This morning we had the first of what is bound to be many 'blonde moments'. We thought we had ages before our hostel's walking tour until we googled 'Time in Dublin' and discovered our watch was set an hour slow. Oops! Needless to say we missed that tour so instead we crossed town to the City Hall to join 'Sandmans New Dublin' walking tour. It turned out to be a very fortunate mistake as we had a great day with Paul our tour guide showing us the sights, explaining some of Ireland's history and telling amusing anecdotes.

Some of the things we saw were City Hall, Dublin Castle (and garden), The Coach House (built solely to conceal Queen Victoria's view of the slums), Christ Church Cathedral (yep, one that is still whole!), Temple Bar, The Spire (will come back to this most ridiculous sculpture), Trinity College, St Stephens Gardens, Ha'Penny Bridge, Parliament buildings, General Post Office and the museum.

There is a statue of lady justice above one of the entrances to Dublin Castle and Paul shared a few profound things wrong with it. Her sword is raised in her right hand instead of concealed (i.e. punishment is at hand instead of a threat), she is not blindfolded, her scales fill with rain at different rates leading to them tipping and she faces the crown instead of the people she protects. In the words of a taxi driver:

"The Statue of Justice, mark well her station
Her face to the castle and her arse to the nation."

Back to the Spire, it called the 'Monument of Light'. It is 120m high and is a giant knitting needle (with the top 12m being a light) as a tribute to the Aran sweater. Bizzare!

We finished the day off as all good Irishmen do ... with a pint of Guinness for Brett and a pint of Bulmers Irish Cider for me. I even tried the Guinness but it just tasted like beer to me - but at least I can say I've had some now!

- Rebecca

P.S. Daniel, you'll be so pleased to know that despite your absence I haven't missed out on short jokes. Some guy at the hostel (when I checked he could see past me to the TV) remarked that my dinner was bigger than me.