June 24, 2008

The moment we landed on the shores of Ireland, there was a strange sensation of being home. Being amongst Irish folk, dialect, red heads, beer, and traditional music, it is safe to say we were in our element.

After enjoying Wales' countryside with castles (Conway and Car*****), we headed west on a large car fairy that took us to our homeland, Dublin Ireland.

We welcomed the booming city with open hearts and thirsty mouths.We stayed along the Liffey River in the Temple Bar district (for those of you who know Lodos area, it is like this but much huger, better, older, and of course Irisher/drunker).It is young, happening, loud, and drunk (which was obviously perfect) place perfect for people watching and crazy behavior.The streets are lined with restaurants and pubs, paved in cobblestones which are many hundreds of years old.

We were only in Dublin for only two days and three nights but the amount of sights we saw and history we learned would fill up pages and pages of myjournal, so I'll give you only a quick list of favs…St. Patrick's Cathedral, hello!! Guinness factory, Kilmainham gaol (jail), Irish Writers Museum, and two wonderfully fun and delicious pub crawls: one pertaining to Irish Literature and Writers and the other, the next night, all about traditional Irish music.Both were absolutely fabulous and incredibly insightful.And of course, the O'Connell/Simington Clan won the trivia prize at the end of the literary crawl. I guess that Berkeley English degree pays off.

O'Connell Bridge and Street is at the hub of the city and luckily for me and my mother (not so lucky for the boys) the street is lined with shops, department stores, clothes, shoes and fashionable people galore.So yes, it was heaven.

Right now we are in the depths of the Irish countryside, driving in the rain away from our beloved Dublin, I miss it already, but know our next odyssey will have more adventures in store…

PS. I love Ireland

PSS I love Guinness