So today is my last day in Ireland. I decided that today I would do all the things I have not done yet. Among those were see Howth (the coast of Ireland) and St. Stephen’s Green. I also figured that I would attend Palm Sunday Church while I was there. I first headed out to the Church where I would be going to make sure I knew where it was. It was only around the block from my hotel room so it wasn’t that hard. It was St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. It was very pretty inside. Nothing like in Rome but still different than many of the Churches back home. It was pretty similar to the older Chicago Churches like St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity.
After I picked up a few last souvenirs for people and dropped them off at the room, I went to the DART station for a trip out to Howth.
I guess I should do some explaining. I should have done it a couple days back but better now than never. Luas is the tram service in Dublin. There are two lines. A red and a green. I traveled on the red line. It can be likened to The L in Chicago. DART is similar to the Metra back home. There is a Greyhound like bus service (which I took to Blarney from Cork) but it is a lot nicer than Greyhound. The train that took me to Cork and Kildare is like the Amtrak service.
Ok so I took the DART all the way to Howth. I got out and started looking at the coast line. It was really beautiful. I couldn’t find the cliff walk so I didn’t do that. I am glad I didn’t because it was really super windy. I would be blown of the cliff. No joke. I was walking along this harbor area and I was almost blown over. It was pretty fun.
At the harbor there were some harbor seals there. They just sat there in the water and stared at us. It was actually pretty funny. I laughed when I saw them because they were just sitting there. I think they were looking for food. Later some people were feeding them some fish. It was so funny though seeing them bobbing in the water staring up at us. After that I went and looked off over the Irish Sea from this high wall. It was really cool. You could see the coast of Ireland plus Ireland’s Eye (an island off the coast). There were some sailors out there. It was so windy, I was surprised that their boats didn’t tip over. In the inner harbor, there was a sailing class happening for kids. It was cute to see the little boats navigating around bobbing orange balls. Later, the class went out into the Irish Sea where the waves were a little more choppy.
I walked along a loop harbor and took some really neat shots. There were some fishing boats in the water and one really far out. Also, a helicopter flew around the cliff and came in close. THAT was really awesome.
After my last shot I went to put my lens cap back onto my lens. It was my Sigma f/2.8 so the cap was a 72 mm (that is a big cap). A gust of wind blew the cap out of my hand. Well circle things roll and this thing rolled across the harbor and down the slope right into the sea. I watched it as it landed in the sea weed and rocks. Although I considered it, I wasn’t going to go after it. Chances are, I would never make it back up. I looked at my camera and decided to keep the lens hood on to protect the lens somewhat from things hitting it. I could always wipe dust off of it. And it had a UV filter on it so I could replace that if it got scratched. I headed back to the station to catch the train back to Dublin. It was really really windy. I couldn’t believe how windy it was.
Dublin was not as windy. It was a chilly day but it was not as windy as at Howth. I had some time before church so I went to Stephen’s Green. It was very pretty there. There were ducks and sea gulls and swans in a pond there. There were also a lot of beautiful flowers.
That is one thing I found interesting about Ireland. It was the same time of year and it was still chilly yet, there were flowers and trees blooming all over the place. It was very pretty. Oh and everything was green, but I guess you know that by now.
That night I decided to splurge since it was my last night in Ireland. I went to that same Quay’s Restaurant and had dessert. Yes, that is splurging for me. Eating dessert. But it was worth it. I asked my waitress how the staff all is able to serve everyone without actually knowing the order of the table. She said that the staff has to memorize each table number. Then everything is put out by that number. I thought it was an awesome concept.
I decided that I should get a drink at Temple Bar since that is what made the place famous so I did but it was too crowded there so I went to Oliver Gogarty again to hear some music and drink there. It was really awesome like before and the girl knew what I wanted to drink. Pretty cool. I was a regular.
I listened until 11 pm before I headed back to my hotel to pack and hit the hay.
Back in the states tomorrow!
Meg
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