Dublin for the Weekend

Hello Blogreaders! I hope you all are doin mighty fine and enjoying the sunshine if you've seen it.  I hear it was pretty tretcherous back on the East Coast last week (but that's just a glimpse of the weather here...or rather, weather to be).  Oh, and I have news, Brenda's here! Woot! But going onwards, here's a recap of the past week.

On Tuesday night James, Katie, and I went to Trad on the Prom down in Salthill.  It was a good, educational time.  Trad on the Prom consisted of various Irish musicians and dancers who performed for about two hours.  Throughout the performance they explained the various Irish instruments and their origins.  My favorite instrument was the Ilan (spelling?) Pipes.  Ilan is Gaelic for elbow, so these were similar to bag pipes, except instead of blowing in the pipes to make them play, you use your elbow to pump air through them.  It was quite intreaguing, and I hope I run into them again soon!  There was also an Irish singer who sung a few songs, one of them being with Sting (except he wasn't actually there, so it was just the Irish guy singing).  He had a wonderful voice, and I particularly enjoyed Galway Girl :)

Wednesday wasn't too exciting--it was a day to catch up on some readings so I don't get horribly behind.  Next week is going to be insane trying to catch up on everything! Definitely not looking forward to it!  On Thursday Katie, Jessica, Jess, Michelle, and Jess's Irish roommate, Keira, and I decided to go out for the night.  Of course we started off at Fibber's and got some cocktails before working our way downtown towards Sonny's where we spent most of our night.  It was a fun night and I enjoyed hanging out with everyone, as always :)

On Friday I was supposed to meet Brenda at the Shannon Airport around 9:30 am when her flight came in.  Howeverrrr, her flight was cancelled and she was rerouted.  Her new flight was not due in until 4:10 pm.  I went to the bus station around 2 to catch a bus to Shannon, and it was full--along with another overflow bus!  So I waited an hour and hopped on the next one hoping that Brenda would still be there.  After running through the airport and outside looking for her, I realized that her flight had actually been delayed.  Somehow everything worked out, and Brenda came through declarations within 10 minutes of me being at the airport.  We took the bus to Galway and stopped at Supermacs for dinner.

Saturday morning we took the 8:15 City Link bus to Dublin.  We got into the city center around 10:30 and found a hop on hop off bus right away. Our first stop was Trinity College and the Book of Kells, which are extremely old manuscripts of the Bible.  Personally, I thought this attraction was overrated.  We had to pay E8 and for that price we got to peek over tourists' shoulders to look at two open pages of the book.  The illustrated page was pretty cool, I have to admit, but you could see it on the brochure too and save E8!

Our next stop was the National Library and Museum.  The library had an exhibition of W.B. Yeats, and it was neat seeing all of his work after just learning about him in our Imagining Modern Ireland class.  We then ventured to the museum where there were all kinds of Irish artifacts.  Perhaps the most interesting artifacts the museum held were bog bodies.  These were found in bogs all throughout Ireland, but mainly on the western coast.  These bodies are hundreds of years old, yet still well preserved.  The bog land is extremely acidic, and if you have read my previous blog about Connemara, you'll know that we have already visited the bog and have learned all about these strange bodies.  It was cool, yet very eery, seeing these!

The next actual stop was Dublin Castle, however we passed St. Stephen's Green, Merrion Square, the Leinster House, and the Mansion House (home to Dublin's Lord Mayor).  The castle wasn't at all a typical castle--it was more like a large government building.  However, it did have a little watch tower and chapel attatched to the back.  We didn't go into the castle, but did enter the chapel, which was very quaint.

We also saw the city hall, which was right outside the castle.  After the castle we headed to Charles Beatty's Library, which was actually a museum that housed an exhibition dedicated to various religions.  This was sooo much better then the Book of Kells, and it was free!  The Christianity section housed many different icons and Biblical passages dating back to 250 AD.  I couldn't believe that they were fragments of the actual passages!  If you are ever in Dublin, this is one hidden treasure that I recommend you finding!

Afterwards we headed to Christ Church Cathedral, which was the oldest Anglo-Norman infrastructure in the Dublin area.  We didn't go inside because you had to pay, but the outside itself was breathtaking.  There is also an exhibit, Dublina, here dedicated to the Viking area.

After this cathedral we ventured towards St. Patrick's Cathedral, the National Cathedral of Ireland.  Although this is the National Cathedral of Ireland, it is protestant, as are many of the other old famous churches in Ireland.  Many of the old Catholic churches in Ireland are in ruins because the British would burn the roofs of Catholic churches, demolishing them.  Also, many present Catholic cathedrals are modern and built relatively late, as is the Cathedral in Galway (built in the 1960s).

After St. Patrick's, we hopped back on the bus and headed towards the Guiness Storehouse.  Katie, Jess, Michelle, and I went here while Brenda and Jessica went to Kilmanhem Jail.  The Store house was very neat, and very modern.  It wasn't an actual factory tour, but each of the 7 floors represented a different aspect of Guiness--from ingredients to taste-testing to advertising.  The advertisements with the zoo keeper were quite comical.  Also, the museum housed many different Guiness artifacts from over the years including old bottles to charity advertisements.  One antique that I fancied in particular was an old glass Guiness owl used to collect money at pubs for charity.  He was cute, and I wish I had him, of course.  At the top of the Storehouse was the Gravity Bar, which was completely enclosed in glass.  Not only did you get your complimentary pint up here, but you had great 360 degrees views of the city.  Also, the museum itself was in the shape of a giant pint, and if it was an actually pint, it would hold 14.3 million pints of Guiness!  It was pretty neat! The factory itself takes up over 6000 acres of land--so pretty large!

After the Guiness Storehouse we headed back towards the Temple Bar and checked into our hostel.  We then went out to eat at the Temple Bar and I got steak.  It was very yummy, and very expensive--but Brenda was here, and it called for celebration :)  We then retreated back to the hostel for an early nights sleep.

We got up fairly early the next morning and went down for breakfast.  Sunday was free pancake day...but these were definitely no American pancakes, which was rather depressing.  I'll have to indulge in them when I venture back to America I suppose.  Anyways, they tasted like flour tortillas, so I ate toast.  We checked out and then hopped on the bus towards Marrion Square (Europe's largest square) and saw a statue dedicated to Oscar Wilde.  We then went to St. Stephen's Green and walked around the lake.  After that Katie, Jess, Michelle and I went to the Kilmanhem Jail while Brenda and Jess went to the Storehouse. We didn't go in as you had to pay, so we walked around the outside.  Kilmanhem Jail was where many of the nationalists in the 1916 Easter Rising were held and executed, included Patrick Pearse.  Also, this jail was FULL during the potato famine.  People would steal food just to get caught so they could stay in jail and have at least one gaurenteed meal a day.  Families and children were also in here due to the lack of welfare system back in the 1840's.

After that we all met back up and headed towards Grafton Street, Dublin's shopping area.  I ran into H&M and bought my boots, which are quite snazzy, by the way :)  Grafton St. was a glorified Shops Street (Galway), but it was a good time walking around.  We also saw a statue guy, and I felt bad because pigeons kept landing on him.  There was also a guy making bubbles, and that was cute :)  Afterwards we walked towards the bus station, but along the way we found the bus, and ended up getting on a bit earlier then planned.

Oh, and Michelle and I met a leprechaun too!!! :D

Yesterday I took Brenda into Galway and showed her around before headed back to classes.  She bought some goodies, of course.  After she got back we headed down to Salthill so I could show her the beach.  We also ate down along the shore at a nice restaurant.

We are going to the Quays Pub tonight to listen to some music...should be a good time!

LoveLove,
Christy