Weekend in Dublin

Heads up right now--this is a long post. Just didn't want you to get scared or anything if your computer suddenly crashes or your browser takes forever to load. Part of that might be the block of videos at the end...which I think have repeats, since halfway through loading them I forgot which ones I'd already put up. My bad.

Anyway! This weekend was the last API sponsored trip of the semester. We went to Dublin for one night, two days--and it was loads of fun! Let me give a brief preview before I delve into the pictures.

The best part?

• The Wax Museum. Oh yeah. It's as awesome as it sounds. Apparently we didn't even go to the main branch, but some side one that had all these random people in it, like Harry Potter and Oscar Wilde...together.
• The food. Okay, I know, that's two things, but my Elephantburger was mad good today. Don't judge.
• Learning how to write my name in Viking runes.
  

The worst part?

• The ONE museum that I wanted to visit, the only thing I really was banking on seeing, was closed because they can't afford to pay employees overtime so they can be open Sundays. Ughh. It was the archaeology part of the National Museum, and it's got all these amazing items that we've been learning about in classes all semester, like the Tara Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice...

Other than that one sadness, the trip was a lot of fun. We left Galway in the morning yesterday and got to Dublin by 1 p.m., where we checked into our hotel and then headed off to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. That is a very early monastic piece that is in (relatively) excellent condition. The display also included information about other, similar books, like a poem one monk wrote about his cat...and another poem by a different monk about how his quill leaks ink all over the page in beautiful designs...sounds like these guys were kind of bored back then. Anyway, there was also a video that showed how they made the books, which was interesting. Afterward, we headed upstairs to see the Long Room, which is this amazing amazing amazing old room in the library with floor-to-ceiling books--on two floors--with vaulted ceiling and ladders and wonderful smells and yum. I contemplated living there forever, but figured they would find me eventually.

This is part of Trinity College. We couldn't take pictures inside of the exhibit.
After that, we had free time for the rest of Saturday. Jackie visited Dublin last week with her sister, so she had a really good grasp of how to get places and of things to do, so we next went to the Wax Museum Plus--AKA four floors of creepy wax sculptures. I kept thinking they were real people, and then sometimes I thought real people were wax and I freaked out when they started moving. Each room was themed and had a tour you could listen to by pressing a button in the wall. Rooms included the Writer's Room, the Irish Mythology Room (my favorite!), the Vikings, Fantasy, and Science. Here's some of my favorites:

Oscar Wilde. Needs a hairbrush. Elsewhere in the city there's a statue of him, which everyone calls "The Fag on the Crag." Nice.
James Joyce. Friday was Daffodil Day for cancer, so apparently someone wanted him to pitch in.
Down in the Vikings room, this monk is being cut open by an invader. Certainly a much different take on things than the tour we took Sunday, which made the Vikings sound all happy and nice.
The pirate queen Grace O'Malley.
The Irish hero Setanta, son of the sometimes-god Lug, fighting the guard hound. Better give the background here: the basics of the myth is that Setanta wanted to get into this guy's manor to eat at the feast, but they had already closed the doors and set the hound out to guard them. To get in, Setanta fought the dog using only his hurling stick and ball--and won. Because the owner then had no dog, Setanta became his new guard dog until he could find the guy a new one. His name then became Cu Chulainn, which means guard of the guy's house (clearly I don't remember the owner's name). He's really famous, and my Celtic Mythology teacher is convinced he's gay, but that's neither here nor there, since he's cool in my book.

Another god, gaining powers by eating a fish.
And yet another mythological woman. And Miriam...
In the room featuring the Irish Rebellion, Alice practices her gunmanship. Is that a word?
This guy was in the hallway--by the way, the basement of this building must have been a jail at some point, since all the doors were intensely gated--yelled at us to get a move on or he'd shoot.
Jackie's little friend here also talked when he sensed people going by. He was in the entrance to the Horror section.
Hmm...out of order for sure. Some of the more recent politicians and their new friends.
Back to Horror. Dracula's not having a good day.
Neither is Frankenstein's monster.
Jack in the Beanstalk led our way up the stairs.
The giant at the top shouted down to him. And us--it went something like "If you drank too much tea, come here to go pee!!" (The bathrooms were next to him...)
!!!!!!!!!!! Harry Potter!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so little!
There was also a random science wing in the museum, even though there were no wax sculptures there.




The last room (I skipped some in this online tour) was a medley of film and music stars. Like Bond, James Bond.
After the museum, we found St. Stephen's Green, which is this beautiful little park across the street with a mini Arc d'Trimuph (horrible spelling) from Paris. On our way there, we crossed paths with a guy in full drag, who said hi.
Even swans like Fritos.

All the flowers smelled so good. They were all over.
Creepers in the bushes...otherwise known as Jackie and Courtney.
Family photo.
The statue of Molly Malone (you know, the girl from the poem who sells cockles and mussels). She's dressed for her night job, though...
The main street is O'Connell street, and at the end is the statue of the man himself. He's protected by four angels, but is actually riddled with bullet holes from Irish and English fights here.
The logo of the city. The street lights make the weirdest bird sounds too to tell you when to cross.
The Famine Statues were right by our hotel, as was the reconstruction of a famine ship.
The view from my hotel window. We went back to the hotel for a couple hours so people could relax, then we went out to a couple pubs and then a cafe. The atmosphere was so different from Galway, which is a college party town. Here, everyone was out having fun on the streets.
All to myself! Even got a couch.

After we got back, we sat in Miriam and Jackie's room for an hour, just talking and wishing that it wasn't Daylight Savings Time. We lost an hour this morning--some people missed the tour because of it!

Here's the famine ship in the daylight.
Okay, so on our bus tour I took a million picture of random buildings. Basically, I just picked some clear ones to put up here. This is a bank. Yay.
Where the Teichoch (?) lives/works. He's basically the Prime Minister, who does most of the work for the President.
In the north side of the city, which is traditionally the more upper class half, there are several blocks of Georgian buildings, which would have all originally had double doors like this one. They all were black too, but people starting painting them all different colors to show which ones were theirs.
In front, you can still see the manhole covers where the coal men used to drop coal down the chutes to the basement.
Down the street is...one of two maternity wards in the city! Our guide got really exited about it.
The parks, which are now public, that surround the Georgian parks are covered with the paintings of local artists on Sundays as they try to sell them. Here they're still setting up, but I get you can't even see the fence once they get going.
Some random statue outside of a building. The city seems to have lots of these weird statues...
The Olympia Theatre has never been renovated--it's still the original decor and boxes inside.
A cathedral. This is where we went to Dvblinia later.
More weird statues.
Guinness had thousands of workers at one point, so the company built lots of housing for the employees. Some of them only got running water and showers 20 years ago. Can you imagine?
Um...yeah. Forgot what this was. Although nearby was the church where Bram Stoker got married--sick!
Sorry about the horrible shot, but there is a section of the original city wall to the left.
This is another part of the original Guinness factory area.
Random ugly modern building.
We took a detour into Phoenix Park, which is twice the size of Central Park. There's a zoo here, which is renowned for its breeding program--and because the MGM lion was raised here!
The President lives in the park...
...and so does the American Ambassador.
We stopped at the site where in 1979 the Pope preached to 1.25 million people. Finn, our director, met him the next day in Galway when she literally ran into his knees (she was 4). He picked her up, blessed her, and gave her rosary beads. Not many people can say they've met the Pope, and certainly not like that!

The view is gorgeous. The mountains in the distance are the Wicklow Mountains, and in the foreground you can see people getting ready for the bike race.
The front of the President's house. Our White House copied the design, apparently.
A statue in the park.
Part of the Guinness factory across the river.
One of the many bridges across the river Liffey. Dublin is like Paris: split in two by a river.
We stopped at Dvblinia, a museum thing that recreates what life would have been like when the Vikings were here.
Some stuff from the exhibit:




A replica of the city, both the walled part and outskirts.

I must be a horrible person, but I immediately thought of Monty Python.


If you hit this guy on the nose with the ball, he told you his story. Pity I have no aim.
Who knew chain mail and helmet would be so heavy??
Jackie tried too...
They recreated an archaeological site to show how they found stuff out about the Vikings.

This is the reconstructed face of the skeleton below.


The last hall to go downstairs was filled with stained glass windows, since it led to the cathedral.


O'Connell Street has a "knitting needle" in the middle. "Dubs" give nicknames to everything, according to Pat, our guide.
I wish we'd gone here!
The amateur sports court from the back. It seats 95,000!
A typical street.
The last thing we did today was go to the National Gallery, where we saw a bunch of paintings. We also got to hear a live orchestra rehearsing downstairs, since they had a concert at 3! I wish we could have gone, but I got a security guard to talk about it with me. We also went shopping down O'Connell Street, although I didn't get anything since we'd gone to Grafton Street (the main shopping district) on Saturday.

And that was the weekend! We left for Galway after that, and then I just webcammed for awhile and wrote this and didn't study for my exam--cheers! Tomorrow will be lots of work, so I'm going to get lots of sleep tonight and then finish off classes this week. So for now, good night!

Oh, and I apologize that the videos are so messy and unorganized!