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Published: July 25th 2005
Grafton Street
Busy with peopleThe trip to Dublin -- our only organized trip as a group -- was arranged so that we could see the High Court of Ireland. Aside from those few set hours, we had the remainder of the weekend to choose our own adventure.
The trip started Thursday after class. Nearly everyone (minus Joe) boarded the 2:20 train for Dublin, including professors Lenich and Stacy. We spent most of the two-hour ride playing intense games of
Uno.... which I know I played as a kid… but didn’t remember being so fun.
After we arrived in Dublin, Sean, Dan and I met up with Melanie of the Marley Martyrs (the softball team we met the first week in Ireland). The three of us guys stayed at her apartment (for free)… everyone else stayed in a hostel.
On Thursday evening, we toured the Guinness Brewery. Strangely enough,… they don’t really show you how to make the beer as much as they just show you their advertisements and memorabilia over the past 100 years. Whatever. The tour progressed up seven floors before we finally arrived at the “Sky Bar”… where we got a pint of Guinness and a magnificent view of the
Julie and me
at the train station in Limerick city. Very nice.
Friday morning we headed to the Four Courts. We weren’t able to take many pictures of the place because it is a “working court”… but we managed to snap a few inconspicuously. We goofed around a bit in one of the courts for criminal appeals. We also sat in on a murder trial.
Observations: (1) A “lawyer” in Ireland is separated into two different occupations -- a barrister and a solicitor (who work together for a single client); (2) All barristers wear old-style, white wigs… including the women.
Afterward we split time between hanging out in the Temple Bar area (
the place to be in Dublin) and participating in our second-alcohol-related tour -- the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery.
The Jameson distillery was fantastic. The tour is organized around showing you every step of the distilling process. Our tour guide picked Dan as one of four volunteers in our group of 30 or so people… so he was lucky (or unlucky) enough to take six shots of whiskey by the end. He was then awarded a certificate as an official Irish whiskey taster.
Friday night the group met with Professor Lenich to eat
Sean imparts knowledge
probably something about Texas... Sean would leave Dublin early and head off to Paris to watch the last leg of the Tour de France Moroccan food. Ireland doesn’t exactly have a spectacular native cuisine… so what can you do? I had the chicken cous cous. By far… the biggest highlight of the evening was the belly dancer. Tom, Dan, Tyler, Wendy, and Professor Lenich all took turns dancing with her. How I evaded her… I’m not sure.
And the best part you ask? Dan was savvy enough to get it on video… and I’m savvy enough to find a free video hosting website. Enjoy!
This is the belly dancer in
QuickTime (be patient... it may take a minute to load). If you don't have QuickTime, you can download it
here. This is Professor Lenich in
QuickTime.
We spent nearly seven hours on Saturday walking around hitting some of the “tourist” sites, including Trinity College, the Oscar Wilde statue, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the Dublin Natural History Museum.
Overall, Dublin easily exceeded my expectations.
One final note: I have two finals this Friday… so I probably will not post another blog this week. But we’re heading to Paris on Saturday… so new adventures are around the corner.
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John Lenich
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Picture
I can live with the picture -- although just barely (no pun intended). It's the movie I wish you hadn't shot! The Dean at Nebraska tells me that he plans to save it for future blackmail. Thanks a lot, Nick.