Ireland: Day 2

This entry will be mostly photos because I have tons and want you all to see them. I´m still working on getting the videos to show up directly in my blog, and have another one to link to for ya. Anyhow, let´s commence...

My second day in the land of green clovers, purple hearts and blue diamonds began with some instant coffee and piece of bread at the hostel. I quickly decided that breakfast there was not safe. I headed out at about 10 am Sunday morning and walked everywhere.

My first stop was Trinity College to check out The Book of Kells. No pictures allowed of the book, but here is a shot of my favorite building on campus...

Here is a shot of the school crest and I don´t know what it means, but maybe you can find it here.

Next stop was Grafton Street for a bit of shopping. It was all decked out for Christmas and had some music going on as well. Here´s a link to my video of some of the music I heard while walking down the street.

At the end of that street lies a large park called St. Stephen´s Green. Here is a shot from outside...

And one from inside...

At this point it started to rain... a lot. So, I headed back to my hostel to take cover and on my way, it stopped. I got a couple pictures on O´Connel Street, right by my hostel, at that point. Here´s the fancy looking post office...

This shot is a huge pilar that stands in the middle of teh street on a median. There wasn´t much of a plaque, but it seemed to be donated by someone and people were touching it as they passed, so maybe it´s good luck? Anyhow, I like the picture...

Did you know they have Quiznos in Ireland? Well, they do. And, since I thought it might not be anotehr 8 months until I´d get a Turkey Ranch and Swiss on wheat, I was lame and got one instead of testing out Irish food.

After lunch came more sites, like Dublin castle...

I took the tour, which was cheap and OK. The building is still used for government functions and is pretty modern on the inside. The original was midevil, but burnt down, so this new one is largely Georgian in style. There are still some remains of the old castle, but just foundation and they look like a pile of rocks to me.

I took a pic from outside the Christ Church Cathedral because Rick Steves said the inside wasn´t worth it...

And here´s a picture of St. Patrick´s Cathedral, which I wanted to go in, but it was closed...

Finally, I was cold, wet and hungry, so I grabbed a snack and headed back to the movie theatre. I saw "The Departed", which was awesome. But, I thought Jack Nicholson was bad, which is rare for me. The young ones, especially Leo carried it (I have a new found love for him now) and Mark Walburg and Alec Baldwin should be nominated for their supporting roles, so funny!

On a side note, today was such a fun day! Iñaki and I drove all over NE Navarra and I got tons of great pictures. Then I met up with Kim and we went to the Harlem ARC choir, performing at the Baluarte in town. It was awesome. I´ll have to do more of a literary entry on that tomorrow.

I hope all is well at home. I miss you!