Ireland - Part 1 Dublin

I arrived in Ireland in the evening to meet up with Rebecca (Bex) Mills and her boyfriend, Johnny. Bex is my Mum's friend's daughter whom I've vaguely known since childhood but probably haven't seen for about 10 years. However, this was no barrier and we met again like old friends as I was treated to fantastic hospitality! Thanks guys =)Johnny and Bex live in central Dublin so eveything was walking distance away. On the first day I jumped on the recomended open top bus tour of Dublin. The prerecorded tour is fine, but nothing to write home about, but the live tours which are conducted by the drivers are great! So I spent the first day learning all about Dublin, Guiness and Jameson's Whiskey! I now have a certificate to prove I know how to pour the 'perfect' Guiness and am well versed in the reasons why Irish whiskey is so much better that Scotch or American whisky and it's not just because of the spelling. The tour also took me past various point of interest such as a inner city park twice the size of New York's Central Park containing The White House (home of the President of Ireland and which the Americans Copied, see photo) and O'Connell Street which is the home of the imfamous GPO (General Post Office) of the Easter Rising (see photo).The next day I checked out the Oscar Wilde memorial which includes small columns engraved with his famous one line witticisms and then wandered around through the National Museum. This place is excellent containing priceless ancient treasures, some of which date back to neolithic times, and medieval bodies preserved in the anaerobic enviroment of peat bogs. I also visited the Chester Beatty Library. I had intended to see one of Dublins famous atractions, The Book of Kells in Trinity College. But 11 Euros is a bit much for a quick glance of a 1200 year old book when the Chester Beatty Library at Dublin Castle (which is free) contains dozens of such books some of which date back to 200AD! One of the odd things about Dublin is that there are two prodestant cathedrals in a mostly catholic nation. Probably the English are to blame.My final day in Dublin I spent on a guided tour of Newgrange, just north of Dublin. Newgrange is a neolithic (built in approximately 3200B.C. and older than Stonehenge) burial passage tomb the interior of which is illuminated by the sun once a year as it rises on midwinter solstice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange The whole place is just amazing when you consider how long ago it was built and that it's just the one of many in the area that is open to the public.I really enjoyed Dublin and there's heaps more that I could write about and even more than that I've not yet seen. Oh, and for those that are wondering, yes, the Guiness in Ireland is heaps better than the stuff we get in New Zealand!