Over the Liffey as the sun sets

This is the Liffey. The river that slices Dublin's North end from South end. I live the South part of Dublin. I took this picture quick because the wind whipped through me and almost tore my face off. Or at least it felt like it. However, I stood there and took in the beauty and thought," I am in Dublin, let it rip!" It is exhilarating to experience life.

St. Stephen's Green

St.Stephen's Green is a gorgeous park. It has 22 acres and a band stand which occupies bands in the summer. It is still green in the dead of winter and I cannot wait to update photos when it blooms in Spring. As you can see people of all ages try to feed the pigeons and ducks in the park.

On our way to the grocery

So I went to the grocery today. Not a tremendously far walk there however, with two extremely heavy bags and snow/rain coming down on the way back it seemed a little different. I took reusable bags because in Europe or at least Ireland and Amsterdam they do not supply plastic bags for your groceries. You are also your own bag-boy. And they are super-fast and continue ringing up the next customer. I think it is efficient and America definitely wastes so much in the way of plastic. To grab a grocery cart you must put in 1 euro into the lock and the cart will unlock from the rest of the carts. When it is returned, it locks back in and you get your euro back. If I remember correctly from my French books in High school that is also how they do it in France. That is also how I knew what to do. Thanks Mrs. Cacciatore, and I never thought I would say that.
The pictures are of graffiti on Ramsfield Street and a biker over the canal with pigeons in the background.

Simple Tips

So, apparently you do not tip in Ireland... anywhere. Their minimum wage is so high that tipping is unnecessary even at the pubs. Nice!

For the phones: Many students get local plans... a pay as you go phone. Meteor and Vodafone are the most frequently used, but there are a couple other. My SIM card for my iPhone cost 10 Euro, then you "top up" (add minutes) at a local grocery or other stores. If you top up 20 euro per month you get a promotion for 30 days that you can enter a code and get free texts and calling to all Meteor carriers or free texts to any carrier. I think I will do the free texts to anyone because that is more convenient. Plus I will use the top up minutes (the 20 euro) for calling people. Everyone texts nowadays anyway. I have to jailbreak my phone, so I can use another network, using black rain by GeoHotz (George Hotz) who currently hacked the PS3 station in 5 weeks total. Pretty intelligent.

Also, if you mention that you are a student you get discounts at several places including pharmacies, clothing stores and other places I have yet to find out but will keep you posted.
A student travel card is great too, it gets you discounts on trains, buses, food, etc. It is relatively cheap (mine, 12 euro) and will save mucho mulla.

In Dublin, Temple Bar is an area of town that has a ton of pubs, shops, markets, artists etc.
However the pubs jack up the prices for the tourists so most of the Irish drink along Camden Street and other places. i.e. The Bleeding Horse (pronounced : The Bleedin' Horse, they do not pronounce the G in -ing- nor the H in -th- such as Tanks for Thanks) , Feile, etc.

I will keep posting travel tips.

Swans on the river

We have two windows in our dorm that look out on to the river with swans floating down periodically. It also looks out onto the street and houses across the way. After the pubs Molly and I got a little lost but eventually found our way with our huge Dublin fold-out map (the data plan for iPhone's apps are too expensive internationally, so I got a local SIM card to use and also plan to unlock my iPhone). We walked along the river and found three swans. Super-thrilled because they are huge and unafraid of humans we proceeded to take a million photographs. Then walking a little ways down we feasted our eyes on a huge flock of swans and got more excited than normal people. They were gorgeous and just hanging out on the bank and in the river, so we snapped a million more. Hope you enjoy the wildlife of Dublin.
P.S. the pigeons are also huge and unafraid.

First Guinness in Dublin

This is my first Guinness draft from Ireland bought in Feile pub, which means festivities in Gaelic (or Irish as they say here). A guide from Griffith College, Paul, who works at the college took out "Team America" last night to several pubs. However, Team America was not quite accurate because two Finnish women were with us, one German guy, one Parisian guy and other international students were with us.
Also, according to Paul, Irish is easy to learn, having only 11 irregular verbs. So I plan to learn Irish.
So go have a Guinness, Erin Go Braugh- English Irish. Real Irish- Éire go Brách - (Ireland Forever)
Sorry for the slight blur in the photograph I had to have my roommate, Molly, photograph me in low-light conditions and did not take a flash with me.

The last sunrise in the States... at least for a while

Down the street from my parent's place cows graze on a farm at sunrise.