Thursday evening fun in the City

This is the Liffey River about a 5 minute walk from the National College of Ireland where Jarod and I are staying. :) When I'm awoken during the middle of the night it is usually because of seagulls cawing outside my window.

Dublin: Merrion Square Park, being a little leprecaun and hiding in the foliage. :)

The World Championships of Street Perfomers was happening in Merrion Square in Dublin, so Jarod and I just had to go see what they were offering. Here are some pictures of opening night. http://www.spwc.ie/

I was a fun squiggle for my backyard. :)

Watching one of the more pitiful versions of a street performer. He tried soo hard, but failed misserably to be funny.

So much like Florida...in Ireland it just rains out of no where. It will be sunny and then a little misty and then a downpour. Jarod and I took refuge in what he called "Nature's umbrella" the foliage of the park and waited it out. When it stopped and we emerged the most beautiful ROYGBIV rainbow was staring out at us. So amazing!

This guy was from Canada and was hilarious! I really think he might need to make a trip to Butler. He was a silent performer and would get people to act out things that he wanted to do. Really funny!

His specialty was luring children with Chupas (lollys or lollipops as we would call them.)

This festival really focused on kids too and I loved these signs that they had around the park. :)

Lots of people waiting for the rain stop so their umbrellas and ponchos could be packed up again.

After the show, Jarod took us to Grafton St. (the shopping district). Sadly all of the shops were closed by the time we arrived. We've been eating dinner at like 9 at night and everything shuts down here at about 6 or so. :( But we had great Gourmet burgers at this restaurant here that he loved. Yum!

Then on our walk back, we passed a Famine Memorial near the Liffey River. It is very haunting! They are supposed to be walking to the ships to emigrate from Ireland

We headed to bed after this and then hit the road for Belfast on Friday afternoon. But not before visiting the Book of Kells http://www.tcd.ie/Library/heritage/kells.php at Trinity. We also got to meet with one of the students in the Student's Union so I was able to squeeze some work stuff into the trip as well. :) The campus is so beautiful it is hard to put into words. I'll add some pictures of that as well.

Then after lunch, we headed to the train station and were on our way to Belfast.

I'll post all of those pictures later! There are a couple hundred! YIKES!

Need to shower now though as we are enjoying another day of touring here, but just in Dublin: Kilmainham Jail, Guinness Storehouse, National Museum, and a few other places.

Talk to you soon!

Meg