A Long Weekend in Dublin, Ireland

Before moving to Europe, I would never dream of flying to Dublin for 3 nights! But cheap tickets and a short flight made it a good possibility…of course we’d love to see the rest of Ireland, but this was a great opportunity.

We had a few ideas in mind but no firm plans, and things worked out great. The first night, we happened to walk past the theater 15 minutes before a show of “Riverdance” started! No budget tickets, but the performance was terrific. I’m glad that the high energy dances were interspersed with quieter music, singing, and videos of nature.

The first day, we looked at the line to get into the library to see the Book of Kells, and decided to not wait so long (if you can organize your days before the trip, get tickets online). But the second day we got there a bit earlier and there was no line at all. The Book was not as impressive as the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz (Germany), but the library upstairs took my breath away. It smelled so good, for those of you who love the fragrance of books!

We took a river “cruise”, just a short jaunt to the harbor and back. Across from the river boat docks was a phenomenal café with outstanding cakes and milkshakes- highly recommend The Sweetest Thing. Across from Trinity College was a salad bar take-out place called “Chopped”, for vegans, vegetarians, and health-conscious carnivores alike (you can add fish or meat to your salad or wrap). Finally, we liked “Cornucopia” so much that we returned the next day for more vegetarian casseroles, salads, and desserts.

There was a nifty organ concert on the 4^th of July in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A video camera was hung over the organ so the audience could watch the two organ players throughout. We met the US Ambassador to Ireland briefly after the concert!

The hop-on-hop-off bus was interesting and brought us a bit further out of town for a glimpse of the suburbs, including the zoo. We had a picnic dinner in Merrion Square park, which was so relaxing and peaceful. There is lots of construction going on all over Dublin, so it was a louder and busy-er vacation than I would have liked, but definitely worth the trip to see another country.