Christmas in Dublin

Here are some scenes from Grafton street, the shopping street in Dublin. I went today to pick up the rest of my Christmas gifts and generally soak up the atmosphere. It was quite wonderful. Today everyone seemed to be in a better mood; yesterday I got body checked more than once. Flatmate Suzie felt the same thing and has a theory that everyone is in a better mood today because today was the last day of work for everyone until January. She might be right. We decorated the apartment, ate cookies from my mom, listened to Christmas music the Canadian way (don't ask) and now I'm posting my day for you. So, without further ado, here's what Dublin looks like at Christmas. Click on the images to enlarge them and get a really good view.


There are several flower stands on the street, this being the largest. You walk anywhere near it and the women call out "Do you want some flowers, luv?" They do a brisk trade. I almost felt hustled the other day when I bought flowers for the house.

This the tree on Steven's Green, the start of Grafton Street. Steven's Green is a formal walled garden in the middle of the city, donated to the people of Dublin by the Guinness family. The Arch is the grand entry.

This is Grafton Street. The windows just before the Bay window is the call centre I use, so this is view I have while we chat. It's nice because I can open the window and listen to the street musicians. Except that day it was an orchestra of drummers and bong players. That was just annoying.

This is a choir of boys, probably 14-17 singing carols. The man on the right is directing them. They were wonderful and I made a video of them, which I hope to post. It was fun watching them because they were all laughing and joking and they had friends coming by to wave and make fun of them. Good group of lads.