Dublin

After 2 days in the Wicklow Mountains we headed north to Dublin...

Chris enjoying his first pint of Guinness in Dublin at O'Donoghue's. This would start our weekend pud crawl. We managed to hit most of the famous Dublin pubs (McDaids, The Brazen Head, Temple Bar, to name a few) without realizing they were all that famous... Now that is what I call skill!

Chris at Guinness Storehouse with the waterfall behind him.

I think this sums it all up.

Pulling the perfect pint of Guinness. I even managed to top it off with a shamrock... it disappeared before Chris could see it but I promise it was there!

It looked like this. Just kidding!

This is Chris's 30th Birthday Pint... it was free!

Drinking the B-day pint... shamrock and all.

We finally found a leprechaun! And I apparently had the camera set on black and white... Very artsy, don't you think!?!

After a day in Dublin, we met with some friends and headed south again to catch Hooley (pronounced 'Who-lee') Night at Johnny Fox's. Hooley is a night of Irish dancing and music and is very similar to what Southerners might call a Ho Down. The pictures are not the best but I figured I would share anyways...

This guy was amazing. He was drenched in sweat by the time he finished.

The dancers were made up of 4 girls and 1 guy. The stage was tiny and we were sitting in the corner beside/behind the stage. Our view was mostly of their bums! Luckily they were in pretty good shape ;-)

It is hard to tell but this is a picture of four dancers jumping in unison!

The Hooley band... they were entertaining. However, I am pretty sure we missed most of the jokes because of the think Irish accents. The whole crowd would laugh at something and we would just look at each other and shrug!

The band played Beautiful Tonight! We tried to recreate our 1st dance... 3 pints of Guinness made the dip a little scary!

Irish Coffee.

The only way to start St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!

And just to set the record straight... Despite popular belief that the Irish don't go all out to celebrate St. Paddy's Day...

This is the start of the parade route...

This is the middle of the parade route...

And this is the end of the parade route... The Bull & Castle Beer Hall. Simone and Christine are some friends from Atlanta. Christine is a fellow ex-pat who works for E&Y. Notice the green beer... yep, the Irish really do go ALL out for St. Paddy's day!

Including this guy. I wish I could remember his name but let's just be honest... remembering is a lost cause. Chris and I did a shot with him. I think he is in his early 70's and he is from Dublin. He was sharing his memories of St. Patrick's Day events over the years. His memory was about as good as mine! However, he could drink me under the table in an instant! After the shot, Chris and I called it a night... notice the sun is still up!

The day after St. Paddy's day at St. Stephen's Green. This is Dublin's most central park but it is not nearly as big as Hyde Park in London. This picture is at about 9:30 am and the park was pretty empty. We came back around 2 pm and people were lying in the grass, walking about and enjoying a BEAUTIFUL day. Chris and I spread out on the grass and soaked up some rays, too!

This is the Campanile in the middle of the Trinity College courtyard. It was built where they believe the center of the original Monastery was located. We spent our last day in Dublin touring Trinity College and lying in the sun. Our flight left late in the day and it was nice to relax after 4 days of non-stop going... We got the bus to the airport and while we sat at a red light I say this out the window...

Jesus in a Box.

Our last image from our 5 day Irish get-away...

How appropriate!