Don't Stop Me Now

Hey peeps!

It is March 2. That is so bizzarre. I seems like just yesterday I was getting on the plane at Ford Airport to head to Ireland, and now I'm getting on planes to travel around EUROPE! Before I get to that though, let me back up and update you on everything that's happened before Spring Break.

The weekend before we went to Dublin was a huge academic weekend, but everyone took a break to head down to Tully for a double 21st birthday which was a lot of fun, coupled with a few trips to the chipper which has essentially become our "Yesterdog" over here. Sunday, my cottage gave our presentations on the sites in Dublin; my topic was Kilmainham Gaol, the jail in Dublin which has a dark history. Ask me about it sometime. The presentations went well, but then we were off to study for our Literature Midterm later that week. Tuesday evening we kicked off our Spring Break with a party in Cottage 6 and a trip to Coynes. Overall, it was a successful evening and a great way to depart Tully Cross for two and a half weeks.

Wednesday we made our way toward Dublin. On our way to Dublin, we stopped at Newgrange. Newgrange is a monument constructed during the Neolithic era and is less than an hour outside of Dublin. The monument is significant because it identifies the winter solstice, meaning that every December 21, the sun shines through the small opening in the monument and fills the monument with light. They did a demo for us with a 40 Watt lightbulb, which was still very cool to see. They conduct a lottery each year for about 20 or so people around the world to be in the monument on December 21 at sunrise to experience it.

This is the entrance to Newgrange. We couldn't take pictures inside unfortunately, but you can definitely tell it's something from the Neolithic era.

That evening we arrived in Dublin and got settled in our hostel, which was a very nice hostel, the Globetrotter. From there we grabbed dinner and some of the guys and I along with Brittany, Hannah and Beth explored the town before calling it a night.

Thursday morning we went as a group to see the Book of Kels at Trinity College. The Book of Kels is a historic book which contains the four gospels in Latin. It is ornately and very elaborately decorated and was written by Monks around 1,000 AD. It was sent to Trinity College during the Cromwell era of the 1600s for fear of it being destroyed. The colors of the book were extracted from minerals and the book took an extremely long time to compose, but it was definitely cool to view. Above that room was the Long Library, which is just as it sounds. It is by far the biggest library I've ever seen and unfortunately, the library is only for show as you cannot check out books from it. It was definitely impressive to look at.

After the Book of Kels, we were on our own in Dublin. The guys and some of the girls along with Dr. Dawson made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse, or Brewery, is a seven floor building and is nicknamed the "high point of your visit to Dublin." Literally. The seventh floor is the Gravity Bar where you redeem your admission ticket for a pint and enjoy the 360 view of Ireland. That pint was by far the freshest and best tasting Guinness I will ever enjoy; we hadn't had much to eat yet that day either so one pint was plenty of Guinness for me to take in.

Honestly, best tasting Guinness in all of Ireland.

Brittany and Ken, all smiles at the top.

After the Brewery we went to Kilmainham Gaol and toured the jail, which was awesome to tour after doing my culture presentation on it. I already knew a lot of the information but I learned a lot of new facts as well, including some of the inmates that were kept there during its 130 years of operation. The jail in Dublin was the scene of brutal treatment of Irish prisoners and inmates while it was open. Conditions in the jail were terrible and sometimes it was uninhabitable. Going from an ultimate high at the Guinness Brewery to the jail was slightly depressing and startling, but very interesting nonetheless. That evening we had to ourselves, so some of us walked to the oldest pub in Dublin and had a pint there and then called it a night.

Friday we had the morning and afternoon to ourselves again, so there was more sightseeing including the National Gallery of Art and the National Library and Museum. In the library there was an exhibit devoted to Yeats and his poetry and included in the exhibit was a copy of Walden that Yeats had signed and used for inspiration for some of his earlier poems. Let's be honest, Thoreau is kind of a big deal.

That evening we went to a play at the Abbey theatre together called "No Romance." It was a three act play that had just premiered in Dublin. I'd try to explain it, but I'd suggest you look it up if you can find it. If it ever comes to the states, I'd recommend seeing it. After that we all said goodbye and packed our things as we were heading our separate ways the next morning for Spring Break.

That's all I've got for Dublin. I'll post about Barcelona soon, and look on Facebook for pictures!

Peace. Love. Ireland.

Rob