Downtown Dublin

The main thoroughfare in Dublin is O'Connel St. and it is the center of the downtown. I features many museums, churches, galleries, and statues despite its small size. This was the lower portion of the statue for Daniel O'Connel, a 19th century patriot and nationalist that the street is named after. Sadly the photo of the top half of this statue came out blurry so you will have to imagine him for the time being. Actually while I was a passenger on the Dublin bus tour I heard that there is a legend that the angels are supposed to flap their wings whenever a lady of virtue passes the statue. The bus driver mentioned that in his lifetime he has never seen so much as a twitch, and that once again it appeared that the wings had failed to flap as our bus passed.

The downtown was actually much smaller than I thought it would be. There are plenty of interesting statues and history there of course! All in all, I thought it would be more like San Francisco but it is actually a much smaller city and reminded me of downtown Santa Cruz in a way that I can't really explain.

Maybe it was the weather. The first day I arrived in Ireland it was very foggy and started raining. The weather didn't improve much while I was there. I thought that the end of August would be early enough to miss the rain but I was wrong. Although quite a few Irish people told me that the weather has been getting much colder due to the effects of global warming. One cab driver especially ascribed the changed in the whether to certain choices that the US has made about global warming and environmental policy.

There are many statues of historical figures and it was fun to just walk around and read the inscriptions. It was also very cold! So I wasted no time getting a nice wool jacket. There were a ton of shops but eventually found a jacket in just the right style. It's funny but I haven't been able to find anything like it in the States. I guess no one makes jackets like they do in Ireland! I think that this building was a post office. They have a very cool automated stamp dispenser on the side of the building that I tried out.

The spire is by far the tallest sculpture in the downtown at a towering 390ft; officially it is the Monument of Light and it was put up to welcome Dublin into the new Millennium. Although technically construction didn't start until 2002, but I guess they figured it would be ready in time for the next one. 

I am going to have to cut things short here. Despite being in California the weather has taken a turn for the worst and my fingers are getting too stiff to type. Next week I will finish the description of O'Connel St. and start talking about the Dublin bus tour.