Dublin revisited

Hello again...

As some of you might know, but most of you probably don't, I spent this past weekend visiting my friend Molly from BC at Trinity College in Dublin. I met up with my friend Ben, also from BC, at the Edinburgh Airport, and off we went to Dublin...

Before I tell you about the weekend though, I should probably talk about my first encounter of robbery in Scotland (granted I am partly to blame). On Wednesday afternoon, after much thought and consideration, I bought a new raincoat for myself. It was 50 pounds marked down from 100, so I thought it was a good deal, and was something I knew I would have for a long time... or so I thought. Thursday night rolled around and I was off to Edinburgh, taking the bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh City Center. After about 10 minutes on the bus, I fell asleep, and didn't wake up until we were on the main drag rolling through Edinburgh. I was to meet my friend by one of the memorials on this street, so I quickly gathered my things and ran to the front of the bus. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had taken my new raincoat off and had been sitting on it, and didn't realize I had left it on the bus until it was pulling away. I sprinted from there to the main bus station where this bus would be stopping next. When I got to the station the bus wasn't there (I wasn't sure if I had beat it, or if it had not gotten there yet). I went up to the desk to see if any coat's had been turned in, and while I was doing this the bus pulled into the station and passengers emptied off. Once I noticed this, I raced over to the bus, searched it up and down, not finding a single trace of the raincoat. I went back to the desk to see if someone had handed it in. Nothing. Upon my arrival home from Dublin yesterday I once again checked to see if anything was turned in. Nothing... Long story short, don't nap while traveling because you'll become disoriented and forget your new raincoat on your seat and it WILL be stollen.

Anyway.... Ben and I arrived in Dublin right around 11:30pm on Thursday night, and after a 20 minute bus ride we were outside Molly's dorm at Trinity! That night we were up late catching up, trading stories of our times abroad thus far and planning out the weekend ahead. Molly had class Friday morning, so Ben and I decided we would go off on our own and do some exploring. We woke up late Friday morning, and Ben and I headed out to tour the city. It was nice that I had been to Dublin once before because I found it very easy to make my way around the city. First we wandered around Trinity's campus a bit, and then up Grafton Street (closed to traffic and constantly filled with Dubliners and tourists shopping at the many stores along the street). At the top of Grafton Street is St. Stephen's Green which reminded me a lot of the Public Gardens in Boston.



On the other side of the green is the Boston College House of Ireland. I can't think of a nicer place for BC to have a home away from home. The building is filled with framed pictures of campus, the crest of BC printed on every pillow, shade and chair, and statues of eagles on every shelf. The woman who runs the BC House was very friendly, and allowed us to use a visitor laptop to check our emails/facebooks. It made me a little jealous that the BC kids in Dublin have such a great resource, but then I remembered that they don't make fried mars bars in Ireland so I guess we're even.


From the BC house we made out way down to the Temple Bar area. This is when deja vu started to set in. Walking through the area, I have distinct memories from my family's trip to Dublin this summer, and it was very strange walking along the same streets I was on only 8 months ago. In the Temple Bar there's the National Gallery of Photography which Ben wanted to check out. They had an awesome display of aerial photography from all over Ireland which was cool to see. After this Molly gave us a call to let us know she was out of class, so we made our way back to Trinity so we could get a tour of the campus.


Although I like to think BC is one of the nicer college campuses out there, it's hard to imagine one more picturesque than Trinity. When you walk through the Front Gate (which is actually enclosed in the building that Molly lives in, you walked through a small archway into a massive inner quad lined with cobblestone. In the center is a massive tower, and behind that are giant trees that must be hundreds of years old. When looking at the campus from above, it is almost like it was set up in the shape of a cross, with a giant quad at the intersection of the two lines, then four smaller quads behind the buildings which surround the central one. Molly showed us the library and some classroom buildings, and then the display of the Book of Kells and the Long Hall. The Book of Kells is a Gaelic translation of the Bible, and is one of the most important artifacts on display in the country. Above the display room is the Long Hall, which is essentially a really long, two-story hall filled with shelves of books and statues. From here we decided it was time to get some food to make dinner, so we made our way to the supermarket





By the time we were leaving the supermarket, the overcast sky of Dublin had gone from a monotone shade of gray, to one of the most vibrant sunsets I have ever seen. I could try to describe it, but I'll just show you some pictures instead...



That night it was Molly's roommate's birthday so we all went out with her, and got a chance to meet all of Molly's friends!

Saturday Molly had soccer tryouts two hours outside the city, so Ben and I were left to explore the city some more! I think on Saturday we must have walked at least 7 miles. On our walk we saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guiness Storehouse, Kilmainham Jail, The National Museum of Modern Art, Heuston Rail Station, the Molly Malone Statue and to wrap it all up, 120,000 protesters making their way through the city protesting the laying off of public jobs... In a nutshell, we saw a lot.

(Top to bottom: The Museum of Modern Art; Ben and I in front of St. Jame's Gate, Guinness Storehouse; Christ Church Cathedral; Dublin Castle; St. Patrick's Cathedral; Molly Malone Statue and 120,000 Protesters)






Saturday night was more low key, as Ben had to be up very early for his flight back to Liverpool. We went to a pub called the Ginger Man where we got to meet some more of Molly's friends from school. One of them happened to be from York, ME, so obviously I knew we would get along! (for those of you who don't know I'm obsessed with the state of Maine). After that, as I had promised my friend Elizabeth Egan who studied in Dublin last year, I went to the Porterhouse Bar and got a pint of strawberry beer, which unless you like alcohol tasting strawberry milkshakes, I would not recommend... sorry Ebo!

Sunday morning came early, and we sent Ben off back to the UK. Sunday was also somewhat of an unconventional day, but one that I really enjoyed. Instead of going to see more tourist sights, we decided to go to a flea market that is held the last Sunday of every month. It was a very cool place, and I ended up buying a cd for only 1 euro (Buena Vista Social Club for any of you who took Spanish at Medfield High School... Seniorita Hawkins would be proud). From the flea market we met one of Molly's friends at the bus station and went to watch a hurling match out in the suburbs. I had never seen hurling played before, but after my first game I think it can equated to a mix of field hockey, rugby, soccer and anarchy. It was a lot of fun though. After the match we were all exhausted from our long weekend, so we called it a night, and watched about 7 episodes of the Australian comedy Summer Heights High.



Although I had been there before, I am so glad I got a chance to visit Dublin and my friends there, and I hope to do so again sometime in the future!

Hope everyone's doing well and that I hear from you all soon!
Charlie