Dublin!

Last weekend, we went to Dublin!  We bought tickets for a "hop on hop off" tour of the city.  On some of the busses, the driver gave a live narration.  Others had pre-recorded a narration in different languages.  We got off the bus at Dublin Castle first.  We walked around the grounds and took pictures but we didn't go inside.  There was a green with some kind of image drawn into it that we thought was a celtic knot.  After that, we walked around Christ Church Cathedral.  Again, we just walked around the outside, but it was really pretty.  Then I went inside the City Hall.  It was no comparison to Oslo.  After that, we got back on the bus and took it to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Some of the girls paid to go inside, but Jess and I just walked around outside instead.  There was a park next to the church with a little playground and some nice flowers.  Our next stop was the Guinness Storehouse.  Last summer when my family was in Amsterdam, we went to the Heineken Experience, which was basically the same attraction.  The Guinness one went through all of the history of the family who started the company and the ingredients that go into the beer.  They had a few displays of the machinery they use to brew the beer.  There was a whole section on the advertisements for Guinness through the years that was pretty cool.  At the end of the tour, you reach the top of the building where the "Gravity Bar" is and you get a pint of Guinness.  I tasted it, but I really didn't like it so I gave mine to Jess.  I'm just not a beer person.  Surprisingly, it wasn't carbonated...I just didn't like the taste.  The Gravity Bar is a circular bar at the top of the building with a 360 degree view of Dublin.  That was pretty cool to see.  

Once we left there, we got off the bus at Kilmainham Gaol.  None of us knew what it would be, but we decided to give it a try anyway.  It turns out, it was an old jail that was mainly used for keeping famous political prisoners.  This was actually my favorite part of the trip.  I wasn't expecting to like it, but it was really interesting.  We got a guided tour which started with a slideshow and information about the history of the jail.  Before Ireland split off from the UK, there were some rebels that tried to get independence.  Fourteen men led the Easter Rising, the first attempt at gaining independence.  They were all brought to Kilmainham to be executed.  Some of them had really interesting stories.  One of them was engaged and he was allowed to get married the night before he got executed.  His new wife not only lost him, but also her brother who was one of the other rebels.  Their executions were a major spectacle over the course of about a week and the people of Ireland thought of them as heroes instead of criminals.  The jail also held criminals, but it was most famous for these fourteen men.  Unfortunately, it was raining after we left there and the lower deck of our bus was full.  So we ended up sitting on the top deck in the rain for the rest of the ride back to our hostel.  

On Sunday, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.  It is a 6th century copy of the Gospel.  It is actually made up of four books, all of which were under glass.  They had pages photocopied and blown up to put on the walls of the exhibit.  There was info on how the book would have been constructed, including a video demonstration of how the book would have been bound.  I thought this was really cool.  I would definitely love to get into book making.  Part of the process is to scrape cow fur off the leather which I wouldn't be okay with, but the rest of it was cool!  The illustrations in the book were really beautiful and the whole thing was just cool.  This was probably my other favorite part of the weekend.  At the end, you can go into the old Trinity College Library.  It was mostly roped off so you can only really walk through the center and look at everything else, but it felt like Beauty and the Beast!  It is a two story room with book cases and ladders full of extremely old books.  It was really neat.  We got to walk around Trinity's campus a bit too, and then we had to go back to London.  It was fun though!