Lunar New Year's Day (Seol lal) in Korea

"Happy new year"
New year is comming soon!! Oh?! You think New year already come? =)
I am talking about the lunar new year's day in Korea!

Korean New Year, commonly known as Seollal (Hangul: 설날) is the first day of the lunar Korean calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day. The Korean also celebrate solar New Year's Day on January 1 each year, following the Gregorian Calendar. The Korean New Year holidays last three days, and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year's Day.
Korean New Year is generally the same day as Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Vietnamese New Year.

Customs -

Korean New Year is typically a family-oriented holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their home towns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform the ancestral ritual known as charye (차례). Many Koreans dress up in colorful hanbok. Tteokguk (떡국) (soup with rice cakes) is commonly served.
Many Koreans greet the New Year (both Western and lunar) by visiting East coast locations such as Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon province, where they are most likely to see the first rays of the New Year's sun.

Traditional Food, Tteokguk(떡국)-

Korean dish eaten during the celebration of the Korean New Year. The dish consists of the broth/soup (guk) within which is placed several thinly sliced rice cakes (tteok).It is a tradition to eat tteokguk on New Years because it is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year and for him or her to supposedly gain an additional year of life. Additional ingredients are usually added to the dish; these include thinly sliced cooked eggs, marinated meat, mandu, and/or dried seaweed for seasoning is a traditional food in Korea.




Sebae(세배)-

Sebae is a traditionally observed activity on Seollal, and is filial-piety-orientated. Children wish their parents a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow (rites with more than one bow involved are usually for the dead) and the words "saehae bok manhi badeuseyo (Hangul: 새해 복 많이 받으세요)" which translates to please receive many blessings in the new year.
Parents typically reward this gesture by giving their children new year's money (usually in the form of crisp paper money) and offering words of wisdom, or deokdam.

Sound interesting? ^^*

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Korean restaurant 'JANG MO JIP"

Last Saturday I went to JANG MO JIP Korean restaurant located in Robson street, Vancouver with my chinese canadian and japanese friends. Because I've just got my first paycheck since I started to work. ^^*
So, that day was my treat for them!



I really wanted to let my friends try to eat a delicious korean food. I searched some korean restaurants by google website and then found out some good restaurants like MA DANG COUL, JANG MO JIB, DAE BAK BON GA, SHABUSEN YAKINIKU HOUSE(Japanese sushi dish and Korean BBQ) etc.
I decided to go to JANG MO JIB KOREAN RESTARUATN and went to there with them.
(Jang Mo Jib means my wife's parent house. In Korea, most of Wife's mothers cook some delicious and healthy foods for their son-in-law. Because they regards their son-in-law as a real son.)




The restaurant was packed with people and there were some people waiting in a line for entering. I think the location is very convenient and already known as a famous restaurant in downtown. That's the reason!
Fortunately the waiting time was not that long.
The most popular dish here is GAM JA TANG, the spicy pork spin hot pot. And I'm not exaggerating, literally, every single table has this. It was extraordinary! Huge pieces of pork spins with meat falling off, very tasty! We also ordered seafood pancake and the glass noodle. Very nice too.

A couple of things I noticed here, waitresses take your order with iPhone.... It's creative! That just amused me. Another thing is this place is very generous about their side dishes, which doesn't happen in most Korean restaurant, waitresses would bring a bucket of the item and fill it up at your table.

All in all, if you want to taste a korean famous food, here is definitely a place to stop by!!

By HeeJung

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10 Romantic Movies for Valentine's Day

Watching a romantic comedy is a fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day, whether you're spending the holiday with your special someone or a whole slew of friends and family. And there are lots of lovely movies to choose from. TheHolidaySpot suggests you the following movies that are all-time hits with cinegoers and celebrate the wonderful feeling called love in a beautiful way.
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Director: Leo McCarey Starring: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt.


Plot: Handsome playboy Nicky Ferrante and beautiful night club singer Terry McKay have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps Terry from the reunion, and Nicky fears that she has married or does not love him anymore. Will he discover the truth behind her absence and reunite with his one true love, or has fate and destiny passed them by?

Click here to watch trailer
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Director: Taylor Hackford Starring: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Louis Gossett, Jr., David Keith, Lisa Blount.


Plot: Zack Mayo is a young man who has signed up for Navy Flight School. He is a Navy brat who has a bad attitude problem. Sgt. Foley is there to train and evaluate him and will clearly find Zack wanting. Zack meets Paula, a girl who has little beyond family and must decide what it is he wants to do with his life.

Click here to watch trailer
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Director: Mike Newell Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet.


Plot: The film follows the fortunes of Charles and his friends as they wonder if they will ever find true love and marry. Charles thinks he's found "Miss Right" in Carrie, an American. This British subtle comedy revolves around Charlie, his friends and the four weddings and one funeral which they attend.

Click here to watch trailer
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Director: Nora Ephron Starring: Dana Ivey, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell.


Plot: Tom Hanks stars in this film as widower and single father Sam. When Sam's son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls into a talk radio program looking for a new mother, Sam ends up getting on the phone
and laments about his lost love. Thousands of miles away, Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam, despite the fact that she has never met him and that she is engaged to humdrum Walter (Bill Pullman). Believing they are meant to be together, Annie sets out for Seattle to meet Sam, who, meanwhile, contends with an onslaught of letters from available women equally touched by his phone call. Will Annie and Sam ever unite?


Click here to watch trailer
Titanic (1997)
Director: James Cameron Starring: Dana Ivey, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell.




Plot: This fictional romance features Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the 'unsinkable' ship RMS Titanic. But on 15 April 1912, Titanic meets with an accident on her maiden voyage. What happens to the lovers? Will their love survive?

Click here to watch trailer
The Way We Were (1973)
Director: Sydney Pollack Starring: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman and Lois Chiles.


Plot: The film tells the story of an intense Jewish woman who marries a carefree WASP following World War II. Fundamental differences in the way they engage the world – as revealed in their responses to the rise of McCarthyism – eventually pull them apart. The film is both a romance of star-crossed lovers and a morality tale about the importance of commitment to both individuals and relationships.

Click here to watch trailer
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Director: Rob Reiner Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby, Steve Ford.


Plot: This romantic comedy centres around Harry and Sally both of whom search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

Click here to watch trailer
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Director: Jon Turteltaub Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden.


Plot: This fairytale romance stars Sandra Bullock as a love-starved subway toll booth operator, Lucy. who pines for regular customer Peter (Peter Gallagher), and rescues him from almost being run over by a train. While he is in a coma in the hospital, his family mistakenly believes Lucu to be Peter's fiancee. In this cofusion, Lucy finds true love in Jack (Bill Pullman), Peter's brother.

Click here to watch trailer
You've Got Mail (1998)
Director: Hallee Hirsh, Michael Palin, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton


Plot: Kathleen Kelly, owner of a little and famous bookstore for children's books falls in love with a man over the internet without knowing him in person. Suddenly, her business gets endangered by the opening of Fox Books discount store just "around the corner". Although getting advice by her anonymous mail-pal, she has to close down her store and is full of hatred for Fox Books. Will she ever know that her anonymous mail-pal is actually Joe Fox, the son of the owner of Fox Books?

Click here to watch trailer
Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Director: Marc Lawrence Starring: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein.


Plot: Lucy Kelton (Sandra Bullock) is the Chief Legal Counsel for one of New York's leading commercial real estate firms, the Wade Corporation. George Wade (Hugh Grant), is the eccentric and remarkably self-centered head of the firm who seems entirely incapable of making a decision without Lucy's advice. When things start to get too much for Lucy, she gives him two weeks notice, and George reluctantly accepts, under one condition -- Lucy has to hire her own replacement. After extensive research, Lucy picks June Carter (Alicia Witt), a Harvard Law graduate determined to make a career for herself. Lucy soon begins to suspect, however, that June plans to hasten her rise up the corporate ladder by winning George's hand, leaving Lucy to wonder if she should warn George about his beautiful but calculating new attorney -- and whether she should tell George that she has finally realized she's in love with him.

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I see you, "Avatar"

I don't usually go to a theater twice for watching the same movie.
But I did actually only for Avatar! That means this movie have something special.
I don't enjoy watching 3D, science fiction and action moive too much.
But my friends asked me to go to a theater together so that I checked it out from some blogs of other reviwers before watching. After then, I was so exciting and couldn't wait to watch it!


It's an amazing and exciting 3D movie and you can't image how many people watch this movie.
The film board said that It's about 6,081,183 people watched since released the movie on the 17th of Dec. Now the movie professionals are expected to exceed 10million moviegoers!!



As you see, the director of avatar is James Cameron who already led "Titanic" and "Terminator" to hit the box office 10 years ago.
This movie was completed after going through nearly 18years of production. It's such a long terms to make.

The story is including in a love and conflicts between the main character who became a new living thing", Avatar and pandora indigenous woman and also in an exhaustion of natural resources in the mess and unavoidable war.

The war begin after that the earth people wanted to take a substituted resources from a peaceful planet pandora for solving the problem of the energy depletion. That's the point and the main story of this movie.
Expecially, you should watch carefully the confrontation scene of between the indigenous people,Na’vi and the earth people and the beautiful the world of Na’vi!

I think the natural world of Na'vi and the first mankind life look simillar.
Jake learn how to commune with all of nature and living thing and experience an restlessness of mind from their life and mind, showing their respect to the nature while living together with them.

In the real world, Na'vi is disappeared now. But they defended their world, pandora, against the earth people who have a high tech weaponry in this movie.
Finally they could keep their beautiful world because they won!

This movie give us a living lesson and a chance to re-think about our earth and life. If you're looking for a movie which touch your feeling or you like 3D movie, you should watch this movie! You won't regret i guarantee!

Enjoy watching it! =)

By HeeJung

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Australia

Various foods!

Have you ever been to Australia?
If you don't, just go there! You will never, ever be disappointed! I can guarantee it. You can meet the most beautiful scenery you've ever seen.
Today, I want to guide you to two biggest cities in Australia: Sydney and Melbourne.
First of all, Sydney is the biggest city in Australia which is surrounded by great nature. Maybe, some of you will misunderstand Sydney as the capital city. But it is not like that. Even though Canberra is the capital, Sydney is reall huge city. Since it is surrounded by beautiful nature, you can visit a lot of bays and parks.


I want to recommend you to visit bays rather than beaches just like manly beach and bondai beach. Because those beaches are so popular to everybody that you can not fully enjoy your time being there. In stead of visiting those big beaches, you can visit small bays and spend your holidays with your family and friends. When the weather helps you, you can see the most beautiful spot in the whole country ,Which is, Watsons bay and Gap park. Those places are famous for the background of various movies. Some people say that they can die because of the beautiful scenery. I know, it might seems too strange and weird to do that. People want to die? Because of the beauty? It doesn't make sense. But if you visit there and see the place, you will totally understand their feeling.
The first picture is Sydney tower. You can see every building and whole city at the highest place in Sydney.

A sightseeing bus! You can visit any place in Sydney.









This is the most famous building in Sydney, Opera house. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who, in 2003, received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour. The citation stated:

"There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent." The Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.


The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both Sydney and Australia. The bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its design. Look at the picture then, you can find the coathanger there! It is not only the widest long-span bridge but also the fifth longest spanning -arch bridge in the world.

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney open to the public in Sydney. We can see various plants and flowers in the Royal Botanic Gardens that is why it became the oldest scientific institution in Australia and ha been playing a major role in botanics.



You can also visit Sydney Aquarium. There are over 11,000 various kinds of fish. Giant turtles, sharks, seaholses and so on. The reason why it is unique is that it is surrounded by real sea!

Now, it is time to move on to Melbourne. Melbourne is the second populous city in Australia. This train is an old steam train. It is really famous in Puffing billy, Melbourne. It runs so slow that you can run beside the train. You can enjoy the moment of running through thick forest.

When we rented car and drived through the Great Ocean Road(The road which we can drive beside beach for 4 hours sometimes, come across wild animals), it was getting dark. So we saw the 12 apostles in dark. 12 Apostles are disciples of Jesus. Actually, waves made the great statue. Because it is not artificial thing, it is precious and worth.

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New Moon

I was excited to watch the second movie of Twilight saga, New Moon.
It was released 20th of Novemver. I booked a ticket for the movie the day before release date with my German friend. Actually we were looking foward to watching it a few month before. Twilight saga is about the love story between human(Bella) and vampire(Edward).
In New Moon, there was an irresistable accident beween Bella and Jasper(Edward's brother). Jasper tried to attack her when she was bleeding at her birthday party in Edward's house. From that moment, Edward recognizes that he can not protect Bella every single moment. So Bella asks him to make her as a vampire, but Edward leaves her rather than making her as a vampire. After his leave, she becomes desperated and frustrated. Meaningless time passes by and 6 monthes later, she visits her old friend Jacob to get over her sadness.


While meeting him, she finds out an unexpected truth. It is that Jacob changes as a werewolf. Whenever she has some problems, he appears right next to her. One vampire wants to attack her in the meadow. So he and his friends from gang manage to kill him.



Twilight is totally based on the love story between Edward and Bella. On the other hand, New moon is based on a love triagle(Edward-Bella-Jacob). So it makes us expect and be suspicious about how next story will be going on. Eventhough Edward leaves Bella, she tries to meet him again. At the end of the movie, she finally meets him. He asks her to get married to him.


Whole story of this movie is based on the book [Twilight saga0. However, some scenes are quite diffrent from the book. So I really want to recommend you to watch the movie first. And then, read the book. In that case, you will not be disappointed about the movie as well as book. While you read the book, you can remember and imagine every single scene from the movie. Then, it can help you to improve your reading and listening ability.

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Ireland

Hi, my name is Timea Farkas. During my collage years I spent a semester in Ireland. I attended to Trinity Collage in Dublin. I had a very good time therefore I made a short introduction about Dublin for you. The island of Ireland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Britain, and to the extreme northwest of Europe. It lies between latitude 51.5 and 55.5 degrees North, and longitude 5.5 and 10.5 degrees West. The population was 5,458,352 in 2004.

Geography
The island of Ireland is located in northwest Europe in the north Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain. It is approximately 53° north of the equator and 8° west of the Greenwich meridian. It has a total area of 84,116 km² (32,477 mi²). Ireland is separated from Britain by the Irish Sea and from mainland Europe by the Celtic Sea. It has a coastline of 1,970 miles. A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 1041 m (3414 feet). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 113 km (70 mi) the longest river in either Britain or Ireland, which flows south from northwest County Cavan to meet the Atlantic just south of Limerick. There are a large number of lakes, of which Lough Neagh is the largest. The island's lush vegetation earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". Ireland is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and in accordance with daylight saving, clocks are put forward one hour mid-March and back one hour at the end of October. During summer it stays light until as late as 11.00pm but by mid-December it can be dark by 4.00pm.























Climate
The climate of Ireland is influenced by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and on the whole, it tends to be quite temperate. Its relatively small size and the prevailing southwest winds also give a fairly uniform temperature over the whole country. Winters tend to be generally mild, and summers generally cool. Coldest months of the year are usually January and February with average temperatures of 4oc-7oc. The warmest months of the year are July and August with average temperatures of 14oc-16oc. The sunniest months of the year are May and June with an average sunshine of 5-7 hours per day. The average rainfall for Ireland as a whole is between 800 and 1200 mm (or 31" to 41") per year. So it`s a little bit rainy :)

Currency
Ireland uses the Euro, whilst Northern Ireland uses the Pound. It`s very funny when you visit to the Northen area becasue you have to take another currency wiht you.










Language (Irish)
Irish has been the spoken language of Ireland for over two thousand years, and has an extensive literature stretching back to the seventh century. While Irish speakers are very much a minority in the Ireland of today, they have an importance to the cultural life of the nation far out of proportion to their numbers. Irish is by constitutional law the first official language of the Irish Republic, and was recently awarded official status in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland as a central part of the Good Friday Agreement. In the most recent censuses (1991), over a million people in the Republic and over 140,000 in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland reported themselves as having a reasonable proficiency in the language. Around 260,000 people still use Irish as their first language, although many more use it as a second language and it is taught in all schools in Ireland. There are pockets of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known as Gaeltachtaí. The most important ones are in Connemara including the Aran Islands in County Galway and the west coast of County Donegal and the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry. Others exist in Mayo, Meath and Waterford. The numerically strongest Gaeltachtaí are those of Connemara and Aran. The highest percentages of Irish speakers are found in Ros Muc, Connemara, and around Bloody Foreland in Tír Chonaill.

















Shelta
A language spoken by parts of the Irish Traveller people. Shelta's vocabulary is based largely on Irish Gaelic while its structure contains many similarities with English. It also contains elements of Romany languages, though the Travellers are not actual Roma. There are anywhere from 6,000-25,000 in Ireland itself according to various sources. The language is spoken almost exclusively by Travellers.






History
The island itself has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. These peoples left huge stone monuments, many of them astronomically aligned. The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. The Iron Age in Ireland started with the arrival of the Celts, who colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC. The Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquered the island and divided it into five or more kingdoms. The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. In 432 AD, St. Patrick arrived on the island and converted the Irish to Christianity. Irish scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the Dark Ages. They produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island.












Beginning in the 9th century, 200 years of intermittent warfare began with waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. The Vikings eventually founded many seacoast towns in Ireland. In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin known as the Pale but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century. In the middle of the 1800's the country suffered a huge potato famine. The English approach to this catastrophe meant that millions were starving, and millions emigrated to Britain, North America and Australia. The population dropped from over 8 million before the Famine to 4.4 million in 1911. From that time, English influence and expansion grew, and with it spread the English language. Over time there grew a movement to shake off English rule, and for Ireland to become independent. A war of independence raged from 1919 to 1921, resulting in the creation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland (which remained in the Union)


Dublin

In County Dublin, part of the province of Leinster, Dublin lies nestled around the mouth of the river Liffey and Dublin Bay on Ireland's east coast.
The first documented settlement here was a "permanent raiding camp" of the Vikings established in 841. Only in the 10th century a trading colony was founded by the Vikings near today's Christ Church Cathedral and called after the nearby "dark pool", in Irish dubh linn. After the Anglo-Norman invasion and during the middle ages Dublin was the center of (Anglo-Norman) power and an important merchant city.
Major growth started during the 17th century and part of the city was rebuilt in formal Georgian style. Around the time of the French Revolution (1789) Dublin was considered to be one of the fairest and richest cities in Europe. At the same time abysmal slums developed and the inner city declined after the Act of Union (1800) with many wealthy citizens leaving for London.
Dublin was the center of the Easter Rising in 1916 and became capital of the Free State and Republic - while the fabric of the city decayed dramatically. Only in the 1960s moves were made to to rebuild Dublin, mainly by tearing down old houses and building new office blocks. Social housing was built on a grand and uninspiring scale, leading to new problem areas.








Only in the 1980s a sensible policy of re-construction, combining preservation and renewal, was started. The booming "Celtic Tiger" economy of the 1990s led to further growth, with the now affluent Dubliners moving out into suburban areas. Here poorly planned "estates" destroyed the green belt with their cancerous growth.
The capital is a strange mixture of the busy city center, outlying village-like communities and huge suburban estates all melting together into one big metropolitan sprawl. The tourist will more than likely stick to the walkable center (roughly defined by Parnell Square to the North, St Stephen's Green to the South, Custom House to the East and the cathedrals to the West), with only excursions to the Phoenix Park or St James' Gate (Guinness) taking him out of this area. But even in this small part nearly all aspects of Dublin life can be seen - from the hustle and bustle of the ultra-modern IFSC to the drug-riddled areas of social housing nearby, from the Georgian splendor of Merrion Square to the utilitarian office blocks placed between here and the Liffey, and including cobbled sidestreets, magnificent parks, stately (and mostly state-owned) buildings and seemingly millions of young people.







Sights of Dublin

Trinity Collage and library

Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I on the grounds of an Augustinian priory that was a victim of the dissolution. Trinity College even today dominates the city landscape and the oldest buildings (the brick-built "Rubrics") date from 1700. Most of the impressive buildings were built during the renovation phase of 1759. Trinity College Library is home to more than a million books and priceless manuscripts, the most famous being the "Book of Kellts" - long queues may form in summer.











O`Connel street and the General Post Office

O'Connell Street is Dublin's main traffic artery and the widest urban street in Europe - which you will not believe at busy times. The center is dominated by statues and monuments, the houses on the left and right are mainly large and impressive. Pride of place goes to the General Post Office (GPO), scene of the 1916 rebellion and faithfully rebuilt after being shelled by artillery and a warship. A bronze statue of Cuchullain remembers the fallen heroes.
























National Museum

Two museums should be high on the list of priorities for any visitor. The National Museum of Archaeology and History in Kildare Street (Dublin 2) is dedicated to prehistoric and medieval Ireland. Do not miss the excellent new exhibition "Kingship & Sacrifice". The National Museum of Decorative Arts and History in Collins Barracks (Benburb Street, Dublin 7) houses an eclectic collection including the uniform Michael Collins was shot in and an exhibition on the Easter Rising.

















St Patrick`s Chatedral

Ireland's largest church and the National Cathedral - this special status was conferred on a church were no bishop actually has his throne! Founded in 1191 by Archbishop Comyn the building was substantially renovated between 1844 and 1869 with moneys granted and raised by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness. Visitors will thus find a neo-gothic cathedral with some older parts. Here you will also see the graves of Dean Swift (of "Gulliver" fame) and his beloved Stella.














Temple Bar

Originally earmarked for the wrecker's ball and redevelopment as a bus and rail terminal the area south of the Liffey was saved and reinvented as a "bohemian quarter". On good days you will meet street artists and enjoy international cuisine and bustling pubs. On bad days the area will be overrun by parties on "stag" or "hen nights". Temple Bar can be very much of a mixed bag and has been commercially developed to the max - the "bohemian" aspect being facade to a large degree.




















Phoenix Park

The world's largest enclosed municipal park can keep you busy for days - from the magnificent residences of the Irish President and the Ambassador of the United States to the quaint cricket and polo fields, from Ashtown Castle to the Garda Headquarters and from the herds of deer roaming free to the animals in Dublin Zoo. Do not miss the Phoenix Statue and the Papal Cross nearby. Martial history is emphasized by the massive Wellington Monument and the much-raided Magazine Fort on Thomas Hill.














In my opinnion Dublin is worth to see. :)

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