Dublin

October 8th

We left for our weekend in Dublin on Thursday morning and made a few stops along the way. The first stop was at Clonmacnoise, a monastery on the Shannon river that was visited by the pope in 1979. It has 4 high crosses that are still in good condition that were built in 800 AD. It was also attacked frequently by vikings way back when. I also had my first sausage roll here, it was a pastry filling with spicy sausage that was pureed or something. It reminded me of pigs in a blanket and was really good. Our next stop that day was at Phoenix park in Dublin where Pope John Paul II said mass in 1979 and over 1 million people attended. The rest of that day we settled into our new homey hostel for the weekend and saw a little of Dublin by wandering the streets. That night we went to popular location called Temple Bar to check out some of the pubs and found out the hard way that a pint or any drink was outrageous in Dublin.





Friday we hopped back on the bus for about an hour outside of Dublin to Newgrange:(Irish: Sí an Bhrú) is a passage tomb of the Brú na Bóinne complex in County Meath. It is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, and indeed the most famous of all Irish prehistoric sites. Newgrange was built in such a way that at dawn on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, a narrow beam of sunlight for a very short time illuminates the floor of the chamber at the end of the long passageway. Here we got to see a reenactment of the light coming through the tomb to produce light. The architecture and symbolic carvings were amazing considering the time period and how long it has stayed in such good condition. When got back into Dublin most of us went to Guinness Brewery to learn about the revolution that Arthur Guinness began in 1759. Here we learned everything from the ingredients, brewing, production and everything that there is to know about Guinness! There are 7 floors of information and it is shaped like a 14 million pint glass and on the very top there is a Gravity Bar that you can see a 360 degrees of the city and receive a free pint of Guinness!



Saturday October 10th was a free day in Dublin where we or course tried to fit everything that was possible into one day! In the morning we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, the Book of Kells at Trinity College and attempted at the Dublin Castle but could found out that the tours were full for the day. We also spent a little time on Grafton street which was filled with stores, many of these were very high class stores, a famous one being Brown Thomas which is a huge department store with 7 floors. I thought it would be fun to walk around in here and I found scarves that were 200 euro and models that were walking around displaying clothing! As ridiculous and over the top that this store was it was kind of fun to see! This street is also known for its street performers, there were sand sculptors, people posing as statues that were covered in a brass like material and did not move a muscle. The big news this day was that Ireland was playing Italy in football in Dublin that night! We already had plans to go to a play that night as a group and tickets were very expensive and scarce so only two of the guys ended up going, the two teams ended up tying but heard it was an amazing experience. That night we were going to see a play at the Abbey theater called the Electric Ballroom! It ended up being a little different then what we had expected with little plot and very artistic. However, it was still fun to get dressed up and go to the theater. That night we went out again, spending most of the time in Temple Bar area again!



Sunday morning we had a tour of the former prison in Dublin, Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the jail by the British. At the time, this prison was full of all kinds of people including children for crimes as small as petty theft. This prison was shut down in 1924 and was opened as a museum in the 1980's. There have been movies filmed here and the U2 music video for The Celebration.



The next week we were blessed with a gorgeous day and we decided to take full advantage of it by walking to the beach in Spiddal and going for a swim! To our surprise the water and beach was filled with hundreds of jellyfish. Luckily only a few people were stung.

The following day we went on a day trip to the Burren and the Cliffs Of Moher! The Burren has amazing landscape which included over 90 megalithic tombs including Poulnabrone Dolmen, a tomb that dates back to 4200 BC. We then went to the Cliffs of Moher, unfortunately it was very foggy that day and we did not get to see a very good view of the amazing cliffs! As you may know these cliffs are used in many movies, one being my favorite The Princess Bride, where they refer to them as the cliffs of insanity! That night, my roommate Maggie had a friend visiting so a few of us went into Galway to show him the nightlife in Galway!