Weekend Trip to Dublin

This weekend we spent some time in Dublin. It was so different from small, quiet Waterford. It felt like an Irish New York City. We left Thursday morning, and had a field trip there with through school. The first thing we did was go to the Dublin National Museum of Ireland. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but the building was really pretty.

The ceiling was so pretty!

Afterwards, we went to St. Stephen's Green, which is a park in the middle of the city. We ate lunch there and people watched. It was really pretty, and we saw swans! 

This is the entrance.

You can't see them, but there were a ton of baby swans on the side :)

We also got to go into St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, which is the Dublin Mall. The outside is almost completely glass, and it looks like you're outside. 

I don't know how well you can see it, but there is a giant clock in the back.

Unlike American malls, there were actually a lot of stairs at this mall. 

Walking back from the field trip, we got to walk through Trinity College's campus. It was so beautiful!! 

I definitely felt like I stepped into the world of Harry Potter :D

You can't see it, but there was a graduation going on. 

I just thought this was so pretty.

A lot of the Coke ads had different people's names in them. The name on this sign is a very common girl's name in Ireland. There was a famous marriage in their history between Strongbow and Aoife (pronounced ee-fa) that changed Ireland. We have met several women with this name.

If you have been to Dublin, you probably noticed that all the doors are painted different colors. We learned that this is because they didn't number their doors in the past, so this was your way of knowing where your house was.

That night, we met my friend Blair for dinner. Blair is a friend from GCSU who is doing an internship in Dublin for the summer. It was so fun to see her there. She showed us a really good gelato place on Grafton Street. 

I got Nutella Mousse gelato- it was delicious :)

On Friday (they spell it Fryday haha), we went to a pub called T.W. Sweetman, and the food there was amazing. A lot of us said it was our favorite meal so far. The woodwork on the inside was incredible; it had to have been a really old building. 

There is a JFK quote on the wall. The people there really love JFK, and they are having a celebration of the 50th anniversary of his visit to Ireland. 

Me and Rachel :)

We tried to go to the Dublin Castle, but for some reason, it wasn't open to the public. That night we went to The Temple Bar, which is a really famous bar in Dublin. If you come to Dublin, you have to go there. It was so crowded, so we weren't there long. I love going to pubs at night here. Everyone sings and claps along with the music, and you really get a chance to talk to the locals. 

The Temple Bar is both a bar and an area with lots of bars. 

Because there wasn't a place to sit down, we went to another pub called the Bad Ass Cafe (sorry Mom). It was a really cute place with great live music. We heard a ton of songs we know like Galway Girl (which I was particularly excited about), Ring of Fire, Ho Hey, etc. While the band was on break we also heard the Old Crow Medicine Show version of Wagon Wheel, and we sang the whole thing- and we were the only ones. There was a German couple sitting next to us who asked us about the song; it was pretty funny. 

Between the five of us there, we had a Bulmers and a Guiness just to say we had one in Ireland. It was a real struggle to finish the Guiness- it was disgusting. 

Saturday, we slept in a bit and then lunch at a place called O' Shea. Most of the girls got fish and chips, and they said it was really good. I'm not the biggest seafood fan, so I got something else. Then we got on a bus for a tour of County Wicklow, which is also called the Garden County. It was so incredibly beautiful. 

We spent a lot of time in the Wicklow Mountain National Park. This was taken on Green Road, which leads to Upper Lake.

This is Upper Lake, which is where the marriage scene from Braveheart and the wedding scene from Leap Year was filmed. It was so gorgeous. 

This is another road in County Wicklow. It was where they filmed the scene from P.S. I Love You where they first met each other :) The next couple pictures are in the same place.

Our tour guide said that one time a man asked him to take a picture of him and his girlfriend here, and when he went to take the picture the man got on one knee and proposed :D

This is another lake we saw in Wicklow- it was breathtaking. 

After our tour, we got on a bus back to Waterford. Today we have been resting and doing homework. 

June 26

Today was our second day of class, and I think the lack of sleep is catching up with everyone. We are exhausted. I can't believe tomorrow we will have been here for a week! Tomorrow we are going to Dublin on a field trip, and most people are spending the weekend there, including me. I am really excited! I probably won't have access to a computer, so I might not be able to post until Sunday. But you'll hear from me by then :)

Enniscorthy and Ferrycarrig

Yesterday we went to a museum called the National  1798 Rebellion Center in Enniscorthy, Wexford. It was about the Knights and Rebels in the revolution. It was really sad; there were a lot of people that died. But it was really interesting, and they had a lot of cool video/simulation things to make you feel a part of it.

Irish Wizard's chess!! ;)

This is one of the manikin, but they all looked so real. 

At the end of the tour, there was a dress up station for people to dress up like Knights and Rebels, so naturally, I had to try it. 

I started off as a Knight...

But then I realized my calling and joined the Rebels. As you can tell, Rachel was not happy about it.

We then go to go see Vinegar Hill, which is where a pivotal battle from the revolution took place. Our tour guides made us reenact the battle, and it was really fun. There is part of an old windmill on the hill that was used as a prison and place of torture during the revolution. 

This is part of the old windmill.

View from the top of the hill.

We then went to Johnstown Castle in Ferrycarrig, Wexford. We didn't go in the castle because we didn't have time, but we got to walk around on the grounds, and it was incredible! There were peacocks walking around, and they were really noisy haha. 

We had so much fun, but I wish we had more time there. Later last night, we went downtown to hear live music in some of the pubs. The first pub we were in was over 800 years old! They singer was really funny, and they sang "Country Roads" for the Americans. It was great!

First day of school

Today was our first day of class, but we didn't really do anything academic. We mostly just talked about class structure and funny things that have happened so far. I love my professor! She's so adorable. After class, my friends and I just hung out. It was nice to have a more relaxed day. Tomorrow we are going to two different castles, and I'm really excited!!

First day of class!

Woodstock, Kilkenny, and Wexford

Today was a very full day. We stopped at three different sites. The first one was Woodstock Manor in Woodstock, Ireland. We just went around the gardens, and it was gorgeous!! Our tour guide (he comes with us to a lot of things) is named Walter, and he is precious. He is an elderly Irish man with a great accent and sense of humor.

Rachel :)

I don't know if you can read the sign, but it says "Tea Room"

Candace!

This garden had some really unique flowers.

These are the best smelling roses in the world.

Love these ladies!! This is us with Walter; he was being goofy :)

We then went to Tintern Abbey in Kilkenny. It is not used as an abbey anymore, but there are different cultural events held there.

We were so glad the sun was out for a while!

The view from this bridge was incredible!

The last place we went to today was Hook Lighthouse in Wexford. The cliffs off the cost were by far the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The pictures do not do it justice, and they don't show how big everything was. We were in complete wonder the entire time; it didn't look real. It was also incredibly windy, which you will be able to see by our windblown hair haha. 

Hook Lighthouse

I really wish y'all could see how big these cliffs are!

I really don't know what we were doing...

Jump picture!! Not sure why I'm looking completely up.

Frolicking!! It's actually very hard to frolic on uneven terrain- just so you know.

We had such a great day!! I am so blessed to have been able to do all of this!! This is such a beautiful country.