Dubalin as the locals say

Sculpture of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square Garden.

Ok, let's get the bad news over with first of all- the wee yarn shop selling Kilcarra Wool I visited last time is now an Arnotts Bargain Shop. :-( Right, glad that's done, the rest's good news.

Had a great time in Dublin, or Dubalin as the locals were saying.
We stayed in Chief O'Neills hotel (named after the Chicago police chief who catalogued a lot of traditional Irish music) which is in the Smithfield District. It was right next to Distillery of Jameson's Irish Whiskey and we went up an old Jameson's chimney which is now a viewing tower on our last day. Great view of the city and the district in general. Hundreds of cranes! Loads of construction and development going on.

We took a trip in an open-top bus and although both of us had been before (J actually used to work in Dublin), we learned a lot of history and local anecdotes.

We went into the art gallery and saw all sorts, from all different periods; very interesting overview of many different eras and styles in a relatively small space. Brilliant gallery if you have a couple of hours and want to see a little bit of everything. As opposed to say the Uffizi in Florence (July 2004) or the Louvre in Paris (Feb 2005) where you could spend several days and still be on the Renaissance.
Unfortunately I missed the display of Philip Treacy hats in the Design Gallery as we only found out about it when up the viewing tower on the last day.

We ate well every night, but my favourite meal was the one we had in the Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar. I had a beef boxty (apparently a traditional potato pancake) which essentially had a steak sliced up into it and a creamy mushroom and Irish Whiskey sauce, accompanied by colcannon (mashed potato with savoy cabbage through it) and mushy peas. Followed by wonderful bread and butter pudding.

Next time some details about our trip to Dun Laoghaire - a must for James Joyce fans.
Happy Knitting.