Beatlemania and Dublin

Hello again!

Since my last update, we have once again traveled from city to country. Following the Lake District, we drove down to Liverpool for one night in order to pay tribute to the Beatles, and then flew out of Liverpool to Dublin the next morning. After spending five days in Dublin, we drove across the country (6 hours) to the countryside village of Dingle on the western coast of Ireland.

Liverpool was a much bigger city than I had imagined, and a bit run down as well. It is currently undergoing improvements, however, as it was named this year's European capital of culture, and was therefore given funds to renovate. I've never been a huge Beatles fan, but I enjoy their music, so it was fun to explore the Beatles museum- mostly because it is interesting how famous they were able to become. Liverpool is definitely proud of their rock and roll heritage, and the city is decorated with monuments to the Beatles.

We stayed in apartments while in Dublin which turned out to be the best possible arrangement because of how expensive the city is. It was unreal how much money even a simple meal cost, so it was nice to be able to buy groceries, and save some money. Dublin was much different than I had anticipated. I was a bit disappointed at first because it just felt like any other large, multi-cultural, metropolitan city. In fact, there were so many foreigners in Dublin that it was hard to find the Irish! I later found out that there has been tremendous immigration into Dublin ever since Ireland joined the European Union two years ago.

One of my favorite nights in Dublin was when I went to visit Liberty Community Church- the church that my Portland pastor- Bob Mihuc- used to pastor. It was so fun to meet people that know and love my pastor and his family. Two girls from my trip went with me for the Wednesday night service, but it ended up being cancelled so we chatted with those that were there for worship practice, etc... Mostly, it was just nice to be in a Christian community, hear their stories and fellowship.

Other highlights of Dublin were the shopping, visiting the Yeats museum, and admiring the architecture. Here are some of my tourist pics:

The rogue poet- Oscar Wilde and Trinity College

As you may be wondering, I am in fact in Dingle, Ireland now. There is simply too much to write for today, however, so I will cover the beauty that is Dingle in my next post. Cheers!