TUESDAY 6/17/08

After flying overnight, we arrived at the hotel & took a nap! Jackson met us after he got out of school and we went to eat dinner @ Blarney Inn Pub where we had fish 'n chips & smoked salmon.

WEDNESDAY 6/18/08

We walked to the Dublin tourism center to book a Cliffs of Moher tour to the west coast for Thursday then to the bank (that didn't open until 10:30!) to exchange money. We rode the city bus to Jackson's campus to see his apartment. All three of us then walked to Blackrock (I'm guessing 3 miles) where Jackson's classes are. It rained, of course. We ate lunch at a restaurant in that town before walking back to the campus where Jax lives. We bought snacks to have later in the week at Centra, a store on campus where you can get hot sandwiches & where Jackson gets his lunches occasionally. All 3 of us rode the bus back to the hotel. For dinner we grabbed sandwiches from Spar, a convenience store around the corner, and ate them in the hotel lobby while we took advantage of the Wi-Fi, making calls back home.

THURSDAY 6/19/08

We took a PaddyWagon tour across the country to the Cliffs of Moher (very windy!). The bus picked us up a little after 7:00am and dropped us back off in Dublin a little after 7:00pm. We got to see the countryside and the Cliffs--both were beautiful! There were stops at Galway Bay and the rocks @ Burren (sp?) Lunch was carvery style at a bar in Doolin, stew & soup. My interpretation of "carvery" is like our cafeteria style restaurants, with fewer choices. We had another pit stop in Limerick before getting back. Once back in Dublin, Jax went back to his campus & M and I walked around the Temple Bar area (a pedestrian street like Beale Street) briefly before getting Chinese take-away (we call carry-out or to-go) for dinner. It was 9:30 by that time, but it didn't seem that late because it was daylight until about 10:30.

FRIDAY 6/20/08

Beautiful weather this day, which worked out perfectly because this was the day we set aside to walk the WHOLE city nearly. We walked the O'Connell bridge across the river Liffey (where Jax met us) & saw the O'Connell monument and Dublin Spire. Walked back across the river on the Ha'Penny bridge to the Temple Bar area. Stopped at St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedrals. Next was Dublin Castle where we ate lunch. Don't assume a burger comes with a bun here. Martin had a great ham 'n cheese panini. Dublin castle has been used for lots of government things over the years. It is currently the place where they inaugurate the president and heads of state are hosted. Trinity College was our next stop. We didn't view the Book of Kells, but enjoyed the place anyway. They had actually just finished their graduation ceremony which was weird because tourists were all inside the campus at the time. I guess students are used to tourists year-round while they're inside rooms taking classes. We then went to the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland (our votes are for the museum). Next stop was St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park I equivolate to the U.S.'s Central Park, which I've never been to, so that's just a guess. The park was beautiful. We went back to the hotel where the boys napped and I played on the computer. We ended the day with dinner at Abrakebabra, a chain, kinda fast-food sort of place that specializes in kebabs. Their kebabs are not on a stick though. It's really like hot pita sandwiches; they were good.

SATURDAY 6/21/08

We went to the Custom House on the river Liffey. We'd wanted to go yesterday, but it's only open on the weekends. It's history was pretty interesting. We then walked to Grafton Street, a pedestrian area full of shopping. We had planned to go back to St. Stephen's Green for a celtic band concert @ 3:00, but it was rained out---napped @ the hotel instead. We found a pub (Kate's Cottage) we wanted to try for dinner b/c the sign said "traditional Irish music" @ 9:00pm weekends. We got there @ 7:30. The music didn't start until almost 11:00 due to the EuroCup (big time soccer tournament) on the big screen. This girl gets up there to sing and what does she start with?!!! "SWEET HOME ALABAMA", followed by a Beatles song! We left before the 2nd song ended. Needless to say, we were disappointed after waiting all that time to hear that when we were expecting "traditional Irish music"!

SUNDAY 6/22/08

Took the DART (commuter train) to Malahide to tour the Malahide Castle. It stormed on the ride there and a tree fell on the power lines to the DART which caused a delay. After the castle we went back to the train station to find out the train wouldn't be running in that area for hours. It was an adventure, but we found the bus that could take us to Sutton, then one to Howthe where the train line was running again. We walked around Howthe a bit. It's a fishing bay. We went to a small farmer's market there and got some yummy bread. Rode the DART back to the station near our hotel. Ate dinner @ Fitzimmons in Temple Bar. We had more fish 'n chips and salmon. I opted for a 7UP @ dinner this night instead of water. It equaled about 5 American dollars! & wasn't that much drink. This is when we figured out beer was cheaper than sodas.

MONDAY 6/23/08

We took the DART to Dalkey where we toured the Dalkey castle. Dalkey was a neat town, not many tourists. It's a harbor town on the coast. After back in City Centre (main part of Dublin where our hotel was) we walked to Grafton Street again, then met Jackson after his class was out. We ate at Mona Lisa, an Italian restaurant. This is where we had the waitress from Arkansas I mentioned in a previous blog. Winston, I believe, is the town she was from. We then saw Jackson off at the bus stop for the last time (sob) (see video). He had school the next day and we had to be at the airport early, so we wouldn't get to see him.

TUESDAY 6/24/08

Had to be at the airport @ 7:30 for a 10:30 flight back home. It was a great week!