Dublin Day One

Statue of James Joyce in St Stephen's Green

It turns out that my parents can't understand Irish accents.  At all. When we arrived at the airport in Dublin, we immediately processed through customs to the street to catch a cab.  Martin and I had to translate between our parents (and their incessant questions) and the cab driver (whose Irish twang was, admittedly, quite thick), but we did eventually make it to the hotel.  

After checking into the hotel and grabbing the obligatory not-so-adventurous pub lunch on the same street as the hotel (we were famished, okay!), we regrouped from our flight and headed out to explore the city.  

First, we wandered down Grafton Street explored St. Stephen's Green.  Dublin’s retail capital, Grafton Street exudes a sense of cheerfulness and prosperity.  Carolers line the streets and (even though the economy is supposedly tanking) money flows freely from the pockets of the shoppers mobbing the stores. 

Although its beauty was slightly dimmed by the Dublin weather (read: gray), St. Stephen's Green offers a lovely green contrast to the city’s gray streets and provides a haven from the hustle and bustle of Grafton Street.  After walking around St. Stephen’s Green, we walked back up to the other side of Grafton Street to Trinity College. 

Trinity has real atmosphere.  It hums with life.  A mere twenty minute stroll around the campus gave us a feel for the ambiance of the place.  From Trinity we strolled up to Temple Bar, an area bordering the River Liffey, filled with pubs, restaurants, and bars.  We saw both City Hall and the famed Christ Church Cathedral, which we were able to peek into just before closing.

After an extremely satisfying dinner at an Italian restaurant called Carluccio’s, Martin and I sampled Dublin’s nightlife with our own pub crawl.  We sampled the Christmas themed beverages (okay, well I sampled the Christmas themed beverages, he had Guinness), and eventually ended up at a jazz club, where the singer had a voice just like Adele.  God bless Dublin!