dublin.

Friday, March 23rd - Sunday, March 25th

Friday
My Dublin weekend started with a slow Friday night. Having seen The Hunger Games at 11pm on Thursday night,  Sydney, Steph, and I decided that a round of fish & chips and a pint would be all we could take for the night!

I should state, some of our Dublin tour was based on the 'Dublin Flexi-pack' that the University offered international students for €5. The pack included our bus ticket, entrance to the Book of Kells, lunch at a popular pub, and tickets for a Viking Splash tour.  It was a great deal!

Saturday
Ok... so we got up early on Saturday to start our packed day of tourist events.  Our first stop was Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Although I couldn't take pictures at the Book of Kells museum or in the amazing old Library, I was able to get lots of pictures of the blooming campus.

Considering the beautiful weather we couldn't bring ourselves to head indoors quite yet, so walked toward the Temple Bar area to wander the streets and enjoy the sun!

After a quick lunch at O'Neills Pub we ventured over to the National Archeology Museum, as recommended by Rick Steves, where once again I couldn't take pictures.  However one of the main exhibits in the museum is about the Irish bogs.  As the bogs have been harvested for peat, 'things' have been found centuries deep in the peat.  We were able to see 'bog butter' and 'bog people'... the people had been preserved and still had hair, nails, and skin despite their age.  It was totally disgusting and amazing at the same time!

Leaving the museum we arrive at the most 'touristy' part of our day... the Viking Splash Tour!  The tour was a historic overview or Dublin on a world war II DUKW (or duck... like in the dells!).  We drove through town and learned about a lot of the sites and then dove into a levy of the River Liffey.  It was totally ridiculous, but really fun... we even gave a great 'Viking Rawr' to passing 'celts' on the street!

After sadly returning our Viking hats we walked home via Graffton Street.  We window shopped and dreamed of stopping into the many jewelry, shoe, and clothes stores that were well out of our price range!

We finished the day up with dinner at the hostel, a few Irish ciders, and friendly conversation with some of the other hostel residents!

Sunday
Despite the brutal affects of daylight savings, we were up at 8 on Sunday to eat breakfast, pack up, and catch the LUAS tram to the Guinness Storehouse on the edge of town.  We Spent close to 2 hours walking through the museum and enjoying a morning pint of Guinness in the 360 degree bar on top of the storehouse.

From the storehouse we walked back to town and made a stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral and garden.

The beautiful weather made it near impossible to go inside for the rest of the day.  We grabbed lunch at a  small Italian restaurant and headed for St. Stephen's Green to picnic in the sun.... with about 1000 other people!

We ended our weekend in Dublin with a quick visit to the Irish National Gallery to see a few Monet,  Picasso, and Caravaggio paintings.

It was a totally packed weekend and there is still more I'd love to see in Dublin!  I had a wonderful time and wonderful weather!

I've been told that Ireland had its Summer this week... It was in the 70s, way higher than it usually gets here.  I even got an Irish sunburn, I'm more proud of that than upset!  I didn't have too many classes and got to enjoy the sun with friends!

I'm off the Germany and Austria tomorrow morning for a 9 day adventure of a life time!  I'm sure I'll have more than enough to talk about when I get back!

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed Easter... eat some ham and jelly beans for me!
Miss you all!