It’s not that I don’t enjoy waking up at 3 am for a flight. It’s just kind of hard to enjoy the wonders that your destination has to offer, while staring at the back of one’s eyelids at 4 in the afternoon.
We boarded our flight from Rekyjavik Tuesday morning at 05:30, and three hours later were landing at Dublin airport, in all its shamrock green (yes, that’s the name) glory. A bus took us to Dana’s aunt & uncle’s apartment, where we promptly did nothing for the rest of the day.
The spectacular view from Dana’s aunt and uncle’s apartment
After being refreshed by a good night’s sleep, we started wandering in the traditional Irish style. We travelled to Killiney Park and Dún Laoghaire, and wandered around the various green and/or old parts of the city, picking blackberries along the way.
The coast as seen from the top of Killiney Park. Apparently the locals were inspired by the vaguely Italian scenery, and designed many of the buildings with white stucco and Italian tile roofs.
A pyramid at the peak of Killiney Park
One of the many beautiful homes near Killiney
There are two things that we have noticed about Dublin. First, if you are ever in want of conversation, hire a cab. Dublin cabbies are a gregarious lot, and seem to enjoy nothing more than chatting with their fares and telling delightfully bad jokes. Secondly, Dublin is a city of dogs and dog lovers. We met many new four-legged friends during our wandering, ranging in size from a tiny Papillion which could fit in your hand, to a Dane mix who probably weighed more than Dana.
This pup stole his owner’s swim goggles and was proudly guarding them on a walk back up from the beach
Sea wall in Dún Laoghaire
Dana got her first taste of a traditional Irish breakfast, which included white & black puddings. These are essentially pork meat, oats and suet mixed together and fried. While white pudding is roughly the color you would expect from this mixture, black pudding is a bit darker due to the addition of an additional ingredient - pork blood. While it may sound less than appetizing, the results are delicious!
The obligatory and delicous full Irish breakfast (pretty sure only tourists eat this, but whatever
Our day concluded with a visit to Tesco, the local supermarket-cum-everything-store for dinner groceries and an in-case-of-emergency SIM card for Justin’s phone. Tesco runs their own mobile network for cheap, and as a result, we scored 10 gig of data and unlimited calls & texts for 15 Euro. The prices in Dublin are still relatively high, but after Iceland, our travel wallet is sighing in relief!
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