I spent two nights in Dublin and it was everything I was hoping for. My desire to visit Ireland actually came from watching an Irish movie called "Once" over Christmas break (thanks to Amphy) and I wanted to experience it for myself!
Here is the song with clips from the movie that made me fall in love with Dublin:
I arrived on Wednesday night, met my travel buddy at the airport and we headed for our hostel. This was my first hostel experience, so I was prepared for the worst. It turned out to be clean and very nice (although comparing the room size to that of a closet would be generous).
After dropping off our bags, we went to Temple Bar and commenced the Irish beer tasting I'd been looking forward to for weeks.
The next day we woke up early and explored the city by foot. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guinness brewery, the old Jameson distillery (where I was selected to participate in a whiskey tasting experiment...4 shots of whiskey before noon...WOW...the Irish dont mess around), the Ha'penny bridge, Dublin castle etc.
St. Patrick's
Government building:
Guinness brewery:
Jameson distillery:
Castle:
Ha'Penny Bridge and other shots of the city:
March 2, 2009
Dublin, Ireland
February 15, 2009
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
I spent Valentine's Day in Cesky Krumlov for an overnight trip with the global students. It was freezing but fun! The town is really little but very rich with history. If you are interested in reading about it, here is a good link:
http://www.encyklopedie.ckrumlov.cz/docs/en/mesto_histor_himeck.xml
February 3, 2009
February 1, 2009
Ice Skating
I took my students to the "Wiener Eis Traum" for a night of ice skating at the Rathaus and lived to tell about it! I hadn't been skating since I was little (with my Katarina Witt skates), so I was really excited. It was a lot of fun, falls and all. The pictures dont do how gorgeous the set up is much justice, so you'll just have to take my word for it :)
Copenhagen: Day 3
Mikkel took me to see "Den lille havfrue" (The Little Mermaid), which was commissioned in 1913.
"The Little Mermaid symbolizes the fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen... The sculpture pictures her as she sits and looks out over the water, after never actually having married the prince, reminiscing over her lost childhood in the sea, as a mermaid."
The harbor:
My great Danes:
Our last night together...until the next reunion!
Copenhagen: Day 2
Breakfast at the hotel...not too shabby of a setting, huh?
Tivoli by day:
City Hall:
Pictures from around the city:
La Glace-the oldest confectionary in Denmark (founded in 1870):
Our first night out together:
