7/4/08 Friday

Happy Fourth of July! I was surprised at how many times news programs made reference to the Fourth in the US. Really, the holiday doesn't affect anyone who isn't American so why mention it? I woke up quite a bit earlier this morning and was out the door by 10am. I took a much longer and extensive tour of Connolly Street to get a more expansive look of the area. There are four statutes along the 'the strip' of people and things representative of Ireland. I also found a little garden area with a memorial statute dedicated to those Irish soldiers who lost their lives securing freedom (I think it honored soldiers as far back as the 1800s), a tavern serving American food and beer very cheaply because of Independence day, a children's hospital that looks more like an apartment building from the outside, and a cross street with a ton of shops (the street is closed off to traffic so shoppers can safely walk up and down it). There was an Irish souvenir shop, which had two American Flags in the doors. I asked the assistant why the US flags, and he told me it was because of the Fourth of July. How strange I thought; this is Ireland not the US, but maybe it's a sign of respect...

This afternoon, I took a hop-on hop-off tour of the Dublin. It was a very extensive tour covering the city in 2 hours. I was bale to record the whole tour on my video recorder. Some of the stops included Trinity College, the train station, Guinness Brewery, and the 'Ribs' bridge (the designer wanted the bridge to look similar to a person's ribcage...he did a fairly respectable job of it). I sat in the front row of the upper part of the bus...right next to the speaker. What a great spot. I didn't actually hop-off; I wanted to get a general idea of the city. The tour ended right in front of the bus authority station.

When I got off, I decided I needed to give myself a birthday present. At the Authority I bought myself a tour package that visits Cork and Cobh (pronounced "cove"--it's Gaelic). It's an early call; train leaves at 7am, so I have to be there at 6:40am to check in.

I spoke with the Barbara at the front desk getting advice about how to get to the train station from the hotel. She was really helpful. She got me a map, highlighted the route of the light rail train, and told me I wanted the Tallght direction. After talking with Barbara, I actually walked the route to the light rail stop so I will know where to find it. It wasn't so bad; it was across the street from Eason's (the bookstore, like Borders or Barnes and Noble, where I continued to buy my Guardians and Suns for my written paper).

I brought dinner into my room from an outside restaurant and went to bed early; gotta get up at 5am!