So the next morning we all met up in the lobby of our hostle and met up with our tour guide again. He then took us on a 3 hour walking tour of Dublin. It was very interesting (for the parts that I could here at least). He took us to Trinity College and told us a bit about the college and the when, why, and how it was built. Unfortunately my camera chose that very moment to die on me and I had forgot to pack any replacement batteries; so no fun pictures this time around.
We then walked around town and took pauses at significant statues or street addresses and were told the stories behind them. We eventually made our way to Dublin Castle. We were not able to go into the castle since, for the next 6 months, Ireland is housing the president of the EU and they were preparing the castle for an event. It was a beautiful place though with a lot of history.
After that we walked even further up to a lovely old chapel deep within Dublin. We then walked down to the water and made our way over to what had once been the post office where the Easter Rising of 1916 had taken place. For anyone who doesn't know much about the Easter Rising, a group of rebels took over the post office in Dublin to upset the British. It wasn't until about 6 days in that the British really did anything. But when they did begin to retaliate they did it on full strength. They bombed the post office and eventually captured all of the leaders of the rebellion.
Once they had been captured they were taken to execution. The Irish people were not really upset or outraged until the story of how the injured James Connolly had been dragged out and tied to a chair in order to face a firing squad. Some attribute the beginning of the fight for Irish independence on this event. W. B. Yeats wrote a poem on this rebellion and the people involved.
It was very cool to not only learn some Irish history and visit such significant places, but to walk to, and see, places and street ways that were referenced in important literary works of those such as Yeats and James Joyce.
After the tour we were given the day to ourselves to enjoy. I, and many friends, decided that it was a perfect time for shopping! We found this wonderful shop called Penny's (no not JC Penny's) where there was tons of cute clothes at very good prices. After that we found a side street full of shops and spent our day checking the majority of them out.
We then went to dinner at this little pub Malloy's. There we ate, talked, and watched the rugby match with a few of the locals. It was, overall, a very good day.
On our third and final day in Dublin we had most of the day to ourselves. Only rule was be back at the hostle by 4. Easy enough. A friend of mine, Ricardo, and I walked ourselves over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was so incredibly gorgeous! Such detail, color, and beauty in one place. They had several statues and small exhibits on the sides of the Cathedral. Ricardo and I spent plenty of time in there taking as many pictures as we wanted of everything we could see.
Then we walked around, saw a few sites, and did a little shopping. Then made our way back to the hostle and got on the bus to make our way back to Dungarvan. My weekend in Dublin was incredible and I will never forget it.
No comments:
Post a Comment