We thought these bike taxi things were hysterical!
Dublin had these lampposts everywhere. Even the Hard Rock Cafe pins had them. And yes, we did hit up the Hard Rock for the requisite pin and shot glass, but stupidly, I got no pictures of that. We'll blame it on being tired. 
Keri at the River Liffey
Jeremy at the River Liffey
I thought this view characterized Dublin in a nutshell, at least stereotypically. Here you see St. James's Church with the St. James's Gate Brewery owned by Guinness. 
Trinity College Bell Tower
Our tour guide tells us this sculpture is a cactus. He also said it confused everyone "until they put a plaque over there to tell us what the hell it was." Thank goodness for a plaque, because it doesn't look like any cactus I've ever seen. I also wonder why they'd want a statue of a cactus since the nearest one is probably on the coast of Italy... but I digress. 
A really cool sculpture outside the Berkley (prounounced Bark-ley) library. It's named after the same guy who is the namesake of UC-Berkley, but as our tour guide said, we apparently didn't want to honor him enough to say his name correctly. Have I mentioned how hilarious this guy was? It's even better in an Irish accent. 
This is Dublin Castle. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside because the interior tours were booked, and they don't let you just go around without a tour. On our historical walking tour, we learned that this place is important because it was the seat of English royal power in Dublin, and also was very symbolic during the Irish Revolution of 1922. The first Bloody Sunday occurred here (although we think the U2 song is probably about the second one in the '70's). 
Jeremy at the Dublin Castle. 
This is Christ Church Cathedral. The two famous cathedrals in Dublin actually both belong to the Anglican Church and not to the Catholic Church, which is ironic in such a Catholic country. Of course, though, you can still buy rosaries here, because they're smart like that. :) 
A bridge that leads over into a building that currently houses an exhibit called Dvblinia. We went to it, and suggest that you don't waste your time on it if you ever come to Dublin. Tourist trap central. Ask us about our favorite part of that exhibit when you see us - we were too shocked to take a picture and I'm too polite to discuss it in mixed company. 
The inside of Christ Church Cathedral. It is definitely a beautiful church although it is much smaller than many we've toured. They were also housing an art exhibit called "Icons in Transformation" that was really fascinating. 
This is the real reason to check out Christ Church Cathedral - the crypt. It is unusual in the fact that it goes underneath the whole church - most crypts are small or are off to the side. Even the fairly large crypt at St. Paul's in London doesn't take up the whole church floor. They had a few exhibits down here as well, but it was neat just walking amongst the old graves and monuments. I am glad they've added modern lighting though - it was creepy enough as it was. 
Outside, they have the ruins of the old monastery.
Saturday evening, we went on a literary pub crawl. Beforehand, we tried to eat at the pub where it started, but they had no food. Seriously, who has a pub without food? I thought that was the difference between a pub and a bar. Oh well. We weren't sure we had enough time to eat at a restaurant - service takes FOREVER in Europe, it's just a thing - so we decided to get a taste of home at McDonald's. We both felt satisfied and guilty that it tastes exactly the same as it does at home! 
This is the first pub on the tour, The Duke. 
This is how many people were there! We almost didn't get to go because we hadn't realized you need a reservation. Luckily, someone with a reservation didn't show, so that worked out.
Jeremy at O'Neill's. 
Cheers! 
The actors giving a performance. The way this worked is that we would visit a pub, then we would walk somewhere for a short performance, and then they would tell us about the next pub, and so on. All together there were three performance stops and four pubs. It was really fun! I liked that we were learning something while we were doing this.
Keri outside The Old Stand.
Jeremy outside the final pub of the evening. Apparently, Chapter 8 of James Joyce's Ulysses takes place in this pub. Let me know when you've read it, ok? :)
And for a final bit of humor - we thought this was a massive FAIL. Why in the world would you give us water in a Guinness glass, and Guinness in a glass with no label?? It was very funny at the time, but then again, it was pub number four!!That's about it for Dublin highlights. On Sunday, we took a ferry and train back to Cambridge, which I'll talk about in my next post. Cheers!
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