Julie's Semester in Ireland: Between the rugby and the rebels, I got all riled up.

Ok first I would like to start off this blog entry by saying, despite my low expectations for Dublin it was really quite great, not because of Dublin itself, but because IRELAND WON THE 6 NATIONS TOURNAMENT! They won with a Grand Slam, which means they beat every other team in the tournament. The 6 teams in the tournament are Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy and France. The game was really close and I bit off all my fingernails watching it. But Ireland won and it was amazing! I will tell the story surrounding it when it fits in...

So...on Saturday at 6:30 AM we were picked up from our apartment by API in the bus. The bus is a terrible torture machine designed to make us miserable and want to kill ourselves the entire way to our destination, which in this case was unfortunately 3.5 hours away. Isn't it crazy that you can drive across all of Ireland in half the time it takes to get from San Diego to San Francisco? Anyway, the bus is decorated much like a bowling alley, it smells like an old man's pipe, and it has enough room for an anorexic amputee to sit comfortably by themself in a row. Unfortunately, all of us are in posession of all our limbs, and none of us are anorexic, so everyone hangs out into the aisles and everyone's legs stick out all over the bus and it's generally just miserable. We arrived in Dublin just before everyone's bladder exploded and they didn't have our rooms ready. So we stored our luggage, and went to get some food. It was the first down the first of many trips to the famous O'Connell street. So we ate and then went back to the hotel, where we met up with the Cork and Limerick API groups. From our hotel we went out on a boat tour, which was less exciting than it sounds. I wore out every Office "Booze Cruise" episode before we even boarded the boat. I was expecting some kind of ferry or something...but it was a glass topped boat. Jaye and I quickly discovered the tray tables on the backs of the seats came down and then we also quickly fell asleep. I am told though, that it was a very boring tour, and I didn't miss much at all.

So after the boat tour, we went to visit the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Trinity is a really really nice school, and you have to be very smart to get in. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the Book of Kells, but it was very cool. Also, there was a library room thing with bazillions of old books in it, that you also weren't allowed to take pictures of. We called it, "The Beauty and the Beast Library." It was awesome.

After that it was free time and we went to get lunch. We got some lunch and then me, Heather, Alison and 2 of the 3 Emily's walked over to the Guinness Factory. It was sooooooooo cool. There was an introduction, but then it was a self guided tour through the rest of the factory. I really liked it a lot and I thought it was interesting. At the tip top of the factory there is a bar called "Gravity Bar" and you get a really cool view of Dublin from the top of the factory. You also get a free pint of Guinness. Unfortunately, the bar was so crowded and SO hot, we were all dying. So we didn't stay up there too long. Also, we were sort of rushing through some parts of the factory so that we could get back with plenty of time to go watch the rugby match. So we went to the Guinness store for a little bit, and then we went to the hotel to finally check into our rooms. We checked in and then headed out to watch the game. We tried to meet up with Jaye, Nora and Jess but when we got there it was so crowded people were already sitting all over the stairs and we couldn't even push our way through. Also, Ethan was being a whiny baby because he was hungry, so we went down the street and into another crowded bar. The downstairs was pretty packed, so we went upstairs where we found just a few peopled crowded around a tv. It was perfect! So we sat down and Mike, Ryan, Ethan and Heather got food (I was still full from lunch). So the game started, and it was crazy close the whole time. We were all yelling, along with every other person in this country, during the whole game. It was so nerve racking! Wales scored first on a penalty kick, and their only points were from pentaltys and drop kicks. Ireland got two really good trys, and a drop kick. It was amazing. So Ireland won and everyone went crazy! Also, the girls were all excited that Prince William was giving the Irish team their medals, although Prince Harry was not to be seen. We were all tired from getting up so early, so we went back to the hotel with the best intentions of going out in Dublin later that night. However, once we got back to the hotel we lost all our steam. I took a nice long (HOT! For once) shower, and then went down to hang out with Jaye, Nora and Jess in Nora's room. It was fun, but I was very cold, so I ruined Noras bed by taking her comforter and laying on the floor, and then I put the comforter back on with the stripes going sideways and all hell broke lose. It was a crazy night, I'll tell you! After I left there at the late late hour of 10 o'clock, I went back to my room to watch Notting Hill in bed with Emily. We made some tea and Emily bought us some candy, and it was a very nice night.

The next morning, this morning actually, we had to get up early again for our bus tour. We had a really delicious included breakfast, and then we boarded another bus. This one was luckily not the same as the torture bus, it was quite nice and spacious and Jaye and I actually had a ridiculous amount of leg room, which I took a picture of. We saw pretty much everything from the bus that there is to see...St. Stephen's green, the obliesk tower, where the US Ambassador lives, the doors of Dublin...everything. We went to a REALLY cool prison, Kilmainham Gaol, which is where they imprisoned, and subsequently executed the Irish rebel leaders in 1916. It was awesome and the lady was very informative. Probably the best tourguide we have had in my entire time abroad. So we got to hear and learn all about the rebels fighting for Irish freedom, just hours after the Irish rugby team won a huge victory over Wales. I was feeling a lot of Irish pride.

After the Gaol we went to this thing called Dvlina. It was about Dublin in the viking era. Sometimes I get the feeling that API doesn't really research the things they take us on...for example Mrs. Whippy (a terrible play we saw that I can't remember if I blogged about or not). This thing was intended for 6th graders at the oldest. I wasn't really expecting anything, so I didn't mind it that much, but a lot of people were disappointed. I had fun trying out a medieval game with Jaye, that she claims she was good at but she was really just terrible at. So we went to that, and it was pretty lame, because we weren't in 6th grade, but then we got free time.

For free time we went to eat, and then running on Irish pride we went to try to find the Irish Grand Slam rugby shirt we wanted in our size. Only 4 Carrol's Irish Gift stores later we we able to find one that wasn't sold out of the smaller sizes! So we got that shirt. Still feeling the Irish pride I decided I wanted the Irish flag that is green with the harp, not the tricolor, which I already have at home. The tricolor has the green for Catholics, white for peace, and orange for protestants. So after trying equally as many shops and failing, Jess decided to ask a nice man at Carrol's who laughed and told us we would have to go to a Sinn Fein office for that flag. The harp flag is the flag of people who support home rule. So anyhow, he gave us directions to the Sinn Fein office, and we decided we might as well give it a try. So we walked all the back back up O'Connell Street, which is pretty long, mind you, and we found the Sinn Feinn store! On our walk there we also passed the GPO (General Post Office), which is where the Irish read their declaration of independence from England at, and still has many bullet holes from the subsequent wars in the outside of the building. However, we couldn't find a way in. Also all the blinds were drawn, so they were either having a secret meeting or they were closed. Anyway, I didn't end up getting the flag.

Then we had to get on the terrible bus again to go home. Emily and I luckily got a row with the most amount of leg room possible, which was not too much anyway. I put on Pink Floyd's The Wall and completely spaced out for a lot of the ride. So that's about it. It was a pretty fun trip, I also think the amount of time we were there was perfect, because even though it is Ireland's biggest city, it is still really small compared to most other major cities! And I am going back this next weekend anyway, for the CU Ball so that should be really fun!