Dublin

Day 1: (Photo of the first glimpse of Irish shores!)
We actually got to WALK ONTO the plane which I thought was really exciting!!!! Instead of walking through the long tubey thing and straight onto the plane, we got to walk outside, and walk up the stairs into the plane like they do in movies! Haha I was very excited, whilst Jenna and Elle thought I was strange.
When we arrived around 8 in the morning we caught the bus into the city centre. The bus only accepted EXACT change! So Elle ended up paying en extra pound or something because they don’t give you change. (unless you keep all your receipts and collect them at some office or something!)
Anyway our hostel was RIGHT next to O’Connell street, pretty much the main street in Dublin! We spent the morning walking around and shopping on Grafton street, then made our way back to the hostel for a good sleep! Whilst walking around we happened to see the GPO (General Post Office) which is supposed to be a tourist attraction, to me it was just a grand building lol.

That night the four girls, Tash, Elle, Jenna and me went to a pub where I had a shandy with my Irish stew, that came up to a whopping 17 Euro!!! And when I converted I was horrified that that came up to $30+!!!!!! Haha anyway, I’ve learnt to stop converting, because I am getting paid in pounds! But it’s still an expensive meal..back in Ipswich a pub meal at The Thrasher costs 5 pounds, pint of beer plus steak burger and big chips!

Day 2:


Tash, Nick and me got to do HEAPS of sight seeing! My favourite was our first top - Trinity College! (Photo: left) It was a gorgeous university with cobble stones and pretty buildings! But the main attraction there was the Long Library (I think that’s what it’s called, with The Book of Kells). I had no idea what it was, but later learned it as like 7th century manuscripts of the 4 gospels! It was really cool, the exhibition there talked about the scribs and the book binding, and like the decorative techniques..and how to emphasise certain words in the manuscripts they would make the first letter of the word all fancy. Heaps of symbols and stuff, like serpents and stuff being used throughout the manuscripts to mean different things..stuff along those lines. Kinda reminded me of english..all the analysing. Haha but I thought it was pretty cool! They had on show other bits of old manuscripts and stuff which I thought was cool! They didn’t actually have The Book of Kells on show, which meant entrance was only like 3 pounds! So bargain! Haha, saved me like 7 pounds (and I’m extremely pov right now..so you know, anything cheap is good I say!) Anyway my favourite was the big long library. Their book shelves were all lined up one in front of the other, reaching to the very top of the roof! There were two layers, and so for the second level, in order to access all the book shelves, they had cut away sections in the book shelves that you walked through! A friendly old man pointed that out to me, you could only see the ‘hole’ in the book shelves if you knew where to look. I didn’t even think about how they would have accessed those books if he hadn’t told me!
After seeing that we headed down to the National Gallery (which was nothing compared to London) and then down to Christ Church. (Photo: right)
There was a priest or whatever they’re called who wouldn’t let us into the church unless we were there for the evening prayer. It was 430 when we arrived, and the prayer started at 5! So we ended up staying for the prayer which was interesting! There was another priest guy, who prayed from this big book, and two people (who looked like deacons or elders or something) opposite who would stand opposite reciting after him or some call and response thing. There was Tash, Nick and me sitting on the pews listening, plus two other young girls who were clearly in our situation, and then one other ‘real’ praying person. It was interesting to watch anyway. The church was cool, with a big crypt underneath!
That night we all went to The Temple Bar, like the actual TEMPLE bar (because apparently Temple Bar refers to the whole street full of bars and clubs), and that was one awesome bar! They had really good Irish music, and the place was packed with people! Anyway it was impossible to move, so Tash, Nick and me went to another bar just next to it. It still had awesome atmosphere, and I tried a Jameson Whisky (which an old man at the gallery told me I HAD to try whilst I was in Dublin, and visit the distillery, which we hadn’t). So yes, I did feel like an old, white, rich old man sipping away at my whisky, but it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Followed that with a pint of beer and I had had enough!!!!!!!!!! Face as red as a tomato.


Day 3:
Day trip down to Glendalough!!!!!!!!! Down south I think in the Wicklow mountains,
beautiful scenery! It was an overcast day which was a shame :( but the scenery was still gorgeous! Sally gap, was a place in Glendalough where PS I love you was filmed, as was Brave heart and a couple of other movies! So us girls got all excited haha. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and my camera did not give it any justice because it didn’t bring out the earthy colours nicely! But that’s okay, it was still picture perfect!
The tour guide was a jolly old irish bloke, haha it was so funny, he held out his arm to me and offered it to me as he was showing us around the sites, and he was like “you’re a gorgeous girl! Has anyone told you that before? You must have a line of boys after you! No, two lines in fact!” hahahaha. It was so awkward, I felt like saying “Is it because I’m asian?” haha. But no really, the people in Dublin are sooo friendly.
We had a coffee stop where I had a 5 euro (Dublin was crazily expensive), Irish coffee. SOOOOOOOOO good!!!!! Baileys coffee!!!!! It was so good!
And we also saw snow at the very top of the mountains!
Glendalough had to be one of the best days!




Day 4:
Last day we took it easy since we had already seen so much in the two previous days! Tash, Nick and me went down to Kilmainham gaol, a name I couldn’t pronounce. Haha so when asking for directions I just had to point at a map. All the people we asked were really nice. To get to the gaol we walked past the Royal Kilmainham Hospital which is now turned into a gallery, but we were a bit confused, we did walk past the hospital but not into it..we think.
The gaol was really cool. The Eastern Hall????????? I THINK thats what it was called, or something like that, the main part of the gaol was really cool. A lot of movies have used it (But I cant remember their names) and the guide was really good. A lot of Irish history that I guess would have meant more to me if I knew anything about it! But I learnt the gist of it, that Ireland fought for many years for independence from the British, (man this is embarassing if I’m so wrong so I’ll apologise now in advance), anyway in 1916**(thanks U. Tony haha) there was an uprising, and the leaders were caught and executed in the gaol (which is one of the reasons it was so famous). Anyway there was this one story, of one of the leaders who was to be executed, he was granted permission to marry his fiance Grace (forgot her last name, forgot his name too sorry). Anyway so they had this little chapel in the gaol, and throughout the service they weren’t allowed to say anything to one another. Also it was completely dark, except for one tiny candle which was held by the guard or something. And after the service they were only allowed ten minutes in his cell, and his cell was filled with guards all along the wall, and another guard standing at the door with a watch counting down the ten minutes. After that she was led away, and she stayed at the gaol until his execution when she heard the gun shot.
Anyway in the exhibition there was a letter from ..i think his name was James Buckwell?? Asking Grace to marry him……and reading the letter, and hearing the story (well it’s not just a story - it actually happened!) was just so moving, and very sad! She ended up continuing his revolutionary actions or whatever you call it..and ended up being imprisoned in the same gaol years later, but on a life sentence (cause she was a woman).
ANYWAY, after the gaol we went to the Guiness Storehouse which was pretty cool. The tour
was very….modern, like it was self guided, except at the beginning they had a little bit of an introduction. But it wasn’t like walking through a museum, it was all pretty cool and interesting. And then we went up to the Gravity Bar at the very top for our free pint. I totally missed the floor where you got to pull your own pint and get a certificate !:( so I regret not doing that!!!! But it was very cool. And the storehouse, the architecture of it (Haha Pam), it was shaped as a pint class. So like the top levels, ie the gravity bar plus a couple of the other floors at the very top, was like all glass or whatever, to resemble the head of the pint. And then the bottom floor was like the bottom of the pint glass and stuff. Haha it was pretty cool.
Anyway I hadn’t had a guiness before them becuase I wanted my ‘first’ guiness to be at the store house. Haha it had a spectacular 360 degree view of the city which was heaps cool! So of course we took lots of pictures, and again more friendly old Irish men jumped into the photographs. Haha. There were also a wedding couple and their guests from England that came all the way to the storehouse which I thought was amusing!
Anyway that night we went out to Temple Bar again, but being a Friday night it was ABSOLUTELY PACKED! So we ended up heading to the airport, where we waited for our flight the next morning at 630am!!
So yes, I was absolutely shattered when I got back that day. But it was absolutely AWESOME :) Dublin is a far better city than London, less busy, more friendly!