Dublin, Ireland: Part Two

AFTER THE PARADE:

            We walked around for about an hour and a half trying to find a pub. Every pub we tried to go into was full to capacity. So after we wandered around town for what seems like forever we finally found a pub called the Brazen Head. This was not just any old pub. It was Ireland’s oldest pub! Kind of neat, if you ask me! It was packed here, as well. We finally found a table and ordered some food. It was pretty good, considering it was so busy.

            After we ate and talked for a while we decided to walk around and observe some of Dublin’s history. Well shall I say we tried! Dublin is a large city and the public transportation is not that great. We did walk by St. Patrick’s Cathedral and some polish church (that was pretty neat).

SUNDAY:

            We checked out of our hotel and went back into downtown Dublin. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10:00 pm. Let’s see… what did we do on Sunday???

Oh yes, we went to the Guinness Storehouse/Museum. It was actually interesting to see how Guinness beer is made. It also showed the variations in equipment from when the brewery first opened to modern day. They even had computers set up where you could type in your last name and see if you had any relatives that had ever worked for Guinness. Overall the Guinness tour was okay, I could have done without going, but one of the other girls really wanted to go. Oh and they gave your free samples of Guinness on the tour and may I say… I am NOT a beer drinker to begin with, but that was the worst tasting beer ever!! EWW.

            After we finished the Guinness tour we went to the National Leprechaun Museum. This was very different yet neat at the same time. We learned lots of stories and folk tales about Ireland. We also learned about the real “leprechaun.” Did you know they did not actually wear green!? They also had a room that made you feel like a leprechaun. It had lots of GIANT furniture that you could climb up and sit on. It was interesting. At the end of the museum/tour they made everyone draw a picture of a leprechaun. Mine looked like a 3 year old drew it. Haha. I’ m not the best artist in the world.

            Once we finished up at the museum we grabbed some lunch at a local pub. It was Mother’s Day, so of course everywhere we tried to go was packed. We finally found a place to eat and it was pretty good… but the service was terrible. We met some people from Italy. They gave us several good tips for our travels on our last week.

            (A short excerpt about Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom. Mother’s Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday after lent, however sometimes the date may vary depending on when Lent and Easter fall. Most Sundays in the year church goers would worship at their nearest parish or "daughter church". In olden times it was considered important for people to return to their home or "mother" church at least once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their "mother" church. As the return to the "mother" church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away from home returned. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home to work in service from ten years of age.) The majority of historians think that it was this return to the "Mother" church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family. This special day has now become a time when people give thanks to their mothers and offers an opportunity to express both love and thanks for the work that they do.)

            I found that tid bit of history to be very interesting.

Back to the Ireland Trip….
After eating a late lunch we made our way back to the airport where we met up with the rest of our “whole” group. We waited for several hours to get on our plane. We did not want a repeat of Friday night. So this time everything was done correctly. The flight was great on the way back as well. It was very short and sweet. When we got back to Manchester we had a “minibus” (a large taxi) waiting on us. Ms. Ali, our school mother, had arranged this transportation for us since we didn’t land until 10:50 and the last train for the night was at 10:30.  I think everyone except two girls slept on the ride back to Sheffield. We finally got back to our apartments at 1:00am!

Good thing we didn’t have to be at school early on Monday morning. It was quite a long trip.

Overall… Dublin was very disappointing. It was nothing like I had imagined in my head. Mostly because we were in a major city and we didn’t really get to see the countryside. Either way, I think if I could redo that weekend I would have planned it totally different! After that weekend, I really did not see or experience anything that would make me want to go back.  Unlike London and Sheffield. Both of those cities have so much to offer and see. Those are just my thoughts…

That’s the end of Ireland!

J KM