The first thing we did when we arrived was stop for lunch at The Bloody Stream. Yes, not my first choice for a restaurant name, either, but after downing the seafood chowder, I was reminded again to not judge a book by its cover (or a pub by its name). I have never had anything more delicious...other than, of course, anything my mother has ever made for me :)
Having properly eaten more than our fill and not at all hungry, we immediately headed to the Sunday market and beelined for the tent selling fudge. Now, I have always been greeted by looks of shock and even some verbal cries of envy for my father (or is it pity??? nah...) when people find out that I have 4 sisters. I never thought it was that remarkable since my neighbors growing up had 10 children, but I must admit I gave the man selling the fudge the same look of disbelief when he told us he had 7 daughters, 3 sons and planned on evening the score....he wasn't kidding either! So my "little" family was put back in the category of normalcy (haha, imagine that!) and we bought some fudge only, of course, to help ease his financial burden. I learned that malt balls = malteezers = amazing inside fudge and happily ruined my diet once again.
We then walked out to the edge of the pier, but stopped first to watch some seals at play...and then battle the seagulls for bread other gazers had thrown.
You can see in the pics above that one had the most beautiful blue eyes ever...he was most likely blind...but he was my favorite! And not just b/c he just kept staring up at me and none of the other tourists :) I think he was the smartest seal of all, haha.
At the edge of the pier, we climbed up onto the wall to take pictures of Ireland's Eye - an old monestary and current avian sanctuary.
We could have taken a ferry out there as well, but it didn't seem like anyone else was partaking & hadn't heard it really recommended by anyone, so we turned back towards the village & trekked up to the Abbey, which was built in the 12th century and still had graves from that era.
I am an absolute history dork and just love reading the plaques on the side of these ruins and examining the graves for family names. There were tons of McLoughlins and Fitzpatricks and Bennetts, but it seems my ancestors either lived forever or weren't from anywhere near Howth :) My favorite pic is the 2nd from the bottom here, the cross that was so old the stones from the 2 sides had worn off. There were graves from the early 1800's that still had fresh flowers around them, and some from only a few years ago. It was pretty cool to see the contrast between them all.
We then kept hiking out towards Howth Castle, taking a few wrong turns, asking an old man in wellies with his dog where to go, crossing the golf course, and sloshing through the mud, but it was well worth the stains on my boots (I keep telling myself, haha).
As you can see above, we even ran into some of my fellow Sioux Citizans (the cows) but they didn't want to play, no matter how loud we moo'ed at them. They clearly weren't feeling well otherwise I'm sure I would have a picture of more then just their backsides :)
There was more we intended to see but couldn't find and so we decided to head back to the city for the traditional Temple Bar experience. We wandered around the area and checked out no less than 1 million different restaurants haha before deciding on Fitzer's for dinner and then went across the street for some live music and more cider. Whitney and I have both noticed that boys in Europe really would rather dance with each other than stand against the wall and look cool in order to pick up girls per usual in the States. We were entertained less by the musicians than by a group of Irish boys who knew the words to every song, danced modern-day versions of Riverdance with bar stools, and eventually were escorted out :)
I can't tell you enough how great it was to have Whit and Julian with me during my first weekend here in Dublin. I miss their company tons already, especially since my roommate for the week never showed up. Thankfully, I am kept busy by work, washing my clothes literally 4 times today b/c I can't figure out how to get the dryer to work and instead keep doing the rinse cycle (waiting and wishing right now that the 4th time is a charm!), and creatively thinking of ways to avoid the rain without using an umbrella.
Sending you all a great big hug! Oh, and apparently my sister Mary isn't getting enough attention in Chicago b/c she asked for a shout-out :) If you have nothing better to do, tell her hi!
xoxo, me
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