dublin, part 1.

the final leg of my europe work trip was dublin, ireland [see the germany portion of the trip here and the denmark portion here]. i was excited to finally have the chance to stay a few days in one place and spend more time exploring a city. we arrived in the early afternoon, and headed to the hotel – we were staying at the fitzwilliam, which was just lovely [i was greeted with chocolates/candies, and then some ladies would come each afternoon and turn my sheets and give me more chocolates for my pillow… who doesn’t love that??]. after settling into the hotel, i was able to explore the st. stephen’s green and grafton street, which were both conveniently located right across the street from the hotel, before meeting up with the group for a nice dinner.

the following day, we drove into the countryside to visit our last pork plant of the trip, and then my travel buddies headed home and i stayed an extra couple nights to explore dublin. best decision i ever made! it was so much fun.

this is the first part of my time in dublin:

{rows of violinists at the dublin airport playing a beautiful number}

{my kind of welcome. even if they spelled my name wrong.}

{the room was very nice, and i was lucky to get to stay here for two nights instead of just one.}

{on the left, grafton street, and on the right, st. stephen’s green. right across from the hotel!}

{the little flower markets on the streets were my fave.}

{starbucks and H&M. they run the world.}

{the bar on the right was called the hairy lemon!}

{st. stephen’s green}

{i loved the light on this particular day}

{i didn’t know palm trees could grow in ireland…}

{those tulips though.}

{up close and personal with the swans!}

{they were huge. and this little girl had no fear! i’m pretty sure i was more scared of them than she was!}

{it was like a scene from a story book.}

{THIS.}

{by this point of being wined and dined for several days, my body was in desperate need of this arugula salad. those lamb shanks, on the other hand, not so much. but i enjoyed them nonetheless.} ;)

{i was excited to try guinness in ireland, so after dinner, we headed to a friday’s which was a few doors down from the hotel and i got to have one. i like guinness anyway, but it really does taste better in ireland!}