SWITCH!

So in a fantastic twist of fate/good timing, Brittany ended up coming to visit me in Dublin this weekend! While I was in London last weekend we were talking about how a lot of my friends were going out of town to Scotland this weekend and I wasn't going with them. I could've gone if I really wanted to, but they planned the trip pretty last minute so the tickets were fairly expensive. Also, I'm honestly just really burned out on traveling. Although I've heard really good things about Edinburgh, the thought of waking up ridiculously early to get on a tiny congested airplane, being in a complete rush for 2 days, getting no sleep, spending way too much money, and coming home super late on a Sunday night before having work at 8:30 am on Monday kind of just sounds awful at this point. I've been doing these crazy whirlwind weekend trips for so long that I don't think I can take much more of it for a while. I'm so ready to just sit still for a while and enjoy being home. So I decided to stay in Dublin and when I explained the story to Brittany, she decided to come visit me! It was so awesome having her here and getting to show her around after her getting to show me around London. I was pretty bummed that no one had come to visit me in Madrid or Dublin yet, because when you live in a city and get to know it really well you want to be able to show people around and take them to the good sites and restaurants. That's the disadvantage of going abroad as a sophomore - most people go as a junior so they have friends abroad and they all visit each other. I'm hoping that I get to go back to Spain or Ireland with my family someday and show them all the stuff I did while I was there. But anyway, this was my first chance to really get to show a visitor around one of my cities and we had such a great time!

On Friday, I had my final exam for my history class in the afternoon. It knew that it was going to be easy, but I was still was relieved to get it over with. I spent the afternoon relaxing and hanging out with my friends who were leaving for Scotland until Brittany got in around 10:30. Since it was so late we just stayed in and tried to get a good night's rest. We talked about what she wanted to do and planned out our day, but we actually ended up being able to fit in a lot more than I initially expected. Dublin is a pretty small city and we were efficient to the max. We woke up around 8 the next morning, headed into the city, hit a coffee shop for breakfast and headed to Trinity to see the Book of Kells. I hadn't done this yet, so I was really glad that she wanted to because I was able to knock it off my list as well. The Book of Kells is an ancient Christian manuscript, created in the 8th century by Celtic monks. It's been housed at Trinity College since the 17th century. Unfortunately, they rob you of 9 euros (with a student discount) to see it, but it's one of those things you can't skip if you're in Ireland. The calligraphy and engravings are really beautiful and it was a cool thing to see.

Next, we headed over to Kilmainham Gaol (or jail, for those non-Celtic speakers). This is another tourist attraction that I hadn't gotten around to yet because it's a little outside the city center and you actually have to take a bus to get there instead of walking like everywhere else, so once again I was glad that her being there gave me an excuse to finally see it. Kilmainham Gaol was a functional prison from 1796-1924. It was closed in 1910, then reopened after the 1916 rising, and officially closed by the Irish Free State, following the Civil War, in 1924. It has been run as a museum since the 1980s. The reason that it's so famous in Ireland is because its has been home to many significant political prisoners such as Charles Stewart Parnell in the 1880s, and all the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising including Eamon de Valera. It is also where 14 of those leaders were executed. It's also just a general symbol of British oppression and the suffering of the Irish people - it reached its highest capacity during the Irish Potato Famine at the end of which 9,000 people were living in this jail (it only had 110 cells). The tour was really interesting and it was a little spooky to see the the cells with names of the people who I've been studying about branded over them. Brittany and I talked about how it's so weird to hear about the history from another perspective since, as Americans, we learn everything more from an Anglocentric stance.

After this, we went for something a little more lighthearted - a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. I had already done this when I got here in June, but I was happy to go with her again because it's another one of those things you have to do in Ireland. It's actually the number one visited tourist attraction in Ireland (natural sites excluded, that would be the Cliffs of Moher). We spent an hour or two there going through everything and enjoying the view from the gravity bar. This was about all we had allotted time for, but it was only about 2:30 when we finished up. Go us! We decided that we had time to do the Jameson Distillery as well - another must when visiting Dublin. I successfully navigated us across the Liffey for the 15 minute walk to the Distillery (I was so proud of myself), where we waited in line for our guided tour. Now last time I was there, I was disappointed because I didn't get selected to do the whiskey tasting at the end of the tour. I was with a group of 4 other girls, and he only chose one of us to do it (I lost to a redhead - I can't compete with that in Ireland). This time however, I made sure to be extra obnoxious to guarantee my place in the testing, and I was successful. So after the tour, not only did I get to have my included Jameson cocktail, I also go to do a tasting of Irish Jameson, American Jack Daniel's, and Scottish Johnny Walker Black Label, with the guide explaining the differences and guiding us through the tasting. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jameson is the best. I saved some so Brittany could try, and she agreed.

Following that lovely "cultural" experience, we knew that most things would be closing down, but I figured I could walk her by Christ Church and St. Patrick's Cathedrals. We actually got to go in Christ Church and walk around for a little. Then, we did a walk through St. Stephen's Green and Merrion square to see the Georgian doors, up Grafton Street, back by Trinity and onto O'Connell where I proceeded to wow her with my knowledge of Irish History explaining all the monuments and historical buildings. Go me. By then, we were completely starving so we headed to the Church restaurant, which I wrote about in my first post about Ireland. It's a really cool setting and good demonstration of Irish food so I figured it was a good place to take her since she only had one dinner in Dublin. She then ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese, so the whole Irish food thing didn't really matter, but at least I tried.

After this, it was (almost) acceptable pub going time, so I took her over to Temple Bar. I've been gone most weekend so I haven't gotten to fully explore the Dublin night life, but you really can't deny that Temple Bar is a good time. Yes, it's overrun with tourists and way too expensive, but it has an amazing live music and there's always big crowds so you usually end up with some good stories. First, we went to Peadar Kearney's on Dame street. I had been there my first weekend on a Pub Crawl and seen Brian Brody, who is an amazing live performer. He performs around Dublin, but he's always at this pub on Saturdays and I had been wanting to go back and see him. He does a mix of Irish folk music and American contemporary stuff so for Americans, it's a good mix of stuff we don't know but also stuff that we do so he doesn't lose you. Brittany, like me, isn't exactly a go off the handle nuts while you're going out kind of girl, and she said that it was one of the best places she'd been all summer and that she wished the pubs in London had live music like that. Score one for Dublin. Next, we headed down to Essex Street and went to Fitzsimon's Hotel, which also had live music. We just caught the tail-end of this guy's performance when someone in the middle of the crowd decided it would be a good idea to throw beer everywhere. Literally. So, we both got completely splattered and decided to pack it in early, in desperate need of showers. Despite how the night ended, I think that she had a really good time and got a good feel for the Dublin night life.

The next day, her flight left at 1:45, so we really didn't have much time. We debated going into the city for breakfast, but decided to just hang out on DCU campus and not be in a rush. I put her in a cab around noon, and spent the rest of my day working on the papers that I have due this week. I'm so glad that I finally had a friend come visit me while abroad and that I got to show her around. It was a lot of fun. No pictures this time, because I really didn't take very many. Maybe once Brittany posts hers I'll add some later on.