Ireland Trips- Dublin 2


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December 15th 2009
Published: December 15th 2009
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So, I'm catching up from my trips because it has been forever since I have written. I am now officially done with ALL of my work. I had to write five papers over this semester, had one exam, and one performance, which doesn't sound like much, but they grade harshly here so it is a lot more work than you would think. In total, I wrote 11,450 words and took 5 overnight trips...So it has been incredibly busy, but I can now catch up on my trips and work on the blog. Sorry if you're a subscriber, because I hope to have a lot more blogs coming and your email might get a bit crowded. We'll see, though, if I really come through.

The first trip to Ireland that I went on was to Dublin on Nov. 6-8 with my friend Michele from Philidelphia. We came in on the night of the 6th and went to our hostel on the North side of the Liffey called Abraham House. We stayed on the millionth floor and had to go back down to the lobby about a billion times to get various things. Otherwise, this hostel was alright. We had our own bathroom and stayed in an all female dorm with our own bathroom and shower that functioned... sort of. If you are only doing weekend trips, avoid showering in the hostel. They generally are horrible... the water is too hot or too cold or doesn't flow hardly at all. Really, though, the hostel is just a place to sleep and doesn't need to be nice.

The first day we were there we spent most of our time in the city. We set out to the South side near Grafton street to meet Michele's uncle's cousin or some obscure relative that her uncle was pushing her to go visit. They weren't exactly sure how they were related but we visited for about five minutes, got the picture to satisfy her uncle and went on our way.

Throughout the day we went to Trinity College, Christchurch Cathedral, The Guinness Storehouse and finally Dublin Castle. I already blogged about Trinity and Christchurch, so I will focus on Guinness and the Castle. The Storehouse was alright... It was about 11 euro with a free pint of Guinness at the top of the storehouse in their Gravity Bar. The storehouse itself was really lame. You don't get to see the actual beer being brewed, but you get to read about how it is done and see images, etc. There was a really neat bottle and label collection of Guinness through the ages, including a bottle that survived the 1916 Easter Rising that I wrote a 4,000 wd paper on for my history class, so that was exciting. Basically, you pay 6 euro for a tour and seeing neat artifacts like that and then 5 euro for the pint at the top, which was really neat. The view of Dublin was probably one of the best in the city, but it was incredibly packed and difficult to get a seat at all, let alone near the window. This was not even high tourist season, so plan ahead and decide if you really want to go there. It was fun, but touristy and overpriced.

The Dublin Castle was absolutely worth it. I don't remember how much it was, and we had to wait for about 20 minutes for a tour but I would highly recommend it. It is not a medieval castle as you would generally think. Here is a link so you can read a bit about the history of the castle if you are interested: http://www.dublincastle.ie/history_intro.html. The palace had many elegant and historic rooms that were absolutely gorgeous. It is really hard to describe, but I really enjoyed my visit and I would recommend it.

We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner that night. We were planning on going out to a pub crawl in the Temple Bar that night, but we were exhausted and went to our hostel to pass out.

The next day we did a tour in the Wicklow Mountains to Glendalough that was similar to what my parents and I had done previously, but with more stops. My folks and I just went straight to and from Glendalough, but Michele and I went on a formal tour. We stopped in Glencree for a coffee stop at an old reformatory school first, then went to Lough Tay, which was incredible. Check out my facebook for photos. This is where the Guinness family estate is, and it was really impressive. I cannot imagine living in a place like that. The lake is named Tay, or tea, because of its dark brown color. Funny anecdote: according to our tour driver, the Guinness family brought sand in to be the foam on the pint of Guinness. See the picture and you'll get it. We traveled through the Wicklow Gap, the high point in the Wicklow mountains. We then traveled to the small town of Avoca, where the show Ballykissangel is filmed. I had never heard of it either, so don't worry. We had a great dinner and went back to catch our late flight. This tour was a really great way to see a lot of the area and it was nice and relaxing compared to our busy day of walking the day before.

I would definitely recommend doing anything like this when you travel to Ireland. Definitely get out of the city, because that is where Ireland is truly amazing. I could spend so much time in Ireland and never be satisfied.

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