sunday - dublin!

hello again!

Today was a fairly busy day. I had every intention of waking up early to be able to visit all the different places I wanted to see today - however being I was out late and having typed my day in a blog last night as well I opted to sleep in a little longer! So I ended up getting up around 9:30, and got ready for the day. By 10:30 I was out and about and stopped at a grocery store to buy some lunch for today. I then headed over to O'Connelly street and bought a ticket for the City Bus again. However I had to wait till the next one came, so I opted to take pictures of the monuments and the bridges over the Liffey River during the day (I had already gotten those pictures at night.) After I got the pictures I wanted, I waited for the next City Tour bus. When that finally came, I hopped on board and rode it until the Dublin Castle stop where I got off. I walked on in and took a bunch of pictures around the area before I realized that the museum itself didn't open until 2 pm on Sundays. So, I figured that since I was close to Christ Church Cathedral- which I hadn't been able to go in yesterday as it was closed for a service, I would hop over and get to see inside it.

However, when I arrived at the cathedral there was the Sunday mass service going on and it wouldn't open to the public until around 12:30 pm. As it was about noon, I figured I would walk around the area and see something since it wasn't that long I had to wait. I found another church just down the road called St. Audoan's. It's a medieval church from in the days of medieval Dublin. However, I couldn't get in to see it as the gate to the visitor center was closed and locked. I did take a bunch of pictures and was able to see a part of the original Dublin outskirts wall and one of the gates into the original city of Dublin. I then walked down by the river and over to Fishamble street. This street is known because about halfway up the street was the first place that Handel's "Messiah" was performed and each year on the anniversary, the choir of Christ Church and many other choirs join together on this road to perform the "Messiah."

By the time I got back up to Christ Church, it was now open so I went in. The inside was amazing and full of history. It is the oldest church in Dublin and I think Ireland as well. There was a whole bunch of things that the brochure talked about - mostly various things regarding the people involved with the church and everything. Was was interesting was the crypt under the church had been reworked and open to the public - that was cool to go in! One thing that is interesting about the cathedral is that the one wall of the cathedral is leaning out over 18 inches from when the side building collapsed years ago but the cathedral is still standing! This is the place where Lawrence O'Toole's heart is supposedly kept as well as the burial grounds of Strongbow, the viking leader who had a significant history with Dublin and it's formation.

After this, I had a half hour before the Dublin Castle opened up so I opted whether I should just hang out and check out some shops till it opened or come back later. I went with the first one, and did some browsing in shops and walked around the area for a bit. I would've gone in the Capital building however being Sunday it was closed. Thankfully though it was just about 2 pm so I headed to Dublin Castle and got a ticket for the first tour of the day. It was a really cool tour as the buildings on the grounds are still actively used today in politics. Our tour guide was a friendly woman who really knew what she was talking about. One thing that was interesting was how much Bill Clinton had in the history of Ireland and bringing peace between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Another really cool part of the tour was seeing part of the original fortress underneath part of the current buildings. Apparently in the 80's, the one corner of the building just collapsed and in the excavation to fix it they discovered the original foundations of the fortress. So they built the building back around them leaving the foundations open to the public. (Again I have a ton of pictures but will take a while to upload them - sorry!)

After the Dublin Castle, I hopped back on the City Tour bus with the aims of heading to Kilmainham Gaol - which was a prison until a couple decades ago when it closed and was then opened up as a museum. I wanted to go because it housed many famous prisoners from the many rebellions here in Ireland and was recommended as a good place to visit. However my time was running short and I also wanted to get over to the Old Jameson Distillery where the famous Jameson Whiskey was originally made until the 70's. While I was there taking the tour, I happened to have the same tour as a couple I had met while waiting last night at the Guinness Storehouse for the bus that never came, along with the woman's parents. The couple were slightly older than me and he at least went to Penn State so it was cool to chat with them last night and equally cool to run into them again today at the Jameson Distillery! They are living here in Dublin for 6 months and her parents came to visit for the week.

One cool thing that happened at the Distillery was that I was picked to be a taste tester at the end! It was cool because the 6 of us picked were given 5 different half-shots of whiskey. Three were Irish whiskey's including Jameson of course, a Scotch whiskey and an American Whiskey which ended up being Jack Danial's. Then, after that we got a certificate saying we were whiskey testers and another glass of Jameson's!

After that, I ended up hanging out with that family afterwards since we had already missed the last tour bus for the day. They were heading to the oldest pub in Dublin - The Brazen Head. We had a good time and there were incredibly friendly to spend time with. They only got drinks and an appetizer but I got Bangers and Mashers - a traditional Irish dish of sausage and mashed potatoes in a sauce. And of course I had a total of two pints of Guinness with dinner as well! The father paid with his card and when I asked how much I owed, he said to not worry about it... which I felt bad about because I don't feel great about people randomly paying for me but he insisted and said I had other means for money and they didn't mind. It was incredibly nice of them! After that they had wanted to go somewhere to hear Irish music so we headed over to Temple Bar. But it was too early for any bands to be playing and as I had to get packed and ready to travel tomorrow morning and they were traveling to western Ireland and needed to get packed too, we split our separate ways. I graciously thanked them for everything and wished them well in their travels and they did the same for me. It's the people like that that have made this trip amazing so far!

But anyways I came back here, and got online to type up this update. I'm probably going to close up shop here and gather my things together and get ready for bed as I'm tired and I need to head down the street to a shop to pick up a few more souvenirs tomorrow before I have to catch my train.

Tomorrow, I head to Glasgow, Scotland. My train from Dublin leaves at 11 am and takes me up to Belfast. I have some time in Belfast for some brief sightseeing and picture taking and then I catch a ferry across the water to Stranraer, Scotland around dinner time. Then I catch another train in Stranraer that will take me into Glasgow - the capital of Scotland. There I will walk the little bit to the hostel I'm booked into and check in and probably crash! I might update things tomorrow night but chances are there won't be an update till the night after.

As usual, hopefully things are going great with everyone back in the states! Laterz!