Dublin, Ireland

Look, A DOOR. This doors was once the front door of King John Edward the 3rd of Scotland and 47th of England. He is known for his massacre of the Serfs. Wait that would have to be King George, since these are Georgian Style homes, sooo.

OK that is just a lie, however, our tour guide took us to see about 400 doors, and each one had its own unique story and that is all. Unlike the states, the door is the only thing a famliy can do here to be unique. So there is some excellent craftsmanship. The city is known for a couple things. The River Iffy, Trinity College, and our favorite, The Guiness Factory. All were very fun to see and tour. Near our hotel was Temple Bar, which is a small gathering area for locals to do their thing. It was like 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica. Below is a picture of one of the buildings that was there.



These Statutes were outside of our hotel and were a memorial to those that suffer from the Potato famine. They consisted of a group of emaciated individiuals. As I looked at them all I could think of was John Belushi on SNL when he went through his luck of the Irish Spiel. However, on a more solemn note, Roz had family who went through the famine and had written a letter to her family in Australia, calling them out saying that they should get off their fat butts and send them some money since they had nothing. The severity of it really came to life as she shared her personal experiences.

This is the view from the Gravity Bar. This is the best view in all of Dublin. On the top of the Guiness Factory, is where this bar is located. You can see the whole city. It was a great view. I was glad that Ali allowed us to go to the factory. Below is Ali in front of the St. James gate. It was fun. To get to the factory we walked in place of taking a taxi, it was about a two to three mile walk. Phil did it well even though his leg was hurting. He ended up drinking our free beer that we got at the end of the tour.


On the walls there were quotes written. I'm not sure if they were over the place where the person was from, however, it added to the whole atmosphere.

The Brazen Head. The oldest bar in Dublin, it is rumored that Robin Hood had a pint here. The front is just a facade and the real bar is behind. It was cool to see a bar that is older than the U.S. I wished we would have had a chance to get inside, but we were lucky to get this picture as we drove past.

This is the Liffy. As the Brits call it the Iffy Wiffy Liffy. The cool thing is that the tide in Dublin is about a 12 swing, if not more. So at low tide as seen here you can see all sorts of things on the river bottom. Bikes, Shoes, Bodies, whatever. However, when the tide came up there was only about a meter of clearance. The better thing was that they had boats that were made like unto a dish that could still go under the bridges at high tide. They were bizzare looking.