I woke up fairly early to catch a light breakfast provided by the hostel. Breakfast here is 7:30-9:30. Following, I repacked my backpack for the day. The free Dublin tour was to start at 10:30, so I waited in the common room until then. The common room is nice. Actually there's more than one, but the one I'm referring to is the main one at the entrance of the hostel. This gave a chance to get some reading done. When 10:00 came around, the tour guide came in and announced that we were ready to head out.
Along the way, we stopped at 2 other hostels to pick up other tour groups. From the last one, we headed to an upscale pub called the Mercantile. Being that we were in the tour group, we all got free coffee or tea. Irish tea is nothing like what we have in America. It has a distinct aroma and taste that is difficult to explain but is satisfying.
At the pub, we were seperated into 2 groups: English and Spanish. From there, we made our way to Dublin Castle. I had already been there but the history and stories behind it were interesting. All that's really left of the castle is the tower. The tower was used in the 15th century to house prisoners and was also used as a torture facility. Later on, a chapel was built onto it. To get to the castle, we walked through the original city gates of which there's remnants of throughout Dublin.
The gates actually lead to a courtyard surrounded by administrative buildings. Our guide also pointed out the building where the Irish Crown Jewels would be housed... If they knew where they were. If you don't know the story behind the Irish Crown Jewels, it's worth looking up. It's quite humorous. Within the courtyard, we also saw the building where Bram Stoker wrote Dracula.
Behind the castle, is the Dubh Linn Garden that we visited. Dublin has many gardens that are just awesome. Next to the garden is the coach house which was once a stable. We continued to tour around the castle for a bit which was a lot I already saw but the guide gave interesting stories about it.
From there, we briefly visited a Greece style amphitheatre where we got a chance to stand in the middle and hear our voices echo.
For a short break, we stopped at a pub called "The Storehouse" where we all could get a drink. I decided to try the Irish coffee. We were there for maybe 25 minutes before we took off for Trinity College. To be honest, I never gave a thought to visiting the college, but I'm glad we did. It was originally built and used in 1592. At the time, Catholics weren't allowed to attend the college which is funny because one of their slogans now encourages acceptance of everyone. The entrance is the original one as well as the campanlle. All of the buildings in the college are very ornate including the library (of which I went back to).
We then visited Christ Church Cathedral, of which I was at yesterday. We heard many stories behind this cool building. We also learned that the field nearby used to be a Viking village. As they were excavating to build some office buildings, they found the village underground and perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, all that remains is a large grassy yard. We heard many stories of the Vikings. I did not know that Dublin was the Viking town in Ireland. We learned many things including that England did not like fighting the Vikings or the Celts because of their unpredictable and fierce combat techniques. Apparently, the Celtic priest used to give the soldiers hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle.
We didn't have much time so we briefly saw the Leinnster house which is Ireland's political headquarters. Lastly, we ended in St. Francis Park which was awesome. We thanked our tour guide and gave him something for his time.
Immediately, I went back to the Trinity College to tour through there. In the library, is housed 2 copies of the Book of Kells. This book is the 4 gospels of the Bible, written in Latin by priests as early as the 600's. Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of them because photography is not allowed. However, I must say that the books are well preserved.
Another section of the library contained the "Long Room". This is the portion that houses over 200,00 books, including some of the originals from Aristotle and Homer. This is where George Lucas got the idea to use the library as the Jedi library in Star Wars. He was denied but he took pictures and had the whole library done in CGI for The Empire Strikes Back. Later on, the actual library was used for the filming of Harry Potter as the Hogwarts library. Housed in the library is also the harp used on the back of the Irish penny and the Guiness symbol.
From there, I didn't have a whole lot of time before the bus tour. I came back to the hostel for a cup of tea and put on some more under armour because a part of the tour was to be outside at night.
Well, we were to meet out side of the Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub. I decided to head over there early for dinner and had an Irish beef stew with tea. After dinner, I waited for the bus until I realized the tour was cancelled. So instead, I walked down the street and saw St. Patrick's cathedral. By this time it was too late to visit the jail. However, I heard that it wasn't much to see. Luckily, because of the walking tour, I have things I added to my list of things to see.
It started to cool down a bit so I decided to head back to the hostel. The weather is much different from back home. When we landed yesterday, it was cold enough to see my breath, but felt warm. It also seems like the temperature doesn't change much day to day. It's been in the high 40's but feels like 60. When walking or biking, it's almost too hot for long sleeves, but if you just sit on a bench, it feels cold enough to start shivering. On the other side, when there's clouds and wind, it feels like the temp is in the 50's but as soon as the sun comes out, it feels like 70. Ireland also has a distinct smell. I'm not sure how to describe it. It smells like... Well, Ireland.
And that's where I am now. Stay tuned to keep updated on the trip.
