May 20

May 20 Ireland 2016: Day 8

Before the hustle & bustle of driving into Dublin and venturing about, I walked out to the beach for a peaceful morning alone. I stopped at the bar for a takeaway tea and headed across the road. I listened to the waves of the Irish Sea and read a paper with my tea. This is a rocky beach, I've never seen one before and in my fascination, I built a wee Irish rock tower.

My rock tower and tea on the Irish Sea in Bray, Ireland

After a while, I rejoined the ladies and we packed up to head out. Since check out wasn't until noon, we decided to grab takeaway breakfast and enjoy it at the beach where we made some unlikely friends.

Strange, black, Irish, man-eating crows that are straight out of your nightmares-they were cute

I fed the crows some of my pain au chocolat and they got quite brave in their proximity. There were 6 of them around me before it was over and I felt like the crazy bird lady in the French Quarter for a minute.

A long car ride later we ended up in Dublin and parked to walk around a bit before our apartment is ready for us. We rented a room on Air B&B just outside of Dublin and I'm excited to see it.

We wandered one of the main drags of Dublin and stumbled into several churches along the way.

We started with Christ Church and went in for a small fee. It was gorgeous inside and out.

The alter at Christ Church in Dublin, Ireland

The columns and feelings were breathtaking, but I feel like everyone forgets the floors.

The floors of Christ Church in Dublin, Ireland

The floors are so intricate and see so many feet in a day, if only tiles could talk. I love looking on all directions in a church in Europe and this one was no exception.

Beautiful statue in the crypt of Christ Church in Dublin, Ireland

I can't help but wonder if this is a Michelangelo statue as the textures in the stone resemble his work. I realize that makes me sound pretentious, but after the tour I got on the Vatican Museum, I'm obsessed with Michelangelo's work.

The presumed initial cornerstone of Christ Church in Dublin Ireland

I overheard a tour guide telling his tour about the cornerstone and had to snap a photo. After we left here, we wandered into another church.

The inner part of the oldest medieval church in Dublin, St. Audoen's Church

Entry was free and the views were amazing throughout.

Alter at St. Audoen's Church in Dublin, Ireland

They even had the oldest intact portion of the walkway excavated under the church.

Oldest portion of the walkway through old Dublin, under St. Audoen's Church

After this one, we found another.

The alter of St. Catherine's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland

St. Catherine's is stunning, as most Catholic churches are. There are so many pictures from these visits, again, I'll have to throw them into a gallery.

We hit four churches along the way and ended up at, you guessed it:

An upside down Guinness factory! I'll flip the picture when I get home.

We were going to do the tour, but with limited time to return the car, we decided against it.

We said goodbye to our little car at the airport and hopped a shuttle to the terminal where we tried to gather our plan. Several hours later, we left for Connelly Station to kill time before our check-in at our Air B&B apartment.

After some confusion, we found the correct address and got a long tour of the apartment in a taxi. The place is gorgeous!