Spring Break Part 2: Dublin

After a very busy weekend in Madrid, Gilana and I caught the 2€ airport shuttle (as the woman at the train station told us "the cheapest in Europe") we arrived at the airport about two and a half hours early for our flight to Dublin. After a long struggle to repack our bags and put on some of our bulkier clothing to ensure that our bags would be up (or down rather) to RyanAir's standards, we got some water and waited for our flight.

At first it was too big....

I was very unhappy about this... 

Put on all my bulky clothes and...

Finally success!

Our flight didn't leave Madrid until like 10 PM so we had a night time plane ride, but they left the lights on in the cabin, which definitely interfered with my sleep during the flight. When we finally arrived in Dublin it was super late and the airport was deserted, but thankfully for our tired minds everyone there spoke English.

The most deserted airport I've ever been in, we didn't see a soul until customs. 

The walk to customs was seriously a marathon walk and it was nearing midnight so we were very tired, but the customs officer was so funny. Gilana had asked me to hold a fold that had her passport in it when he called me up to the customs counter so I quickly tossed it on the ground, not wanting to make the people behind us wait. When I got up there he made fun of me for doing that and upon learning that I was studying abroad in Spain asked me why I didn't just study in Mexico because "it's probably less expensive". When Gilana got up to the front he told her that she needed new friends, which was a funny and happy way to start our time in Ireland. We had further problems finding our hostel because we couldn't remember the name of it, we just knew the cross streets but thankfully it was in the city center and the info desk at the airport was able to tell us what bus to take and it dropped us off right in front of our hostel! We checked in, found Zoe and our room and went right to sleep so that we could get an early start the next day. 

The next morning we woke up around 9 and went down to eat our free hostel breakfast, they had two things that we'd all been missing terribly for the past few months, cereal and most importantly peanut butter toast! After eating our fill we meant to go on a walking tour of Dublin but we missed the first tour time that was supposed to go out at 11 AM so we wandered around Dublin for a little while in the University and waited until the next tour at 1 PM. 

Zoe, Me and Gilana.

Pretty trees everywhere.

One of the old school buildings.

Rain bunnies.  

Our matching Keds before they got dirty :(

After wandering around the town of Dublin and doing some window shopping for a little bit we headed to the town hall where we met up with the walking tour. It was as usual another great free walking tour, I've been so impressed by these I always learn so much about the city I'm in. Dublin was especially interesting because they've just had a very rocky history with England that has been wrought with failure. Our first stop was Dublin castle where the English ruled for hundreds of years, Easter of 1916 the Irish had planned a revolt but the English learned of it so the stocked the castle up with extra troops, however the revolution happened a day later than planned because the gun shipment didn't come in time. By the time Monday rolled around the majority of the British soldiers had gone down to the horse races and the castle was taken by just seventeen people. However, once they had taken over they feared it was a trap and retreated. This was one of the biggest mistakes they could have mad because if they had just raised the Irish flag over the castle they would have inspired a revolution, instead they were slaughtered and suffered many more years of English rule.

The only remaining original architecture of the castle because of a fire. 

Statue at one of the entrances, meant to represent England as a warrior taming a lion to prove they are stronger than anything. 

Lady Justice without a blind fold and with uneven scales to show that justice wasn't blind under English rule. 

Our next stop was the tower where the British held a fifteen year old Irish boy who was from a prominent Irish family to keep them from starting another revolution. This in itself isn't so shocking, however, the way that he got caught. At the time it wasn't allowed to sell liquor in Dublin so to get around it they would sell it from boats in the river, this boy saw an English man with wine and followed him back to his boat where he got him super drunk, hit him on the head and then imprisoned him in a tower for five years. 

The tower is six feet wide at its thinnest.

The good news is he eventually managed to tunnel his was out with the help of friends and escape to the north of Ireland. He knew it wasn't safe from him there though so he fled to the south of Spain, where he met an Englishman in a bar, accepted a drink from him and died, because it was poisoned.

This wall was built for when the King of England visited Ireland to hide all of the poverty. It was called the carriage house but really it was just a giant wall with nothing behind it, which is really a genius idea if you think about it because what king is going to want to visit a carriage house. 

The infamous "carriage house".

Our next stop was the new city government buildings where a viking settlement used to stand. When the construction workers started excavating they found one of the largest and best preserved viking settlements that have ever been discovered. Unfortunately archeologists never got the chance to excavate more than a quarter of it because the government not wanting to lose money gave them just a year to excavate it all and when a year was up they flattened they rest. 

Plaque to commemorate the viking settlement.

We walked along the River Liffey, it was a nice view but no where as beautiful or as clean (and that isn't saying much) as my Guadalquivir. Another one of the failures that the Irish goverment committed was for the new milenium they had the idea to put a count-down clock in the bottom of the river which would light up when a coin was put into the slot, however they didn't account for how dirty the river was. No one could see the clock light up so it had to be removed. 

Drinking coffee and trying to stay warm by the river. 

The bridge where they tried to put in the millenium clock. 

View down the river Liffey. 

One of our last stops was the Temple Bar area, which used to be home to several famous artists and the site of many famous performances. Our guide told us that one night after playing in a battle of the bands and winning Bono tried to go to the Clarence hotel to celebrate but the doorman wouldn't let him in, he told the doorman that he would be famous someday and that he would own the hotel. Wouldn't you know it he is now the proud owner of the Clarence hotel.

The walking tour was wonderful but it ended WAY later than we expected and we really wanted to get to the Guinness factory that day, so Gilana, Zoe, an Australian girl we met on the walking tour who was traveling alone and I booked it to the Guinness factory. We got there at 4:58 PM and the last tour went out at 5 PM, so we made it just in the nick of time. The factory was really cool, they walked you through the process of how they make the beer starting from the ingredients, teach you how to pull a pint correctly and finally it ends with a tasting in their sky bar.

Learning how to pour a Guinness. 

In the skybar. 

They made a four-leaf clover in the foam!

So fancy.

View of the countryside from the skybar. 

Where they actually brew the Guinness. 

We hadn't eaten since breakfast so after the Guinness factory we went to the Brazen Head Pub for dinner. It was supposably the oldest pub in Dublin but I doubt that. Regardless it had a really fun atmosphere and the food was amazing. I had Atlantic Seafood Chowder that was amazing, and Zoe and Gilana both had a lamb and vegetable stew that was delicious as well. It was nice to eat something warm as it had been cold and rainy for most of our tour and we were chilled to the bone.

They had money from all around the world on the walls. 

After dinner we went back to the hostel and they were serving ice cream and biscuits, which are really just cookies. We spent awhile talking to our Australian friend who was studying abroad in Milan but had a month long break so was traveling around Europe. What was even more amazing was that she was just twenty years old but due to the configuration of the Australian school system would be graduating law school next year! Around 10 PM we went out to a traditional Irish pub in the famous temple bar area, where they had live music playing. We had an awesome time there talking to people, hearing Irish accents and watching them dance, we were disappointed when the pub shut down at 1 AM much earlier than what we are used to in Sevilla.

On the way to the pub we found a fountain that someone had poured bubbles into, so of course we played in it. 

The next morning we woke up around 9 AM had breakfast, and packed PB&J sandwiches for the road and made our way to the airport where we would be catching a plane to London, the last stop on our great spring break adventure. My time in Dublin was all to short, I had no idea I would love it so much. It was so beautiful and drastically different from Spain in the best way possible, it was amazing and I would love to go back!

See you in London!!