En Reconnaissance de Paris: Aye, it looks like we're in Dooblin!

Hi everyone,

We're back from Dublin already, which doesn't seem possible considering it was one of the very first trips we booked this semester. Now there's just another short week before we leave for spring break. Where has the time gone?

The group of nine of us arrived in Dublin late Thursday night. The flight was quick and easy, and we were entertained by the high school students sitting around us who were returning to their home in Dublin after a trip to Paris. I knew we were truly in Ireland the moment upon landing when the boy one seat over turned towards me and said, "aye, it looks like we're in Dooblin!"

We basiacally spend the rest of Thursday night getting settled in and exploring the streets around our hostel so we could wake up early Friday morning. We spent this following morning giving ourselves a walking tour of the city. First, we went to see Christ Church, which was right by our hostel. We decided not to pay to go inside, but we took a few pictures outside. We then ventured through Trinity College's campus. For a moment, it made each of us miss our own universities (...but only for a moment). The weather was beautiful and students were out playing tennis and laying on the lawns, really making for a wonderful atmosphere.

After exiting the school grounds, we headed towards Merrion Square where we were able to see the famous Oscar Wilde memorial and walk around the park a bit. The Wilde memorial consists of a statue of the writer lazing out on a rock and a few small pillars covered in quotes copied in his handwriting. There were a bunch that I had already heard and a few new ones that made me smile. Here are a few that I think you might know or like:
- "I have nothing to declare except my genius."
- "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
- "Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."
- "Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple and the simple thing is the right thing."
- "Most people are other people."
- "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
- "Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion."
- "This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last."
- "I can resist everything except temptation."

After Merrion Square, we walked over to Saint Stephen's Green, the enormous park in the city center. With the perfect weather and the freshly planted flowers around us, we were truly in bliss. The area was full of people lounging on the grass, taking photographs, or out for their daily run. We would have liked to stay in that spot all day, but we were starting to get hungry.

So we headed on over to the famous Leo Burdock's where many famous people have come before to enjoy Dublin's oldest Fish and Chips. We each got our own order of this enormously portioned meal, which we savored down to the very last bite. (We were less blissful half an hour later when we entered our food-comas. But it was worth it.)

Following this meal (and a too-brief recovery period) we walked over to the Guiness Factory. Most of us had already visited the Heinekin Factory in Amsterdam, so we thought we knew what to expect. As it turns out, this place is far bigger and actually quite different. Personally, I found the most interesting part to be the floor with all of the old Guiness ads, some dating back several decades. Of course, we also got to go up to the top floor with its 360 degree windows and drink a free pint of Guiness. I personally don't enjoy this beer much, so I didn't finish mine, but some of the girls really loved it. To me, the best element of my beer was the shamrock design the bartender managed to incorporate into the foam on top. Very cool.

A while later, we ate dinner at a bar and explored some of the pubs in the area. Our favorite of the night was a place called O'Neills. All of these venues had live performers, but the ones at O'Neills were members of a really authentic Irish group who played a mix of classic songs that we knew and Irish folk songs that we didn't. We had a ton of fun there, dancing and singing along when we could. In spite of all the fun, we didn't stay out too late because we had a huge day before us on Saturday.

This next morning, we awoke early to get on a private bus tour of the countryside. It was the group of us eight girls (one was staying with a friend), one other American who had come on her own, and two german girls. The driver of our van was an Irish man named Tommy, who had to be in his 70's, but was so full of life and enthusiasm that we couldn't help but smile at his crazy antics. The tour itself was absolutely amazing and a hilight of both our Ireland trip and this semester abroad. The drive, which included several stops and went from about 10 am to 6 pm, took us all over Wicklow. Here is a bit of what we learned and saw:
- The new football and rugby stadium. It was built just a year ago and cost over half a billion dollars.
- The U.S. embassy (obviously obnoxiously out of place and overdone)
- Enya's house
- Several golf courses
- Approximately a zillion sheep
- Jonathan Rhys Meyers's insane property (maybe you know him as Henry VIII in the Showtime series, The Tudors). His land is so expansive and isolated that we could only see it from a ledge along the mountainside. Apparently, around this time of year, he throws ridiculous parties that can go on for up to eight days at a time and has his guests helicoptered in. I wouldn't decline an invite.
- The bridge from the movie P.S. I Love You. A fun fact about this bridge is that the water that runs underneath it is part of the stream that was used originally to make Guiness beer.
- The expansive field where Braveheart's big battle scene was filmed. The scene included 3,000 actual military personnel, who were used as extras. During filming, Mel Gibson made the individuals go through three takes. On the third, he had riled up the extras-- the result being that they acted with enough intensity to require several ambulances. Forty people were injured with broken arms, legs and the like. I guess that's what Mel was looking for because that was the take that they ended up using in the movie.
- Laragh. This is the tiny town where we took our lunch break. We enjoyed half-portions (still huge) of beef and guiness stew. Mmm...
- Glendalough (Gaelic for, "the valley of two rivers"). This is a Christian site that dates back to the 6th century. The area was destroyed in the end of the 15th century, burned down when the British were discriminating against Catholics. Tommy told us that on an ordinary Sunday, this site can have up to 10,000 visitors. Fortunately for us, it was not quite that crowded, so we were able to walk around and snap some pictures without being overrun by other tourists.

This made up the bulk of our day, though there were a handful of other quick stops where we were able to get out, snap pictures, and breathe in the fresh, unpolluted countryside air. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the scenes around us were simply extraordinary.

After this super-long day, we returned to our hostel to rest for a bit before heading back out. We eventually headed back over to the Temple Bar area, where we went into The (actual) Temple Bar and a few other bars, including one called Quay's, which we liked very much. Again, we enjoyed the laid-back atmospheres of these places and the live performing groups. We headed back to our hostel eventually, completely exhausted from our day of activity.

We started our Sunday by checking out of the hostel and getting brunch nearby. We then strolled down Grafton Street, a great shopping area, where my friends Allison and Erin bough themselves Claddagh rings. If you're unfamiliar with these, they're traditional Irish rings that feature two hands clasping a heart. The idea is that the ring is acquired as a token of love and worn either facing in, to indicate you are romantically involved, or facing out, to indicate you are available. The rings they bought were really pretty, but I figured I'd be better off letting someone else get one for me one day.

After walking down Grafton some more, we returned to St. Stephen's Green. We sat out on the lawn for a while, just talking and enjoying the feel of the sun on our backs. Eventually, we dragged ourselves up where we picked up some ice cream on our way to St. Paul's Cathedral. Erin had really wanted to go inside, but unfortunately, when we arrived they were not allowing visitors, as it was time for mass. Instead, we plopped ourselves back down on this new lawn, where we talked and enjoyed the sun some more and watched a group of Irish children kicking around a soccer ball.

Eventually, it was time for us to head to the airport. We grabbed some sandwiches from a place called Munchies along the way. My sandwich was good and kind of reminded me of what I always eat back at school, which was nice... but puh-lease... it was a far stretch from my indian chicken from SandwichLady.

Anyway, we were sad to be leaving, but agreed that we'd had truly had an amazing weekend in Ireland. Between the city of Dublin and the Irish countryside, we really did get a glimpse of what makes Ireland so unique and fantastic. I wish I had a bit more time to spend there, but then again, I can't wait for spring break!