We had a week off from school in between our intensive month session and our regular semester, so Ellen and I decided to go to Dublin, Ireland and Paris, France. I absolutely fell in love with Ireland the moment we got there. The moment we stepped off of the airplane the overall vibe/feeling changed dramatically. To put it plainly, people were happy. Everyone seemed eager to welcome you and help you and give a warm hello wherever you went. We arrived in Dublin late at night and had to wait until the following morning to start our adventure.
THe following morning we took a bus down to the center of Dublin. We got a bit lost trying to find our hostel, but it didn't take long until three different people stopped to help us, a 180 from Spanish culture. Ironically enough Ellen's travel journal had the perfect quote to describe the Dublin people that day. "Little acts of kindness which we render to each other in everyday life, are like flower by the wayside to the traveler, they serve to gladden the heart and relieve the tedium of life's journey." Dublin warmed our hearts from the moment we arrived.
We bought another ticket for the city sight seeing tour bus, like the one in Florence, and went everywhere that day. We started off at the Guinness Factory and had a free pint of beer very early in the day... it was good at first, but proved to be difficult for me to finish. I don't think my taste buds are meant to drink a pint of Guinness ;) The factory was huge! It was 7 stories and told you everything from how the make beer, to how the package it, transport it, and market it. It was very interesting. At one point Arthur Guinness employed over 5,000 people in Dublin, providing them with a place to stay, doctors, schools for their children, libraries and more. The factory is the most visited site in Dublin and I can see why. At the end of the tour you were given the free pint of Guinness at the top of the building that had a 360 degree view of the city; it was very impressive.
After the factory we went to Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Stephen's Green (a huge park), Phoenix Park (an even bigger park), and saw the homes of James Joyce, William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde. The nerdy English major in me came alive in Dublin, there is so much literary history in the city, I loved it!
That night we took a long taxi ride to Rathhamden to the Merry Ploughboy Pub to watch an Irish dance and music show. We were so glad we did! :) The Merry Ploughboys are a band of 4 men that play traditional Irish music. They made the show very interactive and entertaining. One of the men played a traditional Irish drum that played the most beautiful music. Of course it's made from the hide of a fawn, but the sound was unlike anything I had ever heard. The Irish dancers were interesting, I wasn't sure what to expect. It seemed as though they had tried to make it more like concert-style dance for the purpose of the show, but that could be the norm and I just know the AmericaniZed version. Two of the girls seemed to be so-so, but one was quite good and enjoyable to watch. The male dancer had very impressive footwork. Ellen was determined to get me to dance that night, but she didn't have to try too hard. The dancers chose random people in the audience to get on a stage and dance with them and of course I was picked. It was a lot of fun to dance Irish for a moment again.
The next day we took a bus out to the town of Dun Laogahaire, a smaller seaside, port town and loved it! It was more like the charming hillsides of Ireland I'd always dreamt about. We walked from Dun Laogahaire to Sandy Cove along the water, this is where James Joyce lived and wrote the famous "Ulysses," it was beautiful. From there we walked to Dalkey, a small village and saw Dalkey Castle and had an amazing lunch from the market (we ate all the fresh food in site!)
I was very sad to leave Ireland. I had really felt at home there more than anywhere we have been. I suppose I'll just have to go back some day ;)
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