Day 25 : Reeling In The Years (19/7/09)

One lasting memory is all the children on the plane yesterday chanting " Ireland, Ireland" as the plane came in to land and then breaking into applause as the wheels touched the ground. Intrigued by this nationalistic fervour, after our (substantial) Irish breakfast we took the bus into the city and joined an organised walking tour of the city that recounted the history of Ireland while seeing some of the sights. It was all very interesting and left us all a lot wiser as to Irish attitudes to various things. As per usual, a nice lunch followed then unfortunately we had to trek home, gather up the dirty laundry and head to the nearest laundromat. Dave & I managed to escape during the drying cycle to have a look at Croke Park - Dublin's equivalent of the MCG - but by the time we dropped the wasing home it was nearing 6.30pm. So we caught the bus back into town and walked a way to find Cobblestones, a pub that featured elderly musicians who get together for a session of traditional Irish music each weekend. It was very entertaining and really made us feel we were indeed in Ireland : jigs & reels with accordion, whistle & fiddle. After a couple of Guinesses there, we walked back into town to the Temple bar area. After a bit of searching we found another pub with tradional Irish music - this time a group of 8 or 9 musicians playing more reels, jigs & slips as well as tradional songs - with fiddles, bodhrans, whistles and strings.. So we spent another couple of hours, with a few more Guinesses, there really getting a feel of what Ireland is all about. We will try and see a bit more of Dublin tomorrow before we head south to Cashel.