A Little Adrift: 2015

That Friday we arrived in Dublin. My family took a walking tour around the city, with dinner awaiting us as a reward. My good friend Megan studied abroad in Dublin for a semester and gave us a great itinerary of things to do and places to eat.

We began by walking through Saint Stephen's Green, a beautiful park in the city. We walked through the Temple Bar nightlife area and along the River Liffey which runs through the city.

mom enjoying the birds

my sister snapped this photo of me, looking exceptionally sassy.

Fun fact: the River Liffey includes the River Dodder, the River Poddle, and the River Camac. I already miss Irish names...

never found it

The Spire Monument, the Monument of the Irish

Drinks before dinner

In every bar we went to, the live music consisted of the same 25-30 Irish folk songs. It amazes me that the Irish never seem to tire of them, and sing along at every opportunity. We had a lovely dinner and listened to the music while drinking Guinness. My parents went out on their own and my sister and I had the opportunity to enjoy a little Dublin nightlife.

Here's a guy who had to wear a kangaroo suit for his third bachelor party.

I signed his butt. After all, this was a bachelor party...

Some irishmen standing on the tables singing one of their favorite singalong songs (that isn't an irish folk song).....Take me home, Country Roads by John Denver. My jaw dropped.

West Virginia...mountain momma.....

I'm assuming their love for this song explains why it was so hard for us to explain that we're form Virginia, not West Virginia.

Kangaroo guy

The next day we started with a little shopping. Here's the café of Avoca Ireland, one of the cutest shops I've ever been in. It's a family run business with hand made wools, beautiful clothing, ornate pottery...

I had an elderflower drink

and found a little leprechaun

Saturday also happened to be the gay pride parade in Dublin following their vote to legalize gay marriage.

Puppy with pride

Drag Parade!!!!

Temple Bar area:

Dublin seems to be rather random. Here's a palm tree chair on a sidewalk...

We walked through Trinity College...gorgeous!

We stopped at Sheridan's Cheesemongers, or as I call it "cheese Disneyland," and bought some cheese to eat sitting in Saint Stephen's Green before dinner.

This is the cheese we bought: Knockdrinna Meadow, a sheep's milk and white wine cheese made in Ireland.

Our cheese-eating view

Street-happenings:

A homeless man's message

We ran into some street performances. Here's Ireland's top beatbox performer of the year. It sounded like he had background music playing to beatbox to, but he actually was making two different music formats at once with just his voice.