Dublin, Ireland

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Fact: Matthew McConaughey knows how to Irish dance

I traveled to Dublin, Ireland on September 18th with six other girls. yikes. Traveling with that many girls turned out okay... haha! Anyway, we flew to Dublin and got to our hostel, Litton Lane. The seven of us stayed in a 10 person room. One of the beds was occupied by a Turkish man who wore striped pajamas... interesting. There was also one other girl who I mistook for one of my friends the next morning without my glasses on and said hi to her with my teeth-grinding mouthguard in and needless to say, we never saw her again. haha!

Anyway, we got settled into our hostel and then we went to a pub called St. John's Gogarty for dinner but it was a little pricey... 20 euros a person at least so we ate at Burger King instead. That was not my decision! I had avoided American fast foods all the way up until that point. Oh well.

The next day, we went to the Imperial College to see the Book of Kels but only Tori went in because it was costly to see it. Then we went to Dublin Castle which was the best tour that I've had on this trip so far. The castle was built in 1204 but destroyed by a fire in 1684. In the king's bedroom, his bed spanned the distance between two doors so he could knock on the door from his bed for a servant; thus the term: king-sized bed. In the dining room, the girl's chairs are wider to accomodate their huge skirts. And in the sitting room, where the ladies sat, the chairs are not facing each other because they weren't supposed to talk to one another or they were thought to be stupid. Also, the girls wore heavy wax makeup that would melt if they were too close to the fire so they used firescreens. If the makeup melted, they were said to "lose face". That's where that phrase comes from as well. In the throne room, there was a really interesting couch that had room for two people to sit in the middle and then there were little partitions on either end and room for someone to sit on either end. The purpose of this strange design was for two young people who were interested in each other sat on either side while the chaperons sat in the middle discussing whether they were suitable for each other. If the chaperons agreed that the other person's kid was ok, the young people then switched places with the chaperons. That would have been a lovely date, eh? haha! We also learned that the servants had to whistle as they walked around to prove that they didn't have food in their mouths, thus the phrase: whistle while you work. The Crown Jewels of Ireland mysteriously went missing 102 years ago and were never recovered nor was the mystery solved. It must have been an inside job though. In the Irish flag, green represents the republic/Nationalists part and Catholics, orange represents the Unionist party and Protestants, and white represents peace between those groups and north and south. Those are some of my favorite highlights about the sweet castle.

After the castle, we went to St. Patrick's cathedral which was really beautiful but nothing in comparison to St. Peter's in Rome. Sorry about that, Dublin. Next we went to the Guinness factory and did the tour. The tour is 7 stories tall and shaped like a pint of beer. The 7th floor is a gravity bar with 360 degree views of the city. It was cool! Alfred Guinness signed a 9,000 year contract when he first started his business which (as the tour guide says) proves how confident he was about his recipe. They kind of really love Alfred Guinness in Dublin, aka he is kind of a big deal.

The following day, Saturday, we went on an "Over the Top" bus tour into the Irish countryside including Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough. That was one of the highlights of my trip. We had a great tour guide named Ed who was probably like 60 years old. He was a cute old guy and kind of crazy. We also had an English couple, one English girl, a Spanish girl, two Canadian guys, and an Italian couple on our bus. Ed had some really interesting facts like Dublin is on the same latitude as Labrador, Canada and Moscow, Russia but yet it has palm trees because Ireland is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico stream. According to Ed, they also get jellyfish and leatherback turtles.
We had a great day for this tour because it was sunny and warm. Our first stop was an overlook of the city of Dublin. Next was Ocsar Wilde's house. There was a beautiful glacial lake behind it. That would be a great place to write. My favorite stop was Guinness lake which was a huge glacial lake that we looked down on from a high bluff. Alfred Guinness set up his residence there and Michael Jackson stayed there in September and October of 2006. The lake even looked like Guinness because there was a sandy part at one end that looked like the foam on a pint of Guinness. 😊
After that, we went to a cascade which was like a waterfall along a hill instead of falling straight down. The Canadian boys were taking too long for Ed's liking so he drove off without them!!! We were all shocked! Ed was like, "Well, I will eat some lunch and see if I can go back up there and get them." Ahh! Ed! Needless to say, we always had one hand on the bus from then on. haha! Ed dropped us off at a little town for lunch and then he drove back and picked them up. yikes. Apparently, they weren't too worried but I would have been freaking out.
After lunch, we went to Glendalough which means: the glen of the valley of the two lakes. We went to a former monastery that had a cemetary and a Viking tower which is 1 of 70 in the country and was used to watch for approaching vikings who came to towns for teenagers to sell as slaves, silver, and gold. The first Celtic cross is here (according to Ed) and the circle is for the sun god of the Celtic people and the cross is obviously for Christianity. We explored the area a bit and got a chance to talk to the Italian couple, Federica and Fabio. I can't believe I met a real live Fabio! I was telling them about my experience in Italy and Fabio was saying how much he missed Italian food. I assumed they had been traveling for a while and I asked them how long they had been away. It was for the weekend. haha! Well, Italian food is that good!
On our way back into Dublin, Ed told us that Matthew McConaughey was in Dublin for the film, "Reign of Fire". His favorite pub was St. John's Gogarty where he learned to Irish dance. So, there you go! I can Irish dance too now that I've been to Dublin. haha.

I had a lot of fun in Dublin but I wish I would have picked a 4 leaf clover and I wish I saw a leprechaun. 😊

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