In Dublin's fair city....

Finally I am back for a report on one of my (many) recent trips. I won't elaborate too much on the end of my traineeship at the European Parliament. Workwise, it was a disappointing experience.

But I did get to travel a lot, visited Strasbourg, Paris, Bonin, London. Went to Antwerp, the Belgian seaside (where I got sunburned) and the Keukenhof. And I got along well with the trainees in the European Parliament, especially with my fellow victims/trainees in the Press Room Unit.

Now back to the travelling, as you probably know I did a lot of that in July ;). I went to Groningen and later France (Bonin) to visit my friend Sjoukje. Then came London, more about that in a later blog, since I visited the city twice in three weeks :D (and I thought it would be best to merge these two trips together in one blog).

On August 2nd, I would move back from Brussels to Oss (I have lost count of all of my moves in the past ten years lol). This particular move was not problem free. I hurt my little toe on July 31st. The toe became blue and swollen very quickly. I feared that it was broken, so I went to the hospital to have some x-rays taken. It turned out that the toe was not broken, just badly bruised. But believe me, it was very difficult to explain my problem in a hospital where almost nobody spoke English or Dutch.

This was not our last visit to a hospital in Brussels. On August 2nd, moving day, my mother bumped into the corner of my bed. Result: bleeding wound, another hospital visit and six (!!) stitches. (We succeeded in moving all my stuff back to Oss though).

Fortunately, my mother was able to go to Dublin with me a couple of days later. Main reason for going to Dublin: the concert of my favorite (country) singer Martina McBride on August 5th. We would stay in Dublin from August 4 to August 8, so we got a chance to see quite a lot of the city as well. And Dublin is a very nice city, with so much history.

Must sees are:
* Bridges, the river Liffey flows through Dublin. Some beautifully constructed bridges connect the north and south side of the city.
* Trinity College, of course. This must be a wonderful place to study. Historical buildings. In the middle of the city, but still a lot of green (especially loved those big, old trees on the campus). Trinity College also organizes two different walking tours. One, led by current students of Trinity College, shows you around the campus. The other, led by history graduates (former Trinity College students), shows you around Dublin's historical city center. I did the historical walking tour, which I found very interesting. I learned a lot more about Dublin's (and Ireland's) complicated history.
* The various monuments, with pay tribute to revolutionaries, politicians, writers, actors etc (many of whom, I am ashamed to say, I did not know). My favorite monument was Molly Malone's, the fish monger/vismeisje (she sold "cockles and mussels" by day, but had a totally different profession by night ;)), a symbol of Dublin and Ireland. Molly Malone is also featured in a very popular song (I believe it is also the second national anthem of Ireland). I love this song, but I have heard it too many times during my stay in Dublin ;) Soo, one more time cannot hurt. Here is Bryn Terfel singing Molly Malone, still believe that nobody can sing this song better than him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ynSPJGtAv4
* St. Stephen's Green, parc, very nice. I would have loved to go jogging there. Unfortunately, I had to take it easy on my toe, so no jogging during my time in Dublin (did go swimming though).
* The Cathedral District with Christ Church, St Patricks Cathedral (this one looks totally different from the St Patrick in New York), Dublin Castle and not to forget City Hall. City Hall was severely damaged during the (Irish-British) War of Independence and the (Irish) Civil War. The exterior of the building is covered in bullet holes. The Post Office and the Custom House, two of Dublin's other main buildings, were also badly scarred (again by bullet holes) during this dramatic period in Irish history, which took place between 1916 and 1923.
* Temple Bar, especially lovely at night. Restaurants, pubs, shops. And a great atmosphere.
* If you like shopping (I do from time to time), Grafton Street is the place to be. If you like beer (and I don't haha) of course the Guinness brewery. Quite striking that, so far, Guinness has not been affected by the financial crisis. Apparently people keep drinking beer :D

Now the concert of Martina McBride, which took place at the Citywest hotel in Saggart (close to Dublin). So, from August 5 to August 6, my mother and I stayed in the Citywest hotel (during the rest of our trip, we stayed in a hotel in the center of Dublin). The only time I had seen Martina McBride live was in August 2005, when I was a student at Central Michigan University. And I became an instant fan! Almost four years later I got the chance to go to another Martina McBride concert. Yay!!! You can probably understand, that I went to the concert with high expectations. And Martina McBride did not disappoint. She was simply sensational!! Wow, that lady can sing!! (she is quite small and skinny, but she has such a booming, powerful voice, it is amazing). Martina McBride sang for almost two hours (she was kind enough to sing almost all of my favorite songs, without taking a real break (her voice stayed strong throughout the entire concert, impressive). Here is an excerpt the concert, Martina singing an old country song "You ain't woman enough": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTPyZGhIXA

I am very happy that I decided to go to Dublin. Wouldn't have wanted to miss the Martina McBride concert!! (it was great to see that she has many enthusiastic fans in Europe as well!!) And of course, Dublin itself was wonderful too :D

So this was it for now, London will be up next!!

Suzanne