About Town

In all the frustration about getting settled here in Dublin, I've neglected to mention we've been exploring Dublin and the surrounding towns more. The week before last, we to a train out to Blackrock only about 15-20 minutes away from city centre. Blackrock has one of the largest open markets in the Dublin area. While there wasn't any great finds here, mostly just booths selling old collectibles, it was a nice outing and I had a very good crepe from the stand in the picture. Blackrock is a very cute town with many boutiques I will have to check out again with a more willing shopping partner than Richard. It was a rainy morning, but below is a picture of the shore from the train station.We next headed to Dun Laoghaire which we'd heard was a pretty seaside town from our GLG friends. Only another 10 minutes or so on the train, we arrived to even heavier rain.

Luckily, after a lunch stop the rain had cleared and left us with a brilliant sunny afternoon. This town is larger than Blackrock and also where one of the ferries take off for European destinations so they have a larger port. The town has a slow, older, worn-in feeling to it. I love the old signpost showing the distance to other cities in front of the town hall and train station in the picture below.


That evening was the very exciting final match of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament. Ireland had a chance for a Grand Slam and succeeded with some daring late game scores. Every pub in Dublin was packed with people. We ended up having to watch it from the street as there was not an inch of space left inside the any pub. Here we are stretching to watch the match on the doorstep of the pub.

Though I've never been a rugby fan, I admit it's growing on me. The game is fast paced and full of action. And it hasn't hurt that we arrived in Ireland just in time to adopt the Grand Slam team as our own!