15 – 18 March 2011
Ireland was really fun, but kind of rough at parts. I came down with an annoying cold two days before we left and it was just really holding on. Add to that the fact that we had to leave the centre at 3 am on Tuesday and I was a rather sick and sleep deprived girl.
Our first stop after landing in Dublin was the Guinness storehouse and museum. I walked through in kind of a haze, probably blowing my nose about every two steps. Professor Dursteler had the hardest time trying to explain that our group was Mormon and didn’t drink. The ticket counter finally just ended up selling him “Under 18” tickets so that we would be given soft drinks instead of Guinness. We thought it was pretty funny :)
After that we checked into the hotel and Michelle and I opted to take an afternoon nap before venturing out on the town. We spent a couple hours wandering through shops, during which I kept the pharmaceutical store Boots afloat by buying up half their cold meds and supplements. We also walked by the old city wall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Our whole group met up for dinner reservations at the Brazenhead pub, supposedly the oldest pub in Ireland. The Brazenhead was definitely high-scale for a pub and I just really enjoyed it. I had a greek salad, roast beef and vegetables and a delicious slice of apple pie for dessert. The apple pie really wasn’t like American apple pie at all. It seemed more like sponge cake with layers of apple and covered with this delicious toffee sauce. It was heavenly!
Our second day in Dublin was my favorite. We were staying at the Jury’s Inn and just loved it. Most American-style hotel I’ve been at and it had a full hot breakfast buffet. There were also two computers in the lobby that had free internet. Just so you know, that is unheard of in Europe.
The first stop for Michelle and I was Kilmainham Gaol. When I asked the hotel receptionist how to take the public bus there, I learned the hard way that “Gaol” is pronounced “Jail.” What the heck? The tour of the jail was really cool. We learned a lot about Irish civil war and other history which really helped give some context for other things we saw on the trip.
Afterward, we got off the bus at Trinity College in the center of Dublin. Trinity College houses the Book of Kells – an illuminated manuscript of the gospels made by a group of Irish monks around 800 AD. I really enjoyed seeing the Book of Kells and some of their other ancient manuscripts. It was such a cool experience to be able to lean my face close to the glass to be just a few inches away to this ancient book. Trinity College also just so happens to have the longest one-room library in the world. It’s called “The Long Room.” The room is two stories high with a balcony around the top and it was just so amazing to stand at one end and look at the rows and rows of shelves of books.
Afterward, Michelle wanted to stop at the James Joyce Cultural Centre. This was basically a small museum in honor of a famous Irish writer that I could have lived my life happy without seeing.
In the evening we walked to a little festival where we watched some Irish dancing, walked through Temple Bar district, and did some shopping for St Patrick’s Day hats.
Next - St Patrick’s Day! The next morningoOur whole group had the time of our lives getting all dressed up in green with our faces painted in green shamrocks and Irish flags. We walked out to O’Connell Street where there was just an awesome air of excitement with everyone dressed in green leprechaun hats and trying to find good spots to watch the parade. We waited an hour for the parade to start and then waited another 45 minutes for it to get down to where we were. Basically, it was the weirdest parade we had ever seen. There were a few of the typical marching bands and mounted police, but the main parade was apparently based on an Irish fantasy short story none of us had ever read. It was weird. Think Oompa Loompas. Or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Just weird. Very well done though.
After the parade Michelle and I searched for a coffee shop and sat down for hot chocolate and pastries. When we walked back down O’Connell Street around 3:30 pm to head to our bus, we were shocked at the transformation. What had been a nice, modern metropolitan area had changed into a very eerie, sketchy, drunken street. Dozens of police officers roamed around while men and women downed pint after pint in the pubs. Teenage girls danced promiscuously on the sidewalk and boys peed in the corners. So this is what St Patrick’s Day means to Ireland? When we got on the bus, our driver told us we should be glad to get out of town, he said at night there would just be bodies lying in the street. We were glad.
That night we stayed at a hostel in Kilkenny and spent the next morning just walking around the town. In the afternoon we took the bus to the Rock of Cashel in Tipperary County. It was a fortress, but became a cathedral... or maybe it was a cathedral that became a fortress? Still confused.
Ireland was really lovely and I enjoyed Dublin immensely. However, I think we were all about ready to cry tears of joy when, at 12:30 am, we finally got to our beds in the Centre. There’s no place like… home? Well, I guess the Centre is close enough. :)
