So Dublin was pretty cool, I guess. And by that, I mean I never, ever wanted to leave Ireland.
Once again, we ate a lot of good Irish food, walked around a lot, and heard some great Irish music!
We arrived at about 8:00 from Cork and headed out to get dinner after a short walk and stop in our hostel. Side note: if you ever go to Ireland, do not do anything through the Paddy Wagon company. Anyways, dinner was yummy! I got the Beef and Guiness pie! Then we just walked around on the North side of the river where our hostel was until we got too tired, and went back to the hostel. What was great about traveling with Kasey, well one thing anyways, was our idea of "bedtime" and "time to get up and start our day" was the same. Early and early. Call me Grandma Eliza, I don't care.
Friday morning we went on a free walking tour of the South Side of Dublin, south of the Liffy River, which was a little slow paced, but very informative! We saw many things, including Trinity College, the Dublin Castle, etc. I learned that the city’s name came from the Irish words for Black (or dark) Lake, Dobh Lyn. Irish is not a phonetic language, so that is pronounced dove-lin. Also, before I came to Ireland, I though there was just English and Gaelic, but I guess Irish is a language too. The things I learn!
The Haypenny Bridge, and the Spire that is apparently a piece of art and has nothing to do with anything useful... And the lightbulb burned out in October.
The Haypenny Bridge from the O'Connell Bridge
The plaque on the O'Connell Bridge in dedication to a man who never actually existed... The Irish and their pranks - that's a lot of work for a good laugh.
Trinity College - Main Square
St. Patrick's Cathedral
We spent the afternoon wandering around on our own, stopping at St. Stephen's Greens and the National Gallery of Archaeology. The museum was free, and I learned a lot about the history of Ireland, especially the history of the Vikings and when they came to the island. We found, yet again, another great Irish pub with great Irish food and Irish music. We probably sat there for four hours, but we had a good view of the stage from our table so we just stayed there until we got tired and left.
The next morning we did a few more things we wanted to do around the city, including seeing the Chester Beatty library exhibit, and I saw the Book of Kells museum and the Long Room in the Old Library in Trinity College while Kasey walked around the campus. She said it was about the size of CMU's campus to put that in perspective.
The "eels" in a celtic patter in front of the Chester Beaty Library, also used as a helicopter landing pad for very important people... You can see the one remaining tower of the Dublin Castle in the background.
The Long Room aka the Old Library aka the Hogwarts Library aka the Jedi Library
Then we stopped at a "live" food market, as the signs said, and picked up some lunch before we headed out for our tour of Glendalough and Wicklow National Park.
The apparently-not-so-iconic tower in the old Glendalough Monestary
The First Lake in the Wicklow National Park
The Second Lake
I may be standing where Braveheart and P.S. I Love You were filmed...
You can't see it, but I promise there is a house down there that belongs to the Guinness family, and is occasionally rented out to very wealthy individuals, such as the man himself, Michael Jackson, and Tiger Woods.
They are absolutely not kidding about this - they will shoot your dog.
Fun fact about Ireland: water is free there, and there have been debates about charging for water, so there just happened to be a 100,000 person riot while we were away on our tour of the National Park. It was peaceful of course, the Irish truly are the friendliest people I have ever met.
For our last night in Dublin, we decided to try the oldest pub in the city called the Brazen Head, which was established about 1000 years ago! I got one last bowl of Beef and Guinness Stew, then we walked around for ALMOST TWO HOURS and finally found a pub that wasn't unbelievably crowded and were actually able to snag some seats and listen to some more incredible Irish music.
For my families in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Found this on the wall at the Brazen Head.
Observation of the Day: I believe in magic. The magic of Ireland. It has a way of just entrancing you. I was definitely sad to leave, but I'm comforted by the thought that, I know I say this ALL THE TIME, but I will be back there one day to film a movie. And I'll be back there with my family. Don't worry Ireland, I will come back for you.
