Dublin, Ireland 2020

January 3-6th

Day 1: Friday Jan 3rd

Preparing for our second flight of the day to Dublin.

I, along with 20 fellow students and two faculty chaperones, left from Baltimore MD on Jan 2nd headed for Dublin, Ireland. Due to the time difference, we arrived in Dublin on the 3rd and had to power through the rest of the day in order keep our mind and body on schedule. We first landed in London, but quickly transferred from there to Dublin on a second plane. Then, after landing and going through customs, we finally checked into the Academy Plaza Hotel where we remained for the entirety of our stay in Ireland. The hotel was fairly nice and in a great location that was easy to navigate from. The breakfasts there were also quite nice; they had the best mini croissants ever!

The remainder of our evening was spent as free time, which we used to explore Dublin and the many pubs it had to offer. A small group of us settled on Oliver St John Gogarty’s, an establishment in the heart of Temple Bar, and it was here that I tried fish and chips for the very first time! I quite enjoyed it, which is saying something since I am a pescatarian and a picky one at that. I also enjoyed the live music which played as we ate and was a staple of many of the bars and pubs in the area. We ended our first night with Butler’s hot chocolate, and let me just say that this was the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. I ordered the caramel hot chocolate, and unfortunately I do not know that I could ever go back to anything else.

Day 2: Saturday Jan 4th

Our second day in Dublin was extremely busy, and despite my roommate and me having a bit of a late start, we still managed to see it all! We began with the Natural History Museum. I didn’t take too many pictures there, but obviously Zack and I had to take a picture with the zebra. We sure did learn a lot; mainly that Irish deer are incredibly huge and scary — don’t worry though, they’re extinct! Also, did you know there were once hyenas in Ireland? Because I didn’t. Additionally, some recommended locations to grab a bite to eat are KC Peaches Cafe if you want a sweet pastry or The Counter if burgers and spiked milkshakes are more your style.

Myself walking through the National Gallery of Ireland.

Next, we visited the National Gallery of Ireland. It was here that we saw many paintings, busts, statues, and an interesting piece of video art with people rolling around in blue fabric. It was also here that Imani and I stepped inside a Willy Wonka style glass elevator and then found ourselves incredibly lost for a solid 15 minutes. We then met with the Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture while on our way to Trinity College. He is truly just living his best life lounging on that rock, and I am 1000% here for it. At Trinity College, we were able to visit the Old Library and learn about the Book of Kells. Unfortunately, we could not actually see the real Book of Kells.

The entire group after seeing our first performance of the trip, *Drama at Inish*.

We concluded our second day in Ireland, with our first theater production of the trip, Drama at Inish, performed at the Abbey Theatre. Drama at Inish was a play first produced at the Abbey in 1933. I believe that director Cal McCrystal made excellent use of physical comedy throughout the show, and left many of us with inside jokes which lasted throughout the entirety of our travels abroad. The show began with a funny and meta message about turning your phones off and enjoying the show; it was also delivered in Gaelic which was cool to hear. Most entertaining were the intermission set change and the curtain call, moments where song and dance played a major role despite the show not being a musical. I loved the ending performance the most because instead of a typical curtain call, the entire cast danced an extensive Irish jig while still remaining in character. And because I cannot recreate this jig for you, I will instead leave day two’s experiences with this: just as the ice cream loving (favorite character) William Slattery once said, and just as we happily repeated over and over again on the trip, “For me weeds. For me rats.”

Day 3: Sunday Jan 5th

The view of St Patrick’s Cathedral from the dog park next door.

Day three began with an early trek out to St Patrick’s Cathedral. We hoped to arrive before the service started so that we could take a quick peak inside without needing to stay for the entire service. We did not arrive in time. So, rather than sitting through a service that you are not aloud to leave early from, we did the next best thing and went to the dog park next-door! It was fun seeing all of the dogs playing and running off leash. Many of the dogs in Ireland are actually trained off leash and we often saw them walking calmly beside their owners even when going outside of the parks and into the shopping areas. This is very different from how dogs are trained in America, and it was nice seeing such well-behaved dogs walking about freely.

Jeb deviously holding his cards while playing Go Fish.

Our next stop was Dublin Castle. It was still decorated for Christmas which was beautiful to see. There was a gorgeous staircase which my friends and I decided to take prom-style pictures on, but we were quickly shown up by Jeb, John, and Jakob who took the staircase poses to a whole other level. After visiting the castle, Imani, Elise, and I joined their group and together we visited a small bistro for lunch. There, we ordered coffee and played Go Fish. Those of us who weren’t actually playing, were instead attempting to help John win the game. While John may not have won, he did succeed in taking some of Jeb’s cards and making a match of his own. Ultimately, we learned that math is not our forte, and this was once again proved correct when we went to pay our bill. It is not common for restaurants to split the check in Ireland and England. This lead to a lot of calculating on our part throughout the trip.

Drinking a Guinness from the rooftop sky-garden overlooking Dublin.

We concluded our third day in Ireland by visiting the iconic Guinness Storehouse. In 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the brewery. This means that A) he was extremely confident in his product B) the brewery has only gone through about 250 years of the lease. Even though Guinness is not my drink of choice, I still appreciated seeing the process. The tour ended with the rooftop sky-garden, where we were able to drink a complementary Guinness as we overlooked Dublin’s skyline.

Day 4: Monday Jan 6th

For our final day in Dublin, we decided to visit Kilmainham Gaol Jail. The rainy day actually made the experience feel more realistic in a way. Traversing through the old jail on a guided tour was very educational. Leaders of the various historical rebellions were detained and in some cases executed at this jail.

A French cafe where we had the most delicious macarons ever!

We spent the remainder of our final free day completing the last of our personal goals for Ireland. First, was ring shopping! Lauren and I wanted to get Claddagh rings which we had admired earlier on our trip. I decided on one with an emerald stone. Next, we stopped for macarons, a treat that I had never had before but really enjoyed. And last but not least, Imani finally got her picture taken with “The Tart with the Cart” aka the Molly Malone statue.