Dublin

Continuing on our Celtic adventure, the next stop was Dublin. It was kind of a shock leaving the B&B in Edinburgh and arriving at our "business" hotel. I don't think a lot of business gets done in Ireland, since these people wouldn't even answer the phone when my friend Mike called repeatedly.

We went out the first night to Temple Bar, an area with a lot of good restaurants and bars, although a little touristy. Then we headed over to Mulligan's for the supposed best pint of Guinness in the city. But I couldn't really taste the difference between it and any other Guinness I've had.

The next morning, we went on a historic walking tour, given by a grad student at Trinity College. We saw the college, city hall, the old post office (used to be Irish parliament), Dublin castle, and other assorted city sights.

Then in the afternoon, we took the commuter rail to Howth, which is by the sea. It has a really incredible cliff walk, and goes by where Yeates used to live, but we couldn't do the whole thing because the sun was setting, and we might have fallen off. But best fish and chips of the whole trip.

The next day we took a bus tour in the Wicklow mountains. It started with Sandycove, a suburb south of the city where James Joyce lived.

Then we headed to Glendalough, which is a monastic site founded by St. Kevin in 570. It had some really interesting ruins and, two big lakes.

The highlight was stopping at Sally's Gap, with its black lake and boglands. Amazing views.

At night, we finally managed to connect with Mike (my friend from highschool who's at UC Dublin med school), who had been calling the above mentioned hotel repeatedly. We checked out his house and had some dinner where "real Dubliners live" as he put it (a.k.a. yuppie-ville).

The next morning, we walked by the Guinness factory, and saw Kilmainham Jail, where leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and executed.

Dublin was a great mix of a city with a good nightlife, but not too big so as to feel imposing. Again like in Scotland, people told us that we should have visited other parts of the country (namely Galway).