Dublin

June 21 & 22, 2010

We left our hostel in London at 5 a.m. to get to Victoria Station on time. We took a bus to the airport, and flew into Dublin. Dublin glowed a gorgeous green from the plane. In the airport, we saw signs written in Gaelic, heard Irish accents, and saw the sky blue Irish eyes :) We took a bus to our hostel--Ashfield House. Ashfield House wasn't one of the best hostels we have stayed in. It was cheap, though, and it was only for one night. We got ready in the bathroom in the lobby because it wasn't time to check in, put our stuff in luggage storage, got lunch at a grocery store down the street, and ate it in front of O'Connell statue. We got out our map and planned out our day after we finished eating.

We went to the Dublin Spire first, a large, stainless steel pin-like monument that soars into the Dublin sky. It is the world's tallest sculpture at 398 feet tall, and it cost €4 million to construct! We went to the Garden of Remembrance afterward--a memorial garden dedicated to the all of those who gave their lives fighting for Irish freedom. It was a cute little area with a cross-shaped fountain/pool with a statue at the end and flowers all over. We headed to the Custom House afterward, which is an impressive building that houses the departments of environment, heritage, and local government. The square near O'Connell Bridge had Heineken and Bailey's buildings in it. I saw three older women, one with a baby in the stroller, taking swigs out of a brown bottle at 12:30 in the afternoon. Starting early! We walked across O'Connell Bridge over the Liffey River to head toward Trinity College. We stopped at The Steine, a little monument in the middle of an intersection, to double check that we were going the right way. A guy riding by on his bike stopped, got off his bike, and asked if we were lost and needed directions. It was so nice of him! This was the first time that morning that someone offered to help us either. Everyone there was so unbelievably friendly!

The Bank of Ireland is right across the street from Trinity College and is one of the "Big Four" on the island and used to be the parliament house. It is a huge bank with an amazing interior. Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth and is Ireland's oldest university. The history found at that college is incredible! We took a quick look around the first day, and went back for a tour the next. We went to the National Museum: Archaelogy & History Branch afterward, but it was closed :( It is supposed to be really impressive.

We went to St. Stephen's Green afterward-- a 27 acre city centre park landscaped with flowerbeds, trees, lakes, and fountains. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe it. I could have spent the entire day there! We walked toward the National Gallery and saw the Georgian style houses, with their fan shaped windows above their brightly colored doors. The story behind why each door is painted a different color is that a man came home drunk one night, went into the wrong house and got in bed with the wrong woman. When her husband came home he found the man in bed with his wife and shot him. After that night, the women painted their front doors different colors to help their drunk husbands find their way into the right home.

We went into the National Gallery. It was a little confusing to navigate. It seemed like we would leave one room, walk down a set of stairs, and somehow end up in the place we were coming from. The collection spans from the 14th to the 20th centuries. We spent so much time trying to find van Gogh's Rooftops of Paris, and once we found where it was supposed to be, they told us it had been moved to the Taking Stock Exhibition (which we thought we already saw, but only saw half of it). While searching for the Rooftops, one of the workers at the Gallery told us the story about Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid. Three men and one woman drove out to the Russborough House (where Sir Alfred and Lady Beit installed an art collection) and stole the painting along with 18 others. Stolen paintings usually disappear for a long time, but this one was retrieved in just a few weeks. The recovered paintings were sent to the National Gallery of Ireland to be inspected and to be repaired if there was any damage. They were returned to the Russborough House, but the Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid was stolen again--just 12 years after the first robbery. People talked about it being hidden in the mountains, but police swooped on a car parked at Antwerp airport and recovered the stolen painting once again. Crazy!

We saw the unique structure of Central Bank after seeing the National Gallery, and we got our first glimpse of the Temple Bar area. We went to Dublin Castle next--the former seat of British rule in Ireland. It was awesome!

After looking at all sides of the castle, we went to the Guinness Storehouse!! It was soo much fun! It's a self-guided tour, so you can go at your own pace--with information and interactive things to do in every room. We played in the mountain of barley and with the old machinery; we saw the hops and the waterfall; we learned the history of Guinness and the steps and ingredients it takes to make Guinness beer. I went through the taste experience, played a few games, and sent a picture to Nick on one of their computers. I loved their advertising room "Guinness is good for you!" and "My goodness, my Guinness!". It was adorable! They had old black and white Guinness commercials playing, with a pint shaped door entrance and posters covering the walls. The tour ended with a free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar! For me, it ended with 2 pints of Guinness because Preethi gave hers to me. We had a bird's eye view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar which was incredible! We took sooo many pictures here!

After our Guinness experience, we walked allll the way out to Kilmainham Gaol--a cool old jail on the outskirts of town. Our next stop was Phoenix Park--the largest enclosed urban park in Europe, spanning 1,750 acres! We saw the huge Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, took a walk through the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous park, and headed to the Jameson Distillery. After those 2 pints of Guinness, I had to pee sooo bad so we stopped at a bar down the road from Phoenix Park. I went in to use the restroom, and we checked out the game while we were in there. The bartender asked if we needed anything, and we said no. Then a customer said if we weren't buying anything, we needed to leave. We said sorry and left, but then they all started laughing and told us they were just kidding. We were too embarrassed to go back in though--haha! We were so exhausted and were running short on time so we decided to try to take a bus to Jameson. We found the closest bus stop and asked the bus driver if he was going toward the Jameson Distillery. He said yes, and we asked him how much the fare was, and he tols us to hop on and not to worry about it ( in a cute Irish accent :] ). That's what I'm saying about everyone being soooo nice in Dublin! He made a special stop just for us and called to us when we were there. We took some pictures outside of Jameson and started walking back toward the city center to see a few more sites.

We saw the Four Courts of Dublin--the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. We went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is the seat of the archbishop of Dublin and also has underground crypts. It was beautiful, of course. The church extended to the other side of the road, with a bridge overhead connecting the two parts of the cathedral. At Christ Church Cathedral is Dublinia, the location of The Viking World on site at St. Michael's Hill. It is also Dublin's oldest building founded c. 1030 by Sitric, King of the Dublin Norsemen. It is the mother church of the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland.

We walked a little further to find St. Patrick's Cathedral--the largest church in Ireland! It was way past dinnertime when we got back to the city center. We found a nice, little authentic Irish restaurant called O'Neill's. It was delicious! We had roasted, broiled, and mashed potatoes, with some meat and gravy. For dessert, we had this apple pie type thing with amazingggg cream on top! The restaurant part was closing, so we were the only ones left in the room eating. The bar upstairs was pretty crowded though--they had a live band that everyone was enjoying. I remember them playing "I Would Walk 500 Miles" :) We listened to the band for a little while, then headed out to Temple Bar. For a Monday night, it was pretty crazy. We walked past countless bars and clubs, a show with half naked dancing cowboys that was going on for Dublin's gay pride festival, and found Stag's Head Pub. The pub had a really cute, Victorian interior. I had my 3rd pint of Guinness for the day, and we decided to head back to the hostel because we were about to pass out!

We were sharing a room with 4 other girls who were all sleeping by the time we got home, so we tried to sneak around the room and the bathroom to get ready for bed (I think we woke them all up anyway). The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, and went back to Trinity College. The Long Hall of the Old Library at the college makes it the largest single corridor library. When you walk into the campus, there are two buildings on each side of you that are mirror images of each other (except the left one is accidently 8 m longer than the other). In the middle of the quad is an arch/statue that they built so that the campus wouldn't look so empty. Behind it are two of the largest maple trees ever. The seeds were brought to the campus from Oregon, and for some reason they grew really well there. The college also has a replica of "A Sphere Within a Sphere". It looks just like the one at the Vatican and represents the new world coming out of the old world. The main attraction at Trinity College is the Book of Kells, which is a decorated latin manuscript of the four gospels of the new testament--very cool! After we finished at Trinity College, all we had time for was to buy souvenirs and head to the bus stop. I was sad to leave so soon, but I loved every minute I was in Dublin! It didn't quite feel like Ireland though. I wish we would have been able to go driving out in the country--I think it would have felt more like Ireland if we would have done that. Maybe one day!