Our Last Day in Dublin! 6/27

It was so hard to decide how to spend our last day in Dublin.  On one hand, there was so much we could do!  On the other, there was so much we HAD done, and wanted to just relax a bit before we headed home... since some part of a vacation should FEEL like vacation! :)

So we decided to do a little of A and a little of B!  We figured we would spend the morning seeing a few more sights, and a little of the afternoon doing some gift shopping, and then relax a while before dinner.   So we met for our usual breakfast, and then hopped the Green Bus to take to St Patrick's Cathedral.

Along the way, I got this great photo of Christ's Church:

Then we made it to St Patrick's.  As we entered, they told us we were welcome to take photos, but the strangest thing was as soon as you walked in, the back of the church was set up as a giant gift shop!  I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it since it was so odd.  This beautiful cathedral, that was still used as a cathedral, and here they sold key chains, shot glasses, postcards, CD's, sheep pens, good luck charms, etc!!  Seriously?!?!  Anyways, I attempted to ignore it and headed down through the cathedral, which was incredibly beautiful.

They had these little kneeling cushions on the back of every chair, and every single one looked handmade and was completely original!

Next we headed outside to check out the little park and see the church from the outside. 

 My dad and I wondered if the fountain in the park was actually the photo he had taken 38 years ago in Ireland that I had done in the pen & inkwash here, but it looks like the fountains were different.

But a little research later (and perhaps I should have done this before we went!) and it looks like it was St. Stephen's Green Fountain.

Next we hopped back on the Green Bus and headed for the Jail.  They told a lot about the revolution and had some great stories of the prisoners.  It was an excellent tour, and definitely had some sad stories, but you could tell how proud the Irish were of gaining their independence, especially since it was fairly "recent" history.

Towards the end, seeing the desolate hallways, children's "play yard" where they were allowed to get exercise by walking in a circle, or place where the prisoners were executed, were all very sobering realities.

We considered wrapping up with the Jameson Distillery Tour, but we were all a bit tired and very hungry, so we figured it was time to grab some lunch and get some of the shopping done.  We ended up hitting up a little place on Grafton Street, where I got a salmon & broccoli tart, Eric got the beef stew, my dad got a cajun chicken panini and Dennis got the shepards pie.

After that we hit up Grafton street and went through a ton of the touristy shops with all the tshirts, sheep gear, hats, guiness novelties, glasses, mugs, you name it... I had almost given up on finding anything other than some of the fun/corney stuff until we stumbled on Avoca.  It immediately made me think of Kati... it's like an Irish Anthropology!!  They had a ton of stuff that was made in Ireland... everything from sweaters to blankets to food items, and it was all really nice quality stuff.  Plus they had a cafe on the top floor, and a bakery with prepared foods on the bottom floor!!  I had wanted to come here for lunch, but the prices were a bit steep... if only they were open around dinner time!

Shopping pretty much complete (I never did find an actual Dublin Shot Glass), we headed back to our hotel to relax for a couple of hours before dinner.

I made reservations at the Pig's Ear, as it came highly recommended in several guidebooks, and Dennis had seen it recommended on yelp as well.  Dinner was amazing!  It was a bit pricey, but well worth it.  In their little dining room, we split the chicken terrine for an appetizer.  The apricot jam it came with was amazing!

For the main course, Eric & Dennis got the ribeye, I got the duck breast, and my dad got the pork belly.  We all could have licked our plates (boards!) clean!!  My dad wasn't as much of a fan of his pork belly as I was, but he said it was decent.  I loved it, the spices were amazing, and all of our meats were so perfectly cooked!

For dessert, my dad & dennis ordered the raspberry cheesecake and the brownbread ice cream.  They both came in adorable little jars, and my dad's came with this honeycomb almost cotton candy type crunch that was amazing!!

We loved it!! Great meal to finish the trip on!

On the way back I took a few more photos of the scenes from the Trinity College area...

Eric & I finished up the Jameson & Ginger Ale, finished our packing, and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour so we could get up bright and early the next day...