After a day in the Irish countryside, it was back to Dublin for our final two days there. Tuesday, we visited St. Patrick’s cathedral, which had a pretty garden area in the back. There was also a row of graves, including Samuel Beckett’s, which I saw. We then navigated our way to Dublin Castle, which is actually right in the city, and we signed up for a tour. The guide led us through the old rooms, teaching us about regal history and daily life; the rooms had all sorts of old furniture, art, and portraits. The castle was surprisingly in good shape, although a couple of its towers had collapsed. We went down into the remains of one of the towers where we saw models of what the castle looked like when it was fully standing.

After the castle, we headed to a major shopping area in Dublin to do some gift-buying. Not long into the shopping, though, our stomachs demanded lunch and so commenced a search for a pub where we could eat. Overall, we enjoyed the food in Dublin (and appreciated it even more when we got to Paris). The pub atmosphere was cute and cozy, often with candles on tables in dimly lit rooms. And the prices were great; we loved that we could order dishes that would come with sides (salad, coleslaw, potato wedges) rather than having to order four separate courses and ring up quite a bill, the way we do in Italy. It was very agreeable to our budgets.

So, we found a pub where we had some salad, cheese, bread, and soup. Everything was so homemade and tasty. And it was great to escape the cold and warm up a bit! The weather in Dublin was a lot colder than the Italian weather we’ve been used to, so we weren’t prepared for the cold temperatures we encountered there.

Wednesday was our last day in Dublin, as we flew that evening to Paris. The sun actually came out that morning, so we got to enjoy a rare sunny day in Ireland! We took advantage of the nice weather, and walked around the campus of Trinity College, which was really nice. We then made our way to St. Stephen’s Green, which was filled with Dubliners enjoying the beautiful day! I really enjoyed the park, with the little stream running through it and the deep green grass. I would have liked to stay longer, but we had to get some lunch before journeying to the airport.

So, we had a final pub luncheon, which sadly wasn’t the best. My condiment-fearing friend, Erin, received some sort of creamy dressing on her sandwich; and I was served the wrong meal, and therefore had to wait a while for it to be replaced. But it was our only complaint with eating in Ireland; just unfortunate that it was our sendoff meal! At least I got some tasty hot chocolate there, complete with whipped cream!

Posted by Lisa at 05:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Monday morning, my friends Ali, Erin, and I wanted to get out of the city and see a more rural part of the beautiful Ireland. So, we headed for Heuston station and approached the lady at the ticket counter.

"Where are you traveling to?" she inquired.

"Well, we were hoping you could tell us." She looked back at us inquisitively. We explained: "You see, we want to take a day trip somewhere that’s not too far away, where we can see some nice scenery, and where there’s a castle! So…where should we go?”

Although a worker in the travel industry, she evidently doesn’t do much traveling herself, as she had to consult a co-worker in order to provide us with an appropriate destination. After returning from the back, she hit a few buttons on her computer, printed three tickets, and handed them to us. We glanced at them and learned that we were headed for Kilkenny, wherever that was!

And so we embarked on our adventure to this little Irish town a 1.5 hour train ride south of Dublin. On the ride, we passed a lot of rolling hills, green farm land, cows, sheep, more cows, and more sheep. The sun even peaked out a little from behind the cloudy sky, lighting up the brilliant green countryside.

Once we arrived in town, we did some shopping, looking for cute local Irish gifts (like Irish wool items and handmade soaps), although there was limited selection of open shops because it was a “bank holiday” in Ireland (whatever that means), and therefore a lot of places were closed for the day. But, we wondered through the town, hot chocolates in hand (our trick for keeping warm), got a little lost, and found shop cute shops. We also stopped in at a couple of churches we found there, using our theology class knowledge to analyze the architecture and art, haha; Dr. Dawson would have been proud.

We then decided to try to find something to eat, as it was approaching the end of the lunch hour. It was then that we had an interesting little incident. Although we were in Ireland, where the whole language barrier should be nonexistent, we somehow managed to have difficulties communicating at one pub.

This is what happened: as we walked from pub to pub, reading menus to find something that appealed to all of us, we found one that looked decent, but we needed to clarify if the lasagna had tomatoes in it (because of an unfortunate food allergy I have). So, we entered the dimly lit pub, signaled the waitress passing by the door, and asked “Excuse me, but does the vegetarian lasagna have tomatoes in it?”
The woman stared back at us like we had four heads, without a response.
So Ali repeated more slowly, “Does the lasagna have tomatoes in it?”
“Uhh…lasagna, yes we…have.. lasagna.”
“Right, but does it have tomatoes in it?”
“Vegetarian lasagna?” She said, but still looked really unsure of what we were asking.
“Tomatoes? Tomatoes in it?” We inquired once again. Tomatoes IS the word they use in Ireland, right??
Again, a blank stare. At this point, we figured she wasn’t Irish and English wasn’t her first language. We almost attempted to try Italian with her, but decided to give up.
“Whatever; let’s just get out of here,” Ali decided.
We just turned around and hurried out of the place, confused about what had just happened. We brushed it off, though, and continued looking for somewhere to eat, eager to escape the cold.

Finally we found a cute pub/ restaurant, with some interesting gourmet sounding dishes. After we finished our meals, we tried some homemade scones for dessert, which were absolutely delicious! They came complete with clotted cream and jam, and were fresh out of the oven! That was one of my goals of food to try in Ireland, so I’m glad we made it happen.

We then proceeded to the castle in order to catch the last tour of the day. When we arrived, however, we discovered that the tour was already full! We were a bit upset, but accepted our luck, or lack thereof. There was a free art gallery in one part of the castle, so we went to that briefly, and then wandered outside. We walked around the beautiful green grounds of the castle (not ON the grounds though, because that was forbidden—which is probably how they keep them so green), through the paths by the river, which was gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures of the castle and the grounds, so be sure to check them out to see what it was like in Kilkenny. Cheers for now!

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Sunday afternoon, we paid a visit to the Guinness brewery—obviously a must-see when you visit Dublin! First, we made a lengthy stop in the gift shop on the first floor, purchasing all sorts of Guinness paraphernalia for ourselves and families. Then we waited in line for tickets and entered the factory!

We learned all about the ingredients of barley, hops, yeast, water, and the special process that goes into making this traditional Irish beer. There was a huge area with barley that you could touch, or eat, as I saw some people doing. But I took a small handful and put it in my pocket as a little unofficial souvenier of the brewery tour.

We then journeyed through rooms of facts, media presentations, equipment, and displays, learning everything we ever wanted to know about the history and brewing process of Guinness. There was one section with Guinness ads that had been used through the years since Guinness's creation. One of the most popularly used slogans was "Guinness: It's Good for You." There was even an article that was published as one of the first ads, with all these health claims that Guinness is recommended for your health by doctors and even good for pregnant women! Hmmm...interesting.

After about four or five floors of the self-guided tour, we headed to the seventh story to pay a visit to the Gravity Lounge and receive our free beers (you get a free Guinness with admission). The view from the lounge was amazing—the floor-to-ceiling windows all around the semi-circle room provided a beautiful view of Dublin! My friends and I hovered near some tables for awhile, and finally managed to grab a coveted spot sitting in some of the chairs along the windows in the lounge, where we chatted for awhile. Fun times. As they say in Ireland, Cheers!

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After the last day of Italian class, we had a fall break, which due to my class schedule, was10 days long! Some friends and I had planned a trip to Dublin and then Paris during the break, so Saturday morning I left Italy for the first time since my arrival, and flew to Ireland!

I stayed in Dublin for four days, and the time there was amazing! We were very fortunate to have no rain while we were there except for a little drizzle the day of our arrival. I particularly enjoyed being able to speak English and to have a break from struggling with a language barrier. Not to mention the Irish accents were a lot of fun to hear everywhere! Also, the feel and culture there seemed a lot more similar to American cities, which was a really nice change.

After we checked into our Bed & Breakfast, Ali, Erin, and I headed into town to get dinner. We stopped at the Boar’s Head pub for our first pub dining experience in Ireland. We greatly welcomed the break from pasta and thoroughly enjoyed our sides of potato wedges with malt vinegar! There was an Irish soccer game on television while we were there, so we joined the room full of Irish fans watching it while we ate. Then, we headed into the city for some shopping before meeting up with our five other friends who were traveling with us, but staying at a different hotel in the city.

For our first night in Dublin, I got pulled into participating in a Pub Crawl, even though I was absolutely exhausted from getting next to no sleep the previous night (due to an early flight), and then traveling for a good portion of the day! The Pub Crawl was led by a Trinity College alum, who took the group of travelers to four different styles of Irish pubs throughout the night (although we went home after pub number three). First, we went to a more traditional Irish pub, then a more modern one, followed by a lively micro-brewery, and finally a dance club pub. We spent about 45 minutes at each pub, and then gathered and proceeded to the next one together. At the first pub, I tried a cider beer, that tasted really good (I don’t like the taste of beer really, so I enjoy alternatives). The first pub was probably my favorite of the three I went to; I liked the chill atmosphere there the best. The second one had a lot of tables where we could sit and talk, but was a little too dimly lit for my taste. And the third one was rather loud and lively, with a dance floor, making it difficult to hear or talk in other parts of the pub over the music. But, overall, it was a cool experience, and I was quite glad I stayed awake for it all! Also, we met some interesting people and backpackers from all over the world who were on the Pub Crawl, and we had fun talking to them and hearing their stories. After the third pub, though, I was quite ready for some sleep, so we headed back to our hotel via cab (after stopping for cookies at Subway, naturally!).

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