If you are reading these lines it means that I am on a plane (slight simplification) heading to Mountain View, California and leaving Dublin, Ireland, where I have spent the last two years. I will not be missing the clouds and rain of Dublin but I will be missing all the friends that I have made in the last 2 years as well as the beautiful and peaceful city.

Last week I visited Glendalough and was greated with very cloud-free wheater. This post proves how beautiful can Ireland be when clouds leave us for a few hours.                       I also took this opportunity to start learning how to use my Nikon D90. No more auto mode, only shutter, aperture or P mode from now on!

Two weeks ago we went to Bray and, from there, we took an approximately 5km long hiking trail along the coast towards Greystones. The Irish coastline reminds me of The Shire, the birthplace of hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings: completely green, with a minimum number of people and almost everybody smiles. The beach is not the best place to take the sun or generally lie but you can see the good-natured intentions.

A few months ago I went to Wicklow for a day trip, an area south of Dublin known for its beautiful nature. The first stop was at the Powerscourt Gardens. Part of the gorgeous garden that lies in front of the main building. One of the many attractions in Powerscourt is the animal cemetery that it hosts. In it a few dozens of loved pets and farm animals rest in peace.

A few months ago I visited Kilmainham Gaol or The Jail of Kilmainham located in Dublin. I will leave the photos speak by themselves. One of the internal corridors during the visit.   The jail seen from the outside.   And the jail from the inside. (I need to work on my creativity).   People on the death row would go to the church to receive their last blessings and then cross the door behind the altar to go thank the blesser.

Several weeks ago, at about 9am on a Sunday I started hearing drums of war outside. I assumed they came from the nearby stadium past the Liffey which has always been a source of a variety of weird sounds. I tried to stop thinking about it for some time even though not even my noise canceling headphones could cancel that noise. Eventually I left my flat to do some errands and when I arrived to the grand canal area this is what I saw:

It’s cold outside, about ten degrees. You start taking a shower, the water is warm and you feel relaxed. A few seconds later, after the point of no return, the hot water starts slipping away over your skin to your toes and then to the drain. You turn the faucet completely to “hot” while the water becomes colder and colder. You look at it with the word “mercy” written in your eyes but the faucet replies back to you with the only word it knows…

A few weeks after arriving to Dublin I did a photowalk around the city with a fellow photowalker who among other things showed me the best places in Dublin. The following photos aren’t representative of the percentage of city covered by cathedrals and churches, it’s just my personal fetish. The bird sitting on top of the third statue’s head kind of takes his magnificence away but what it loses there it makes up now in personality.

St Stephen’s Green is one of the nicest parks that I know about in Dublin. On a sunny day some weeks ago I decided to arrange a photowalk in it with another photography lover. Here is what we ended up with: I had been once to Ireland several years ago but the only thing that I can clearly remember from that one month trip was the grass.

The Grand Canal of Dublin traverses the South of Dublin and ends in the Liffey river before it meets the Atlantic Ocean.   According to a tour guide it was built after Dubliners heard of the Grand Canal from Venice. They imagined how the Italian canal looked like and they built their own. At those times international communications weren’t that precise.   As with other Irish cities with canals or rivers ducks and seagulls are everywhere.