Ireland: Dublin

Okay, so this past weekend I went to Dublin with Caitlin and Lizzy, and we had an amazing time. We got there at the end of Tradfest, which is the weeklong celebration of Irish traditional music, so there were live musicians on the street and in every pub, which was absolutely wonderful. We flew in on Friday morning and were ready to go by noon. We first went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is where Handal first played his Messiah. It was beautiful inside, and in the basement there was an exhibit with all kinds of treasures that had been used in the church for centuries. After that we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the church where Jonathon Swift was the dean. The church wasn't as impressive as Christ Church, but there were some interesting exhibits there as well, including Swift's grave. To end our afternoon perfectly, we went to the Guinness Storehouse. It was really interesting to see how they make the beer, and there was also a museum that traced the history of Guinness and showed the various advertising campaigns they've used. And of course, there was a free pint at the end of the tour.

On Saturday we started with the Kilmainham Gaol, which is the prision in which all the rebels of the Easter rising were held and executed. It was a little depressing, but it was also really interesting to see what the conditions were like and stand in the same place where so much Irish history happened. In the afternoon we started at the library on the grounds of Dublin Castle, which was probably my favorite part of the entire weekend. The library holds all kinds of religious manuscripts, including some of the earliest written forms of the gospel and the actual letters Paul wrote to the Corinthians. They wouldn't let us take pictures there, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The castle itself was also beautiful. It's used mostly for state functions now, but the rooms still include the relics of when it was a practicing castle. They also took us into the basement of the castle, where you can still see the remains of the medieval foundation and moat that the castle was built on. We then went to the Jameson factory, where I tried whiskey for the first time and surprisingly liked it.

On Sunday we took a bus ride through the city and took pictures of some of the more historical sights in the city. I'm taking a class on Irish history right now, and it was really cool to be able to connect what I'm learning about to the sights I saw in Dublin. After the bus ride, we went to some pubs in the afternoon to listen to some live music before our plane left. It was a really great weekend, and I loved Dublin a lot.