Ireland and Julia's Study Abroad Life
So, the next weekend, I set off for Dublin on Thursday afternoon, to visit Julia. Got in Thursday around 5 o’clock their time, and soon realized, wow I was not prepared for the cold in Ireland. When I reached the bottom of the terminal building towards the exit, it suddenly got quite cold. As I stepped outside, I felt that wonderful Irish wind, slicing through my skin. Thankfully I had brought my windproof jacket, so it only attacked my ears and hands. Took the bus successfully into the “City Centre” to meet Julia at the Millennium Tower, which we discovered was quite the popular meeting point. We went to dinner at an Irish place, where I had a thoroughly-Irish boxty with lamb and a thoroughly-Irish stout, Beamish, to accompany. Both were divine, I must add. From there, we went back to her apartment to meet her friends and get ready to go out.
Her suitemates were very nice to me, a fun group of girls, two of whom went out with us. After a snag with a group of her friends, the four of us finally got to a bar in the Temple Bar district of Dublin, a hot spot for nightlife. We spent a little while there and then got home around 2, when I promptly passed out from being very tired. One interesting thing, tho: we took a cab, all four of us, as it was worth it in the group and we would get back quicker. But, as we were getting out the cab, he informed us of the price, 15 euros. Okay, we’re fishing for money. No one really has any bills left, so we’re going through change. As I’m in the front seat, I helped deal with the money. And as we were fumbling around and I was handing him progressively more change, he just said nicely that he had enough. Here’s the weird part—he didn’t. I knew what I had given him, perhaps 12 euros or 13 at the most. What a nice gesture it was; I was struck by it.
Friday. I got up late, after Julia and her friend went to the gym in the morning. Woke up, made myself a good AMERICAN breakfast (geeze, I really can’t stand this Spanish excuse for a breakfast in the morning), and we headed out to begin the Dublin touring. Julia advised I get in the airport a three-day bus pass for the double-decker tour bus they have, which evidently is very popular and useful. Dublin has no subway system, so the whole city is based on these double-deckers monsters. The tour was actually quite handy, and my card allowed me to ride any city bus as well. So, we picked out some spots we wanted to go on the tour, and divided them up among days. The firs stop was the Dublin castle, which was rather disappointing, as far as castles go. But it DID have a cool church attached to it, this little guy with all kinds of ornate woodwork. It was a shame because I think we could’ve normally gone into the castle, but I believe they were filming a movie that day or something important was happening. After that, we hit up Christ Church Cathedral followed by Saint Patrick’s, both of which are cool churches. It’s almost funny, lately, how some of us have been talking about churches. Spain has some of the most amazing ones in the word, Christian churches at least from what I’ve seen and heard, so we’re all a little jaded now when entering an old church. BUT, I still liked the stain glass a lot, and the UK spin on churches with the woodwork and crests everywhere was also something to be seen. Under Christ Church there exists a system of catacombs, which were quite creepy. It was built over the top of a few churches before it, one of which was Charlemagne’s (I believe; someone correct me if I’m wrong). After those, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse, which I must say was amazing. It takes you through the whole process of making Guinness, the whole history of the company and the beer, a tasting test, and then finally the best pint I’ve ever enjoyed in a huge tower with 360-degree windows overlooking the city. We returned to the center of the city, got some good fish and chips, and decided to head back to the apartment before going back out. Needless to say, I lay down on the bed to rest my eyes and woke up in the middle of the night with all my clothes on. Julia had gone to sleep too, and I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was. But damn was I happy to get some more good sleep.
Saturday. We got up rather early, as the night before had been an early one, so we headed into the city and made our first stop at the Jameson factory. It was the like the Guinness in that it went through the whole process of making Jameson, which was in fact very interesting, but the Guinness factory was newer and nicer. It’s a known fact that in the orientation period before the Jameson tour, the guides call for “volunteers,” which they openly told us were whiskey tasters at the end of the tour. My sister shot her hand up so fast for that, and they actually called on her. She tasted three Irish whiskeys, one Scotch Whiskey, and one American whiskey. Did a good job at it, too. From there, we hit up a bunch of museums, especially Irish culture ones. I really wanted to learn about the Irish people while I was there, foremost their fight for independence that succeeded earlier this century. I also viewed the natural history museum with some awesome artifacts from the Vikings and earliest inhabitants of the island, and then to the National Gallery with Irish artists. Julia and I also got to wander around, looking for good gifts for people.
That Saturday night, we ate at an Italian restaurant, at the request of Julia, and then hit up some traditional Irish pubs. We went to the oldest pub in Dublin, and later, to a great pub across the street that had live Irish music, as we were informed by a bus driver. Did it indeed. There were some Irish people really getting down, and the music was awesome. We went home, actually split a cab with two people were going the same direction, back to campus. It was funny, we had a nice little conversation with them. The guy was studying in Scotland and the girl in Italy (they were both visiting a friend in Dublin), and we just ran into them at the bus stop and decided to split a cab. I marveled at the fact that we could unite four Americans, all studying in different European countries, in one cab in Ireland perchance.
Next morning, got up, went to the airport, and got outta dodge. LONG ride home, as I had a long layover in London Stansted. That place was still ridiculous on security; no liquids of any kind, everyone got padded down thoroughly after passing through metal detectors. All that jazz. Finally got home late, as I also didn’t realize how the daylight savings’ time change affected the time. Oh well, a good trip to Dublin in the end.
Her suitemates were very nice to me, a fun group of girls, two of whom went out with us. After a snag with a group of her friends, the four of us finally got to a bar in the Temple Bar district of Dublin, a hot spot for nightlife. We spent a little while there and then got home around 2, when I promptly passed out from being very tired. One interesting thing, tho: we took a cab, all four of us, as it was worth it in the group and we would get back quicker. But, as we were getting out the cab, he informed us of the price, 15 euros. Okay, we’re fishing for money. No one really has any bills left, so we’re going through change. As I’m in the front seat, I helped deal with the money. And as we were fumbling around and I was handing him progressively more change, he just said nicely that he had enough. Here’s the weird part—he didn’t. I knew what I had given him, perhaps 12 euros or 13 at the most. What a nice gesture it was; I was struck by it.
Friday. I got up late, after Julia and her friend went to the gym in the morning. Woke up, made myself a good AMERICAN breakfast (geeze, I really can’t stand this Spanish excuse for a breakfast in the morning), and we headed out to begin the Dublin touring. Julia advised I get in the airport a three-day bus pass for the double-decker tour bus they have, which evidently is very popular and useful. Dublin has no subway system, so the whole city is based on these double-deckers monsters. The tour was actually quite handy, and my card allowed me to ride any city bus as well. So, we picked out some spots we wanted to go on the tour, and divided them up among days. The firs stop was the Dublin castle, which was rather disappointing, as far as castles go. But it DID have a cool church attached to it, this little guy with all kinds of ornate woodwork. It was a shame because I think we could’ve normally gone into the castle, but I believe they were filming a movie that day or something important was happening. After that, we hit up Christ Church Cathedral followed by Saint Patrick’s, both of which are cool churches. It’s almost funny, lately, how some of us have been talking about churches. Spain has some of the most amazing ones in the word, Christian churches at least from what I’ve seen and heard, so we’re all a little jaded now when entering an old church. BUT, I still liked the stain glass a lot, and the UK spin on churches with the woodwork and crests everywhere was also something to be seen. Under Christ Church there exists a system of catacombs, which were quite creepy. It was built over the top of a few churches before it, one of which was Charlemagne’s (I believe; someone correct me if I’m wrong). After those, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse, which I must say was amazing. It takes you through the whole process of making Guinness, the whole history of the company and the beer, a tasting test, and then finally the best pint I’ve ever enjoyed in a huge tower with 360-degree windows overlooking the city. We returned to the center of the city, got some good fish and chips, and decided to head back to the apartment before going back out. Needless to say, I lay down on the bed to rest my eyes and woke up in the middle of the night with all my clothes on. Julia had gone to sleep too, and I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was. But damn was I happy to get some more good sleep.
Saturday. We got up rather early, as the night before had been an early one, so we headed into the city and made our first stop at the Jameson factory. It was the like the Guinness in that it went through the whole process of making Jameson, which was in fact very interesting, but the Guinness factory was newer and nicer. It’s a known fact that in the orientation period before the Jameson tour, the guides call for “volunteers,” which they openly told us were whiskey tasters at the end of the tour. My sister shot her hand up so fast for that, and they actually called on her. She tasted three Irish whiskeys, one Scotch Whiskey, and one American whiskey. Did a good job at it, too. From there, we hit up a bunch of museums, especially Irish culture ones. I really wanted to learn about the Irish people while I was there, foremost their fight for independence that succeeded earlier this century. I also viewed the natural history museum with some awesome artifacts from the Vikings and earliest inhabitants of the island, and then to the National Gallery with Irish artists. Julia and I also got to wander around, looking for good gifts for people.
That Saturday night, we ate at an Italian restaurant, at the request of Julia, and then hit up some traditional Irish pubs. We went to the oldest pub in Dublin, and later, to a great pub across the street that had live Irish music, as we were informed by a bus driver. Did it indeed. There were some Irish people really getting down, and the music was awesome. We went home, actually split a cab with two people were going the same direction, back to campus. It was funny, we had a nice little conversation with them. The guy was studying in Scotland and the girl in Italy (they were both visiting a friend in Dublin), and we just ran into them at the bus stop and decided to split a cab. I marveled at the fact that we could unite four Americans, all studying in different European countries, in one cab in Ireland perchance.
Next morning, got up, went to the airport, and got outta dodge. LONG ride home, as I had a long layover in London Stansted. That place was still ridiculous on security; no liquids of any kind, everyone got padded down thoroughly after passing through metal detectors. All that jazz. Finally got home late, as I also didn’t realize how the daylight savings’ time change affected the time. Oh well, a good trip to Dublin in the end.
posted by Anthony Damelio at 1:06 PM
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