April 28th, 2005 - After a long sleepless flight sitting beside a group of highschool students TOO excited about their class trip to
Europe, I was thrilled just to finally be off that plane. But ofcourse, I also had something a bit more exciting ahead of me - a whole summer in
Dublin!!
This isn't the plane I flew on... but how perfect would that have been!
Just before I left Canada, Michelle had gotten me in touch with her friend Emma, who lives in Dublin. I spent my first night here at her place, where she made me feel right at home. AND she works for Guinness!
The next day, Emma flew home to Scotland for the long weekend, and I decided to spend the weekend at a hostel, where I had a blast meeting people from all around the world...
Some from close to home: From left to right, that's ME!, Sean from Brampton Ontario, Bridget from Chicago and Matt from Boston (who we never saw again).
And others from more exotic locations: From left to right, that's Luke from Australia, Mathieu from France and Javier from Spain.
On our first night out, Sean and some of our French buddies from the hostel danced up a storm
And I had my first pint of Guinness.
That weekend was quite busy, as Bridget, Sean, Barry (from New Zealand) and I wandered the streets of Dublin looking for a home! We managed to find the perfect house in 2 days.
Just kidding. But we did find a really nice 2-bedroom apartment that the 4 of us crammed into. Housing in Dublin is expensive! Correction: Everything in Dublin is expensive!! Here's Barry enjoying the balcony of our new place.
A view of Dublin from the roof of our apartment building
I also started work that week - the real reason I'm in Dublin this summer. For my 6th and final co-op term, I'm working as a Research Assistant/Bioinformatician at the Centre for Human Proteomics located in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Basically I play around with DNA sequences on a computer all day. Work is great... friendly and fun coworkers, interesting project and free tea! You can read more on their last newsletter: http://chp.rcsi.ie/Chat.pdf. Scroll down to the second page... I'm famous! In a dorky kinda way... but I'll take it!
The second weekend we were here, Bridget and I took a very exciting bus tour of Dublin, which I will now take you through with my excellent photography.
First, the home of the famous Irish poet and dramatist, Oscar Wilde:
Next, "the most photographed door of Dublin". The driver didn't tell us why. In fact, if he hadn't said that it was the most photographed door of Dublin, I probably wouldn't have taken this picture. Nonetheless, a nice-looking door.
Driving down a random street in Dublin...
Here we have Christ Church Cathedral, which dates back to around the year 1030.
Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed urban park in Europe, and, if I remember correctly, about 3 times the size of Central Park in New York City. Right in the park is Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of the Irish Republic.
And finally the River Liffey, which runs through Dublin and bisects it into the north and south sides. But really, south side's where it's at.
And that marks the end of the wonderful tour of Dublin.
I'd say my favourite things about Dublin are the people and the nightlife. I must admit, I was initially disappointed by the lack of tall buildings and modern architecture that are a part of most big cities like Toronto. But that's what sets Dublin apart from other large cities. With a population of about a million, it's still got such a small-town feel to it... the best of both worlds. People are so friendly and relaxed, even when they're sober! I love it! Get some beer in them, and they're the happiest people you'll ever meet.
Speaking of which, the nightlife. Pick any night of the week and any pub and chances are it's pretttty darn packed. As most people know, the city of Dublin is infested with pubs; Temple Bar is probably the area with the highest concentration of them. The following are some pictures from my first couple of nights out in Dublin.
That's me with my friend Ankur's older sister, Anjly... or as we now call her, Dublankur... the Dublin Ankur
Here's Anjly, me, my classmate Raeka visiting from Cambridge, and her friend Nav
This is me, Luke, Barry (my flatmate) and Anjly
Me on the Half Penny/Ha'Penny/HayPenny Bridge on the Liffey.
Some of you may have met my roommate Amy two summers ago, when I was working and living in downtown Toronto. Back then, I would've never imagined us hanging out again two years later, in DUBLIN! But here she is, now engaged and working full-time for ScotiaCapital, Dublin. This is me with Amy and her fiancé, Kieran, at the smallest pub in Dublin. You can't really tell, but it looks like someone's basement room, and can accomodate less than 20 people comfortably.
More to come soon!
