We all gathered for breakfast in the hotel, way earlier than I would have liked, around 8-8.30. It was good food, but the coffee was not doing it for me. I was told there is some really good coffee in Ireland, and than many places serve cappuccinos and lattes right out of the machines, but not this place. They only had plain American coffee, which even with some chocolate milk was not real tasteful. Oh, well.
We walked one block over to our bus to start the tour of the city around 9.45. It had to be quite reduced because many streets were blocked off due to queen’s arrival. It is quite interesting that she happens to come here, the first British royalty in 100 years, the same week we are here. Of course, Obama is coming next week. 
The streets were ready to blocked off, but not yet that early in the morning. There was definitely a lot of police on the streets, and we later learned that none of them carry fire arms. I found that quite puzzling. Our driver Rory took us through the downtown area, and pointed out few spots on the way. For example, we passed by a church where first ever Handle’s Messiah performance was done in 1742. We passed next to the Christchurch, the biggest church in Dublin and then over to the St. Audoen’s gate. Rory estimated it would take us an hour to get there with the street blocks, but it didn’t take us more than 10 minutes, so we had extra time. It is in the Vikind/Medival area and dates back to 1275. It is part of the old city walls dating back from that era. We had some time to walk around the wall, and just inside the wall on the grounds of St. Audoen’s Anglican Church of Ireland.
Next we drove down the Quay streets, by the river Liffey, across from The Four Courts building. We passed the Brazen head inn, the Ireland oldest pub dating back to 1198. 
Around 11ish we arrived at the St. Patrick’s cathedral. We learned that the cathedral was build outside of the city walls because the priests didn’t want to pay taxes to the city government. Clever. We had plenty of time to look around inside, and there was just so much to see. There were various color tiles on the floor, saints and important folks status, artifacts on display, history facts boards, memorials on the walls flags from wars or of different regions hanging off the ceilings, gorgeous stains glass windows and decorative arches and architecture. Just too many places to look at.
After a quick snack and coffee break at the next door store, where they have self-service cappuccino and latte machines, it was time to get ready for our concert. It was an interesting setting because, even though there is an official start time, there is no official audience. Sure, we had few of our groupies from our group, spouses, family and tour guides, but the rest of the audience was just people visiting the cathedral for a short time. The 45 min practice was a way to kind of advertise the concert, so those who were there during that time could decide to stay a bit longer. And we sounded so amazing in that space! Even during the practice, our voices echoed so beautifully, and just the mare realization of me actually being at that place and singing to these people from all over the world, and thanking God for all those opportunities…brought me to tears a couple of times. It was just very moving and humbling and gratitude evoking experience.
I must also add that just being in this group of people, all of whom I really know very little, and how we somehow still function pretty well was also amazing. In particular, I was so touched by our choir director, Morris. I already knew he is a very kind man, always ready to say words of thanks and praise to us, and to compliment someone. He has a dear smile, is humble, and is always interested how others are doing. And I absolutely love his directing stile, his facial expressions, his hand movements…I cannot but get into the spirit of the music that I sing when he is directing. I just wish there are more people like him.
After the concert, the driver took us back just a couple of blocks to Christchurch. That was as far as he could take us because of the street blockades. It was walking back to the hotel from there, which really is just 15ish minutes away when we actually can walk. But, we encountered first blockade in front of the Trinity college. We probably could have found a roundabout way to continue toward, but since we were already there, Sharron and I, (we already split from the rest of the group) decided to stay there for 20 minutes, which is how long they told us will be until the Queen arrives there. We found the closest point we could to the entrance and waited with the crowd. We saw the motorcade, the queen in the black suv, kinda-sorta saw her wave and that was it. After another 15 minutes walk down the O’Connel Bridge, we encountered another blockade. Actually, pretty much all the bridges were blocked off until the Queen passes by again around 4.30 on her way out of the city. So, we waited again, since we were right by the rail and on the corner where she would turn. It was fine, and we spent time chatting with locals there, practicing hearing their strange accent. We did see her car right in front of us, but she sat on the opposite side (the same side as at the Trinity College), so the closest we saw was Prince Phillip, but even that was not clear through darker windows. 
By the time we were at the hotel it was already close to 6, so I just had time for a short rest, talk to mom, upload photos, change, and again be on the go. Tonight, the dinner was on our own, so we asked our driver, a local, to give us a suggestion on where to go. He suggested McGuire’s Pub near Trinity College. Michael, the other conductor, took bunch of students on the Pub Crawl, basically pub-hopping, and other people just went in small groups as well. Since it doesn’t get dark here until after 9, we decided to walk through the city again first, before dinner, because after it will be dark. So we walked down the Henry St., pedestrian zone north of the river with many shops. I wanted to see this place that some were talking about the night before, The Church Pub. It actually used to be a church, and it still looks like a real church from the outside. (there is another building converted into a pub called the Bank) I’ll have to look up how and when it got converted, but the inside still has many features of the church, but is now a pub. I know, totally crazy! There is a huge organ, stain glass windows, loft area, marble memorials on the walls, a confessional booth,... but what really put me off was the former altar area, it had an engraved sing on the wall “This Do In Remembrance Of Me”. We left the place after that, even though we saw few people from our group there. 
The clouds have cleared up considerably, and we had a nice walk just meandering through the area and looking and interesting buildings, signs, and people. Once we arrived where we were told to go, there was no McGuire’s Pub. There was O’Brien’s Pub, and O’Neill’s Pub, so we decided on this second one. And it was a great place, beautiful from the outside and inside. There were multiple levels, rooms with 4-5 tables or bar stools, and at least few stairs after every couple of rooms. The food is ordered in a line, with trays, and you take it yourself, there is no waiting to be seated, and very few waiters. I got me the Irish Beef and Guinness stew, served with mashed potatoes, carrots, cheese cow flower, and I choose pickled beets and broccoli salad. It was really yummy! There are at least 3 bars inside, we different selection of beer. I went through all of them before finding an Irish Pilzner on tap, but even then I am not sure if it was Irish. The fellow who served me I could not understand one word. He talked to me 3-4 times, and I think he conferment it was Irish beer (the glass was Check Pilzner Ullner or something like that), but it was still a good pint of beer. We happened to be in a room where couple of blokes cake to play Irish music on mandolin and guitar, and had a great time.
Oh, I can’t believe our second day and time in Dublin is already over. :(
And if you've read this far, I can now tell you that the photos for these two days have already been uploaded on the album. No edits so far, so several blurry and duplicate photos.
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