| Jul 10, 2006 - Dublin
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 | | show all 12 | | O'Connel Street Bridge | | footbridge over the river Liffey | | main gate to the Guinness brewery | | |
| We have been in Dublin for 2 days now and are getting ready to leave for Kinsale. Dublin is a nice city, but I am ready to get out and see some of the smaller towns and countryside. It's amazing to see how much this city is growing and changing before our eyes. Ireland has the strongest economy in Europe, known as the 'Celtic Tiger', and for the first time in history, Ireland is importing people instead of exporting them. Our guide Stephen told us that when he was growing up, 3 out of 5 Irish people left Ireland and died in another country. Today there are a lot of people moving here from many other countries, mainly Polish, Czech and Chinese, but you can see people from all over. Ireland only has a 2% unemployment rate, and they don't have enough workers to do the jobs that are listed in the employment pages.
We have a really great group of people on the tour and everyone is getting along great, like one big, happy family. Our guide Stephen is excellent, and very funny. Bob and Tammy seem to be the most popular people on the tour. They are the first to introduce themselves to someone new and are making an effort to get to know everyone on the tour. The first night Bobby got up and gave an Irish welcoming toast and he has been happy as a little kid on Christmas morining since he got here. He is so excited, always the last to go to bed at night and the first to get up each morning. It's great to see him enjoying himself so much.
Today we did a walking tour of the city center, Dublin Castle and Trinity College. Afterwards we went to a lunchtime theater, where we saw a great little play about a man and woman who meet on a parkbench at lunch. They were both great, the man esp. has great facial expressions and it was hilarious. |
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