Dublin-Oct 3-4th

Hi Everyone!

I know I know the posting isn't being updated that often. However, lately during the 'fixing' of the internet here it's been shut off or just incapable of doing anything. I've also been spending this whole month of October writing papers. I feel like I write 2 papers within two weeks so I'm always writing to the point I don't feel up to writing my own stuff. Never fear though I've been randomly keeping tabs on things so it won't be like my journals (whenever I catch up on their entries from the piles of papers I wrote on) have huge gaps.

I'm avoiding getting the flu this semester but no one here has it yet so I've been pretty lucky. I think the temperate climate is helping me stay sick free. The university is expecting a high rate of swine flu this year though we have yet to see it. I just hope none of my roommates end up with it or I'm doomed to get it.

On a happier note this weekend I will be off to Paris so you will have to wait until I return for any posts possibly a bit after that since I have another paper due right after I return. I plan to spend a day doing the typical touristy type things like visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and others and on another day enjoy Euro Disney. Yes I said Euro Disney people laugh all you want but I love Disney and this is my chance to go there for a pretty cheap price for the day and be a kid again and do whatever I want in Disney land. And if that means dressing up like a moron and meeting Mickey Mouse then so be it because it's worth it to me. And it's almost Halloween so that means the entire park will be decorated in a Halloween theme and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays :)

Well this post isn't supposed to be about me being excited for Paris it is supposed to be about Dublin. The Galway Tour Bus Company was offering a weekend in Dublin for 120 euro which would include accommodation, a special tour of the Guinness Storehouse and brewery, hiking trip in the Glendalough mountains and a whole tour of Dublin. I signed up and alas only 5 people signed up. They needed a min of 15 people so instead of being bummed of having my weekend plans foiled again (I planned to visit Kilkenny but no one had a room and there wasn't a bus there the time I wanted) I decided to go to Dublin anyway. My roommate and I bought a bus ticket and in the very early hours of Satruday morning we headed off to the bus station. Something interesting about the wee early hours of Ireland not a soul is up. Normally at such times of 5-6am in the States everyone is bustling off to work and running into Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts for their coffee fix. In Ireland there aren't any Starbucks or coffee places open at 5-7am. There aren't any shops open, heck there isn't morning rush hour until at least 8 or 9am. The only people out and about are the city maintenance crews and a few delivery trucks. I almost got ran over by a sidewalk sweeper. I've seen street sweepers before but I had never seen a sidewalk sweeper before- he was nice enough to let me pass without just sweeping me up with the rest of the rubbish left over from a crazy night in town only hours before. I walked past a line of Bus Eireann buses waiting to take off to their routes most empty of any passengers. We walked into the bus station which is a really nice clean new looking station and not a soul was there save a bus and a bus driver. Ten minutes later we boarded the bus and set off on the 3 hour bus ride to Dublin.

I spent the time trying to catch up on some journal writing but found some of the country roads to be a bit too rough to write so I decided to listen to music and admire the countryside. I did bring a book but I had no desire to try and read at 7:30am. I watched the green lush countryside wash past me with cows, sheep with spray painted bottoms and lots of rock walls. John Wayne wasn't kidding in the Quietman when he said this country has too many rock walls. I could build a house out of all these rocks and still find more. My dog Ally would love it here only because she loves digging up rocks. When I plan to make a rock wall around a house I plan on getting here in the future I should bring her with to be my backhoe. After watching an episode or two of Bones on my iphone I went back to staring out the window as we arrived in Dublin. I know Dublin is a large city but in contrast to being in Chicago it did not feel as overwhelming in size. There aren't huge sky scrapers towering over you blocking any view of the sky or just confusing the heck out of you as to which way is which.

We headed off to find a cafe or some place to grab some tea or coffee and in my case a second breakfast. Listen to me I sound like a Hobbit wanting second breakfasts. After finding a place that looked like something out of one of those W hotels we sat down and ate chocolate filled croissants and juice. From there we proceeded to find Trinity College and a hop on hop off bus. We made it to the college and walked through the old stone archway into the old square which was built in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth. There is an old monastery bell still there from when her father Henry 8th had a monastery there. We joined up with a college history tour as well as a view of the famous Book of Kells. Interestingly enough the Irish lost it for a time and found it buried in a farmers field. I'm sure if that happened today an entire swat team of archivists would be sent out to go find it since that book is over 8000 years old and worth over a million dollars. The book was amazing to see, it is for those of you who don't know, a copy of the old testament one of the oldest surviving copies. It was also done in color which for the time was an amazing feat. Certain colors could only be obtained from specific countries like Africa, Afghanistan and Serbia.

After the tour we went off to find the hop on hop off bus and bought a ticket and headed to the National Archaeology and History Museum in Dublin. There we saw lots of hoards that were dug up in bogs of gold or weapons or just about anything of monetary value that could have been used in the B.C. era. I can honestly say that those that lived in the B.C. era were into their gold bling. I'm not kidding you the necklaces, bracelets, dress pins were huge and made of gold. We also saw one of the worlds oldest long boats preserved in a bog. The funny thing about bogs is that they're used for peat as a fuel resource but so many preserved life in Ireland before A.D. so well. Yes they're messy smelly things with loads of sink holes but with the lack of oxygen going into them nothing decays much. I won't gross you out with the details but I also had the chance to see bog men that were dug up. Some looked a bit tan or somewhat decayed but many looked like they had only been dead for a few days and still retained most of their features it was really fascinating. And these men were dead longer than I've been alive as apart of a violent sacrifice. Not necessarily one for the gods but for political reasons made to appear like it was one for the gods. Yes people lied back then and killed for better political standing. Not everything was all peaceful then. We then moved on to see some religious relics. The monks were big into cape/cloak pins with extra long needles. So if you ever thought about getting too close you'd poke your eye out or at least they could challenge you to a duel if you ever insulted their faith. Their walking sticks were also very stylish and full of bling. All sorts of jewels and made of solid gold and in the middle was the wooden walking stick. We continued on to see the Viking section and I spent some time analyzing some Viking remains with a bit of my forensic anthropology skills. I usually was right about who was male or female so my TA can be proud she taught me how to identify the sex of remains well. The Viking men were very well built and very large. Most men during that time were not 6ft tall and most Viking men were. The Vikings did have quite a bit of influence on Ireland, they founded towns, pillaged others, created a currency for Ireland and brought in a good deal of trade. Dublin was founded 3 times by the Vikings (they lost it in battle the first 2 and decided to move it to where it is now which is north of where it originally was).

We ate paninis for lunch in a cafe after the Museum and went on to visit the Kilmainham Gaol. The jail was built sometime in 1750 if I remember rightly and housed men, women and children until 1882 when it became just a men only jail but little boys still went as well. You may be curious as to how little children get thrown in jail? At the age of 5 they are able to work which means they're able to be apart of the justice system and thrown in jail for stealing food. Harsh? I would think so but that was in the days where child labor existed in Ireland. The jail housed 140 people maximum and during the 1840s when the Famine was in full swing across Ireland, the jail housed at a given time 2,000 to 3,000 people. No in house shower system and only 6 toilets for the whole place. Many were given buckets and many became sick and died. Many starved to death. And it was so bad on the outside that people would commit crimes just to be in jail knowing they would receive at least one square meal that day. Ireland had an abundance of food, but it was being sent to England and everywhere else but to the people of Ireland. The jail was meant to be a reform jail and introduced solitary confinement which was not used in jails before in Ireland. Before everyone was crammed into one large room: murders, thieves, rapists etc. They all learned other criminal trades and after they were out they committed more crimes. The justice system figured that it would be best to start separating the criminals to help them reform. Mass was held weekly in a small chapel like room in the jail in hopes by bringing religion into their lives they would repent and stop their crimes. It was not so successful especially with the Famine situation and until 1860 they did not have mug shots when prisoners were brought in so many could make up a new name and no one would know the difference.

After that we got on the bus to go see Phoenix Park and other land marks on the tour. Phoenix Park was created around the 1600/1700s for the upper class gentry/royals to use as a hunting ground. They stocked the ground with game and spent their weekends out hunting. In 1743 the park was opened to public usage and now it hosts all of Ireland's game pitches and a number of walking/jogging trails. We drove past the US Ambassador's house and the President of Ireland's house. We arrived back into town and went up to our room to rest before going down to dinner someplace.

We ate dinner at a place called La Pizza since the pubs weren't serving food by the time we went out after a nap and shower. The pizza was really good and it was a nice family type atmosphere with a bunch of kids running around and doodling pictures with crayons everywhere. After that we crashed.

The next day we checked out and wandered around that Sunday morning looking for food and came across this 'cafe' ha it was no cafe it lied. We asked about things up on the menu and the two girls looked at us and were like what are crepes? I was a bit stunned and said it's on your menu up on the wall-I'm not sure if they just didn't understand English that well or if they did not know their own menu but either way it was flat out joke. I got some scones but they were rock hard and not very tasty but I was hungry so I ate it. We also had to pay for our stuff next door at the convenience store so we really did not get what was up with the set up of the place. We walked down to Trinity College to take some better photos since we got stuck in a downpour and my cameras aren't water proof. From there we hopped on the bus and went to the Guinness Storehouse and gave ourselves a self tour of the finer process of making Guinness Beer. I found it to be pretty interesting; I won't give you all the details but it was more or less a giant chemistry experiment. A bit of trivia for you-Arthur Guinness's lease of his establishment is to last for 9000 years. I don't know about the rest of you but I surely won't be around to see who is drinking Guinness in 9000 years but that is how long he has the lease for. And they've only used 250 of that 9000 so far so it'll be a while. After having drinks up in the Gravity Bar where you get the best view of Dublin city around we headed to the shop and got to listen to an orchestra playing movie themes in the giant glass pint.

We then headed to the National Museum which is a large army barracks what was being used up until about 2003 where it was made into a museum. Now if the army uses it it's just a way to sort of uphold tradition and show off in the open square. There I dueled with the Juice, learned about Ireland through numerous wars, received an even more in depth lesson on the Irish Civil War and saw more swords and muskets than I have ever seen in my life. We did see the best of the curators collection and a room full of silver objects everything from a tea pot to a button, and learned all about currency in Ireland. I was dead beat after that and we walked back to the bus stop to wait for the bus and on the bus ride home I eavesdropped on some Russians and wanted to throw a book at a guy who was practically yelling to the person on his cell phone the whole trip home.

The end of my Dublin trip :) Here is 2 photo links for you all: http://gallery.me.com/turtle017/100086

http://gallery.me.com/turtle017/100093