The Most Wonderful Place I've Ever Been!

DUBLIN!!!! Tuesday Morning we were up and at ‘em pretty early, especially by my standards, but it was for a fantastic reason. We were headed to Dublin!! We got to the airport and the line for Ryan Air was insane. However, it moved pretty fast so we got our passports checked and were good to go. We didn’t really have any issues getting through the airport both in London and Dublin. When we got to Dublin, we weren’t sure what bus we were supposed to get on but got it figured out pretty easily. We then headed to our hotel to drop of our bags before heading out for the day.

                The first stop for the day was the National Leprechaun Museum. This was one of the coolest places I have been to. It helped that we had a group of Scottish guys who were hilarious along the way. This was not like a traditional museum in that the first room we went into was called the Giant’s room. This room is to make you feel like a leprechaun. There are chairs and tables to climb around on that are all really big. I climbed around a little bit but I was in a skirt so didn’t want to get too crazy. The Scottish guys, however, took over everything in that room and were hilarious while doing so. We then moved to the map room in which we learned about the folk tales of Ireland and some of the mythical creatures such as banshees, fairies, and of course, leprechauns. The next room had different things showing on the walls and our guide told us about different legends and why certain things have meaning today such as the horseshoe, which was not a symbol of luck, but rather protection. The iron in the horseshoes kept children safe from being stolen by fairies. We then came to the pot of gold! Here, we heard some more folk tales before moving on to the final room with the wishing well. Here we heard one final folk tale which our guide had been referencing the whole tour. I loved it because it is like something I would tell. Four beautiful children were turned into swans by their stepmother and made to live 900 years in 3 different places. The father tried to have them changed back but couldn’t. So the beautiful children lived those 900 years as swans and turned back into humans. But instead of turning back into those beautiful children, they turned into rickety old people and died. The end. This is how most Irish Folk tales end, which just adds to my idea that I should live there.

                After the Leprechaun Museum, we headed to the Old Jameson Distillery. We went on a tour here also and at the beginning, our tour guide asked for some volunteers to taste some whiskey. One of my roommates and I both volunteered so after the tour, we sat at the front of the group and tasted three different whiskeys. We started off with Jameson, an Irish whiskey, followed by Jack Daniels, an American whiskey, and finished off with Johnny Walker Red, a Scotch whiskey. Jameson was my favorite which I knew already since I’ve had all three before. For volunteering for this, we received certificates saying we are professional whiskey tasters so that was pretty cool.

                After Jameson, we headed to Kilmainham Gaol, which was the jail used until 1924. It was used during rebellions and the Great Famine. Sadly, my camera died right after we got there so I didn’t get very many pictures. However it was still really neat. We were able to see what the old prison cells looked like. Kilmainham has also been used in movies, with the most notable one for me being The Italian Job. We were able to hear about some of prisoners who were held here when Ireland was trying to become independent from the United Kingdom. One person that was imprisoned here later became president of Ireland. Overall, Kilmainham was pretty sweet. I think they should do night tours because that place has got to be haunted.

                Our next adventure was finding our way back to the hotel. Kilmainham was a long walk in the first place so walking back took forever. It definitely did not help matters that I really do not like one of the people who was with and they were arguing everything I said every time we were going somewhere new. When we were heading to Kilmainham, I was leading and that person questioned my directions when I was following my map which had the jail on it and his map was only for central Dublin so it did not even have the jail on it. So getting back to our hotel was an interesting adventure, especially because the streets in Dublin change names every couple of blocks. However, we finally made it back and I took a nap before heading to Temple Bar for dinner. It was a Tuesday so I did not expect all of the pubs to be completely packed, but most of them were. Almost all of them also had live music playing and signs saying this happened every night. The stereotype that the Irish drink all the time seemed to be pretty accurate. We found a place to eat and I got fried mushrooms, which were delicious and Bailey’s Cheesecake which was quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.  After that we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

                When leaving London at 4-5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Kalee pointed out that London never sleeps. When we got up Wednesday morning in Dublin, we determined that Dublin sleeps until noon. Seriously, there are almost no shops or restaurants open before 11:30. It was kind of ridiculous. We headed back to the Leprechaun Museum so Kalee could get another book and ended up talking to the manager for a while. We heard some interesting stories about things that have happened in the museum and talked about some other random stuff as well. We also talked about tattoos. Obviously I am a fan of tattoos and was thinking about getting one as a souvenir of this trip. He told us where to go look and I ended up getting a clover on my ankle (mom don’t kill me).  We then spent the rest of our time on one of the tour buses that goes through town. We got to see some cool sites, such as the zoo, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the Guinness Factory. It was a nice relaxing way to finish our trip to Dublin.

                We got to the airport way early and ended up having about an hour and a half to kill so we wandered the airport in search of outlets so Kalee could use her computer. It is ridiculous how hard it is to find outlets in the world. I feel like they should exist a lot more. I was very sad to leave Dublin; I honestly think I could live there. I heard a ton of beautiful Irish accents and had an absolutely fantastic time!!