We have made some new Irish friends in our housing complex. Anders joined the Frisbee team and some of the team members live right above us. We were over hanging out one night telling them about the travel plans we hope to do while in Ireland. Liam gave us a great tip that we should save some of our plans to visit places on the West coast until the weather gets nicer and visit the East coast right now. That gave us a great idea that we should go to Dublin sooner rather than later. We hadn't traveled the country other than on our hike to The Burren and we were all anxious to see more of Ireland. So right then and there we made the executive decision that we would go to Dublin that weekend!
My only class on Friday is Studies in Ancient Imagination from 9:00-10:00 with Anders so we took the Go Bus straight to Dublin at 10:45. Some from the Linfield group took an earlier bus and some who had class later on were meeting us there later! So Cate, I and Anders boarded the bus and our adventure began. My story begins even before I set foot in Dublin. I sat in the front of the bus, because as you will soon learn, I get very carsick in the buses that travel around Ireland (especially on windy roads on the way to hikes..not to ruin the next blog entry but I had a repeat yak on the bus for the hike this past weekend lol, more details in the next entry). I put my backpack on the seat next to me hoping that I could have the row to myself to lay down and take a little nap (plus if I did get sick, I didn't want to gross out a complete stranger or even worse throw up on them). I thought it best to have the seat next to me open just in case! The bus was getting pretty full and Anders and Cate both got stuck sitting next to someone. The bus began its departure and I had a row all to myself! I was stoked...then I saw a man run up to the bus stop asking if it wasn't too late to get on. Of course, he sat right next to me. At first I was little bummed out but that soon changed as we began conversation. I come to find out that this man, Tony Tracy, was a professor of the film school at NUIG (my university). I didn't even know that NUIG offered classes to study film because they don't offer it to visiting students. His specialty in film was Irish-American movies. He does lectures on The Quiet Man, The Departed, etc. Many famous movies that deal with Irish/American movies. Although he had never seen Boondock Saints and he said that all of his students tell him that he needs to see it! I added myself to the list and told him that was a must-see for Irish/American movies, one of my top 5's! He was a movie guru and began writing down all of these good movies I needed to check out. Some included The Machinist, The Messenger, The King's Speech (a new one that he said would definitely win an Oscar for Colin Firth for best actor), a movie called Catfish and a hilarious television series called Father Ted. Tony has a job that he publicizes for new movies that are filmed in Ireland. This job lets him go on set and he interviews the actors and actresses that he can and then he writes a review on it and gives it to people than they use that information to publicize the movie. I began asking him questions about celebrities he has met. For some reason we got on the topic of how much I love Anne Hathaway and he began raving that she was one of his favorites. I could not believe Tony has met her! He interviewed her on one of her earlier movies before she got really famous. It was called Ella Enchanted, and of course I had seen it, I even read the book! Tony said that she was very beautiful and down to earth. She was very humble and willing to give the interview. He went on to tell me that at the end of their conversation he told Anne that she reminded him of a Judy Garland actress and that in the future she should do a biography or documentary of her. Anne was very flattered and said that she absolutely loved Judy Garland! He then asked me, "so have you heard what her next project is...playing Judy Garland for a biography of her life. I still hold true that I gave her that idea!" I can't wait to see that one! He was also on the set of the movie Leap Year. A movie filmed in Ireland that my family and I actually watched right before I left for Ireland. It's a romantic comedy chick flick about an old Irish tradition where women propose to their boyfriend on leap year and the man always accepts. The leading lady is Amy Adams (plays in Enchanted and the new movie The Fighter) who I just love. He told me all about Amy, and how outrageous the directors were about their lack of knowledge about getting around Ireland. He also told me what was real and what was digitally done (like that amazing castle in one of the scenes, sad to hear that!) and how the two main actors absolutely hated working with each other. I thought they had pretty good chemistry. Anyways...he awed me with more information about famous people he had met like Peirce Brosnan and Mathew Mcconaughey (who was a great guy but was curling a dunbell while he was doing the interview lol I can just imagine that). Tony was full of a lot of information and I found out that he was catching the bus to go see the new movie The Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin! He had a meeting business meeting later but was hoping to catch the movie before the meeting. He told me that nowadays instead of leaving apples on his desk, he students would leave him illegally downloaded movies to watch ha ha. He told me that he felt bad about watching the new releases so he tries to go to the theater to catch them before he watched them illegally. Tony grew up in Dublin and he spent about a half an hour of the ride giving me lots of useful information about Dublin. How to get back to my hostel the safest way, some great pubs to check out in Temple Bar area, some affordable food joints to go to and some attractions that I had to see like the Original Caravaggio painting that they had at the National Gallery! He wrote all of this down for me straight into my journal! He also recommended that we checked one of the cute coastal towns like Howth or Dun Loaghaire. The bus ride to Dublin was about 2 hours and 45 minutes and we chatted the entire time. He told me a hilarious story about when he went to Oregon and wanted to see the coast so he signed up for this bus tour that was called The Green Turtle or something like that. It was basically a hippy van that traveled up the coast and went to hot springs and such. He was hilarious when he was explaining it and in true Irish fashion, threw out the feckins' here and there to describe how out of place he felt. He had me laughing for quite a while. We even talked about the current economy right now in Ireland and the immigration situation in Ireland that was very popular after graduated and he spent time in the states. It was very interesting to discuss the economy and politics with an older Irish person. I learned a lot about Ireland and the state it is currently in and how it came to be this bad. I even told him about my families genealogy and Irish ancestors. I got a lot of useful information like my mom's side Hart probably was Harte and they probably dropped the E when they got to America. We had all sorts of great conversation and by the time we knew it, we were pulling into Dublin and he was pointing out different sites for me. He gave me his email and where his office was at the University and told me I was more than welcome to drop by anytime for more tips about Ireland and that he was always up for a good chat! He even said I could drop into one of his classes! It was the best conversation I had ever had with a stranger. I told him when we had arrived that I was sure glad that he caught the bus! I was now walking into Dublin with all of the best tips from a native Dubliner and ready to start exploring Ireland's capital city!
Our hostel wasn't too far from our bus stop and we didn't have very much trouble finding it. It was my first hostel ever! Our whole group was sharing one of the 12 bed dorms. After arriving, we put our stuff there then met up with the others on the Ha' Penny bridge! Dublin is separated North and South by the Liffey River and there are many Quays along the river with bridges that cross the Liffey. The Ha' Penny is famous for the half pence that was charged to get across the bridge in the past. All of us were pretty hungry so we decided to walk down Temple Bar (a famous area on the South side of Dublin full of culture famous for it shops, pubs and cobblestone side walks). I had my Rick Steve's book that my mom bought me and had already done some research the week before on the spots we needed to see and where they were in relation to our hostel! I had to bust out my organized type-A personality but everyone was very glad I had done my research (it comes in really handy later on). We found a place called The Duke. Of course I was attracted to the place immediately because my favorite team is Duke (Go Blue Devils!) and my dog is names Duke (miss you Dukey!!). After lunch at this great spot we walked down Grafton St. (famous for its glorious shopping! Don't worry mom and dad, I budgeted for my trip and didn't get sucked into all of the expensive stores ha ha, I didn't buy myself anything!) We found out very quickly that Dublin was a lot more expensive than Galway! We went across Grafton St. and was near the National Gallery. On the way we stopped in a park called Merrion Square where we found Oscar Wilde's statue (thanks Rick for that little tip!) After that Emily, Cate and I purchased tickets to the play Aladdin that Audrey and Amanda were going to later at the Gaiety Theatre. I thought it would be a great idea to catch a show in Dublin so we went and purchased out tickets and headed to the National Gallery to meet the others. The Gallery was one of the highlight of my trip for sure! The gallery was huge and had lots of beautiful works of art but I was most interested in finding the Caravaggio painting. The story of this famous painting is that an Irish family had a painting above their mantle for 50 years and took it down one day to get it cleaned at Trinity College. After inspecting it, Trinity College sent it to Italy to be researched and they discovered it was an original Caravaggio (One of the most famous Italian painters I have studied in school) called The Taking of Christ. I finally found the room it was held and their was security and a rope around the perimeter so people couldn't get that close. It was first one I set my eyes on and it was a pretty large canvas, about 52inX62 in. It was so breathtaking! I had never seen an original like that. Seeing the vibrancy of the colors and the motif up close was so amazing! Even better to discover was that in this red velvet room was also a Vermeer, Velázquez, Picasso, Monet and Rembrandt! I was in Art heaven! I love studying art history and I had never been in a room with that many famous artists, I was overwhelmed and went back to that room with the other Linfield group later. It was amazing! I could have ended my trip right then and there and been a happy camper! My other favorite room was the room full of Irish artists and the Jack B. Yeats (brother to famous Irish writer William Butler Yeats) room was also really great. I was in the gallery up until it closed and I was shooed out of the Gallery Shop! After that we searched around for a decently priced place to grab some food before our Aladdin started.
The story about this play needs a whole paragraph because it's one of the best stories of the trip! We arrive and go up to the bar to wait for it to begin. As we are sitting there waiting, we notice a lot of little kids running around and they are selling these flashy light things. I guess that none of us thought anything of it. I just figured that some people took their kids to the show. When we got to our seats and were waiting for it to start, we all kind of look around the place. Basically, our age group probably represented about 1% that was at the show. The rest....moms and dads and their children, from about age 3 to 10 max. We all looked at each other and asked if this was a little kids show. Little did we know that yes, this was a little kids show, but we were about to have the time of our life at this show! The show began with an opening act of a version of Katy Perry's "California Girls," but with an Aladdin twist. The show was a parody of Aladdin full of adult humor, modern and popular songs and fun things for kids to be apart of it! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. When we finally got over the fact that we were the only young people in the joint and surrounded by screaming kids, we had a blast. They played songs from Glee, I want to be a Billionaire by Bruno Mars, the Barbara Streisand song, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and many others that we recognized but they changed the words to make it appropriate for the story of Aladdin. They had us dancing in our seats and singing along! It was an experience that none of us expected to say the least but made for one memorable time! We had a blast and made the most of it and channeled our inner 6 year old and played along with the prompts and audience involvement! It is hard to explain but a great way to spend our first night in Dublin!
After that we met up with the rest of the group and our friend Frank from NUIG whose home town is near Dublin. Frank lives above us at Cuirt Na Coiribe with Liam. I will tell you more about them another entry. We went out to two pubs that night, Harry Lemon and Fitzimons. The pints were very spendy so most of us only got one pint at each place. I tried a new wheat beer at Fitzimons called Paulaner that I really enjoyed that was from Munchen, Germany (picture below). I really enjoyed it and the pint glass was really cool looking! There was a one man band playing at Fitzomons that was awesome! He played older and modern music and just had a guitar and would change to a new song and would sing along by himself with no band. Cate and I left the group for a little bit to get our dance on to the great music. It was always nice when he would play an American song that we could sing along too. We were all pretty wiped out so called it a night after Fitzimons and headed back to our hostel. The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast at the hostel which was a great way to begin out morning! They served baked beans with our breakfast, apparently it is apart pf the full Irish breakfast. Some of us decided to take Tony's advice and check out the coastal town of Howth (North Shore of the Peninsula). We took the DART bus that takes you a direct route to the coastline for a small price, only 4 euro for return. Howth was beautiful to explore in the morning. It had two piers to walk down that looked out on Ireland's Eye (a small Island close to Howth) and a lighthouse. We even saw some friendly sea lions that were hanging out near the dock by some of the boats. They were so cute! We explored around, found a hill to climb that brought us on top of the town and gave us a great view of the island and the cute town! We went down Abbey Street that had lots of great shops and pubs and looked around for a place to grab some food. We saw a beautiful church as well! Not much was open that early but we managed to score a free sample of the seafood chowder they had at a local fisherman's market. It was very good! I love these coastal Irish towns for their scrumptious seafood chowder, some of the best I have ever tried! After we were done exploring the town we hopped on a return bus back around noon to Dublin! All of us were pretty hungry when we got back and decided to search for the market they had near Temple Bar every Saturday. After asking for directions, we went down an alley and there emerges the market, full of stands of crepes, homemade breads, and lot of Irish food to eat. I decided to try the Paddy Jack Farmer's Sandwich. It is a sandwich on fresh olive bread with lamb, blue cheese and greens with a garlic sauce. WOW! It was excellent, best 6 euro I have spent on a sandwich for sure! Next we were headed to the Guinness Storehouse! It was a pretty far walk to get there so by the time we arrived, we were all smiles excited to get our tickets and begin our tour. We got a student discount and it was about 11 Euro which included a free pint at the end. It was a self-guided tour but was very well organized and each point was clearly marked with illustrations and narrative of what section you were at. The ground floor took you through the ingredients used in Guinness and the company archive with the original lease on the St. James's Gate Brewery that Arthur Guinness signed for a period of 9,000 years (pretty confident of his business venture I must say). Well Mr. Guinness was a very smart man who turned a fairly simple formula with ingredients of hops, water, barley and yeast and turned it into the black gold that billions of people enjoy today! The first floor you go step by step with illustrations and videos of the brewing process. The second story takes you through the different advertising they have used to market Guinness over the years (probably my favorite section, good thing I have chosen marketing as my major). All of the posters and commercials were so fun so see them past to present! The third level had a drink IQ quiz, Guinness sponsorships, and the working life in the brewery. The fourth level up was the Guinness 250, which traces landmark dates in Guinness and world history since 1750. This level also taught you how to master the craft of pouring a Guinness (it is quite the process to do a perfect pour to achieve the best taste out of your Guinness). The 5th level up had some more of the famous advertising characters and had two bars. The highest level up, the 7th floor, was the Gravity bar. This is where you get to enjoy your complimentary Guinness poured by the experts who work there and relax in the chairs in the unique 360 degree view of Dublin City and beyond. The windows were marked all the way around with different famous landmarks you could see from that side of the bar. We sat down and chatted with this older couple from Co. Cork that raved about it so much and told us that we had to visit west Cork during our stay here. They also gave us a tip that the whiskey distillery in Cork was much better than the one in Dublin. They told us a lot of good sites to see in Cork and we had great conversation. They were an adorable Irish couple who like all the Irish wanted to know how we were doing and what brought us to Ireland. They make the best conversation! By the time we got back to Temple Bar area, all of us were very hungry. We made reservations at a place called the The Purty Kitchen, also called Cafe Bar Club. Tony had referred this place to me and said it had decent prices for dinner. He was right and they had a deal that you could get a burger, chips (which are fries), and a pint, all for 12 Euro! I enjoyed my meal with a nice Bulmers original cider and had a great time chatting with everyone about our great day in Dublin. Everyone but Quinn, Emily, Christy and I took the night bus back to Galway and the rest of us went back to our hostel to rest and get ready to go out for our last night in Dublin. The three of them napped while I busted out my Rick Steve's book and mapped out everything we were going to do on Sunday that was free (all of us were about out of money that we brought!). I wrote down everything we wanted to do and mapped it out to see the best way to get all of the stuff done before our bus left. I was quite the organizer and by the time everyone got up I asked all of them what they wanted to do and see and we had it all planned before we went out to Temple Bar! We were all pretty tired so just decided to go out and find one pub that was playing some good Irish music that we could sit and enjoy one pint before the end of the night. We went to some places that Tony recommended like The Palace Bar but they were all so packed! We ended up at a placed called Sweeney's that had live music upstairs and a great DJ downstairs. We snagged ourselves a table by the door and sat and enjoyed chatting and listening to the lively music that was playing that night. It was a pretty early night in and with our big day tomorrow we had to get our rest!
Sunday morning started with another traditional full Irish breakfast from the hostel and we started our day walking around Trinity College. The National Museum of Archaeology and History didn't open until 2:00pm so we had some time to kill before then. I have included a lot of pictures of our walk around Trinity, this college was really pretty and so old looking (in a good way!). After that we walked around St. Stephen's Green, which is a park near Grafton St. It was huge and so pretty. The lake was full of swans and all different types of birds and there was a really cute bridge to walk over. There was a fountain and lots of benches to sit on. If I had been there longer I definitely could see myself sitting on one of the benches and tackling a good book. I loved it because it was almost like an escape to the busy city life of Dublin. It wasn't crowded at all and very peaceful! Next we went over the Liffey River to North side of Dublin to go to the Garden of Remembrance. This park was a place to honor the victims of the 1916 Uprising, which was a revolt for Irish independence and freedom. It again seemed like a little escape from the busy city for a quiet place to walk and think about those who risked their lives to achieve Irish freedom. There was a cross shaped pool with many benches and a statue at the end. This garden was very powerful and made you think about all of the history that Dublin held. The Irish definitely don't forget what happened in order to bring their country to independence, someone has even left a bouquet of lillies under neath the hand of the huge statue at the rear end of the park. Next, we had lunch at The Brick Alley Cafe and I enjoyed a berry scone and some tea. To pass the rest of our time until 2:00 we walked to Naussau street that had lots of Irish shops. We went to the Celtic Note (music store), an Irish sweater shop, American Apparel, and a store called Kilkenny that was like an outlet store for everything Irish! I even found my claddagh ring there that my Aunt Lisa (and Godmother!) bought me from an Irish shop in Ohio). By the time we knew it, it was 2:00 and we went to the National Museum. We had until around 4 until we had to get back to the bus station so we had a good hour or so to walk around before we had to go back to our hostel to get all of our stuff. I wish we had longer because this museum was full of pretty interesting things. The sections were prehistoric Ireland, Kingship and Sacrifice, Ceramics and Glass from Ancient Cyprus, Viking Ireland, Medieval Ireland, Ancient Egypt and a temporary exhibition. This place was SOO amazing! I even saw a 2,000 year old body, that actually freaked me out a lot and I was worried I was going to have nightmares so I didn't even go into the other dead body rooms they had. I felt like a pretty big wimp when I heard a cute little Irish girl and boy dragging their mum to see the "dead bodies!" ha ha they were pretty brave! If you are a history buff, you need to go here. It was incredible and some of the artifacts date all the way back to 7,000 BC. I would highly recommend this to anyone who visits Dublin! After that we went back to the hostel to get our bags and we walked to the bus stop. I said fairwell to Dublin and got one last picture of the city on the bridge walking over to our bus stop!
All in all, I would say my trip to Dublin was a major success! I got to see many of the famous tourist things as well as got a taste of the rich culture Dublin had to offer. The city was great but I must say that I was pretty excited to go back to Galway. There is just something about Galway that is the perfect mix of city and traditional Ireland. It is quite the charmer. I am glad our group has made the decision to do St. Patty's Day in Galway. It will be safer, cheaper and definitely not as packed! Thank you Dublin for an amazing experience and showing me your rich history and culture....but now it is back home to Galway!
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