Hillary's Visit

April 7th-10th, 2011

Dublin, Ireland, and Howth, Ireland

Hillary, spending this year studying in Santander, Spain, opted to take a weekend and jet out to visit, along with Zach, a fellow Cornellian from her Santander program. She's been doing a lot of traveling this year, and just waiting for the moment when the Ryanair seasonal flights direct between Dublin and Santander would start back up. She arrived fairly late in the day on Thursday, so we walked around town a bit, found some food, and wander through Temple Bar for ice cream.

Sunset by the Ha'penny bridge, so named because it used to cost half a penny to cross.

The next day, we started off by meeting up with Zach and a friend of his from Madrid to take the free walking tour. With a different guide, I really got very different stories, and even saw different things.

The inside of City Hall-- it's a really pretty building, and we got to hear the stories behind a lot of the symbols for the different counties and crests.

A beautiful little hidden garden area behind Dublin Castle.

Just as the tour finished, I got word that I had to run and pick up my Trinity Ball tickets. Thankfully, I barely made it, and Hillary and I headed off for the next step: Guinness. Ever since I first started talking about coming to Dublin back in freshman year, Hillary made me promise that if I did, she could come visit and we would go to the Guinness Factory together and see the 9,000 year lease. Well, consider that promise fulfilled.

Hillary and I outside of the Guinness gate.

The 9,000 year lease that the Guinness family has on the land in Dublin. That's right, they don't actually own it.

Hillary and Zach in the Guinness bar, enjoying the 360 degree view of Dublin.

After introducing Hillary to the Abrakababra for dinner, it was time to part ways for the evening-- I had Trinity Ball to attend, unfortunately breaking up the trip.

The next morning, we started things off with a free visit to the Book of Kells, then some shopping on O'Connell Street (Hillary even got some shoes at the Schuh store). We grabbed lunch at the Bagel Factory and settled down in the park to eat.

We just happened to enjoy our lunch with James Joyce, under some lovely pink flowering trees.

Then we made a quick afternoon jaunt to Howth. We did the short hike rather than the long one, which actually turned out lovely. We even made a new doggy friend.

A little grey, but fairly nice weather.

It took until the 3rd time being here to realize that this is W.B. Yeat's house. Way to go me.

Enjoying a little Irish countryside.

Our dog friend-- we named him Bailey, after the Bailey's we had on our Fro-yo at the stand just outside the Dart station. The friendly frozen yogurt man gave it to us for free.

Sadly, Hillary had to be off bright and early the next morning, so it was quite a short trip, but considering the time crunch, we managed to get a lot in.

Melissa's Visit

Friday, April 1st- Monday, April 4th, 2011

Dublin, Ireland, and Howth, Ireland

This semester, Melissa is studying at St. Andrews in Scotland, so for her spring break, she made the rounds and stopped by to see me in little old Dublin. I had just finished a final paper for Irish Writing and turned it in, hot off the presses, before going to pick her up from the train station. Perfect timing!

After dropping her stuff in my room, our first stop was St. Stephen's Green park, since it was a lovely afternoon for just walking around and relaxing.

The pavilion at the park, and all the people there feeding the birds.

We made an easy night of it, with dinner at Mona Lisa's and a movie night. The next morning brought us up bright and early for a little Dublin tourism. Believe it or not, although I have class next to it every day, this was my first peek at the Book of Kells.

The library where the Book of Kells is kept. It is very old, very ornately decorated copy of the bible. I didn't realize that the entrance price also includes an extensive museum exhibit about the book, its making, and other gospels of its kind, as well as my favorite part: a peek into the Long Room, the oldest, coolest library I have ever seen. And the bonus? Being a Trinity student, I got Melissa and I in for free.

We walked around Trinity for a bit, and I enjoyed the fact that not only was the sun shining, but all the construction equipment was gone from front square. Finally.

Next stop: Sandeman's free tour. After doing one in Amsterdam, I thought it was definitely worth a gander in Dublin. And in spite of living here for the time being, there's still a lot I don't know and haven't seen, so it was really interesting.

The inside of Dublin Castle courtyard, on a beautiful day for a tour.

After the tour, our afternoon took us to Croke Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association stadium, for a Hurling and Gaelic football double-header with Anna, Erin, Emma, and Alex. Here's where weather started turning... It started sprinkling on our way over, taking the bus to the north side, then walking between the endless street vendors selling flags, hats, and scarves for all the counties represented. But, of all the good luck, our seats were under an overhang.

Thank goodness for the overhang-- kept us smiley all night long.

We were REALLY glad for that overhang when the weather got nasty-- bucketing rain and hail for most of the first match. But the players kept on. The hurling was up first, and it was definitely my favorite-- like lawn hockey on crack.

The half-time entertainment, part 1: just like Bucky's Mighty Mites! Really young hurling players-- super cute.

Half-time entertainment part 2: a surprise live performance by Jedward, Ireland's Eurovision contestant. Never heard of them? I hadn't either. They basically do covers of a bunch of old 90's songs while running around like over caffeinated children, to the screams of 12-year-olds who think they are singing original songs. They do have some original stuff, including Lipstick, their song for the Eurovision competition (a Europe-wide version of American Idol that's been going on since 1956).

On Sunday, we made our way to Howth. Although I'd been once, it had been much earlier in the season, and not on a Sunday, so we hadn't seen the farmer's market. Melissa and I spent a good deal of time browsing, and ended up with candy, fudge, souvenirs, and some proper lunch food.

Part of the market-- they didn't have just produce, but also baked goods, hot food, cupcakes, crafts, jewelry, just about everything you could think of.

Saying hi to the seals at the pier. There were a lot of them that day, just milling around, hoping to get fed.

Melissa and I set off on a hike. Although it was the same route I did before, the weather made a world of difference-- no mud, and lots of sunshine makes for happy hikers.

Gorgeous landscape along the coast, especially with all the little yellow flowers along the cliffs.

Enjoying the view. It was so quiet out here you could hear the sea move, even though the waves weren't breaking.

On Monday, I had to ditch Melissa for a bit to go to class (sigh, the trials and tribulations of one not actually on spring break). I caught up with her again after she'd done some exploring of O'Connell Street and Grafton, and we hit up the National Gallery and the National Library.

In front of the National Library, where we saw the Yeats exhibit. Very well done, although probably more interesting if you're into Yeats. Having studied some this semester, it was pretty cool to see some of his hand written poems, where he'd crossed things out and made changes.

The National Library is also just a regular library-- we may or may not have played in the kids corner. Apparently penguins can be found in trees.

That night, I shepherded Melissa on to her next stop-- Rome. Her plane left uncomfortably early, forcing her to catch the bus at 4am, but I'm pretty sure Rome is worth it.