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Published: March 9th 2010
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Over our spring break (actually in mid-February), I fled the ice and snow of Austria for England and Ireland. Even though I still had to wear my winter coat some days, my snow boots got no use all week! The comparatively warm weather was exciting, but it was also the first time I had been to Ireland and to London, so I got in some prime sightseeing time.
After one night in London, we flew to Dublin and made our way to the Temple Bar District. Temple Bar is an area in Dublin adjacent to the River Liffy, known for its passion for the arts and its nightlife. It used to be a warehouse district, but after the shipping industry died down, Dublin Bus Company bought up the entire area and began renting it out to artists for flats and to pubs. Half the population of Dublin (and, in fact, or Ireland) is under the age of twenty-five, so as you can imagine, there’s quite a lot of nightlife. Although the city on the whole was very expensive, the food was good and almost all of the pubs had live music. On our first night, since we had arrived late,
we had an overpriced but enjoyable dinner in Temple Bar, met a few of the rowdy drunks who seem to live there, and went back to the hostel.
The next day our sightseeing began in earnest. We took a walking tour around the city and learned a great deal about Dublin’s and Ireland’s history. We saw Dublin castle, an eclectic mix of historical styles; the Tower of Records, a famous prison when Dublin Castle was the seat of English government in Ireland, and from which only one prisoner ever escaped; and we visited Trinity College, Ireland’s top university and one of the highest ranked in the world. Our tour guide was a Catholic from Northern Ireland, and he told us a lot of quirky stories from Irish history. For instance, since Trinity College was founded by Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were forbidden to attend, and in retaliation, the Pope declared that anyone who attended would be excommunicated. Until recently, Catholics still had to request letters of dispensation from Church authorities in order to attend. But even though the school’s bylaws have been amended to allow people of all religions entrance, one odd rule remains on the books: if a
student, faculty, or staff member of the school sees a Catholic in the courtyard, according to the university bylaws, he or she required to shoot said Catholic with a crossbow. As our tour guide put it, “You might be arrested for murder if you were to do such a thing, but you would not be expelled from Trinity College.”
We wanted to visit the Book of Kells while we were at Trinity, but it was fairly expensive, and there are only two pages visible on any given day. The book is one of the oldest preserved illuminated manuscripts of the “Insular” style, and it dates from 800 A.D. Since we didn’t see the book in person, we tried to live vicariously through our tour guide: as a student at Trinity, he had won an essay competition and as his prize, had been allowed to turn the page of the Book of Kells. Anyway, the campus of Trinity College was beautiful, rain or shine (we got a little of both). We visited a few other noteworthy sites along the tour, but the parts I found most interesting were not the sites themselves (a plaque honoring Jonathan Swift’s house, the Clarence
Hotel owned by U2, etc.), but the guide’s perspective on Irish history. We heard many different views of the Irish Rebellion of 1916 over the next few days, but his seemed the most well-rounded to me. He had an ironic, self-deprecating sense of humor that imbued Irish history with both nobility and hilarity. I really enjoyed the tour.
We tried to visit Kilmainham Gaol that day, but along the way we realized that the tourist map was not at all to scale, and after getting lost several times, we arrived just as the jail was closing—this after walking non-stop for literally two hours! So we gave up and went back for dinner and afterwards met some of Molly’s friends (also spending their reading week in Dublin) for a pint.
Our next day’s tour of the Wicklow region was also well worth the time and money, although we did not, as we had originally hoped, visit the coast. We traveled through the Irish mountains, visiting: the Guinness Lake (actually it has another name, but it’s on the property of the heirs to the Guinness legacy, so people know it as the Guinness Lake…it also looks like Guinness…seriously!); Avoca, a
small town where the TV show “Ballykissangel” was set and filmed; peat harvesting regions; the place where Thomas Moore (not Thomas More) wrote “The Meeting of the Waters”; and my favorite, the ruins of a monastery founded in the 8th century by St. Kevin.
The monastery and the surrounding grounds were beautiful. We even took a “hike” there. “Glendalough” means the valley of two lakes, and we walked from the upper lake down past the lower lake to the monastery ruins. There’s this old Celtic cross there, which according to legend will grant your wish if you can wrap your arms around it so that your fingers touch. If your fingers can touch, it’s also supposed to mean that you’re in the right relationship. Molly and I checked, and both of us could touch our fingers together.
My favorite parts of the ruins were the old chapel and cathedral buildings, but there was also this tall tower, a landmark in Ireland. Anyway, the tour guide had been asking us trivia questions, and he said that whoever could guess the height of the tower would get a pint of Guinness at lunch. I don’t actually like Guinness, but after
he gave us a hint, I knew the answer to the question, and in Ireland I figured I should probably drink some Guinness anyway, so Molly helped me finish the pint.
On our last day in Dublin, we finally managed to see Kilmainham Gaol, which had a really interesting political history and was also used as a set for several movies about Irish history, including “Michael Collins.” We also walked around Stephen’s Green, the big park in Dublin City Center; got our picture with Molly Malone; went to the Cake Café; and said our farewells to Dublin. My vacation was only half over.
I’ll attempt to not be quite as long-winded about London as I was with Ireland. I really just loved the atmosphere in Ireland. I’ve never been in a place where the majority of the people were so conspicuously nice and helpful. Even in the airport, where people are usually stressed out and rude, the workers were all really nice.
London was also fun. I got to visit a lot of places I’d only seen before in movies—Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, and my favorite: the Tower of London. We
spent almost a whole day touring the tower grounds. On my birthday, Molly and I also went to see Les Mis. in the West End. It was really well done and I loved it! So all that, in addition to the Death by Chocolate cake we baked, made for a really fun birthday and Semesterferien.
I’ve since taken a few weeks off from traveling in order to recuperate, but the end of March and April will be chock full of adventures, so I’ll have more to write soon. Here’s hoping spring comes soon!
Meg
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