My day in Dublin was largely overshadowed by worry and one hell of a cold.

We elected to do part of a Let's Go walking tour of the city. After a good breakfast, we immediately got lost, found our way again, got lost, and then located Mulligan's pub, a traditional Irish 'strictly drink' pub once patronized by JFK. We popped in for a morning Guinness, and immediately were confronted by the SKY news broadcasts of the London transit bombings. I felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me as I witnessed the torn metal that was all that was left of a double decker bus. You think all sorts of crazy thoughts in the immediate aftermath, mind racing immediately to family who use that transit system everyday. The most frustrating thing is that we could do nothing but wait. However, logic soon took over, remembering the Ealing bomb two or three years back, and no one panicked.

We went to our next stop, Trinity College, and I admired the stone building and pretty pathways, before moving over to the colourful statue of Oscar Wilde. We stopped to buy maps at a bookshop and picnic supplies before heading over to St. Stephen's Green for lunch and talk over the day's events. We tried to go to the Dublin Civic Museum (closed down) before stopping at Butler's for a cup of hot chocolate. We then wandered down to Dublin Castle to go to a museum that featured some of the earliest extant pages of the Bible, and beautiful illuminated Bibles as well. They featured other religious texts and statuary, including Buddhas, Korans and Vishnus. The whole exhibit was designed to bring religious understanding and tolerance, something to be thought about.

I went back to the guesthouse to nurse my cold as we sorted out a car hire for the rest of the trip. I received a phone call from my mother, because we were both stressed by the events in London, and she needed to know I was safe.

That evening, we went for dinner and drinks at the Stag's Head, where I discussed smoking laws in Dublin with a local (Julie, it's safe!) and drank a few pints. I went home, to sleep, to prepare to escape to Northern Ireland.