today ann, ryan, and i walked and saw several dublin sights. we went to christ church, the guinness brewery, the ireland museum of modern art, had a delicious brunch, tasty dinner, and only got a little bit lost.
there is absolutely no hope of knowing exactly where you are going in dublin because the city was not planned at all, but with the help of several different maps we always made it to where we were going. we started with brunch at queen of tarts where i had my tasty soup the other day. ann loves the brown bread here and noted at dinner that she has had some form of potatoes at every meal. more than one form of potatoes at two. i'm kind of surprised at how often they use sweet potatoes, personally. the queen of tarts, besides offering delicious food also has a pleasant setting--- we took pictures of our teacups.
after that we headed toward guinness and ended up at christ church. we paid to go in, primarily because we thought we were going to see mummies (ann and ryan were all gung-ho for that--- i just happened to be with them). the christ church cript, however, only housed several old artifacts, some modern art, and a mummified cat and mouse that got caught in an organ pipe long ago during a typical chase. it was kind of funny because ryan had been complaining about the lack of cats in the city. ta-daaaa! mummy cat.
we headed to the guinness brewery, took a wrong turn and landed at st. patricks. fortunately ann and ryan were happy to see the park there and we took a brief park interlude before continuing on our way. eventually--- after a reasonable amount of confusion we ended up at the guinness storehouse and took the tour. we were all impressed at how well the musuem was set up--- it flowed very well. we didn't really look at all of the floors (there are about 6) but we did make it to the gravity bar. it's really cool and you can see the whole city through 360 windows 7 stories high. yeah, that's not that high, but buildings aren't higher than 5ish stories in dublin so you can see everything--- even the ocean! ann and ryan got their complimentary guinness and chose to sip on coke. gotta have my coke. i did sip ann's guinness though. tastes like a beer latte.
next we headed to the imma. upon our thankful arrival (those streets are VERY complicated), we had a snack in the cafe and proceeded to check out the art. the best thing about it? the museum is FREE! yes, that's right. the exhibits were interesting, but i was more impressed by the actuall building that housed them. it used to be a hospital for soldiers. it was just a rectangular building that had a giant courtyard in the middle--- so the exhibits were along the hospital hallway and in the different rooms. one exhibit was particularly eerie in the space, but it was really cool. the musuem also had a park, which would be referred to as the grounds in any historical novel. you know, like everyone is at a party and then go for a stroll on the grounds and the trees are all sculpted beautifully and there are statues about. it wasn't quite a park and it wasn't quite a garden...grounds seems to fit though. we really liked it there. it was pretty deserted, which is not common, and we got to lay down in the grass. ann and i had already spent some time dancing and stretching in the museum so this was another wonderful place to stretch out our tired limbs.
after the museum we were very tired and sore and didn't have much to say to one another... so we took the LUAS home. it's amazing how efficient that thing is. then we stopped in at the internet cafe just across the street from their hotel and i printed something off. tomorrow dominique and i are going on a bus tour south of the city to the place that braveheart was filmed. i'm sure other things happened there, but that's what i am excited about.
my face is sunburned a little again. i really need to get some spf for my face.
one of the best things about having ann and ryan here was the fact that i had a place in the city center to report to when i got tired AND they had a television. it's very odd not having a television. a lot of the shows were weird, but this morning i watched how denim is made and this evening i watched some friends (that was on every time i turned on the tv....) there little hotel is SO much nicer than where i'm staying. where i'm staying is nice, but everything here is like the cheapest stuff at ikea (made to be simple and economical) and there's was like the nicer stuff at ikea (economical, yet stylish and comfortable) haha... everytime ann and ryan get to their hotel door they wage a little battle against the two locks to the door, i unlocked it once and i have to admit it's a challenge.
it has been a weekend of exploring new parts and familiar parts of the city, good food, and lovely company. i have been so spoiled getting to share dublin with some of my family.
**
sorry, i blanked out. i know i was winding this down, but i don't know what i was going to say. oh my, i don't know if i will ever be not tired while i'm here. oh well! i'll add some pictures and call it a night--- as always enjoy!
haha, it puts the pictures first. well, so much for the surprise at the end.
HAPPY HONEYMOON ANN & RYAN!!! (thanks for sharing part of it with me :)
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