Dublin!

First, an apology: sorry for the delay of this post! My fault entirely. But, finally, here it is!

Dublin

Let's see...where to begin? This past weekend, I travelled outside of England for the first time while over here! I went to Dublin with Emily, Kristen, and Devyn, and we met up with Devyn's friend Courtney. And, for the most part, things went surprisingly smoothly! We were all a little impressed with our ability to organise our own trips and have them actually work out! Emily and I flew out of Heathrow and got into Dublin on Friday night, where we checked into the lovely Ardmore Hotel, which I would highly recommend to anyone thinking of going to Dublin. It was inexpensive, but also really very nice. It was actually located in Northern Dublin, but with a bus stop right across the road, it was only a fifteen minute bus ride to the City Center. Of course, the public transport in Dublin has nothing on London. Buses run every twenty minutes or so, and (as the desk receptionist put it) they kind of run on their own schedule. Nothing like my beloved tube, where there's a train coming in every three minutes or less!

Christ Church Cathedral

But despite a lot of waiting for the bus, everything was relatively easy to navigate! We started Saturday with a historical walking tour of the city. It wound up being less of a walking tour and more of a standing tour - the guide was extremely knowledgeable (he was a postgraduate history student at the esteemed Trinity College), and we learned a lot, but the tour took three hours and we spent a lot of time standing around as he gave us long-winded expositions of Dublin's history in the sleet. I think our feet almost froze off. But we definitely saw a good bit of Dublin! Dublin has a very different feel than London does - it's a little more run-down (despite being one of the most important cities in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, it experienced a long-term period of decline in the 1800s, and events in the 1900s destroyed a lot of their historic buildings), and much less metropolitan. It seems to be a much more open city - fewer skyscrapers, wider roads, and so on. I must say, after just two days away, I missed London terribly.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Of course, despite Dublin's troubled past, that doesn't make it any less beautiful in many areas! Like London, it is situated on a river, and areas like Temple Bar and O'Connell Street in the City Center are most definitely charming and unique. I wish I had time to go into the countryside of Ireland more, of course, because I've heard plenty about the beauty to be found out there, as well.

The Temple Bar area

After our walking tour (which took us until 2) we ate lunch at a nearby pub. I enjoyed a beef and Guinness pie (because nothing in Ireland is complete without Guinness), and then we wandered the City Center for a bit, seeing St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Audeon's Gate. Unfortunately, both St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedral were not open to the public when we went, which was too bad, but the outsides were definitely still worth seeing!

Then we went back to the hotel for a bit and rested for our pub crawl adventure that night! And what an adventure it was - we went to four different pubs and a club with a bunch of free or discounted drinks, all for €10! On our tour were what our guide called "the Unusuals" - two very flamboyant transvestites who were a bucket of laughs. Definitely a fascinating experience.

Giant chair!

Then on Sunday we were up and headed to the National Leprechaun Museum! Recommended to me by the fantastic Amanda, I am definitely glad I pressured everyone into going! It was much more of an "experience" than anything. We were first ushered into a room with a bunch of leprechaun memorabilia all over (including the first ever written documentation of leprechauns who - fun fact - were actually not known to wear green, but instead, red! Green was only associated with them much later on by pop culture). We then walked through a tunnel that made us look really big, and into a room with giant chairs. Upon entering the room, the entire group (consisting of middle aged men and women and us) proceeded to take running jumps onto all the chairs, belly flopping all over the place. I guess nothing brings out the inner child like over-sized furniture...

Then we went into a room with an illuminated map of Ireland, where we learned about some of the links that the legends have to real places around Ireland. Another fun fact - leprechauns were actually not a dominant part of the Irish mythology until they were put into pop culture by Walt Disney. Their stories are eclipsed by the stories of fairies (and fairy trees and hills and so on), who dominated the story-telling genre. We then went into a room where our guide told us more about fairies, and were led down a confusing pathway into a room plated with bronze (like the inside of a fairy hill!). Then we read a leprechaun story and entered the last room, where we heard a creepy story about a woman who killed herself and turned into a fish. It sounds better with an Irish accent, I promise. And then we colored some pictures!

My perfect pint!

After that, we trooped over to the Guinness Storehouse, where we learned all about the process of brewing Guinness. It reminded me of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, to be honest, but it was definitely very interesting. We also got to pour our own "perfect pint" of Guinness! (Though I have to say I'm not really at all a fan of beer - but it was an experience to be had nonetheless! And the Brewery was still fascinating in spite of that.) If nothing else, one of the best parts of the Storehouse was the seventh floor Gravity Bar, that featured 360º views of Dublin. Beautiful!

Then we walked (and walked, and walked) over to the Kilmainham Gaol, which was supposed to be really cool, but unfortunately all the tours were sold out and you couldn't go in without a tour. Disappointing. But we wandered around the museum (they let us in for free) and headed back to the hotel, where Emily and I gathered are belongings and departed to London! We landed in Gatwick rather than Heathrow, but were given free tickets from two very upstanding gentleman who said they didn't need theirs anymore, so that was nice! We arrived in London too late to catch the tube, but that was alright, since we were able to get on some buses home without difficulty, and one of the buses went through everything great about London (past Big Ben, Parliament, down Whitehall, through Trafalgar Square and the West End...excellent).

Then it was Monday, and I got my first grade back (a 75 - which, here, is an A - wahoo!). I just put that in there to make sure you all know that yes, I actually am doing schoolwork while I'm here, as much as it may seem like that isn't the case. Then on Tuesday it was Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday) and Devyn and I went to see a Pancake Race which was a little disappointing (as it was advertised as being "costumed" but all the costumes were pretty lack-luster). Apparently there's a race between the MPs and Lords vs. the members of the press, which would've been interesting if I knew any of the MPs...but can you imagine members of Congress racing down a street and flipping pancakes? I feel like that could get very intense, very quickly.

Pancake races are the best kind

Then we enjoyed pancakes for dinner and watched the Brits, where Adele was everything fantastic when she sang and then her acceptance was cut off very early by the announcer and she promptly flipped everyone the bird. She's my hero. (Also, for everyone at home, pancakes here aren't like the thick ones we have at home - think crepes, since that's pretty much what they are. And crepes are my favorite food in the world. So Pancake Day is pretty much the best day of the year...every Fat Tuesday will be Pancake Day for me from here on out.)

And now it's today, and I've just finished all my homework and am now probably going to make dinner! On an exciting note, looking into the future, Doug, Mom, and Dad have all booked their tickets, and our trips for April are really becoming reality! I absolutely can't wait - only a little more than a month left, and it's going to be a busy month indeed! And if anyone else feels the need to follow their (and Lizzy's and Robie's) lead and visit, please do! :)

Cheers!