So this is a little bit late, but I forgot to post about my trip to Dublin a couple weekends ago. We decided to head up the weekend before St. Patrick's Day because one of my friends from Suffolk University was going to be in the city for a day and it seemed like the perfect chance to meet up. My two roommates & I headed up Thursday night and we stayed there until Monday morning. A couple of our friends from UCC also met us up there for a night or so.
It has been one of the funnest (is that a word?) weekends here in Ireland so far! I had the greatest time with all my friends. We stayed at a hostel just off the main street, so walking around the city wasn't bad. Going to Dublin definitely made me appreciate Cork a lot more, however. I was excited when we first got off the bus in Dublin cause it instantly reminded me of Boston (on a smaller scale of course), but then throughout the next couple days I started to notice how grimy and sketchy Dublin could be. There were a lot of homeless and drunk people constantly. & because the city is relatively small, you have HUGE amounts of people walking around everywhere -- it got a little claustrophobic at times. What didn't help was that there was a 6 Nations Rugby Game on that weekend and it was between Scotland and Ireland, so loads more people were there! It was cool at the same time though cause all the Scotland male fans wore kilts the whole weekend. It was the funniest thing! i love watching the rugby games now though, everyone gets so into it. it makes me miss football!
Got to hit all the major sightseeing spots including: Trinity College (the Harvard of Ireland), Guinness Factory, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The General Post Office (HQ for 1916 rebellion), Temple Bar (famous nightlife strip), Dublin Castle, & much more! Because the city is such a major tourist destination they put traditional customs on a bigger scale than Cork. There was traditional Irish music and dance at every pub every night in Dublin. That was one thing I really liked about Dublin. I need to learn some of the traditional Irish songs...it's easy to pretend like you know the words when you're in a pub and everyone else is chanting them cause the melody/tune/whatever is pretty standard in all, but you can only pull it off for so long. plus, the song's are cool and i wouldn't mind bringing it back to the States. haha ;)
Our hostel included free Irish breakfast every morning so that was a major plus! No blood sausages for me though. haha We actually met a couple guys from Switzerland who were staying in the same room as our other friends one night, so we got to hang out with them. That's what's nice about hostels too -- the fact that you not only get a taste of the country culture, but get to meet people from all across the world.
Well enough of my blabbing -- here are some pictures!!
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Dublin Castle -- showing architecture thru the ages
(from right to left: 18th cent. church, 16th cent. tower, 19th cent. state apts, and 21st cent. color blocks) haha |
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| Christ Church Cathedral |
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| Thee Temple Bar on the strip known as "Temple Bar" haha |
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| Ha'Penny Bridge |
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| in front of Trinity College |
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| statue in St. Stephen's Green representing the potato famine. |
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General Post Office, which was the headquarters for the Republic's rebellion in 1916.
you could still see the bullet holes in the building |
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| some Scots fans wearing kilts around the city |
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| Kelly & I in front of the Guinness factory. definitely one of the highlights of the trip. |
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| traditional Irish lamb stew, yumm! |
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| preserved bog body at the National History Museum, ewwww! |
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| singing & dancing to traditional pub songs after Ireland's rugby victory! |
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| my Suffolk friend, Jovani, who came to visit! so nice to see a familiar face :) |
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| our Swiss friends, Kelly, me, & Jovani |
