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Published: August 27th 2008
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Well, I have been in Europe for a few weeks now. All of the traveling was amazing, and very fast paced. We only had a few days in each city, so we made the most of it and did as much sightseeing as 24hrs allowed. I am splitting up these cities into different entries because (1) I highly doubt anyone will sit and read a novel on the past few weeks in one sitting, and (2) because I don't have to type all the cities' blogs together, which would take forever.
The flight from Chicago to London Heathrow was long, but all I did was watch movies- hardly slept at all. When we got to Heathrow we circled for almost an hour, which made me late and miss my flight to Dublin. I had to re-check in the airport when we did land. Then got to the gate and realized that I had somehow bypassed customs. I had to run back through security, go through customs, come back through security and sprint to my gate. Luckily, my plane was still at the gate and I was able to make the flight. So, from there everything has been less hectic and
more enjoyable.
Dublin was incredible. It isn't necessarily a city you see a lot in movies or T.V; however, it was quite picturesque . Yes, it was chilly and rainy everyday, but don't let that fool you, it didn't slow us down one bit. Trinity College is such a beautiful campus. It has two little entrances that are large, wood double doors. From the outside you would never guess what a sprawled campus lay behind the walls.
Main Building/Entrance Dorms Main Square Inside Campus It was raining when I arrived (of course) but we headed out to a pub called The Brazen Head, the oldest Irish Pub in Dublin. Brazen Head was exactly what you expect out of an Irish pub- cozy, comfy, and just a bunch of people hanging out drinking a pint of Guinness.
After it stopped raining we headed out for a little night on the town. We went to a place called Capital Lounge where the
drinks were 5 euro (about $8.50) until midnight. Believe it or not, those are still some of the cheapest drinks I have bought in all of Europe in my few weeks here.
Second day was time for a little sightseeing. The duck tours, a.k.a. Viking Tours, drove us through the main areas of Dublin and we got to see a lot of the major sights including St. Patrick's Cathedral, a building that shows how to make and use soap, and important monuments throughout the city. However, the river part of the tour was fairly short; there is not a lot to see from the river other than buildings and a few bridges.
The next few days were spent relaxing and hanging out at local pubs. All of the pubs are wonderful, they are friendly and easy-going, a great place to hang out with friends and a pint.
On our final day we visited the Jameson distillery. The actual distillery is no longer in working order, but they have recreated how they used to make the triple distilled whiskey in the 1700s when it was originally in the building. It was interesting to see how they made the
whiskey without the modern technology that we have today. Jameson ages their whiskey anywhere between 3-25 years. Interestingly, if you age a whiskey 18 years, it will lose 30%!o(MISSING)f the content of the barrel, Irish whiskey makers call it the
Angel's share
Jameson also has a whiskey that they distill for 25 years and costs approx. $25,000 per bottle. If you buy one of these bottles, your name gets written in a leatherbound book that goes on display at the factory
Leatherbound book for the High Roller Whiskey After the tour we headed to the bar for some Irish coffee since it was cold and rainy out.
James Distillery Bar Soon thereafter we decided to walk home in the rain, which turned out to be not such a good idea. It started to downpour and we were still 2 miles from campus. It was like a scene from a movie where cars drive past and drench you as they speed through the puddles. Once we got back to the room we covered the shelves, doors, chairs, and anything we could find to lay our clothes out on
because we were leaving early the next morning.
The rain we walked in for 2 miles (just look at the puddle in the street, it literally came up to the middle of my shins.) The next morning most of our clothes were dry, thankfully. Either way we packed up and left for Manchester, U.K. For all of the pictures from Dublin look in the album below!
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