9 more days in Dublin and Belfast

On Thursday morning, July 22, my [rather tired] parents landed at the Dublin airport and caught a bus to the Westin hotel in city centre, where they dropped their bags off before heading to a local cafe (Lemon Jelly) in the Temple Bar area. While this was going on, I was doing some last-minute packing and re-packing and saying goodbye to friends who were catching flights to the States. At last I made it to the Westin to drop my luggage off and then headed over to meet my parents at the cafe.

I led them around Dublin for a while, and then we hopped on a bus to the National Botanic Gardens and spent most of the afternoon there.

After dinner, my parents were introduced to the decadence that is Butlers Chocolate Cafe. mmmm

Friday morning, the three of us got on a bus for a scenic tour of Wicklow National Park and Glendalough. We stopped at the site of an old monastic settlement and hiked around both lakes (Glendalough = two lakes). It is a really gorgeous area of Ireland. On the way back to Dublin, we stopped at the town of Avoca to look at the looms and weaving mills. There were both manual and electric looms, all in working order and in use.

A shot of Glendalough:

Back in Dublin, we were able to meet up with an old friend and her fiance for a drink and some dinner at The Porterhouse and The Turk's Head. We also stopped by the wonderful Milkshake Bar.

On Saturday, my parents and I did the hike from Bray to Greystones. It was my third time to do this hike, but we took a different route than I had taken before. We even ended up on private property somehow, but eventually we made it to Greystones and stopped for food.

From there, we went up to Dun Laoghaire for the Festival of World Cultures. There must have been at least 100,000 people enjoying the great weather and walking around to the various showcases and events. We stopped and listened to a band playing traditional Irish music and then saw an Algerian pop band before deciding to escape the crowd and head back to Dublin.

The next morning, Sunday, we went to a service at Christchurch Cathedral. There was coffee, tea, and biscuits down in the crypt afterwards. It was a bizarre place for a snack.

In the afternoon, we did more walking (imagine that!). We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the arcade mall on St. George's Street, the Powerscourt Townhouse, and Merrion Square. I took my parents back to Afsana, the Indian food restaurant I had discovered a couple weeks earlier. At The Duke pub later, we enjoyed relaxing and listening to a group of 4 people playing some traditional Irish music.

We took a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells the next morning (Monday), and then met up with Brandon Geller, an old friend of mine from high school. He and I went over to the Guinness Storehouse together, and then all of us went on a literary pub crawl in the evening. This was our last night in Dublin at the Westin hotel before heading up to Belfast in the morning.

to be continued...