More Dublin

Saturday was another awesome day in Dublin – a good finale to this leg of the vacation, prior to setting off for Venice. Aside from clubbing, which was going to be a must, we didn’t have anything fixed and just set out wandering around the city. A few blocks into our stroll, we decided it would be nice to do a tour of the cathedrals, both Christ Church and St. Patrick’s. So off we went, thankful it wasn’t too windy and only drizzling lightly.

We finally made it to Christ Church Cathedral (the closer of the two and just 5 minutes walk from St. Patrick’s), bought tickets to go inside, and ventured in. It was very nice – no St. Peters – but very nice, with lovely glazed tile floors. As cathedrals go it was rather petit, but nonetheless very much worth the trip. But as we wended our way along the first long side (like all cathedrals, it’s shaped like a cross), we heard yelling, clapping, and the steady thump of a base drum. The noise got louder and louder, making us wonder what might be upon us. Giving each other the “oh, what the hell” look, we booked it for the doors to go and see what all the commotion was. And what a sight indeed!

As it turned out, we had stumbled upon Dublin’s Gay Pride Parade, ironically from inside a Cathedral. There was float after float of people, from sports teams to drag queens, couples getting married (or civil unions?) later that day. Even Google and a number of other companies sponsored floats. While standing and watching float after float pass, we turned to see two priests standing by the gates of Christ Church with one of their parishioners. “There’s trouble to be had,” we thought, wondering how the priests were going to handle the situation. But instead of frowning upon the event – much less heckling the parade’s participants, they stood smiling as the masses of floats and people passed. Some of the people walking (or dancing) in the parade even approached and handed them rainbow bookmarks and other multicolored items. The priests accepted the tokens with a great deal of gratitude apparent. And the next thing we knew, they were waving to those who passed – stopping short of cheering or clapping, we should add.

Mirah and I grinned at each other, thinking, “If this is possible…” and then “Can they get fired for this?” It was not our place to judge, but like the priests’, certainly ours to smile and wave. Ireland, or at least Dublin, was quite a progressive place and a really neat spot to spend a few days.

Some photos of our honeymoon. First, here's me looking contemplative in our "newlywed" shirts. 

And Mirah all dressed up for clubbing (and showing off her new haircut):

And, of course, Guinness as usual: 

Catch you later from Venice! 

Josh

Honeymoon, Day 4

To make a long story short, we’ve decided to start a blog. Many reasons: leaving Amherst, our first year of marriage, being abroad. In general, it’s time to join the blogosphere. So we’re going to update as often as we can, and I think it’s pretty awesome of us to start on our honeymoon. (wink wink)

Ok, some wedding pictures, to tantalize the imagination for more to come. (oops, did that come out wrong?) Anyway, these are from our wonderful friends who put up pics on facebook, so don't go thinking we get any credit for these. 

Our first dance:

What's black and white and red all over? Josh and Mirah's wedding guests having a drink!

Mirah and her bridesmaids being ridiculously silly: 

Anyway. Back to the present. We’re in Dublin now, which is the first leg of our honeymoon. After this we’re going to Venice; think of it as the drinking/eating honeymoon. The plan is to arrive in Jerusalem, in Josh’s words, “fat dumb and happy.” So far, so good. Josh’s family put us on first class on the plane over here, so we actually did touch down in Dublin a bit tipsy. Did you know they serve you champagne before you even lift off? And there’s a four-course meal complete with helpful flight attendants with trays of canape’s? We just kept looking at each other and bursting into incredulous laughter. Like, seriously, people live like this? We never would have bought first class tickets ourselves, but it was really fun. So thank you Tom and Marty and Benj.

When we arrived, we checked into our hotel, the Westin Dublin. The deal was that since we had our wedding at the Westin in DC, we accumulated the Westin equivalent of frequent flyer miles. So we were supposed to be able to stay there for free for our honeymoon. Of course, it turns out we had many fewer points than we had thought, and we ended up having to move to another hotel after three nights. Though we’re in another five-star hotel now, thanks to last-minute travelocity deals.

We’ve done a lot of exploring Dublin on foot, but we haven’t been doing the usual high-paced vacation thing. Since it’s our honeymoon, we’ve been taking it easy. Like, really easy. Last night we curled up in our room, took a bubble bath, and read until it was time to go to sleep. Then we slept until 2:00. We must have been sooo tired! I don’t think Josh has slept that much in his entire life. Then today we walked all over the city. We must have walked 10 miles today, which would explain my sore feet and happiness. Also, I got my hair cut yesterday. I was waiting to cut my hair really short until after the wedding, so I really wanted to get it cut on our honeymoon. It’s REALLY short now! Well, not really short, but short in comparison with the way it was before. Also, to my annoyance, the lady who was cutting my hair kind of misunderstood what I was asking and gave me these funky bang-like things. I was really freaking out about it for a while, but I guess I’m ok with it now. My new haircut makes me look much older, which takes some getting used to, but ought to be a good thing for my job, so people take me more seriously. I don’t want to be in the West Bank and have people now talk to me because they think of me as a child. But the stupid bang things keep getting in my eyes. Argh.

Love and kisses,
Mirah