Days 52-53: Weekend in Dublin + Good Company = Best of Times :)
Full weekend, as always, but this time I didn't leave Dublin. My friend, Manolis, was flying from Oslo to visit me and get to know the city (one of the few European capitals he hasn't yet visited :P). Since he wouldn't arrive before 3pm, I decided to take advantage of the morning, for some house cleaning and a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland, the surrounding area where the famous georgian doors were all around, Merrion Square and Oscar Wilde's statue as well as the Govermental Buildings and more specifically the Department of Taoiseach (I am not sure how is this pronounced :( *edited: it is prononced "tee-shock"! Thx Patrick!* ), which actually is the governmental department of the Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland.
Manolis arrived arrived on time, a little after 3pm, so we spended the rest of the day walking around the city, until we were both too tired to continue. For the night I had planned a pub crawl, which though didn't exactly came true for the company, composed of two Greeks, two Italians, one Irish and one Romanian, decided to enjoy the exceptional live music at Porterhouse pub! Just for the history the "roaster" was consisted of: 2 women and 4 men, 5 computer science related persons (there are sooo many of us :P) and 1 journalist, 3 permanent Microsoft employees and 1 Microsoft-related employee (this last one is me:p).
Sunday morning came pouring, and our first thoughts of visiting Howth was doubted. Hopefully, after noon the sky became clearer and sun came out, so everyhing would go according to schedule. Manolis and I paid a quick visit to the Greek church, and we headed to Jameson's old distillery and Guinness storehouse, for some photos. At 3pm we took the bus to Howth, where we were reunited with last night's company; Romanian guy missing :P The day passed by really pleasantly and we didn't call it a day before the sun had already set. Really tired, we put off the Irish coffee drinking plans and called it a day; after all Manolis had a flight to catch and I had an early waking up for Monday at work!
