Day 1 - Dublin, Ireland

I got a 3-hour nap today. Yup, 3 hours. It ended up being the only sleep I got today because of our adventure to Ireland. I went to bed at 11pm after calling me & telling her to call me at 2am. I had to be up at 2 so I could be ready to leave when the taxi arrived at 245am. The taxi came, Freddy & I picked up Johannes & Flor (2 German guys) & off we went to the bus station. Our bus left at 330. There were only 5 people on the bus so we all spread out, hoping to sleep. I didn't. We got into Bristol where we waited about 30 minutes to for the bus to the airport. The driver was really friendly - he originally lived in Surrey & after a few years, decided to pack up & leave. To decide where he was going, he opened a map of the UK & put his finger down. He ended in Bristol. In 6 months time, he'll repeat the action. We were at Bristol airport 2 hours early, so we checked in & then sat around. Our hop to Ireland (literally, with a 45 minute flight) was quick & painless with Ryan Air (our tickets cost $3 a person!). We landed in Dublin at 9am & to town we went.

Now, my overall impression of Dublin will contain a profanity that is much needed. It is a shit-hole, I am sad to say. It was horrible - completely not worth the money I paid to stay. The city itself sits on the river like most great Irish towns (think Galway & Ballyvaughan on the bay).

The river, however, has been polluted by drugs because drug-dealers & buyers, when seeing the garda (police), throw the evidence into the river. Hence, most druggies can be found at the river because it is so easy to dispose of the drugs. Dublin is also a huge brewery, in my opinion. The home offices for Heineken, Guinness, & Bailey's are in Dublin. The place has been industrialized to the point that it simply is no longer beautiful. I can't even call it pretty frankly.

Only 3 things were worth visiting in Dublin ... or so we thought. The first place we went was Trinity College. The campus itself is beautiful. The whole point of going was to see the Book of Kells ... well, if you wanted to pay 7Euros (approx. $11) to see the book, go ahead. And if you wanted to wait in a long queue, go ahead. I opted not to. As much as I wanted to see the book, I couldn't justify spending the money when that would be the only thing I would see.

Trinity College quadrant

The music hall where they were performing 12-hours of nonstop piano playing. The guys weren't up for listening. Losers.

This is the closest I got to the Book of Kells.

Playing cricket at the uni!

The trees in gorgeous bloom!

Our next stop was Dublin Castle. Castle my foot! I think that, just maybe, one of the walls was original. You couldn't even go into the "castle" but they had a gift shop! We found the castle gardens across the road, so spent an hour lying in the sun there. That was nice - I got a little red (i.e. tan for a red-head)!

Castle my foot ... can I sue for false advertising?

The original part of the "castle" is the round tower.

Already the castle gardens are looking better! I love this scroll work.

The Coach House from the gardens - it was actually never used.

Johannes enjoying the sun in the gardens. I think he fell alseep though he denies it.

I wanted to see St. Patrick's Cathedral (the guys were grumping because they don't like churches or museums & didn't want to do anything related to those). Off we went. St. Patrick's Cathedral is pretty impressive & maybe the only reason I would go to Dublin. Jonathan Swift is buried in the church. As an English major, I was quite excited. Freddy knew who Swift was, but the other 2 had no clue. (They don't have much of a clue about anything actually.) Some of my photos did not turn out, which was sad.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Jonathan Swift's grave at St. Patrick's.

The altar at St. Patrick's

The interior of St. Patrick's looking towards the altar.

The outside of the pews are magnificently carved out of wood!

Inscription reads: "This stone was 13th June 1901 six feet below the surface on the traditional site of St. Patrick's Well, 91 feet due north from the north west angle of the tower."

We are dinner at 3pm. I had vegetable soup & soda bread (glorious) followed by a chicken wrap (not so glorious). By 6pm, we were back at out hostel. Flor immediately fell asleep. I was wading my way through Rebecca for the umpteenth time for my essay due in a week. I was asleep by 7pm. Freddy went to call Pippa, his girlfriend, while Johannes plotted where we would go the next day. The guys returned at 9:30. I woke up long enough to change & go back to sleep. They were stunned that Flor & I could sleep so long (almost 15 hours by their calculations), but I believe they forgot that I had only slept 3 hours, if that, the previous night.

I had to take a photo of this! It's Irish Literary History of which the Germans just don't get!