Doing Dublin

Dia duit!  (That's Gaelic for "hello")

We arrived in Dublin yesterday morning after an unrestful night on a 757 over the Atlantic.  Managed to walk around for a few hours before collapsing for a 2 hour nap in our hotel, Jury's Inn ChristChurch.  Then went out to explore more of the town and do some "pub crawling".   First took in the Temple Bar area, wow!!  What a jumping place, jumping with lots and lots of tourists of every kind, many bars, restaurants, and shops.  Totally overwhelmed due to lack of sleep, we opted to check out Dublin's oldest pub, The Brazen Head.  A lovely old pub.  However, the beer here leaves something to be desired.  We are wishing we had brought a supply of New Belgium beer coasters and passed them out to give them an idea of what really good beer should taste like...but I am getting a taste for Guiness....

After the BH we strolled into an area known as "The Liberties".  This is a section of Dublin that was outside the British occupied city wall section and definitely a less touristy part of the city.  We were accosted (nicely) by an enthusiastic Irishman outside a local pub, The Hill Top, who informed us there was Karaoke going on that night, so of course, we had to check it out!!  We were the only Americans in the place, surrounded by jovial drunken Irish people.  They were a very enthusiastic audience for Rick's rendition of "People Are Strange" and my "Dream A Little Dream".  I decided to do one more song for them, "Oh Danny Boy" (oh, yes, I really did this but only after reassurance from our bar mates Maurice O'Shea and Patrick that it would be totally appreciated.)  The audience sang along with me, some even with a tear in their eye!!  When we left that night we were hugged and kissed and well wished on our travels.

What lovely people the Irish are!!

Today we hit the town early, visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College, the National Gallery, and the Chester Beatty Library.  We saw Ireland's favorite painting (Helleigh and Hilldebrandt)  at the National Gallery, a watercolor painting that they only open for an hour a day in order to preserve its colour.  It was really beautiful, hard to belief a watercolor could look that good after 150+ years.  The Chester Beatty Library isn't like any library I've ever imagined.  It actually is a very comprehensive world reknown collection of books, scrolls, and written artifacts dating back to 150-200 A.D. from Asia, China, Japan, and Europe.  The section of the Library called "The Traditions" is a quite amazing study of comparative world religions from the aspect of each's sacred writings.

Food eaten today:  Irish breakfast at the Jury's Inn (porridge, toast, pastries, and cheese for us vegetarians)
Leo Burdock's  Famous Fish and Chips, right around the corner from the hotel;  traditional fish and chips wrapped in unprinted newspaper - very tasty and huge portions.

Photos to see:  https://picasaweb.google.com/115996157298123378187/IrelandScotland2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCLf8tquv4ZO-3gE

Off to pub crawl some more tonight....stay tuned....