When we took our seats on the upper level, a nice video started to play that gave previews of all the different Dublin bus tours. AND U2 played 'it's a beautiful day.' We were definitely in Ireland.After checking into our hostel, which was surprisingly nice--I've had very good hostel luck, we ventured out into Dublin. Our first stop,
Trinity College
We sneakily joined a tour group led by attractive Irish tour guide #1. The tour was not free, so we essentially stole a tour. It included lots of interesting information about such a beautiful campus. There are lots of old buildings (duh), lawns that you aren't allowed to walk on (what a horrible idea), and lots of libraries. The college is an official copyright library, which means they get a free copy of every book and journal published in the UK and British Isles since sometime in the 1800's. They've got loads of books.
and the Book of Kells. The book of Kells is an Illuminated Manuscript from the 8th or 9th century. It is a Latin reproduction of the Four Gospels. They used ingredients for the inks from Afghanistan, the Mediterranean, and other far away places [especially considering it was the 8th century and Ireland was just a tiny island in the middle of no where].
They even had solar powered trash compactor trash cans:
wow! I obviously thought it was pretty cool, because I took a picture of it. I love digital cameras for just that reason. It doesn't matter if you take a ton of pictures of stupid stuff.
After Trinity, we wandered through Temple Bar, the arts, culture, and bar area (read: tourist-y trap-y) of Dublin. We had lunch at this weird restaurant where I ate shepherds pie. nom nom nom.
Then we ventured out in search of the Guinness Storehouse for a tour.
We eventually found it, and learned all about the brewing process, history, advertising, and effects of Guinness. Then we went to the 7th story, where the gravity bar had a beautiful circular view of all of Dublin. The weather was magnificent, but it turns out that I don't really like Guinness that much. Oh well, it was fake free beer. I did learn about hops, and remarked many times, "bitch, did I ask you about hops!?!?"
<---that's some hops for you. We took the bus back to the area around Trinity to eat a little picnic dinner in St, Steven's Green.
St. Steven's Green is this really huge park in Dublin that Guinness himself donated, if I remember correctly. My first impression of the park was that Amsterdam's parks suck, as do their tulips. Although to be fair, I still haven't made it all the way out to Vondelpark, because I fail. Anyway, it was beautiful. We found a cute little spot next to happy white swans, as opposed to the dirty looking, loud, scary swans in the Amsterdam canals.
Sitting down, we spread out all of our deliciousness:
bread, cheese, meat, fruit, a Dublin map, Giulia's shoe, and some macaroons (not pictured, but important enough to mention anyway). Before we could even open any of it, this man came around ringing a huge bell, which apparently signaled the closing of the park. Boo. We ended up sitting on a bench overlooking the River Liffey and the Docks to eat our snackies.
After an exhausting day, with lots of walking, and slight hills, we returned to our hostel to enjoy the nightly 9:00 movie. I fell asleep near the end of THE HULK, oops.
Dublin was very impressive, even or especially (?) after one day.
That's all I have time to write for now, considering it's nearly 1pm and I've been awake since about 2am Amsterdam time this morning. I'll be sure to add more about days 2 & 3 later this week. Also, look forward to some facebook albums of this and my other adventures!
