Dublin - March 2005

It was nice to return to Dublin after St. Patrick's day finaly having a chance to explore the city. Our traveling schedule matched up with Steve's so we hung out together for the final two days. Dublin's a pretty peaceful and proud town unlike Belfast. Dublin is also a very expensive city. I'm not sure if it is because it is St. Patrick's Weekend but the prices definately rival that of London. Everyday good in supermarkets are cheaper than London but restaurants, hostels and bars are quite a bit more. Pints cost about €5.20. I also had an Irish stew for €9.95. Hostels were €25 a bed in a 10 bed room. Flags flew high, statues lined the streets all without the tension of Northern Ireland. Regrettably, we didn't meet too many Irish given it was St. Partick's weekend. But we did have a lot of fun nevertheless. I should note that Gaelic is compulsory in schools and it is on all the street signs and seemingly used on all government publications. But, English is obviously the the main language. Curtis and I were also disappointed that we didn't pass through customs when entering Ireland; thus, we didn't get a stamp. =(

NOTE: Pictures from Curtis have been added to this section.