Ireland Day 3 - St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day, and we decided to spend it in Dublin. We drove to a park and ride in Red Cow and took the light rail into the city.

Our first stop (at about 10am) was the Guinness Brewery. Brian got in free as a VIP because his middle name is Patrick (all Patricks were free for St. Patrick's Day).

The Guinness Brewery is huge (7 floors or so) and is more like a museum than a brewery. We made it through about four floors before deciding to head up to the sky bar - it has a 360 degree view of the city.

We each had a pint while enjoying the views.

After the brewery, we walked over to see the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The streets were really crowded.

While we were waiting for the parade, we decided to take a break and grab some food - Jeff and I shared a full Irish Breakfast at a little restaurant in Temple Bar.

After that it was back to the parade. Since we were standing in about the fourth row, it was really tough to see anything, so we (or at least me) stood on tip-toes and watched some of the floats go by, and then we decided to move on to other things.

The next activity was a tour and tasting at the Jameson Distillery. They had a little video that made it very clear that Ireland (not Scotland) had first developed whiskey, and that if other places thought they had invented it (like Scotland), they've just forgotten where it really came from. Emily and I tried a Jameson mixed with ginger ale, except the ginger ale they have their is different than in the U.S.

Brian got the chance to do a taste test of multiple whiskeys - Jameson, an American whiskey, and a Scotch, and he got a certificate for his wall.

After seeing the distillery, we went on a walk across town. We stopped at University College and saw the Book of Kells (an illuminated manuscript from 800 AD - very cool).

We wanted to go to St. Stephen's Green (a small park in the middle of the city) to sit and relax for a bit, but when we got there it was swarming with tweens (kids 12-16 or so years old). It was one of the strangest things ever - there were so many kids. (Our guess was that since they couldn't got to pubs, they had tried to sneak off to the park to drink - there were lots of police checking bags.) Clearly, this was not going to be the best place to relax, so we gave up on that plan.

Instead, we headed to Oliver St. John Gogarity's (a bar with live music) in Temple Bar. Even though it was only about 5pm, all of the bars were packed. We had a really fun time, though, enjoying a couple beers and singing along to the live music - both traditional Irish and a wide variety of other stuff (from Johnny Cash to Black Eyed Peas).

After an hour or two we got hungry and headed to a restaurant down the street. I had sausages and potatoes - and everything tasted great.

We took a last walk through temple bar and across the river, and then headed home.

Ireland Day 2 - Limerick & County Clare

On our second day in Ireland, we went on a road trip to County Clare.

On the way we stopped off in Limerick, took a quick walk around, and then did a little grocery shopping at Tescos - picking up picnic supplies for later. We had a coffee and some snacks and then headed to King John's Castle.

Just across for the castle we came across a small church with a cool old graveyard and did a little exploring there.

At King John's Castle we toured around - going up every tower and down every staircase - until we'd seen everything. It was the first castle Brian had ever been to - I think he liked it.

After seeing Limerick, we continued our trip to County Clare to see the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are about 600 feet tall, and are a pretty amazing sight. We walked along the cliffs - first on the paved stairway and a bit on the old dirt path. Between Emily and I, we took many, many pictures.

I didn't get a picture of the visitor's center, but it was really cool. It's built completely into the hill so that you can't see anything except a slightly hidden entrance way. It was a little chilly and very windy, so we had our picnic in the car in the parking lot. A crazy bird sat on top of the car next to us and watched us the whole time - I guess it was used to getting food from tourists.

After seeing the cliffs, we went on a driving tour of 'The Burren.' The Burren is a large area of County Clare that is covered in grey rocks and just has a dramatic look to it.

We made it all the way to Ballyvaghan on the coast before turning back towards home. (There was a helpful sign that made it clear we shouldn't continue on...)

Circling back, we went through the Slieve Bloom Mountains, which were near our house, though we didn't linger there for long, since it was starting to get dark.

By the time we got home, we were pretty tired and hungry. Jeff and Emily cooked Fajitas (we'd stopped for ingredients on the way home) and we planned for the next day before getting to bed.

Ireland Day 1 - County Laois

We got into Paris around 6am, and then flew to Ireland, arriving around 8am. Needless to say, we were all pretty sleepy. The trip package we got included the flight, car rental, and hotel, so we started out by getting the car. Unfortunately, the line for Dan Dooley car rental took forever. There were only a few people ahead of us, but we waited more than an hour.

We did eventually manage to get our car - a type of van that we don't have in the U.S - called a Volkswagen Sharan.

From there we drove to our hotel. It was about an hour outside Dublin in County Laois. The scenery on the way was beautiful.

Our room wasn't ready yet, so we went out for lunch a little exploring. We had lunch in a very small town (there's just one main road a couple blocks long) at a small pub in Portarlington. At first we walked into a pub that didn't serve lunch, and everyone in the place (maybe 5 or 6 older men) all stopped what they were doing looked at us. In my head I can imagine the sound of a record-player screeching to a halt as we walk in. They were nice though, and pointed us in the direction of a pub that did serve lunch.

We had a pretty Irish lunch - Jeff had bacon (which turned out to be boiled ham) and potatoes, I had pork chops, Emily had hamburger (but not in a bun), and Brian had sausages, and we all had a pint.

After lunch we visited Emo Court, a large neo-classical mansion from the 1800's, surrounded by beautiful forests. There were even two rows of giant sequoias lining one of the drives.

We went back and checked into our hotel about 3pm. Though hotel is not quite the right word - our package included six nights in a two-bedroom villa in a 5-star golf and spa resort. The villa had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room, two living rooms, two balconies, and an office. It was pretty amazing.

We had great plans for staying up until 8pm to try to beat the jet lag, but Jeff's the only one who made it. The rest of us ended up taking 5 hour "naps" from 3pm-8pm, but were somehow able to get back to sleep around 9pm and sleep through the night - so I guess we beat the jet lag anyway.

Ireland Day 0 - Airplane Movies

We left for Ireland on Sunday afternoon via Air France. We got really lucky on our first flight (from DC to Paris) and got upgraded to business class - lots more space, bigger TV screens, etc.

The flight was about 7 hours, and I spent almost the entire time watching movies. They had a bunch of Oscar Nominated films I hadn't seen, so that was the theme of my flight.

The Blind Side

I thought the blind side was surprisingly well done. It's cute and predictable, but also based on a true story, so it's hard to argue with the plot arch. I'd recommend it as a fun, heart-warming movie to watch at some point when you want something to lift your spirits.

A Serious Man

This movie is about a Jewish professor as his family they goes through a series of seemingly random life changes. His wife decides to leave him for a family friend, his kids seem pretty indifferent too him, and are kind of geeky-trouble makers. He has a hot, pot-smoking neighbor that makes an appearance in the film, though its not clear what the point is. His son is preparing for his bar mitzvah. There's a fair amount of Jewish humor, and the movie is pretty random. The acting is good, and it is funny - just be prepared to be confused.

An Education

This movie was interesting and different. It's about a 16 year old girl in London in the 1960s. She's a very good student and plans to go to Oxford, but then she meets this (much older) man. The guy exposes her to high culture - concerts, fancy restaurants, etc. She begins to question what the point of school and work are and what direction she really wants her life to go in. It's an interesting and well done movie. (Although the characters seemed to think the romance between the 16 and 30 year old was much less creepy than I found it to be.) Definitely worth watching, though.

Eric and Lindsey's Wedding

On Saturday night Jeff and I went to the wedding of our good friends Eric and Lindsey. Everything was beautiful and we had a great time! Jeff and I sat at the table with a bunch of friends from graduate school.

Brian and Emily in DC

Brian and Emily came out to DC a few days before we left for our Ireland trip, so we had time to show them around DC. On Saturday it was a little rainy, so we drove around, making stops at the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial, before heading to Lauriol Plaza for lunch.

Space Prom

Last night I went to the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner (aka Space Prom) at the Hilton in Washington, DC. It was a really fun event with dinner and drinks. At dinner I sat by my co-worker Tommy and by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

After dinner I hung out with friends - Jaisha, Ashley, and others. Fun night!