Dec. 9, 2011 - First Irish Pub, Dun Laoghaire Piers and First Dublin Doctor Visit

 This is on a bulletin board at UCD. Wayne found a club to join! ;)

 This was on December 8th when we met some of the other PhD students and Psychology staff at O'Shea's Pub near UCD. This was our first real Irish pub experience. We had a Guinness of course, and also tried Beamish, which we learned is a cheaper and really great Guinness-alternative. So, we also had one of those. =)

 This is on our walk to Norah's doctor appointment today. We walked along the water from our apartment and today was the first day of the Dun Laoghaire Christmas Village. They have about 50 booths set up on the sidewalks with various Christmas goodies and food. As we were walking along the waterfront we saw this little area with a Merry-go-round and tiny roller coaster for the little ones. They're essentially miniature carnival rides.

 Here's a restaurant and Marina at the East Pier (we're living at the West Pier).

 Looking out from the West Pier at the Mortello Tower.

 Here's a close-up. Here's a little blurb from Wikipedia:
"Possibly the most famous is the Martello tower in Sandycove, near Dún Laoghaire, in which James Joyce lived for a few days. Joyce shared the tower with Oliver St. John Gogarty, then a medical student but later to become famous in Irish history as a surgeon, politician and writer. In Ulysses, the fictional character Stephen Dedalus lives in the tower with a medical student, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, whom Joyce based on Gogarty. The James Joyce Tower, as the tower is now known, houses a museum dedicated to Joyce.

 This is looking back at the East Pier but you can also see the end of the West Pier where they almost meet. The West Pier also curves around and at the end is where our apartment building is.

 Continuing on the walk through the People's Park (this is the place where the Farmer's Market takes place every weekend).

 And, this is our doctor's office (General Practitioner/GP). This is about a 20 minute walk from us. We had to take Norah in today because she's had a high fever for 3 days and it doesn't seem to be going away. We found out she has swollen tonsils but it's just viral so we continue to medicate her for the fever and she should be just fine.

 This beautiful church is 2 doors down from our GP's office. Not too shabby.

 Oh and here is my continuation of differences I notice in products in Ireland. Here are what we would know as "Lay's" potato chips and they even have the EXACT same packaging and fonts, etc. Only difference....these are "Walkers" and they're 100% British Potatoes (instead of 100% Idaho Potatoes as it would say in Washington) =)

 Oh and here is our oatmeal - "Flahavan's" of course! And what we love is that it comes with a measuring cup for the water! So thoughtful....

 Here, "Saran-wrap" as we mostly call it in the States is "Cling Film". It says this on the aisle at the supermarket too "Cleaning Products, Cat Food, Foil and Cling Film"

 And baby Norah's medicine. This is what would be our Baby Tylenol but they have Calpol which has a different ingredient than the states but is essentially Acetamenophen.

 Poor Sick Norah. Rosy little fever-cheeks

At the end of her big day - here is our sick bear (well, bunny).