You know what they say..."do anything you can to escape the window tax"...?

Today, we continued our week long journey. Although for most of us it felt like one, never ending day, the morning had come and we had made our way through customs with our jello brains. Making our way out of Dublin Airport, we met with our two drivers, brothers, that were to take us to our Spencer Dock Apartments.

Our drive was exciting and began on a confusing foot. We had forgotten that here in Ireland, they drive on the opposite sides of the roads of us and we couldn't help but laugh when Dr. Carroll tried getting into the drivers seat, thinking it was the passenger seat.

Our drivers were witty and bright and everything we could have hoped for our first encounter with the Irish themselves. They told us jokes and personal stories of places as we had passed them and things that they believed us, "Americans", would find interesting about the country's rich history.

One interesting tidbit of information was about the sizes of the windows that we were passing on the buildings lining the streets. We could clearly see the size of the windows and we were all wondering, until he let us in on the "secret", why the windows decreased in size as you made your way to the top floor. Our new friend explain that the windows on the eighteen and nineteen century houses were constructed in this way due to the high tax on windows that faced towards the street. Later in the day we would find out from our walking guide tour guide that the Bank of Ireland (formerly built for Parliament) built up the window spaces because of the same tax and put windows on the top of their building with mirrors for light.

When we came to know that our apartments weren't set up for us yet, we were forced to leave our luggage in the lobby of the complex and go out for lunch and our own impromptu tour directed by none other than Dr. Carroll. We walked down the beautiful River Liffey. The people and sight were breath taking as we passed bridges and pieces of history brought to life through statues. The Famine Memorial, commissioned in 1997, depicts those who were forced to move during the famine that struck Ireland. The detail that the first model of the Jeanie Johnston was famous for sixteen emigrant travels to North America, was a common fact shared with us by every taxi driver and knowledgable Irish man we met. The ship between 1847 and 1855 carried a whopping two thousand five hundred people with no fatilities.

As we ended lunch at The Bank restaurant and fueled our bodies in fighting against jet-lag, we ran over to our planned walking tour.

Meeting and greeting our Homer Simpson-tie wearing tour guide was like meeting up with a long lost aunt who wanted to make our tour enjoyable even though we were exhausted from the flight and all that we had gone through that morning. He started by cracking jokes about Molly Malone and her being a little loose even though she didn't exist...or did she? We traveled from monument to park to green park and castle, and even passed by two churches, including St. Patricks, that I know we are all dying to go back to. We learned of a time in history where the Irish fought multiple times for their freedom and how they finally got it from the United Kingdom in 1949 and declared itself as a republic. I think most of us got the impression that the Irish are still not too happy with the British because our tour guide pointed out the opposite sides of the Dublin Castle that the flags were hung on.

Here are some more pictures from our day!

This picture was taken when we visited Trinity College! We call it Spinning Ball of Art... you may also know of Spinning Ball of Art ft. little girl? Fun Fact: Arnaldo Comodoro created this sculpture ‘Sfera con Sfera’ for Trinity College Dublin in 1992.

This was a snapshot of Powerscourt Shopping Centre. We were all in awe after seeing the dark wood stairs that filled this once Georgian mansion.

By the end of the day all we wanted to do was change out of our clothes and head out for more food. We dined in the most gaudy restaurant that we have ever been to. Cafe en Seine served us laughs, good food, and I think that we finally understood that we should always pick the euro option when we swipe our debit cards.

I know I don't stand alone in being excited for our company meetings starting tomorrow!

#travel #ireland #dublin #airport #marketing #international