In Dublin’s Fair City, Where the Girls Are So Pretty

This past weekend, five friends and I took off for an international excursion. Friday morning we woke up very, very early and made our way to the Malaga airport to catch our flight to Dublin, Ireland. I was very excited, as Ireland has always been somewhere I have wanted to go. Coming from a family with a strong Irish heritage also made going to Ireland very exciting. We arrived in Dublin around 2:30, and went outside to cold weather and a bit of rain. It was overcast the entire week end, and much cooler than we have become accustomed to in southern Spain, but we didn’t let the weather slow us down. First we made our way to the hostel, which was right in the center of the city. It was my first experience staying in a hostel and I loved it. Within an hour of being there we had made a friend from Australia, who was on her first day of an eight month backpacking trip through Europe. After dropping our bags in our room and checking our email we were ready to start exploring Dublin.

Jennie, Shelley, and our new friend JJ and I set off in hopes of seeing St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We got lost a couple of times, but the people in Ireland are all very willing to help and we eventually found the cathedral. Of course, it was already closed for the day, so we just took some pictures of the outside and then wandered around St. Patrick’s Park. We walked around the city a bit more, and stopped at a hole in the wall shop for some fish and chips. The shop was small, with no seating, so we took our fish and chips back to the hostel and relaxed. It was an enormous meal, and everybody was thrilled with it. Since we were all pretty beat from traveling all day, we decided to stay in for the night, and watched P.S. I Love You, since it was the only movie the hostel had that took place in Ireland. After that we went to bed. The bed in the hostel was much more comfortable than my bed in Spain, and I slept great.

We woke up early the next day, grabbed breakfast from the hostel kitchen (toast with jam and a cup of tea) and then set out for our first and only full day in Dublin. Our first stop was Trinity College, to see the Book of Kells. We also took a thirty minute tour of the campus, which was just as gorgeous as our tour guide and his accent (that’s saying a lot, trust me). The tour ended at the library where half the Book of Kells was on display. The Book of Kells is a copy of all four gospels, from about 800 AD. It is written in Latin, and intricately illustrated. Recently the book was torn into four sections for “preservation’s sake”, and they only keep half of it out on display. They had set up an exhibit about the book which was very interesting, and of course the book itself was amazing. A monk could spend his whole life working on just one of the pages, that’s how detailed it is.

Once we got through the exhibit on the book of Kells, we headed to Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle was so great, because it was a much smaller scale castle. Of course it was still enormous, but not in an overwhelming sense. My favorite room was the drawing room where the ladies would wait for the men to ask them to dance during the ball. It was pink, and floor to ceiling mirrors so the ladies could constantly check and make sure they looked good. The throne was also fun. Our tour guide told us the story about how the throne had to be shortened for Queen Victoria I because she couldn’t get into it without the help of three ladies in waiting. They cut the lion’s claws (the decoration kind, not real lion’s claws) off each leg and put a step stool so that she could seat herself in the throne. They also brought us to the section of the castle from 1100 that is currently being excavated. You can see the tower, and the castle wall. The river that flowed through the moat is still there. The tour ended with the old castle, and it was almost 2 so we decided to grab some lunch.

After some sandwiches and candy bars, we headed to the Guinness Storehouse. The old storehouse has been turned into a museum of sorts. You learn the history of Guinness, how the beer is made, the advertising, and much more. They also had a room where they taught us the proper way to taste beer, which is essentially the same as wine tasting but with beer. The storehouse has many floors and you work your way from the bottom up. The last level is the Sky Bar, which has amazing views of the whole city. It is also where you get your free pint of Guinness, which was kind of gross but I drank it because it was part of the experience. While we were there, they had a man recite a Yeats poem, and then he led us all in song. The whole bar was belting out Molly Malone; don’t worry, I joined in.

After Guinness we went to Penny’s which sells really cheap clothing, a rare occurrence in Europe. We met up with more friends from the program who were also in Dublin for the week end, and we all decided to go out for dinner. We met up again around 9, a typical time for dinner in Spain, and went to find a restaurant and traditional Irish food. Apparently Ireland does not follow the same eating schedule as Spain. I think we went into 6 or 7 places, and had one person tell us the only food we would find would be fast food or pizza. But we persevered and finally found a pub with a kitchen that was still open. We ended up having a great dinner, and we got a lot of attention from the waiter, since we were the last people in all of Dublin eating dinner. We finished dinner pretty late, so we just headed back to the hostel.

Sunday morning we went back to the cathedral, and went inside. It was gorgeous, and the choir was practicing, so we even had some music while we wandered around. After a while, all the cathedrals start to look alike, but it was still interesting and very pretty. After walking through the cathedral we went souvenir shopping, checked out of the hostel and went back to the airport. We didn’t get back to Granada until about midnight. Switching back to speaking Spanish was a little difficult, but I was glad to be back. I had missed speaking the language, and it was nice to be somewhere that was familiar to us. I was a little sad that I didn’t have more time to spend in Ireland though. Dublin was a beautiful city, and the people are amazing. I would have loved to get a chance to explore the rest of the country, and become more acquainted with the Irish culture. I have decided I will just have to go back, someday.