Dublin and the French Riviera

I love Ireland.  So much.  Holy moly. 

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with two of our family friend Gillian’s brothers while we were staying in Dublin.  We got to the airport on Friday afternoon and took a bus down by where we were staying.  John and Ricky picked us up and took us for a pint and then to get some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had.  They took us to their beautiful house and we washed up and got settled. We met two of their kids, Ricarda and Brian, who are close to our age.  It was a pretty low key night because we’d been traveling all day, so we pretty much just went to bed after that.

The next day we went into Dublin city.  Ricarda drove us down there because she works at a café down there.  We ate there for breakfast and the food was amazing!  So far on this trip, to this day, I’ve had the best food to eat in Dublin, which I honestly wasn’t expecting!  We didn’t have too much of an agenda.  The weather was quite nice so we walked around St. Stevens Green for a bit.  We wandered our way over to Trinity College.  Let me just say right here and now, my new goal in life is to go to graduate school at Trinity.  I really just fell in love with the place.  It’s kind of hard to explain.  Beautiful buildings, lots of history, I love the way people talk there! Plus, they have programs in education and psychology, so whatever I want to do in life, they have it there! Anyways, we took a tour of Trinity and saw the Book of Kells, which was pretty cool.  We walked around a bit more, then met back up with Ricarda, who took us to Gerard and Lucy’s (Gillian’s other brother) to stay there for the night.  Their house is also absolutely breathtaking! After dinner, Ricarda came back for us and we went out with her and some of her friends.  We were still pretty tired, so we didn’t stay out too late.  It was pretty fun, not too eventful.  Ricarda’s friends were really nice, so that was good!!

St. Stevens Green

Me at Trinity, my future college?

Bridge over the River Liffey

On Sunday we took the train to Howth which is North of Dublin.  A lovely little port town with a great view of the bay and mountains.  It was a little rainy, but we had some sun breaks and it wasn’t bad.  It was pretty relaxing.  Gerard is a great cook.  We had a pork roast with potatoes and veggies and it was all just amazing.  Gerard and Lucy have two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, but they were studying for exams most of our time there.  Very nice girls though.  

Some roof dogs in Howth

On Monday there wasn’t much open because it was a bank holiday, but we went back into town to see the Guinness Storehouse and the National Gallery.  The storehouse was cool.  We learned all about how Guinness is made, and of course, the tour came with an all-inclusive pint at the end.  The National Gallery was pretty cool too.  They had an exhibit set up with paintings and photographs to go along with quotes they’d picked out from James Joyce’s “Dubliners”.  After the gallery, we went back to Gerard and Lucy’s for another incredible meal.

Our first proper pints of Guinness

Christ Church

On Tuesday we transferred back to John and Ricky’s.  They drove us, with Ricarda, out to a place called Newgrange.  It’s a giant Neolithic dome that’s about 5,000 years old.  It was built by Neolithic farmers as some sort of tomb/religious place.  At the winter solstice, the sign shines directly into a little “roof box” above the door.  Pretty cool place.  That night, after another wonderful home cooked meal, Grace and I went down into town to go out with Brian because he had just finished his exams.  Unfortunately, the club he was meeting his friends at was 21 and up, so the three of us just went to get pints at a different bar and then Grace and I headed home.

Newgrange

We left early Wednesday morning for Nice.  Nice is insane.  So so beautiful.  We walked around a bit last night to get our bearings.  We went out to dinner and were able to eat outside.  Such perfect weather!  Today we took a bus out to Monaco, which is actually just unreal.  So pristine and beautiful!  Unfortunately, I’d left my memory card in my computer, so I only have pictures from today on my disposable camera, but that’s okay!  It was beautiful though.  We saw the prince’s palace, Monte Carlo, and the aquarium.  The Grand Prix is there next weekend and they have a sort of “historic” run that starts there tomorrow, so the whole place was bustling.  On the way back from Monaco, we stopped in a small town called Villefranche to eat ice cream and lay on the beach for a little bit.  I’d recommend that everyone sees the Mediterranean Sea before they die, because really, it’s out of this world.

Nice

Nice and the Mediterranean

And now we’re all caught up! Not sure yet what the plans are for tomorrow, but hopefully I’ll get on here at least one more time before home.