We started the day with an Irish breakfast. Basically it’s a fried egg, baked beans, sausage, bacon, toast, tomatoes and mushrooms…yummy. We decided to squeeze in one more museum before heading off to Dun-Laoghaire, so we checked out the National Gallery (it was free). Highlights from that were Irish painters and European masters….one included a painting from Caravaggio…one of my fav. painters.

My mom requested a 14k gold shamrock from Ireland, so we went on a jewelry hunt. I found out that it’s hard to find 14k gold jewelry in Ireland. I asked why and the lady said that the Irish were poor, so they mainly wore 9k gold. This still continues. Very interesting, but I did find a 14k gold shamrock. Apparently they make some 14k gold jewelry for tourists mainly.

We took another train to Dun Laoghaire where we stayed at a bed and breakfast called Mrs. O’Sullivan’s Duncree B&B. The lady was super nice and it felt like staying at a friend’s house. Plus, it was as cheap as a hostel and included a home cooked Irish breakfast.

The town was a port town so we did a lot of walking and checked out the light house. There’s a tower called the Martello tower that was the setting for the opening of the novel Ulysses.

Peter and I were exhausted….we didn’t realize how much walking and running around we did in the past few days…so we passed out rather early, which we needed. By the way my bag weighs 14 kilos (which is 31 pounds). Peter’s bag only weighs 29 pounds.

I have to say the shower at the B&B was the strangest shower I have ever seen. Peter took a picture. This morning started off nice with a big Irish breakfast cooked by Mrs. O’Sullivan (we have to stay in more B&B’s). We took a train back to Dublin, where we took a trolly to the other train station that we will then take to Galway…hahah lots of trains. We are getting rather good at navigating where we need to be.

So here we sit 9/23/07 on the train and wait…not sure what we will do in Galway yet, but we do have a place to stay, we called yesterday to make a reservation at the Sleepzone Galway’s City hostel….and we have a private room.

E

Here’s the picture of the hotel room in Dublin with the 5 beds and the B&B:

More pics from Dun Laoghaire: