Ireland = Awesome.

Well, I had a great weekend in Ireland.

I went to Dublin with Cait, Jon and Tom (all people on my program) this weekend. Honestly, we were not that impressed with Dublin - we had a great time, but the city is not nearly as beautiful as Edinburgh. Even on days when it is really cloudy and rainy in Edinburgh, the city is still absolutely gorgeous, and that's not the case in Dublin. Anyway, we did have a really fun time. On Thursday (we got into the city at like 10am) we walked around the Temple Bar area, O'Connell Street, the Liffey and then hit up Christchurch Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle. (see pictures). Thursday night we went out to a fun pub in Temple Bar, and there was a folk band there that played "What Should We Do With The Drunken Sailor?" (a song I had to sing in Brearley Middle School music class...no joke).

Friday we had a delicious full Irish Breakfast (Bridget used to get Irish Breakfasts for me at this diner on 2nd Avenue...even though it was much better in Ireland, it made me nostalgic). Then we walked around Trinity College, went to the Jameson Distillery and the Guinness Factory (both were really cool) and then walked around St. Stephen's Green. On Friday night we went on a wild goose chase looking for some pub Tom wanted to go to, and I was starving and grumpy, and we ended up at some random pub on Grafton Street (which lucky is not as expensive as Temple Bar).




Saturday was one of the best days I've ever had. We took a train up to Belfast and then went on a coach tour of the Northeast Coast of Northern Ireland. We drove up the Antrim Coast, and the view consisted of the water on one side and the Glens of Antrim (these massive mountains) on the other side. We stopped in Whitepark Bay and a few sea towns, all of which were beautiful. But the really amazing part of the trip was when we got to Giant's Causeway. It was absolutely stunning - we were in the middle of a mountain range but on the coast at the same time. It was great, I can't recommend it enough...just look at the photos (there are more on my Webshots account: http://community.webshots.com/user/pamelalachman).

We drove around Belfast at the end of the day, and while I didn't really think it was that great, it is definitely up and coming and is doing really well for a city that was being consistently bombed by its own residents just a few years ago.

Seriously, I can't recommend this tour enough. It was really expensive, but totally worth it. If you are ever in Ireland, or even in the UK, do it.
Lots of love.
Pam