Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun 14th-17th September, 2006

Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun 14th-17th September, 2006

Marloes came to visit me! She arrived on Thursday evening and stayed till Sunday afternoon. It was her first time in Dublin, so I got to show her around...

Here is Marloes and I at 'The Stag's tail,' while we were on a 'pub crawl' on Friday night.

Marloes and I on Saturday, during the 'Hop on and hop off' tour of Dublin. The picture was taken right opposite the Christ Church Cathedral.


Marloes and I at 'Howl at the moon' - fun night out!


During lunch at the Schoolhouse hotel, Marloes had her first half-pint of Guinness in Dublin... I am pretty sure she didn't like it too much!

 

Fri, Sat, Sun 1st-3rd September, 2006

Fri, Sat, Sun 1st-3rd September, 2006

Nandhini came to town! She has been working in Belfast and she came to spend the weekend in Dublin. Here are some pics of Neha, Nandhini and I in Dublin!


We went on a River Liffey Voyage with Eva (a colleague from the Spanish Team).


In Dun Laoghaire with Nandhini


After Nandhini left on Sunday at 5PM, I went to St. Stephen's Green to watch a performance of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night.'

 

Wednesday 30th August, 2006 - The RIYC

Wednesday 30th August, 2006 - The RIYC

I spent Wednesday evening at the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Here are some pictures from then!

You can see the club house in the back.



The Dublin Bay Waterwags out at sea!

The colourful spinnakers come out!

Patrick, who was on the committe boat with me.

 

Wednesday 30th August, 2006 - Day 4

Wednesday 30th August, 2006 - Day 4

We left Killarney early the next day to head towards the Blarney Castle. At the castle, I walked down the wishing steps backwards with my eyes closed while making a wish and I kissed the blarney stone! It is said that if you kiss the blarney stone, you are given the gift of the gab for the next 7 years!








After stopping for lunch at Cork city, we head to a small town called Mitchelstown in County Tipperary. Mitchelstown is known as one of the best caves in all of Europe. It remains at 12degrees all year and it costs just 3 Euro to go in and see it. I saw stalagmites and stalactites, things I had learnt about, but never seen! The use of cameras damage the calcite formations and so I was unable to take photographs inside the cave. One interesting thing about the cave was its excellent acoustics. I was told that many concerts and shows are held inside the caves because of its excellent acoustics. All of us who went in got together and sang ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ and it sounded great! After a long and exciting 4 days, we then returned to Dublin city. We were welcomed with 1.5 hours of traffic jams and blocks! All ended well and I came back with truck loads of fun moments and memories! 

Tuesday 29th August, 2006 - Day 3

Tuesday 29th August, 2006 - Day 3

We started our day at the Annascoul lake. It reminded me a lot of Kodai. However, it was much quieter and cleaner!



We then head towards the Dingle peninsula. There, we spent some time on the beach and some time trekking up. Well, I chose to do both. Some just preferred the beach, as it was a lovely sunny day!



We then had lunch and then crossed the River Shannon (longest river in Ireland) by Ferry and head towards Killarney.

We first head towards the Killarney National Park and toured it in a horse-carriage! The name of the horse riding us was ‘Abbey.’


After a long day, we spend the evening at an Irish pub, listening to Irish music and eating Bailey’s cheesecake!