PS I Love You, Dublin

.:Liffey River:.
WEDNESDAY
Today was the beginning of our extended weekend trips!! People in the program went to: Spain, Denmark, Athens, Rome, Scotland, and Ireland. I wanted to go with everyone since every trip sounded so fun!! But Annie, Sarah Shepherd and I had our hearts set on Dublin, Ireland. Annie has a knack for finding hostels because we stayed in one that was central to everything in the city, right on the River Liffey and by O’Connell Street.
By the time we got there, we were so hungry and everything was closed, so we gave in and ate Burger King for dinner. I promised myself no fast food (especially American fast food) while in London, but travelling called for desperate measures.
I love how on all of the signs the first language is Irish Gaelic and the second is English. They teach Irish in schools, but our driver said that no one really uses it, that’s it more of a culture identity thing. Fun Fact #1: Primary language=English, Secondary Language=Polish, Third most popular=Chinese Mandarin.
THURSDAY
We were up at the crack of dawn in order to get to our tour bus on time. Sarah scheduled this awesome day tour out to the country outside of Dublin with our tour guide/driver Martin. First stop was Dun Laoghaire on the coast. Yes, this is the same place as on the movie “PS I Love You”, where she says: “I’m staying in a little town called ‘Dun-Low-guh-hairy’” and he says: “you mean Done Leary”. At a pit stop, we found the coolest bathrooms EVER: blue, dark, instant dance party material. I touched the ocean. Fun Fact #2: Dun Laoghaire can also be pronounced “Doon Learuh”, which means Fort (of) Laoghaire, an ancient king of the area.
Second stop was in Wicklow National Park at “Guiness” Lake, called because of its dark, creamy Guinness look PLUS the guy who’s the heir of Guinness or his cousin or something like that owns the property. On the same road was the scene in “PS I Love You” when they first meet. It had snowed and the roads were slick so we couldn’t see it. The park was just as beautiful in the winter as it was in the spring and I felt like I actually was in Ireland.
Video of IRELAND!!

On the way up, we passed the house of the manager of U2 and the area where Bono, The Edge, Enya and lots of other famous people live.
Next stop: Glendalogh (“glen-duh-lock”, like Loch Ness), which means “glen of two lakes”. We were given two hours here, so us girls took a bit of a hike around this beautiful area. We got lucky because it had been snowing earlier that week, but this day was clear skies and not very cold. Martin, tour guide/driver, took us to see the famous monastery ruins with the original archway that was used as a refuge and sanctuary. In the same graveyard was the Round Tower and the monk house. We tried to hug the Irish Cross backwards, which was supposed to give us a wish, and my wish was to have longer arms so that I could actually make a wish. During the hike, we saw the two lakes and the Poulanass waterfall. The bus drove up the road to a small little town, where we ate lunch in a little café where people say hi to you and were almost shocked at our accents.

.:making a wish:.

.:Round Tower and monastery:.
The tour took the long way back, so we saw more of the countryside along with lots of deer and peat bogs and sheep. We stopped by a field where the driver let us off to take pictures of the sheep. I think they thought that we were there to feed them because they practically sprinted to the fence towards us. Don’t worry, I told them “Bahh-Ram-Ewe” and they understood. In addition, Martin drove by the Blessington Lake, where the girls lose their oars and get stranded in “PS”.
I added a movie so hopefully you can see a bit of the park AND get to hear Martin’s Irish voice.

Let’s just say, girls’ weekend in Dublin means good eatin’. We ate at Great Boxty House on Temple Bar for dinner, where I got a corn beef and cabbage boxty (pancake). After dinner was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We went to a musical pub crawl, which means we travel to 3-4 different pubs in Dublin and learn about the history of Irish music from the musicians/guides. They introduce a song or instrument and tell a bit about its history, then play a song or two. Nothing like Johnny Cash, REAL Irish music. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, we didn’t have a pint or two of Guinness at every pub, like the other American group. After we said that we went to school in Utah and they noticed that we weren’t drinking, they put the pieces together, if you know what I mean. It was a fun night even without the beer.

.:Musical Pub Crawl:.
Funny story that’s kind of juvenile, but I feel like I have to tell it. Since we were in a six girl room and there were only three of us, we had roommates. Thursday night included a Korean girl and German friends, who just whispered the whole evening to each other (not like we couldn’t understand them or anything). They went to bed before us, so we were awake to hear the girl above me, well, pass gas in her sleep. Hahaha.
FRIDAY
Us girls took advantage of a Hop-On/Hop-Off Tour that takes us around the city of Dublin. We could “hop-off” at one of the main stops, look around, then hop back on the next bus. We first hopped-off at St. Patrick’s Cathedral (yes, I’m pretty sure it’s the same as the one celebrated on March 17th). It costs money to get in, so we looked around the grounds, instead. The next point of interest was the Guinness Storehouse. That costs money, too, plus we weren’t interested in touring the place that makes beer, so we hopped back on. We didn’t get off for awhile, just sat back on the top deck and enjoyed the tour. We saw the National Museum of Ireland, the old hospital, and Phoenix Park (which holds SIX Hyde Parks—we drove through that for awhile…). We also saw the Christ’s Church Cathedral, which apparently really famous.

.:St. Patrick's Cathedral:.
For lunch, we ate at Hard Rock Café, which was literally right next to our hostel. This one had a guitar from the Foo Fighters’ bass player and a bunch of U2 records.
We went shopping down O’Connell Street and stored up on some souvenirs. We found this place that’s owned by the same company as Primark called Penny’s. We definitely spent some time in there.
For dinner, we were recommended a place called Flannagan’s and we got some fish n chips. There was also this really amazing chocolate place called Butler’s Chocolate Café. I stocked up there before we went to go see “Valentine’s Day”.
SATURDAY
After sleeping in for a bit, we packed up and checked-out. This means that we had to carry our big, fat backpacks around all day long. What I loved about this trip was how we just went along without any set plans. We knew what we wanted to see and do, and then we just did it. That’s what the Saturday was like. We wanted to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells. So we did. The Book of Kells is an illustrated and elaborate Latin version of the four Gospels. The Long Room was my favorite—an old library with old books and the oldest Irish harp.

.:Trinity College:.
A quick turn about the campus followed and then we walked over to Dublin Castle. En route to the castle, I spotted a sign that said “Relics of St. Valentine’s” and we decided to check it out. At the beginning of the trip we were saying how cool it would be if we saw something pertaining to St. Valentine since, well, St. Valentine’s Day was that same weekend. But we didn’t actually think that we would see anything. Finding the remains of St. Valentine himself in a little church on the side of a random road was a great surprise.
Next, we actually made our way over to the castle, but it was all closed and not very eventful…kinda a let-down. We checked out the Telling Images of China exhibit on loan from China in the Chester Beatty Museum. Sir Beatty is an English-born American who died in Ireland and was really rich so he had lots of cool collections that was put in a museum. Bor-ing.
Temple Bar was our destination for lunch. We happened upon a place called Bad Ass Cafe, where we had good pizza and banana milkshakes.

.:Temple Bar:.
The National Museum of Ireland was next on the list. Lots of cool paintings and there was a John Yeats gallery. Follow this link to one of my favorites by him (For the Road): http://www.freshworship.org/zine/lent05/fortheroad.jpg
The very last thing we did in Ireland was checking out St. Stephen’s Green, where the Oliver Wilde statue is lounging on a rock. We also saw this triangle war memorial thing.
The city and the country were so beautiful and it was the perfect Irish experience. I would definitely go back someday. The people are so nice and laid back. The city is fresh and lively, but not crowded like London. And just a few minutes outside the city are miles and miles of picturesque country.
As they say in Ireland, Sláinte!