Dublin Continued!

Wow, I am already falling behind!  The second and third days in Dublin have been very fun! Yesterday, we went on a bus tour of the city of Dublin, where we were able to see the different parks around the city, including where the president of Ireland lives and a site where Pope John Paul II visited, and where Oscar Wilde lived and has a monument. (Great O.W. saying for the ladies: Women are not meant to be understood, but loved) We then travelled for a walking tour of Trinity College, where we saw the Book of Kells, which monks in Kells, Ireland wrote and painted during the 9th century.  It consists of four books of the four gospels, written on cowhide with homemade ink from around the world.

After that, a group of us went to St. James Gate brewery, of course, to go on the tour for Guinness!  Guinness is a huge deal here and is often considered the best place to work in Ireland.  The tour was self guided, and you traveled up 7 floors learning about the history of Guinness.  The seven floors together make the largest pint glass in the world!  At the top is the Gravity Bar where they pour you a pint of Guinness!

Guys, it actually does taste even better here.  It is properly poured and takes two minutes for the bartender to give it to you.  The entire tour took almost 3 hours, and was pretty hard on the feet.  Luckily it was a great way to escape the rain that plagued us for most of the day and night.

We gathered all together for the first time (a few people arrived from the US in the afternoon) for our welcome dinner and has a traditional Irish soup and beef stew for dinner with chocolate cream puffs (small eclairs).

After this we went on a pub crawl, and I am proud to say I was not crawling at the end of the tour.  It was extremely fun and we ended up gong to 5 different bars and meeting another tour group and some friendly Irish lads and ladies. The night ended at a small dance club called the Mezz, which also has a bar above it.


Today was much more relaxed, with the entire morning free for us to do whatever we wanted.  We took the opportunity to sleep, some needed more than others, and stroll around Dublin.  We then took a bus in the afternoon to Glendalough, or the town between two lakes in English, which is where P.S. I Love You was filmed.  The Irish countryside is extremely beautiful.  The city is a monastic site, where St. Kevin started a town in the 5th century that eventually contained 7 churches by the 12th century.  the buildings are in ruins for the most part except the stone foundations, but the site to this day remains a pilgrimage site as it did in its early history, and is very peaceful and beautiful.

Tonight was great, we ended up eating at South Street, where we had pasta and pizza which were all 10 euros or under.  I split one and was more than full, and others had to take theirs home, so it was very filling for the money we spent.  We are off to Stratford, Wales tomorrow on an early morning ferry, so I will talk to you next time from the UK!