Real Dubliners

Top o' the mornin'! Kev and I had a great day yesterday and are just now getting around to writing about it. We started with a workout and a quick coffee, and then headed out to Iveagh Gardens since we missed it a few days ago. This was our last stop on the long list of sights I had compiled from our Dublin tour book, so we've seen a lot! We also fulfilled our goal of spending a few days just "living the life," so now we feel like real Dubliners

The Gardens were beautiful and had some nice waterfalls and fountains, rose gardens, and really well-manicured grounds. It was fun to see so many people walking around or picnicking on their lunch breaks! There was a little maze of bushes, and Kevin cheated by cutting through the middle, so you see my sad face here. Kev also tested out Rover's ability by doing some rapid-fire shots of me telling him to stop acting like the paparazzi!

We've also been trying to master the "blurry person in the background" look, and I think we finally got it!

After the Gardens, we headed to a pub to try to watch the US in the World Cup. Unfortunately, England was playing at the same time, so it was hard to find a place that was showing the US. We finally found one that said it would be on, but they were having "technical difficulties" and the technician was back there fixing it ... for 5 minutes, and 10 minutes, and 15 minutes ... Just as we were about to leave, though, it came on! It was a really fun game and there were several US fans in the pub. The US had SO many missed opportunities, but it stayed 0-0 for a long time ... until the US scored at 90 minutes! The pub erupted into a "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant - it was awesome! We also had a drink and ate some garlic cheese bread and a salad for me, a club sandwich for Kev.

After the game, we walked around Dublin a little more, and came back to the hotel to regroup and freshen up. Later, we headed out to another pub to watch another World Cup game - this time Germany vs. Ghana. We actually did much less watching the game, and much more eating, drinking, talking, and listening to Irish music. It was fun! We kept thinking we should leave "after this song" or "after this drink" and it turned into a really long, fun night!! We had a blast and met some really nice people! It was a great last "real" night in Dublin - since tonight we'll have to go to bed early for an early morning flight on Friday to Southampton!! Hope everyone's doing well!
As a side note, what are these things in the small pictures? I got the "seafood cocktail," which I realized was a bit risky, but wanted to try it. It had shrimp (yum), salmon (yum), crawfish (yum-ish), and tons of these gross-looking tan things. I tried to pick at it but wasn't sure if I should eat the whole thing or not? And then the circle thing I'm sure was calamari (do you only call it that when it's fried?) but tasted really thick and like butter - I did not like it! Kev got lasagna - with salad and chips (fries) of course!