Guinness Gravity Bar in Dublin

In an effort to continue getting my video editing projects shared, today I present the view from the top of Dublin, Ireland as seen from the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse on March 24, 2009. Although it was a dreary day, the view was very majestic, especially that of the green Wicklow Mountains to the east of the city.



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Farewell to Ireland

The last two days of our Irish journey were fairly uneventful because we were both pretty exhausted and ready to get back to Enschede. After a night of drinking a little too much, I woke up Friday morning and worked on packing up our things for a hotel change. In the process of making plans for our trip, Roxi had originally reserved a room for us at the conference recommended Trinity Capital Hotel. In the weeks that followed, she learned from some of her colleagues in the department that the Maldron Hotel was a much cheaper alternative. In trying to cancel our reservation at the Trinity Capital Hotel, she was informed that we would lose a 90 Euro deposit if we completely canceled the reservation. So she rightly decided that we would spend our last night in the Trinity Capital Hotel while we would spend the rest of the time in the cheaper but further away Maldron Hotel. So it was my job to cram everything into our travel backpacks for the afternoon transfer to the new hotel.

During Roxi's lunch break, we made the switch into the new hotel and were immediately glad that we chose to stay at the Maldron for the majority of our stay in Dublin. The Trinity Capital Hotel may be old and historic, but it wasn't nearly as nice as the Maldron and it certainly didn't have the amenities offered by our other hotel. Plus it had a much higher daily rate! I was pretty much through walking the streets of Dublin by myself, so in the afternoon I went with Roxi to the conference to sit in on the last couple of talks. They were mostly interesting and very related to some of the signal processing courses I had during my Masters program at Georgia Tech.

The conference concluded a little early mainly because I think everyone, including the organizers, was completely exhausted. During the closing speeches, they announced that there would be a happy hour at O'Niell's about an hour later. Roxi and I were both torn; on the one hand it would be good for Roxi to do more networking with the other attendees but on the other we were both beat and were tired of spending so much money. We decided to go back to the hotel and decide how we felt after dinner. It had started to rain and we didn't want to get wet looking for a place to eat, so we decided to have our evening meal at the hotel restaurant. After dinner we went back to the room to lay down knowing that probably meant that our minds were made up about the happy hour. Sure enough, by 8 PM we were both in bed falling asleep. Kind of a quiet last night in Dublin, but neither of us cared a bit; we were too tired!

On Saturday morning, I awoke early and took a short walk to scout out where we could catch our bus back to the airport for our afternoon flight. When we had made the flight reservation, Roxi had found a late afternoon flight back so that we would have more time in Dublin. When she made the reservation we had big plans to take advantage of the time, but on Saturday morning, both of us were ready to be home. We didn't want to have to carry our bags around for too long nor did we want to get to the airport too early, so we requested late checkout. This gave us time to take it easy in the hotel and have breakfast before we left. We made sure to take advantage of the complimentary full Irish breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Of course this being European travel, there was a hitch!

When we had checked in on Friday afternoon, the receptionist informed us that we had breakfast included in our room rate. Remembering the cost and trouble that we had with breakfast in Brussels, I made sure to have her double check so that we wouldn't be hit with some crazy extra charge. Flash forward to Saturday morning and while I was making up my breakfast plate at the buffet line, the waitress told Roxi that the computer showed that our breakfast was not included. When I got back to the table Roxi told me but I wasn't concerned because I had our room check-in card that indicated our breakfast was included. While I was getting some juice, the hostess tried to get Roxi to sign a bill for 30 Euros. The nerve of her trying to do that before we even had a chance to show her our proof that breakfast was included! Of course Roxi refused to sign the bill and I brought out our room card and she took it from me to check with reception. For the rest of breakfast, we had no idea if we were going to be comped for the meal. It made for a very unpleasant experience. Finally I asked our waitress what the deal was and she said we were supposed to pay. So we explained the situation again and she went to talk to the hostess. Eventually she came back and said that it was reception's fault and that we wouldn't have to pay. We were both pretty turned off that the hostess didn't have the nerve to tell us herself and we were both sure that they were going to try to sneak it onto our bill at check out. From that experience alone, I would never recommend the Trinity Capital Hotel to anyone traveling to Dublin. That all being said, I still had a pretty good full Irish breakfast.


Breakfast of Champions

Following the unpleasant breakfast experience, we went back to the room, did our final packing and managed to fit everything perfectly into our backpacks. We checked out of the hotel (making sure to scrutinize the bill for hidden breakfast charges! -- there were none) and tried to decide what to do with ourselves for the next hour and a half. In the end we decided to head to the bus station and get a cup of coffee somewhere along the way. We ended up at a little pub and had a coffee and a Coke. After killing as much time was we could, we headed for the bus station and took the forty minute ride to the airport. We checked in for our flight, went through security (no passport control at the terminal entrance in Dublin airport) and then wandered the shopping areas. We were thinking of buying some duty free whiskey until we learned that as long as you are traveling within the EU, you cannot take advantage of the duty free prices. And boy was the duty crazy! Most the liquors showed the duty free and non-duty free prices side by side and in some cases the difference was more than fifty percent! Taxes are high in the EU, that much is for sure!

We ended up getting some reasonable priced souvenirs and then had a drink at the bar by our gate. Finally we boarded our plane for the short flight back to the Netherlands. Of course once we were back in the Amsterdam, we still had a two and a half hour train ride back to Enschede. But that went off without a hitch and at 11 PM we were back home in our apartment. All in all, I had a good trip and enjoyed my time in Ireland. If it weren't so damned expensive I might go back, but at this point, there are other places I've never been that I would like to see first. I think Roxi had a pretty good trip, but they really over scheduled the conference attendees. I hope next time she has one of these opportunities, there will be more flexibility for her to see some of the sites of the host city.

West Coast of the Emereld Isle

Before we left Enschede for Dublin, some of our neighbors told us that we had to visit the west coast of Ireland for some amazing scenery. Likewise another friend from back home and my cousin also recommended the same when they found out that we were in Dublin from my Facebook status. Although Roxi was busy with the conference for the week, she insisted that at least one of us get to visit the west. So I woke up at 5 AM on Thursday March 26 to catch my tour bus to the Cliffs of Moher. Roxi and I even had a chance to have a quick breakfast together before I left for my thirty minute walk to the rendezvous point.

The Paddywagon arrived just about 7 AM and our Irish tour guide began telling us about Dublin as we passed through it on our way into the countryside. The wagon was a miniature tour bus with comfortable seats and full to near capacity. There were thirteen other travelers on the bus but that number would dwindle as we made our way across the country. We had a long day ahead of us so I got comfortable listening to the guide's audio tour through Irish history. After about an hour, we made our first stop for a restroom and breakfast snack. After the short break, we were back on the road getting more stories as we made our way to the city of Limerick.

We arrived in Limerick about two hours later where we rendezvoused with another Paddywagon that would be taking some of my fellow travelers to Blarney Castle for the day. Although I was interested in seeing the castle and kissing the famous stone, I was more interested in the Cliffs of Moher, the destination everyone told me I should see. We had a few minutes in Limerick to stretch our legs and take some pictures before loading back onto the bus for more driving.


King John's Castle in Limerick


River Shannon in Limerick


Treaty Stone in Limerick

After our break and rendezvous in Limerick, we were down to eight travelers on the bus for the hour bus ride to The Burren in the wilderness of County Clare. The drive up and down the rolling hills along the way was absolutely beautiful especially once we could see the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape became more and more rocky until there was nothing but rock at The Burren right on the edge of the ocean. Upon disembarking from the bus, I was overcome with the smell of salt air. The ocean was an inviting beautiful blue green color. If the cold breeze was any indicator the water was surely freezing! The landscape was amazing and the view of the semi-isolated Aran Islands on the horizon were gorgeous. We braved the cold at The Burren long enough to take a few pictures before heading to nearby Doolin for lunch.


The Burren


The Burren


Aran Islands

We stopped for lunch at the village of Doolin where the bowl of beef stew is just what I needed to warm myself up after being exposed to the chilling sea breeze at The Burren. During lunch the tour guide was asking me questions about the US and world economy and we got onto the subject of the Euro. I was surprised to hear that he thought that the Euro had ruined Europe because of how expensive everything suddenly was. With the Euro doing so well against other currencies like the US dollar and even the British pound, I guess I just assumed that everyone loved in the EU loved the value of their money. He said he had seen no personal benefit of the currency and when I asked if anyone had, he said it was mainly farmers and large companies because the common currency has allowed them to trade more freely across the continent. Since then I've spoken to other people about the switch over to the Euro and my take is that it comes down to the value and strength of each country's economy before the switch. If the currency was strong before the switch, the Euro's relative strength within that country was also strong. Ireland as a nation had an economic boom in the 1990's with rapid growth in Dublin and other major cities, while the poorer parts of the country remained so. It would seem that some of Ireland was left behind twice, once with the switch to the Euro and again during the boom times. In any event, it was an interesting conversation especially getting the perspective of an average Irishman.

After lunch, we made the short drive to our main destination, the Cliffs of Moher. I spent the first half hour of our hour and forty-five minutes there admiring the amazing view and trying to take pictures on my way up the hill to O'Brien's Tower.


Cliffs of Moher


Cliffs of Moher


Cliffs of Moher


O'Brien's Tower

There was a moderate wind as I was taking pictures but it began to strengthen as I made my way up the hill to O'Brien's Tower. The wind was pretty constant, but there were also very strong gusts every now and then that made me feel like my glasses might just blow away so I put them in my pocket as I continued my climb. As I arrived at the top and began walking towards the tower, there was an unbelievably strong gust that actually pushed me along the path. It was pretty funny at first...but when the gust didn't stop, I actually started getting a little scared! I wouldn't say I am deathly afraid of heights, but I definitely don't like them. Although there were walls along the edge of the cliff at the top and I was nowhere near them, I started to get very frightened about being blown off the top of the cliff. Most people up there seemed to be having fun with it and maybe it was because I was by myself, but I was suddenly not enjoying it! At one point I was knocked to the ground by the wind and thought it best to just sit until the gust stopped...but it never did! I realized that the wind was being amplified in some sort of Bernoulli effect around the tower itself and that the gust wasn't going to die down as long as I was near the structure. So I picked myself up and kept a wide bearth between me and the tower. Just as quickly as the strong gust started, it was over. I carefully made my way back down the hill and into the warmth of the visitors center where I decided to kill my remaining time at the cliffs in the museum.

Back at the bus, we were now only six travellers as two of our companions had rendezvoused with another Paddywagon to travel to another part of the country. So began our long trip back to Dublin via Limerick. For the next hour I listend to my iPod while everyone else slept and the tour guide listened to Irish talk radio. Back in Limerick, we picked up the six travlers that had gone to Blarney Castle earlier in the day. From there it was another relatively quiet two and a half hour ride. Without an iPod I might have gone crazy though! Right around 7 PM we arrived back in Dublin and I began my walk back to the hotel to meet Roxi.

I only beat Roxi back to the hotel by about thirty minutes. We split her leftovers from lunch and then walked to the Vat House Bar in Temple Bar to meet some of the other conference attendees for drinks and to watch an Irish band play. We had a good time but I offically had my fill of Guinness (I never thought that could happen!). The band was great. They played traditional Irish folk songs and threw in some contemporary American songs too. I had never really made the connection before but American bluegrass music really has it's root in Irish folk. From the instruments to the style there are so many similarities. It makes sense because of all the Irish immigration to the United States during the Great Irish Famine in the mid 1800s. I suppose that also explains why the Blue Ridge Mountain area is so famous for their whiskey. After the fun but late night, we went back to the hotel for a little sleep before Roxi's last day at the conference.

Laundry Day and an Afternoon in Dublin

In an effort to pack light, we only brought about half a week's worth of clothes each with my plan to find a laundromat midway through our stay in Dublin. So I got up on Wednesday March 25 with high hopes of getting it done relatively quickly. Roxi had even given me helpful literature from the conference that listed approximate locations of do-it-yourself laundries in the area. Unfortunately there were no addresses listed and Google Maps was unable to pinpoint any for me either. So, with my backpack full of dirty laundry, I inquired at the front desk and was given directions a few blocks up the now familiar Pearse Street. In all of our walks along Pearse Street I had never noticed a do-it-yourself washateria, but I went a ahead and followed the directions anyway.

After walking for a good twenty minutes and only having passed a fluff and fold laundry and dry cleaner, I decided to turn around and try the other way. I continued on for a good ten minutes past the hotel in the other direction and the location of a laundry seemed less and less likely with each step. So I made the decision to go back to the hotel and hand wash our clothes in the bath tub and hope for the best. So after an hour wasted, I was back where I started, crouching over the bath tub with my sleeves rolled up, agitating a mixture of hot water, soap and dirty clothes. I tried my best to do a thorough job cleaning, making sure go through several cleaning iterations of soap and hot water followed by several rinse iterations of cold water. After about forty-five minutes, I was as done as I was going to be. Then it was just a matter of wringing out the clothes and trying to arrange them for optimal drying on the convenient rack in the shower.

Roxi only had to endure a half day of conference proceedings on Wednesday with the second half of the day free for the attendees to see some of the sights of Dublin. As one would imagine, Roxi was pretty exhausted from the proceedings and didn't want to try to do too much, so rather than take an organized tour, we opted for a few simple things that were fairly low impact but still resulted in a lot more walking than we anticipated.

After a late lunch of deli sandwiches, we made the short walk from Trinity College to Merrion Square specifically to see the statue of Oscar Wilde. Being a big Wilde fan, Roxi was very excited to see the statue after learning of it's existence on a post card earlier in the week. I happened to see it when I was on my hop-on hop-off bus tour on Monday so I knew the quickest and easiest way to get us there from school.


Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square


The most life-like statue I've ever seen.

We headed back to the hotel, cutting through the campus of Trinity College and stopping in to visit the Science Gallery on the way. It was a brief exhibit mostly covering three-dimensional renderings of Trinity College and Dublin. The best hands-on exhibit was an interactive game between two people where the object was to move a ball from the middle of the table to the opponent's side. The difficulty was that you could not use your hands or any other part of your body for that matter except for your brain! Each side of the table had a headband with sensors in them that would make contact with your forehead. After pressing the start button on the game, the objective of control was to relax yourself so that your stress activity was at a minimum. This brain activity was displayed on a screen for each participant. The ball would move in the direction of the less relaxed participant. After winning a couple of rounds, I was sure that the machine wasn't working correctly and suggested that Roxi and I switch sides just to check. But Roxi wanted to do one more match as we were, so I reattached the sensors and was promptly defeated. We realized that for the previous matches, my sensors were not attached as tightly giving me an unfair advantage since less data was being transmitted to the machine!

When we finished with the exhibit, instead of going back to the hotel as planned, I decided to bring Roxi to Temple Bar to show her a store that I had seen the day before that I knew she would appreciate. Roxi loves vintage and second hand clothes shopping, so when I saw this store on my previous trip through Temple Bar, I thought it would be a great place to show her. Once inside, she wasn't disappointed. If not for the limits of our luggage, we would have left with a lot more items of clothes than we ended up with!

While approaching the store, we ran into a movie production filming on the streets of the district. As exciting as that sounds, it was more frustrating than anything. In trying to cross the public street to the clothing store, a production assistant asked us and others not to walk on the other side of the street as they were about to shoot a scene. Anyone who wants to get into the movies should see the hell that is a PA's life for just a few minutes. This one guy was getting orders on a walkie talkie to keep the street clear of non-extras and having a hell of a time doing it in the very touristy area. Meanwhile, I'm sure his superiors were very angry that he wasn't doing his job. No thanks! I don't need the stress of a movie producer mad at me because I can't keep pedestrians off of a public street and all for crappy pay! I don't even know what they were filming but we weren't about to hang around for very long in hopes of seeing someone famous. Odds are it was a British production and we wouldn't even recognize the actors anyway.

After the trip to Temple Bar, we made the walk back to the hotel for a snack, some rest and relaxation. We spent a good couple of hours just watching TV and lounging around. Of course, on vacation, there is little time for rest, so not long after, we were back on our feet headed for an evening service at Christ Church Cathedral. There were the usual readings and prayers, but we wanted to attend because we had learned from a priest on Sunday that Wednesday and Thursday services are Choral Evensongs. We weren't disappointed as the choir from Christ Church is world-renowned. When Handel's Messiah made it's world premiere in Dublin, the choir was composed of singers from Christ Church and St. Patrick's Cathedrals.

When the service was over, it was very early in the evening, but we were tired and as usual, we both had a big ahead of us, so we decided to go back to the hotel for another relaxing visit to the spa. We were pretty lazy after our swim and didn't even think about dinner until very late in the evening when I bought a couple of sandwiches at the bar. It was all that either of us really needed at that point though. And so with that, we went to sleep with our very early alarm set for the next morning.

Gorging Myself on Tourist Attractions

We weren't up early enough on Tuesday March 24 to do any swimming before Roxi had to be at school. After another quick breakfast in our hotel room, we made the usual walk down Pearse Street to Trinity College where we parted ways at Roxi's building. I continued on to the city center to start my Dublin Pass day.

I chose to start with Christ Church Cathedral since it had the earliest opening hours. It is not the most impressive cathedral I've ever been to, but it has a lot of very interesting history that goes back nearly one thousand years. I spent almost an hour looking at the various artifacts in the cathedral and the crypt. Among the most interesting to me was not a religious artifact but rather a naturally mummified cat and rat that were found in a pipe in the organ. They most likely died their after getting stuck in the midst of the chase.


Christ Church Cathedral


The Cat and The Rat

Next I toured the nearby St. Patrick's Cathedral. I didn't spend as much time in St. Patrick's as I had in Christ Church, but I made specific note of the Jonathan Swift memorabilia on display including his appointment as Dean, his epitaph, his death mask and tomb.


St. Patrick's Cathedral


Jonathan Swift's Death Mask


Jonathan Swift's Tomb

After St. Patrick's I still had some time before I needed to meet Roxi back at campus for lunch so I decided to learn a little more Dublin history with a visit to the museum in the City Hall. It was a well organized museum starting with the viking origins up to current history. All the walking and touring started to get me tired so I hit the highlights of the story of Dublin before heading back to Trinity College.

Roxi had given her presentation before lunch so we talked about how it went and other things she had learned in the morning session of the conference on our way to a sandwich shop. We opted for a cheap lunch as we had begun to realize just how expensive Dublin was after our first couple of days there. For a couple of cheap sandwiches, I thought it was great lunch! After lunch, we parted ways again at Roxi's building and I headed for Temple Bar on my way to the Old Jameson Distillery.

After crossing the River Liffey, I found my way to the Old Bow Street Jameson Distillery. Being a home brewer, I know a lot about the beer making process but very little about the process of making and distilling whiskey. The tour of the now retired distillery was very informative plus we finished with a nice sample of the smooth Irish whiskey now only distilled in Cork, Ireland.


The River Liffey


Jameson & Son Old Bow Street Distillery






A sample of the smooth Jameson Irish whiskey.

After the aperitif of whiskey, I headed for the tour of Dublin's other most famous alcohol production facility, the Guinness St. James' Gate Brewery. As I approached the building, the wonderful smell of roasted barley and hops permeated the streets. Once inside, I began my tour with a look at the famous 9000 year lease of the property that Arthur Guinness signed in 1759. I continued up several levels of the building showing the history of the beer and the brewery with a small sample of Guinness Foreign Extra stout along the way. The tour culminated with a pint of Guinness while admiring the panoramic view of the city from the Gravity Bar.


The 9000 year lease of St. James' Gate Brewery to Arthur Guinness.


Arthur Guinness


A sample of Guinness Foreign Extra.


The beauty of a settling Guinness pint straight from the source.


The Wicklow Mountains as seen from the Gravity Bar.

As the Guinness Storehouse was closing, I began my long walk back to Trinity College. I got there about an hour before Roxi's afternoon session ended but it was very nice to just sit and listen to my iPod while I was waiting after so much walking during the day. When the conference finally let out for the evening, Roxi and I walked back to the hotel where we continued to vegetate after the long day. The first two days of the conference were really taking their toll on Roxi as she had spent a combined twenty hours listening to lectures. We really weren't in the mood to leave the hotel so we chose to have dinner at the hotel bar. I had another pretty good burger while Roxi had a less than stellar pizza. Exhausted, we retired to bed to get some much needed rest.

Rainy Day and Closed Museums

We woke up very early on Monday March 23 for the first day of Roxi's conference. We went to the spa for some time in the sauna, whirlpool and pool. It was a very refreshing way to start the day! Later we ate a few snacks that we had purchased the day before to save a little money on breakfast. And then we were on our way to Trinity College. It was a cold and dreary day in Dublin. I walked Roxi to her building and then made my way to the Dublin Tourism Office to pick up my Dublin Pass, a pre-paid card that would allow me into many tourist attractions in the city. When I picked up my pass, I was told that some of the museums are closed on Mondays so it might be a good idea to use it another day.

I decided I'd spring for the 15 Euro hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. That way I could see where things were located and plan out my Dublin Pass day. The pass included a little book that listed all of the attractions with included admission as well as other discounts I could get with the pass. While I rode the bus around it's hour and a half loop, I dogeared pages with attractions of interest. In the end, it turned out a fair number of attractions I wanted to see, although not museums, fell under the "closed on Mondays" umbrella. But at least I still got to map out locations of places I would hit on Tuesday!

I rode the double-decked tour bus around for one complete loop, sitting on the mostly open top level in what started as a misty drizzle. By the end of the ride it was a hard drizzle but I was mostly protected by the partial covering I was sitting under. By the time I finished my trip and was making my way back to Trinity College to meet Roxi for lunch, I was walking in a very windy downpour. It was not exactly pleasant but I made it to Roxi's building without getting too wet thanks to a travel umbrella I had packed for our trip.

When Roxi got out of the morning lecture session, the rain had thankfully stopped and we decided to make the walk to O'Neill's Pub for lunch. It was a regular pub with a sort of short cafeteria style line where you choose your main course and sides. I ordered the corned beef with lots of sides while Roxi chose the Guinness stew also with lots of sides thrown in. The portions were gigantic and they made for quite a lunch!


Corned Beef with Parsnips, Carrots and Peas


Guinness Stew with Cabbage, Mashed and Roasted Potatoes

After the filling lunch, I walked Roxi back to her building on campus and decided to visit some attractions that were not covered by the Dublin Pass. I started with the Trinity College Library exhibition of the Book of Kells, a ninth century illuminated Latin manuscript of the four Gospels of the Bible. The exhibit also included a few other illuminated manuscripts of various ages, but the oldest and most ornate by far was the Book of Kells. After that exhibit, I was allowed to continue into the Long Room of the library itself. It was a visually amazing collection of thousands of books that looked like something you would see in a movie. In the corridor of the Long Room, there was an exhibit chronicling the history of the modern detective story which was also quite interesting but a little exhausting in it's scope.

With a few hours left before Roxi finished her afternoon lectures, I decided to visit the Dublinia & Viking World, a museum that explores the viking heritage of Dublin as well as the medieval history of the city. It was interesting but a bit cheesy at times. But it was relatively inexpensive to visit and it killed some time on the cold and dreary Dublin day. The museum was closing down before I had time to look at all the exhibits, but I had already had enough anyway. I left and made my way back to hotel for the remaining time until Roxi's lectures concluded for the afternoon.

When I met Roxi back on campus a couple of hours later, she and some of here colleagues from Enschede had decided to go to O'Neill's for some drinks. So we went and spent a few hours drinking Guinness and visiting.


Truer words could not be written!


The times have certainly changed!

Finally, Roxi and I rounded out our evening with a late take out dinner from a Thai restaurant on the way back to our hotel and then it was off to bed to get rested for another long day.

Our Day In Dublin

We awoke refreshed on the morning of Sunday March 22 ready to see Dublin together. The whole purpose of our trip to Ireland was business for Roxi: she was invited by her adviser in Enschede to attend a week-long school/conference hosted at Trinity College. It was like a very intense and small international conference where people presented their research to the attendees. We saw the schedule before the trip and they planned four full ten-hour days and one half-day over the course of the week. In order to get reimbursed for the registration fee, attendance was mandatory, so that boiled down to Roxi and the other participants not getting very much time to actually see Dublin during the week. So Roxi and I made a point of doing as much as we could on that Sunday together before she would be sequestered in a lecture hall for most of the rest of her visit.

We started by taking what would become our usual walk down Pearse Street to arrive at Trinity College. It is a very old and very beautiful campus set in the middle of Dublin. Even before seeing it, I was proud that Roxi would have the distinction of attending a week-long conference at such a prestigious university.


Parliament Square


The Campanile


Library Square


Sphere Within Sphere


The happy travelers


College Park

After walking around the compact campus, we made our way into the heart of the city center and found Grafton Street, a pedestrian shopping area full of life. We did some souvenir shopping in between watching street performers play music or manipulate marionette puppets. After walking for a while, we decided to look for a place to eat. We stumbled onto a fantastic Indian restaurant called Maloti with a great Sunday lunch menu. Little did we know, this was the same restaurant that the organizers of the conference had arranged for a group dinner on Wednesday evening.

After lunch we left Grafton Street and walked to St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park similar to New York City's Central Park. It was a nice day so the park was full of people. Watching all the people feeding the birds in the lake made for a great time. The birds were pretty entertaining in their own right, especially the little tufted ducks who would dive and swim around underwater for several seconds before surfacing in a different location. And of course, like most European parks, there were several very elegant swans preening in the water.







From St. Stephen's Green, we decided to take a break at a cafe and have an Irish coffee. We found a very busy cafe on a barricaded Dawson Street that was rapidly filling with people. On Saturday night, the Irish national rugby team defeated Wales to be crowned the 2009 Six Nations Champion and claimed their first Grand Slam in forty-nine years. The crowd was forming for the victory celebration set to take place an hour later. We decided to move on to other parts of the city center rather than get caught up in the increasingly large crowd.


The crowd gathers to celebrate Ireland's victory.


Hooray for Ireland!

On our way out of the chaos, we bought some Irish rugby hats from a street vendor and stopped by the statue of Molly Malone.



In Dublin's fair city,
where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Next we headed for Dublin Castle and took a walk around the Dubh Linn Gardens.


The Record Tower of Dublin Castle.


Dublin Castle


Dubh Linn Gardens


Marker commemorating the birthplace of Jonathan Swift.

We ended our self guided tour by walking a little further from the city center and arriving at Christ Church Cathedral. Unfortunately it was closed for the afternoon and they had already held their last services of the day, but we spoke to one of the priests who told us when all the services for the week would be held so that we could attend at least one before we left Dublin.





On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Trinity Capital Hotel, the suggested hotel for the conference and site of registration. Check in was quick and they gave us each a ticket for a free drink at the bar during the mixer they had scheduled for a few hours later. We used the time to take a break back at our hotel before returning for the mixer. When we arrived back at the bar at the Trinity Capital Hotel, there weren't many people there, so we took our free drinks onto the patio to enjoy the mild Dublin night.




Irish Coffee & Irish Stout

Neither of us were very hungry for dinner, so on our way back to the hotel we picked up a very small pizza to split. After eating, we called it a night so that we could get up early the next morning to go swimming before Roxi had to be at the opening lecture of the conference.