The Adventure Begins

As you know, I am a terrible blogger. However, for the next 8 weeks of my life I am going to be good at this because I want to share my wonderful adventure with you! I don't want to brag, just tell you about all the cool stuff I am doing! ;) So here it goes!

We have now been in Ireland for two days. Getting to the airport was hairy, to say the least. We arrived 30 minutes before our connecting flight to Washington DC left. I was barely allowed on the plane because this was the first time I used my adult passport and so technically I needed to be there at a minimum of 45 minutes before the plane took off. Thankfully they managed to get me through security and we were the last people on our flight. When we made it to DC we learned that our flight was the inaugural flight from DC to Ireland! Which meant we had a nicer plane but it was full. Before we even reached the plane they had a party with live music and Irish dancers. It was pretty cool. The plane ride was uneventful, it actually felt short because after 1 movie and an 2 hour nap we were pretty much in Ireland.

Castle right next door!

Above the door of Kilmainham Goal

This country is beautiful! I get to see more of the countryside today but it just has a beauty to it. We arrived to drizzly gray weather but I certainly did not care. It was cold, which did/didn't surprise me and apparently Ireland had received 2 months worth of rain in 2 days. So it was wet. When we arrived to our hotel, exhausted, we were told we could not check in until 3 so we had to entertain ourselves before we could sleep. Immediately outside our hotel is a castle (above)! So I am happy. We walked down the street to the famous jail Kilmainham Goal (below). It is a 300 year old (about) jail that housed a lot of the people responsible for different rebellions in Ireland. Specifically the 7 who's death would become martyrdom and lead to Ireland gaining independence. This picture may also look familiar because when this jail was being saved a lot of movies and TV shows were allowed to film there to bring money in. It was a really neat experience.

Inside the jail

We then went to the hotel and took a much needed nap before heading back on the town. For dinner we ended up in Temple Bar and ate at a restaurant called Quays pronounced keys. I had Bangers and Mash with and appetizer of potato wedges. For some reason I can't quite place, they have mastered the potato. :P. For those who don't know Bangers are a sausage. I really enjoyed this meal, but my mom made the best decision getting their vegetable soup which was absolutely delicious. After wandering around a bit more we proceeded to the hotel and went to sleep.

Going down to the crypt!

Day 2 was a really busy day. After breakfast in the hotel we got on the Hop on, Hop Off City tour. It took us all around Dublin. I have learned/seen that the second tallest odalisque is here in Dublin. Also the lion at the beginning of the MGM movies was raised here in the Dublin Zoo! We then when to St. Michan's church to go and explore their crypt! Coolest thing we did all day. The picture is what it looked like when the tour guide opened the cover to let us down to the crypt. We weren't sure if we were getting a tour or being invited to die there. Inside were 4 naturally conserved mummies! The were 800-200 years old. All of them had different ages. The 800 year old was a crusader and we were allowed to touch him! It is said that to touch the hand of a crusader will bring you luck and he gets 15% of your lottery winnings. The second crypt under this church was also cool. However, this crypt was an active crypt. Meaning that the families buried there are still living and have the right to continue being buried under the church even though they haven't for awhile. This means there tombs could not be lit, or touched by anyone. One crypt had a coffin break apart and subsequently break another coffin. So you look in the room and there is just a foot sticking out of the rubble. You look up to the coffin that has lost its side and can see a white shroud and the remains covered in fabric. It was kinda creepy but super cool! Our tour guide was absolutely hilarious (he's the guy in the picture) and anyone going to Dublin must go here!

Smallest harp ever!

Awesomeness

We also saw the Book of Kells and the oldest Celtic Harp. It was beautiful and all I wanted to do was play it to hear what it sounds like, but as luck has it, its not allowed. I also found probably one of the smallest harps ever made. It only has 5 strings!  We also wandered a beautiful park and saw baby ducks and swans. The baby swans are really cute even though they are grey so I don't think they are ugly at all. (The ugly duckling, if you had no idea why I mentioned this). We also saw a statue of Oscar Wilde and went to the Dublin Castle which is a government building. There is only one tower left of the original castle because the rest burned in a fire. This tower survived because it had walls 5 meters thick and was used as the prison. Try getting out of there! We also crossed the Ha' Penny bridge (half) which the picture above corresponds too, I think you know why I took it ;). For the nights entertainment we went to a Pub Crawl. We traveled to two different pubs with two native musicians who performed and taught us about Irish music. It was really enjoyable. I learned that you are not supposed to clap along to the music but you can tap your feet as most of the music you hear is dance music so tapping your feet is like adding the dancers back in. Also a reel is in 4/4 time and a gig is in 6/8 and they play ridiculously fast! So that is my first two days in Ireland! Check back in the next couple of days for my next update!