Dublin, Part 3: I'm really not a tourist

But, I went out to see some of Dublin anyway. I met up with that group from NY - "Father Rob" was in my Urban Soul team and he said I could tag along with them, which was awesome in a lot of ways: one because I got to be with people and two because I got the group rate to some of the sightseeing stuff. Like, the bust tour around Dublin that had twenty three stops around the city, including O'Connell Street, the Guinness Factory, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, Phoenix Park (the largest enclosed park in Europe), James Joyce's house, several famous bridges that cross the Liffey and the Book of Kells! The Book of Kells is fairly amazing - it's the four gospels in Latin and it's beautiful. The day I saw it, it was opened to the feeding of the five thousand story in Matthew.
I walked around a bit by myself after seeing the city on a bus, found a cute little cafe to hang out in for a bit and then walked along the main street in Dublin. Dublin's got it's own version of the Space Needle - they call in The Milennial Spire which was erected in 2002.
That evening we went out for traditional Irish food, music and dancing. I was blown away by the gifts of the musicians and dancers, so much so that I actually started to cry. I sat in the front row by the stage, and the fiddle player noticed and commented on my teary eyes. I thought it would be embarrassing, but, for whatever reason, it wasn't. The dancers were incredible, though. We were entertained by world-class dancers and musicians that night. The food was very interesting - lots of potatoes and fruit, and they do fish-n-chips very differently around here. Still very good, though.
I made it to the Dublin Vineyard (they meet in the YMCA in Dublin - and so far, no Vineyard I've been to in Europe meets in their own church building) the next morning, too. The bus system is a bit different: you get on, tell the driver where you want to go and he determines how much you pay. Then you get a receipt instead of a ticket. The Dublin Vineyard was, so far, the most different of the Vineyards I'd been to: I finally got a chance to have communion, which was placed (randomly) in the middle of worship. Then, there was announcements and we went straight into a message about the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven. One of the "secrets" is that the kingdom of Heaven sort of depends on our response to Jesus. I was having a conversation with a friend recently that sort of sums that up; he said "All who hear the gospel message are called, and all who follow are chosen." (This was within a discussion of pluralism and our response to the myriad religions in the world today).
After the service, a few of us gathered together, stopped by a Subway (it's only minorly different here in Ireland) and headed out for a picnic in St. Stephen's Green (a major park in Dublin City Centre. Here, I met some more Americans, someone from Brazil who came to Ireland to learn English, two guys from Bern (the capitol of Switzerland - which I am probably going to since I've got another friend there that I met when he was visiting my home Vineyard), and a family from Texas who has just moved there because the felt God's call. Walking back from St. Stephen's Green through Grafton Street to the train station by the hostel I was staying actually made me really happy for some reason. I think it was because I love to see the activity of people, the colors and sounds and movements...I'm really THAT people oriented I think. It could also be that this particular street - a pedestrian only shopping area - reminded me a LOT of Pearl Street in Boulder: there were musicians, dancers - performers of all varieties, really, and it was one of the first times I missed being at CU. Of course, this is much cooler - which the picture doesn't accurately express, but it's the only one I took because I was too distracted by all the European coolness - the accents, the different spellings, the architecture of the buildings. It was brilliant!
Anyway, I found myself getting sick during the tours on Saturday and am still getting over it. I actually think it's more allergies than being sick because I don't feel that bad, I just can't breathe through my nose or see very clearly because of all the water. My throat is a bit sore from all the sneezing/coughing. It's the worse in Belfast - I'm staying, if you'll recall, in a place with a LOT of flowers and plants, though none of the plants LOOK that different from back home...I had horrendous allergies in Colorado, but so far, none in Seattle, and most of the plants here look familiar from the Seattle area. Anyway, I'm praying about it, because it's actually bad enough that I can't leave the house on windy days.