(10th Century)
(9th Century)
(8th Century)
(At Clonmacnoise)
Because we were running incredibly behind, Michael took us straight to Dublin after Clonmacnoise. We were staying at the Generator Hostel on the opposite side of the river from the Temple Bar area. The hostel was unbelievable! It was so clean and looked like a modern hotel. It even had a big bar downstairs right near the entrance where a bunch of us spent out night after dinner.
We couldn't put our bags in the rooms when we got there because we needed Mary in order to pay for the rooms. Instead, we all hung around the lobby and the bar until it was time to go to dinner. Dinner that night was at La Caverna which is an Italian restaurant near the Temple Bar area. Michael drove us over to the restaurant and we got seated and ordered while we waited for Mary to arrive. The private room that we were seated in was very neat! It was like a stone tunnel that you would see in an ancient city. It was lit up with colored lights and had racks of wine along the back wall. Dinner that night was very delicious, as all of our meals with Mary are. I had a salmon pasta for my entree and tiramisu for dessert.
(La Caverna)
(Salmon Pasta)
(Me and Melon)
By the end of the dinner, everyone wanted to go back to the hostel to relax for a bit before we decided what we would do for the night. Melon, Ashleen, Erin, Hope, and I were all in the same room together. The five of us were very tired and so we chose to stay at the hostel for the night and see how the bar scene downstairs was. Melon, Ashleen, Hope, and Sam all got what we dubbed "blue drank." It was some sort of blue alcohol that was super sweet. Although it looked really cool, I thought it was a bit too sweet. Instead of blue drank I just got a cider.... and stole the Heineken glass they put it in for my collection!
(Chrissy, Shannon, and me at the Generator)
(Bar at the Generator)
The next morning we headed out early to go to Kilmainham Gaol. Gaol is Irish for jail. This is the jail where the first movements for independence really started. It was here that many famous rebels were jailed and later executed for standing up to the British rule. We were given a full tour of the jail and even got to see the main wing where people such as Joseph Plunkett, Grace Gifford, and Eamon de Valera. This wing was familiar to a few of us because we had watched the movie In the Name of the Father for a research assignment for Mary's class (it's a very good movie- I highly recommend it).
(Sign in front of Kilmainham Gaol)
(Inside one of the jail cells)
(The main room)
(Cross in memory of all of those executed at Kilmainham)
The next stage of our trip took us to the Guinness Factory! Yay for Guinness! The group of us split off upon arrival to explore the factory on our own. We walked through the stages that showed how the beer was made, the history of the company, and the slogans and propaganda that they used. I loved the section where you could look up your surname in a database and see if any of your relatives worked for Guinness at any point in its history. There are loads of Fords in the system... so maybe one of them was related? Let me know if you have any idea!
So naturally a trip to the Guinness Factory includes a pint of Guinness. We used our tickets to go to the Guinness Academy on the fifth floor where we learned to pour the perfect pint! I will say, I am quite the pro at it now- even thinking of becoming a bartender at a pub and staying in Ireland forever. We finished up the tour of Guinness with lunch at the restaurant (Guinness stew of course) and a trip up to the Gravity Bar where we could see all of Dublin because it was a very clear and sunny day!
(Everyone's Irish on March 17th!)
(Pouring the perfect pint!)
(Certified!)
(Melon and me taking our first sips)
(James, me, and Owen in front of the gates)
Before we could finish our day we had to add in a trip the the Archaeology Museum in Dublin. It was a great stop to make, particularly for me a few others because we had taken a course called Landscapes of Cult and Kingship. In this class we learned about the Bog Bodies of Ireland and other countries which were on display in the museum. Putting real-life ruins with the material we learned about the Bog Bodies was incredible and made our class seem a bit more useful and interesting to us.
We had a bit of free time after the museum that some of us used to go to the Celtic Whiskey Shop to purchase mini bottles of whiskey as souvenirs. I got one with a Galway sticker on it to bring
home with me.
We climbed back onto the bus as it was getting dark outside. Not moments after everyone had boarded the bus, we noticed a large crowd of people coming up from behind the bus. Who would have thought we would have gotten stuck in the middle of a protest in Ireland. The protest was for Pro-Choice initiatives for the country. In the days prior to our trip, the incident with Savita (an Indian woman who died after doctors in Galway refused to give her an abortion) had caused a global stir and created chaos across Ireland. We were stuck on the side of the road for about forty minutes until the last of the crowd had left and we were able to pull out onto the street again.
That night, we went to The Cedar Tree for dinner. This is a Lebanese tapas restaurant near Trinity College. There was so much food there. I don't even know what I ate, but most of it was delicious. I guess if anything, I came out of that dinner knowing that I enjoy Lebanese food!
(Food for four!?)
Another night in Dublin can only mean one thing- an evening at The Porterhouse. A few of us parted for the pub immediately after dinner. This is definitely my favorite pub in Dublin because it has live music every night and has four floors. Each floor has its own coaster, too, so people try to collect them all whenever they visit. Allie, Melon, and I decided to celebrate the night by taking a shot. We couldn't choose which one we wanted so we asked the bartender what he suggested. He told us his favorite shot was one that he came up with himself: equal parts Malibu, Tequila, and Sambuca. Later that night, we were joined for a short while by Ali Moran's friend Kathleen who was studying in Dublin for the semester. She had seen me in Galway when she visited and so we had to make sure we met up for a little bit while I was in Dublin.
(Me and Kathleen at the Porterhouse)
Sunday morning we had a late start and headed to Galsnevin Cemetary. It is the largest cemetery and home to almost one and a half times the population of Dublin. We had a guided tour around the cemetery grounds where we were told about the history of the sacred ground. It is a non-denominational cemetery, meaning that anyone can be buried there no matter what religion they are or even if they have no religious affiliation at all. Over 300,000 of the people buried in Glasnevin are in poor graves where the bodies were stacked on top of each other in large ditches during mass breakouts of illness when few could afford burials on such short notice. Regardless of the unseemly burial methods for those people, the records of Glasnevin can tell you where each person is buried down to the exact square foot on the grid. Along with the poor of Dublin, famous people such as Daniel O'Connell (founder of the cemetery) and Charles Parnell who is buried in the Cholera plot.
(Daniel O'Connell's monument)
(Grave of Michael Collins- a French curator brings sends flowers to him multiple times a year signed from his lover...)
Our Dublin trip came to an end at Glasnevin. We had gone on our last trip with Mary and would likely not all be together again for the rest of the trip. It was a wonderful weekend adventure with lots of interesting sites to see.
"May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go,
and guide you in whatever you do--
and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always."
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