The plan of this post is to put up some pictures from the trip and some up some the main events of the trip. Or should I say, write out some tidbits that I actually still remember (at this rate, chances are I won’t even remember I went to Dublin in ten years). This post is definitely going to be photo heavy.After flying into Dublin and taking a cab to the hotel (great location, and quite charming), we set off to explore the city
and get our bearings. We headed down the street towards the spike, wandered the streets (read: scope out the shopping potential), crossed the river Liffy and got to Temple Bar. Temple Bar is a bar, and it is also the general area where the bar is. It’s, simply put, the 
pub/nightlife central of Dublin. There were tons of people, I loved the fact that I was surrounded by English speakers (even though I noticed that a lot of them had British accents) and that I was back in a large city (if only for a couple days). We ate dinner in a pub (obviously) during which I tried some famous lamb stew (I wasn’t a big fan). After walking around some more to soak up the nightlife, we called it a night and promised to get a full day of sightseeing in the next day.
We became the ultimate tourists and got on the "Hop-on, Hop-off" double decker bus (would definitely recommend). Darn the fact that it was gray and rainy, but we were there, so there was nothing we could do about it. It was obviously that fall was in full affect as we passed by this beautiful building. We were disappointed to learn that the old post office bearing scars from stray bullets was under construction, so we couldn’t see the coolness of it and decided to hop off at Trinty College.
We visited the Book of Kells exhibit, which I understand the significance, but it didn’t really do much for me, but what I really thought was cool was the old library upstairs. It was like I stepping into a movie set (come to think of it, that’s one thing that I’ve really gotten out of all of my travels. I’ve experienced and saw things that I had only seen in pictures or on the big screen. Sure I knew that they must exist in real life, but I never thought that I would really get to experience it. All of these perfect pictures come to life when you can actually step into the scene.). Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the place. They had a collection of old books on display. They had Newton’s Principa, Hooke’s writings about the cell, Priestley’s discoveries about oxygen. It was pretty neat.
Next stop, the Guinness Factory. The museum was really well done. I’m not really interested in the process of making the beer at all, but the set up was really good. Lots of information but well laid out in words and pictures. Good use of visuals and media types. 
They had a kiosk where you could send a picture of you at the museum through e-mail to whomever you wanted. Another exciting thing that they had was a message board.
You could write/draw do whatever you wanted with a little card and then post it on the wall where other people did the same thing. I’m not sure how often they take down the messages to give more room for new ones, but there was a lot of Swiss representation on the board at the time, because just a little while before we were there, there was a football game in town against the Swiss National Team. 
At the top of the museum, they had a bar where with your admission, you got a free pint of Guinness. Cool thing: they would draw a shamrock in the top of the head. The bar was quite nice, with glass walls that gave 
you a 360 degrees look of the city all around. I did drink a little bit of my Guinness, and boy was it horrible...but at least I gave it a try. I mean, I was there, I wanted to at least say that I tried it. After some shopping on Grafton St. and discovering and loving the fabulousness that is Penney’s, we rested for a bit before heading out to Temple Bar again.
The last morning in Dublin. Boo. We were going to take a train to Belfast in the afternoon. I used the last few moments of my "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus pass to see more Victorian fan windows and coloured doors (I loved the fact that they punked Queen Victoria who wanted them to have black doors and the variety of fan windows because they used those to signify which house was their's, and not house numbers like we do) and wandered around St. Stephen's Green.
Random thought: everytime I saw a transit bus, I thought of the "Knight Bus" from Harry Potter.You know, I’ve realized that I like parks. I like walking among greenery. I like sitting on benches in the sun. I like watching people. I like watching the world go by. The park had a section for the visually impaired. It was a lot smaller than
I’d imagined it to be, but it entailed different plants with placards with the genus and species name engraved in writing and in Braille. You could of course feel and smell the different plants. A neat idea, but to get to this section of the park, I think you’d have to be lead there, because I don’t remember seeing any Braille on any of the signs near the entrance. 
After some last minute power shopping (seriously...I did some amazing purchases within that short amount of time) and then picking up some lunch from Beshoff’s Fish and Chips (yum), we get on the train to Belfast.Our hotel in Belfast wasn’t
necessarily swanky or anything, but we had a "Pillow Menu". How curious. I opted for Pillow 5.There are some pretty cool restaurants in the area (yummy dinner) and we watch Domino. Horrible.
The next day, we tour around Belfast, and boy, is it different from Dublin. You can still see a lot of the history left over, and well, I guess it’s not just history, it’s still the present as well. (Note: I just post the pictures. Don't think that I posted theve specific murals for any reason.)
We also pass by the yard where the titanic was built. Pretty crazy to see. That thing was huge! A little bit more quick shopping, and then we have to head to the airport to catch our flight home. Darn easyjet delayed our flight though. If I’d known, I would have had more time to do shopping (which I definitely wanted to do). I was so friggin tired by the time we got back to Neuch. I’m glad I had a sleep in the next morning.
So all in all, it was a fantastic trip. I would love to go back, because 4 days wasn’t enough.
*****
Oh yeah E: (sorry, not a great shot)
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