The Rocky Road to Dublin!

So on Saturday we spent the morning crossing the Irish Sea from Hollyhead to Dublin. It was a fairly uneventful trip but the ferry was pretty cool. I had never been on a ferry before so it absolutely amazed me that you could put that many cars on a boat and it would still float across the water. It moved super fast too! We made it across in just under 2 hours. On the inside it was extremely crowded and we were lucky to get a seat. I passed the time with my kindle and my iPod because there were about 500 screaming kids on the ferry with us. I love kids but these kids were just completely out of control! We even ventured out onto the deck to take a peak at the fast approaching Ireland. The deck was so windy I ended up with more of an afro than I already have! Ireland looked beautiful from the boat, I couldn't wait to step foot on land and enjoy it for all of its beauty. Once we made land we had to board a city bus to take us semi close to our hostel. I think they jammed about 500 people on the double decker bus because there was no room to move with all of us AND our luggage. A short ride later and we were smack dab in the middle of Dublin. The hostel we stayed in was pretty sweet! There were 6 of us girls staying together in a room with 8 beds (all to ourselves). We had our own bath room and shower in the room so we also didnt have to share that with anyone else.

Entrance to Trinity College

After we got all settled in we headed out into the city with Tecwyn for a walking tour. We went through the city center which was super cool and we walked down O'Donnell street which is a very touristy street. Our walking tour ended at Trinity College which is a very iconic college of Dublin. At the college is the Book of Kells exhibition which was also very unique. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the 4 gospels written in 800AD in Latin. The exhibition ended in the Great Library which holds thousands of books, none of which date later than 1700. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. 

At that point, Tecwyn did his normal thing of ditching us. He likes to lead us into the middle of a strange town and then just leave us there for us to find our own way back. I think he has it in for us... haha! Anyways, we were on our own for the rest of the afternoon and night so a few of us decided to just walk around and explore the city. We ended up in the Temple Bar area which is a bunch of local pubs and resaturates, most of which have live music. There are also a bunch of souvenir shops and other shops; very easy to waste an afternoon in this part of town. We checked out a few of the souvenir shops and then ended up in this cute little pub that had amazing food and even better live music. We enjoyed the food upstairs with the music playing below us. This one man band did covers of everything from Bon Jovi to Van Morrison and so much more. The place was packed of people having a grand old time and it was only like 6 in the afternoon! We enjoyed our 5 euro drinks (SUPER EXPENSIVE!!! that would be like $8) and then headed back to the hostel. We debated whether we wanted to go out to another pub for live traditional Irish music or if we just wanted to stay in. We ended up going to get a few drinks to have at the hostel and we watched Aladdin. While watching Aladdin we turned it into a drinking game where you had to drink every time the words Genie, Lamp, Wish, Prince or Princess was said. It was super fun!

On Sunday our plan was to go to the 8:30 Easter mass at a beautiful cathedral just down the street. Tecwyn told us the mass was at 8:30 but when we got there we saw the gates were padlocked shut and the mass wasn't until 10. We were all pretty bummed since we all got up extra early to make it to mass before the events for the day started. Oh well! After we started walking back to the hostel we heard a marching band playing down the street so we went to check it out. There was going to be a parade later in the day in honor of the Irish revolts against the British on Easter; this eventually led to Ireland's independence from the rest of the UK. 

Once our day officially started we did another walking tour of the city. We went through Trinity College again and we also went through some beautiful parks and learned all sorts of informational stuff! We saw the Irish Parliament building and a couple of Protestant cathedrals including St. Patrick's. The walking tour ended with the Guiness Factory tour. I had never had Guinees before coming to the UK and I wasn't huge on it the first time I had it but I didn't give up. If you have never had or seen this beer before, it is very unique. This beer is thick and creamy and black! I can't describe exactly what it tastes like; you just have to try it for yourself. The more I drink it the more I love it. I thought it was good over in the UK and then yesterday I had one in Ireland. It was so fresh and so delicious I thought it couldn't get any better, I was wrong. At the end of the brewery tour you got a pint of Guiness fresh from the brewery. It was so amazing! It was well worth the 11 euro :o) The tour itself wasn't that cool because you didn't get to see any of the actual working factory; everything you got to see was made especially just for the tour. None the less it was still interesting to learn about how it all works. The brewery is way out in the middle of nowhere and of course Tecwyn did his usual thing of stranding us. We did what we thought best and that was take a horse and buggy ride back into the Temple Bar area, again well worth the 20 euro we split between the 4 of us. 

Because we missed church that morning we decided we would go to the 6:30 mass. We still had a couple of hours to spare so we came back and took a nap. The mass was your typical catholic service and the church itself was very beautiful. It was a similar set up to the one we went to in Scotland but it wasn't as elaborately decorated. After mass I called home to Gram's. Everyone was there to celebrate Easter and I got to talk to most everyone. It was nice to talk to some of the kids and Gram. She still thinks it is amazing how I can call home from Ireland via my computer. She doesn't really get it but its ok. Since we didn't hit up the traditional Irish music the night before we decided to hit it up that night. Around 9 we made our was to The Celt. We sandwiched ourselves into a few chairs on the side of the "stage" and waited for the band to start. They were pretty awesome and a few people even did some Irish dancing. You could tell it was a pub that was mostly visited by the locals. They were all having a great time and we didn't want to invest too much money into the drinks so we only stayed for a few songs. 

Tomorrow (Monday) we head to the west coast of Ireland to Galway. I'm really excited to see more of the country side and especially the cliffs. The city has been beautiful but I know Ireland has more to offer than just the city!

Until next time...

~Amy