The zooo....

Another big update with photos coming your way. Much has happened...I have been here now a total of five days (I think...) and it feels like much longer, because we've been doing so much. We had an open-top bus tour of Dublin, after which some of us wandered to St Stephen's Green shopping centre for food and things like coughdrops and handsoap, etc. The bus tour was v. good as it gave us all more of an idea of where places were in relation to each other, what the main routes were to get to them...things that are good to know.

That didn't stop Cozy & Lee & I from getting seriously confused about buses yesterday, or Sarah & Mikah & I from losing our way entirely on the way home this evening, but it's better than nothing.

Saturday night the two Leeson first floor apartments (86: Cozy, Lee, Meghan; 88: Sarah, Mikah, Kate, me) went out to the Barge for Lee's 21st. We had drinks and stood around and talked and it was loud and pub-like and Irish.

I'll stick this post into two parts: First, the photo-tour I took today of how you get from my flat to IES; and then the zoo.


Westward Ho!

This is my apartment, the Leeson Hall. The window above the right-hand door, with the pulled together curtain, is our kitchen.



And this is the street view just as you step out of our carpark:



Walking down this street (Leeson street) takes you past the Leeson Lounge, where some of us went for a relaxing pint (er, glass) of Guinness on Friday...



And if you keep following Leeson, you'll run right into the canal and, appropriately, Canal Road:



There are other ways to walk to IES, but I prefer this one, since walking along the canal is an incredibly European experience, and I enjoy it far too much.




The next bridge you come to (after Leeson bridge, which is where you turn onto Canal Road) is home to The Barge, a pub which is a great hangout place. I mean, I can only say so much, but in the five days I've been in Dublin I have gone to the Barge three times, so hey. (It's that tall building on the far side of the bridge; the one with the Irish flag waving.)




There are two swans on the canal....vicious birds, but pretty from afar:





Then you come to the next bridge, which is where you take a left, avoiding being hit by cars:



And you walk along Rathmines Road for half a block, until you see the IES center in a brick building next to the Spar (the convenience store):



Et voila. You're there.


Dublin Zoo!

Yesterday, Cozy, Lee & I went to the Dublin Zoo (the second oldest zoo in Europe), which is in Phoenix Park (the largest park in Europe).

This is the lake you see when you first walk in the entrance:



It had beautiful black swans!



This was probably my favorite building of the entire zoo. First of all, it's red brick, and obviously old; second, it's called The Roberts House:



Third, it looks like a beautiful greenhouse inside (it reminded me of Kew):



And fourth, it housed these furry little denizens of the night:



What's not to like? (Although they weren't really little, exactly; each bat was probably as long as my forearm.)

There was also a petting zoo area, with various farm animals. This is Beau, a grumpy Welsh Pony, being cosseted by Cozy and photographed by Lee:



I took a great deal of pictures, but not very many of them turned out well, due to distance-focusing issues and glass glare; but the orangutans were incredibly photogenic:





And this one's for Joel.