Another late start this morning…sleeping in until 9am.
The day was brighter than yesterday so we took an ‘early’
morning stroll to the beach which is down the road from where we are staying.
It is one of those beaches where, when the tide goes out, it goes out so far
you can’t even see the water! Eloise was desperate for a ‘swim’ so was a bit
disappointed – although I think she would have been more disappointed had she
actually been able to feel how cold the water is!
Later that morning (or it might have been early afternoon)
we took the dart into the city again to explore St Stephens Green. It’s a
really pretty park – like Central Park on a MUCH smaller scale…it even has the
horse drawn carriages outside waiting to take tourists for a ride (in more ways
than one!).
There was a nice playground in the park, with a very cool
baskety-swing type thing that the girls loved, and another baskety-turny type
thing that they also had fun with….
We found a nice little pub just down the street and went
inside for lunch.
There was a big screen inside with the Olympics on and it
was all pretty peaceful for a while until suddenly the sound was turned up on
the big screen and I turned around to discover the pub was now absolutely
packed….it was time to make an exit with the kids. We walked out of the pub and
straight into about 6 policemen standing at the door – I thought it was the
beginnings of a riot until I realised they were there to watch the television
that was setup just outside the pub. Apparently Ireland’s great Olympic medal
hopeful (a female boxer called Katie Taylor) was fighting for a medal position
against a British boxer. Luckily for us, and most of Ireland I suspect, Katie
won her fight.
Speaking of Olympics – it is extrodinary to see the
different coverages from the different countries compared to our own. In
America it was only about the American athletes – I am not sure they even knew
the names of any other competitors. Granted America has won the most medals and
so almost all events that are covered in America were won by Americans.
In Ireland, we are seeing the UK coverage mostly – which of
course is aimed at British athletes. And they are doing extraordinarily well
too. But the coverage is far less biased.
I must admit we have heard little about Australia and how
they are doing – which by all effects is probably a good thing because I don’t
think we are doing great….Australia isn’t even on the medal tally when they
show it on TV.
And speaking of TV – is it just my children all do all kids
watch any cartoon on TV? Yesterday they were fixated by an episode of Spongebob
Squarepants on TV that was dubbed in Gaelic! They couldn’t understand a word
but wouldn’t let me turn it off!
Anyway – I digress.
After lunch we wandered down and around the city, stopping at Trinity
College who Shane will be working with for the next few weeks. Dublin really is a lovely city and quite
compact to walk around – but then anything would seem small after New York!
Later today we went down the to stream near our place and
fed some of the ducks. There was also a ‘school’ of seagull-type birds who were
led by a larger bird, who were renamed all of 1T and Mrs Thornton!
1T and Mrs Thornton the birds, as named by Neve.
Eloise testing her photography skills at Trinity College - not bad!
