Weekend in Dublin!

This weekend my roommates and I traveled to Dublin, Ireland. We got cheap train and ferry tickets, and left early Friday morning. Although we only had about 12 second to transfer between trains in Wales, we made it their safely. The ferry was a bit wobbly and someone got sick in the shop, but I felt fine. We headed over to our hotel and dropped off our bags.

After freshening up, we went straight to the Guinness Storehouse in the city. We learned the history behind the beer, how a stout got its name, and how they make in in the brewery. We had the change to pour our own pint with the specialized Guinness tapper. First you fill the cup 3/4 with the handle forward, let that settle, and then you pour pure Guinness by tilting the handle backwards to finish it off. After the factory, we went to get dinner and drinks at a traditional Irish pub.

On Saturday, we went on a bus tour to Wicklow and Glendalough. We left at around 9 in the morning and traveled to Wicklow Gap. It really was beautiful, and I wish that we would have had the opportunity to go hiking. Then we headed over to Glendalough, meaning “valley between two lakes.” There was an old monastery, house, and cemetery, and two beautiful lakes. Ireland is unbelievably green. They even told us that they had a water short because of the lack of rain, but everything was still so much greener than London. After Glendalough, we went to Avoca, a small town in the middle of nowhere. We had the chance to watch weavers at work and to walk around.

After Avoka, we headed back to Dublin. That night I went to the Temple Bar area for some drinks. At €6 a pint, I could only afford a couple. We listened to some street performers, traditional music, and a bunch of live local bands. It really was a fun place.

The next morning, we got up early to visit Trinity College and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an old copy of the four gospels of the new testament written in about 800. The books are fully illustrated with full color pictures that were made like tattoos on the calfskin pages. After Trinity, we went to Marrion Square to see the artists, the Oscar Wilde statue, and to have some lunch. We ended up eating lunch on a bed of shamrocks, and afterwards we collected our bags and took the ferry and train home again.

On the last train home, we connected with a train straight from Liverpool. Normally, this would have been fine, but Liverpool hosted a football match with Arsenal that day, and all of the fans were on our train. It was standing room only for the whole way back. The football fans eventually got tired of standing, and broke into the bar, which they quickly emptied. It was quite the experience, and we had fun meeting everyone on our car. I was very happy when we finally got home that night.

Today (Tuesday) is my last full day of work, and I only have a half day tomorrow. After my half day, I am two presentations and two papers away from a free weekend in London. I can’t believe the time has gone by so fast, but I am excited that I’m going home soon. Not looking forward to moving up to school though...