Smiling Irish Eyes

Still a week behind but I'll catch up quickly now that I'm back in the states. Last Sunday I got up early with the parents and caught a train out to the coast of Wales where we boarded a ferry to Dublin. After 8 hours of traveling we were exhausted getting to the bed and breakfast we were staying at so we just grabbed a quick dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Saturday we got up and headed into the city centre to join up with one of the New Europe free tours around the city. We saw a lot of the city that way and learned all about how the British kept taking over the country and losing it, taking it over again and losing it again, pretty interesting.

Random Guinness signage on a pub

Church at Dublin Castle

Part of Dublin Castle garden

Colourful part of Dublin Castle

Cool street art

Replica of a Rory Gallagher guitar

View from one of the bridges

St. Patrick's Cathedral

After the free tour we made our way over to the Guinness factory to take a tour and have some free Guinness in their Gravity Bar which is the highest bar in Dublin and had great 360° view of the city. From there we grabbed a drink in the oldest pub in Dublin, got some dinner and called it a night. (I went a little photo happy in the Guinness factory)

Free beer in the Gravity bar

Window of a building outside of the factory, if you can't tell it's a glass of Guinness
next to the creepy mannequin head

Tuesday Mom and Dad headed out to Dingle, Ireland, I stayed behind in Dublin for another day because I had to be back in London Wednesday to take down the gallery show. I made an attempt to get outside the city and ended up at Newgrange which predates some of the pyramids. Newgrange is an old burial mound and sacred space out in the countryside. I actually visited Newgrange and Knowth, two of the largest places of this type. It was interesting but not quite what I was looking to see that day, I really wanted to see the countryside a bit more. Oh, although I did see three rebels cows jump a fence and sneak off in to the woods, I think I saw them trying to hide a bottle of whiskey and pack of cigarettes. It was really funny to watch because one was over the fence already when I got there and he was waiting by the edge of the woods looking back at the other two encouragingly who jumped the fence one at a time and ran over to the first cow before they bolted into the woods with one last glance back at me to make sure I wasn't going to tell. It was really entertaining.

View from the top of the mound at Knowth

Me on top of the mound in Knowth

Cool carved stone patterns, they're on all the rocks at Knowth at the base of the mound

Newgrange

Rebel cows

Wednesday I headed to the airport to catch the plane Dad booked for me two nights before. Turns out Dad had booked my flight for Tuesday instead of Wednesday (this stuff must run in the country). Much hassle later I finally landed in London and headed over to the gallery to do my part taking everything down. All the rest will appear in, sadly, my last London blog....