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.