Being Dubliners

Jacob and I have officially landed back in the U.S. of A. and are enjoying every minute of catching up with friends and family and taking in the salty Pacific Ocean air. Unfortunately, I was a slacker and still have a few blogs left to document the end of our travels. As great as it was to sip a Guinness and work on blogs in pubs, it feels just as good to be sipping on a nice hot latte at 14th Street Coffee in Astoria reminiscing about our travels.

After leaving Blacksod, Jacob and I circled around the Republic of Ireland, heading North to Donegal, East to Dublin, South to Kilkenny, West to Kinsale and then finally back North a bit to Cork where we finally flew out for home. I’ve decided to skip Donegal for now and jump to our three days in Dublin. I enjoyed Dublin much more than I expected actually. It’s a lively city with lots to see and things do to. The museums are incredible and many of them are totally free which was great for us on a budget. The city has a great blend of modern spice mixed with intriguing history and traditional culture. Plus, there are some great places to eat.

So finally, here are some photos of us trying to be “Dubliners.” (Note: I actually did read Joyce’s  “Dubliners” while on our travels… but I’m pretty sure 95 percent of it went over my head).  Don’t worry, we’re almost to the end people!

One of my favorite stops in Dublin was at the Natural History Museum. It was like stepping back in time to when stuffing animals for science was the norm. It was awesome!  They had every kind of animal you could imagine in there, even some that are now extinct, and many of them had been stuffed or preserved over 100 years ago! The museum has changed little since it opened in the mid-1800s and that’s what makes it so unique.

Pretty different looking razor clams than the kind we have here in the PNW.

And just a friendly reminder that slugs live basically everywhere:

Jacob gawking at the extinct Giant Irish Deer: 

We took a short break from dead things to walk around the campus of Trinity College, one of the most prestigious colleges in Ireland.

Now back to more dead things… One of my “must do’s” while in Ireland was to go see some bog bodies at the National History Museum. Basically bog bodies are human bodies that have been preserved in bogs for thousands of years. Bogs are really unique systems and are great at preserving things… like bog butter! The bog bodies turned out to be even cooler and stranger than expected. They look like weird art projects and the hair is so well preserved on some of them that it looks like a wig.

We took another break from dead things to check out the Guinness Brewery. Definitely one of the more touristy things we did on the trip but still a lot of fun. After walking through a long exhibit about the history of Guinness and the tricks to making the famous stout, you end up in the Gravity Bar that has 360 degree views of the city to gawk at while you drink a pint of… you guessed it, Guinness. 

After our pints we headed to the Ireland Film Center to catch the French film “Nobody Else But You” that was a part of their French Film Festival. It was great and I would highly recommend it!