Columbus Day

Today was Columbus Day and Hispanic Day, the national holiday of Spain. We happened to catch part of a parade with traditional dancers from Bolivia and Ecuador.

Dublin

I like Spain. However, not being sociable where I can understand people and not being able to communicate with even cashiers or wait staff are two entirely different things. So this weekend was my break, my chance to understand people for a while before spending another month here. Wouldn't you know it, everywhere I went in Dublin, I was next to people speaking Spanish.

That aside, I am in love with Dublin. It's like Pittsburgh, except the people have less annoying accents. And the money is worth more. And the European beer is cheaper. And there are bike lanes everywhere. And there are tons of non-Starbucks coffee shops. How can I move there? Seriously.



An architectural fact that I didn't know: houses built in the Georgian style have large windows on the first floor and progressively smaller ones on each floor above in order to give the illusion of height.

This is St. Patrick's cathedral. This is one of the many stained glass windows. And here are some helmets and swords. :)

We got a free tour of the Guinness Storehouse, which included a free Guinness at the Gravity Bar, which is a big glass room with an amazing view of the city. Here are two more views. I'd never had a Guinness before, as I never liked beer before I met Belgian beer, but it's actually not bad. A lot of buildings are topped with green.

I saw Molly Malone, the tart with the cart. The angels around the statue of Daniel O'Connell on O'Connell Street were not covering their eyes.

We also took a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, which was where several leaders of rebellions were held and executed.

Wedding

A couple weeks ago the Illustration Friday topic was "wedding." I'd wanted to do something inspired by Gogol Bordello's "American Wedding," but it's difficult using the time and resources I have available while away from home, so I never did it.

Yesterday, we had a rainstorm, which flooded the ground and drove a swarm of winged ants out and onto our windows. Some research revealed that both male and young female ants have wings before they mate--monogamously. After mating, the female loses her wings and the male dies. I thought, if only I'd thought about that for the wedding topic. So I did a quick doodle anyway, and this is the result.

The Rain in Spain

We had a thunderstorm today, complete with hail and swarms of winged ants flooded out of their homes. The colors afterwards were interesting.