On Saturday morning I was picked up at about 4am to head over to the airport for my trip up to Dublin. Although it was super early I really enjoyed the cab ride, as it was nice to see London in the middle of the night. There was a peaceful and eerie stillness to the city as we drove past landmarks such as Buckingham palace, Big Ben, the London Eye and the Tower Bridge, all lit up by lights and the moon.
After my short flight on Ryan Air I took the bus into Dublin city center. As soon as the bus departed the airport, a welcome video was played which Beautiful Day by U2, which made me really happy. After checking into the hostel I met up with my friends Stephanie and Deb who are currently studying in Edinburgh and Brussels respectively. We spent the afternoon on a walking tour, which included all of the major Dublin sights such as Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Stephens Square and Grafton Street. After the tour we walked around the city some more and went to a few parks. We also went on a Ferris wheel, which provided a great view of the city. On Saturday night, Stephanie and I meet up with a few of my other friends and we went to a pub. At the pub everyone was really friendly and happy since Ireland just beat England in Rugby. The Irish people were some of the friendliest people that I have meet while abroad and they were all tons of fun. Everyone in Ireland seems to just come up to you and tell you their life story which I found really interesting about the Irish culture.
On Sunday morning I meet up with Stephanie and we walked across Dublin to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which had a very beautiful park right next to it. After the church we headed further across the city to the Guinness storehouse factory. The Guinness factory was gigantic and we were able to see how the famous beer is made. At the end of the tour we were taught how to pour the perfect pint, which involved 6 steps and takes 119.5 seconds. After pouring my own pint, I received a certificate to acknowledge my serious skills. The Guinness factory was a lot of fun and we both really enjoyed the experience. After the factory we walked another 20 minutes to the Kilmainham Goal Jail, but it was closed as tickets were all sold out unfortunately. Saturday night Stephanie and I grabbed dinner and then just hung out at the hostel since we both had early morning flights. It was great to catch up with Stephanie as she was abroad last semester also and I only saw her for New Years in the last few months. Overall I had a great time in Dublin. It was a pretty city and the people were all very nice and friendly.
 |
| Dublin! |
 |
| Dublin Castle |
 |
| St. Stephen's Green |
 |
| Deb, Me and Steph in the Park. |
 |
| Steph and I at the Guinness Factory. |
 |
| Learning to pour the perfect pint. |
 |
| Success. |
Today I had a class trip for my British Life and Cultures class to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and the British Museum. The Globe theatre was pretty interesting to see and I learned a lot about British theatre during the 16-17th centuries. After the Globe theatre, a bunch of us grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which was pretty good but a bit pricey for lunch. After lunch we made our way to the British Library where we encountered the worlds worst tour guide. The guide was boring, didn’t know the answers to anything was really annoying and spoke in a really soft voice that no one could hear. Even my dull Professor was making fun of her. Although the tour sucked, it was pretty cool to see original books and documents such as the Magna Carta, The Canterbury Tales, Alice in Wonderland, the worlds oldest Quran and original sheets of paper that the Beatles wrote their lyrics on.
 |
| Shakespeare's Globe Theatre |
 |
| Inside the Globe |
 |
| The British Library. |
Well, that’s all for now…Im about to go to sleep so I can wake up in time for another week of interning. I'll update soon, whenever I get the chance.
-Rees
No comments:
Post a Comment