Ireland: Exploring Dublin and Robert’s Opera (Day 5)

Robert arrived in Dublin late Friday night, but was stuck in rehearsals for the opera most of Saturday… So Carolyn, mom, and I spent the day exploring Dublin! And I was SO excited that an old friend from undergrad, Allison, was able to come down from Belfast (where she’s in grad school at Queens University) to visit! :)

Allison and I spent the entire day literally wondering EVERY inch of Dublin… And it was wonderful, especially since the girl is an incredible Irish-history whiz! Yay for super smart friends! Haha It was almost like having a personal tour-guide… We started in the Medieval District, wondered towards Trinity College and the House of Lords… Stopped for lunch near Grafton Street… I finally found a claddagh ring that I absolutely loved (I’ve been waiting years to get one until I could buy it myself in Ireland!)… We wondered through St Stephen’s Green (which may actually be my favorite place in Dublin) and through several museums… Eventually got kicked out of the National Museum of Ireland at closing… Found coffee in a random neighborhood… And then got rained on to end the day, or course! Haha Luckily enough, after almost a year of both Allison and I studying in the UK, a little rain is pretty much par for the course… ;)

Saturday night was Robert’s opera performance at the Grand Canal Theatre! He sang as the Tenor in the Verdi Requiem, in a concert honoring the 300th anniversary of Trinity College in Dublin. And he was WONDERFUL! Afterwards, Carolyn headed back to the hotel (which was conveniently just across from the opera house) and mom, Robert, and I headed out for drinks with a group of Roberts old Dublin/opera friends… It was a great night! And a good chance to celebrate our incredibly talented, crazy cousin… :)

  By Sunday morning, we were exhausted (both from the week of intense traveling, but also from mom and my late night out celebrating with Robert)… We looked like the living dead by the time we boarded the plane Sunday afternoon to come home to Germany… But it was a good kind of exhausted. It was an amazingly wonderful trip to the “Land of Saints and Scholars!”

With Love from Germany… ~Mary Elizabeth <3