After our pit stop in the morning yesterday, Sumi, Maia and I went to Trinity College. The book of kells is there, the most amazing piece of art to come out of Ireland ( so I have heard). The line was longgggg. So we just walked around the grounds and saw the beautiful grass. Grass IS greener in Ireland, I swear. It was orientation for the freshman and there was an activities fair and we kept being asked to sign up for clubs and organizations.
After trinity we didn't know what to see so we just went shopping.. The whole day! In Ireland the premier shopping area is Grafton Street. It's got stores the whole way down. They had a River Island which I love, I almost bought a beanie that said G 4 life.. Which is true. But I thought that was obvious by looking at me so I didn't need a hat that said it.
There was a department store that was fabulous, we spent a lot of time walking past Chanel, saint Laurent, Chloe and prada handbags. Torture.
Didn't buy anything
My debit card did start to work again however. So that is a relief!
They have many a thrift shop in Dublin, that was fun and interesting. I got a dress for 10 euro and was feeling like quite the bargain hunter. Avoca is a brand they have here that isn't in the states (at least not tampa). They had such a great mix of books, cooking utensils, mugs, clothes, bed covering, scarf, jewelry, cookbooks and a little patisserie downstairs. It was a mix of anthropology, urban outfitter and William Sonoma. Very cool.
Haha
After shopping in and around Grafton we ended up on a Main Street and found a lovely cafe called Le petit Parisienne that had a great selection of baked goodies. I, trying to be healthy, passed on the sweets and had a fantastic tomato soup and they included a little homemade bread that was the best I've ever hadddd! Ugh. Food.
We were walking back when we spotted an urban outfitters. We had to go of course. It was in the main touristy area of Dublin called Temple Bar. This area was filled with shops and vintage places and great bars and cafés. That is where I'll probably be tonight! At urban I found a pair of shoes that I had been wanting and bought them and it was a great end to the shopping day!
At this point we were ready for dinner and wandered in circles being indecisive for half an hour until we settled on the very first pub we considered in the first place.. Naturally. They had a ten euro special including a hamburger and a pint of Guinness and it was super.
I had to be swiped into the ship by twelve that night because I had a field lab the next day, so after a long dinner and drink we made our way back to the ship.
I worked out and went to bed so I could could be awake for the field program the next day.
I woke up late after sleeping a little too well perhaps and was dashing upstairs to meet my class and I collided with them as they were on the way down. 20 seconds later and I would have missed it! Phew. If you are late for a field lab they give you dock time which is time you have to spend on the ship when you are in the next port.
This field lab was for my class Race and Ethnic Relations. We had a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, lunch, and then a walking tour led by a guy in Sinn fien, a political group in Ireland.
Some very eerie statues commemorating the potato famine. During that time 1 to 1.5 million people died of starvation and another 1 to 1.5 million left the country. Previous to the famine Ireland had a population of 8 to 9 million and afterward they were at 6 million. Isn't that unbelievable?
I don know if the picture is good enough to see, this last statue is of a man and he has a child over his shoulders. As we were driving by our guide told us the story behind it. This man with his child over his shoulders had been late to the soup kitchen the first and second day. On the third day they held it open for him and discovered that the child had been dead and the father couldn't part with the body.
The potato famine really puts a bad light on the British. They too were affected by it and they only provided aid to those who lived in England. They did nothing to help the Irish even though they were a colony. The horrible thing is that Ireland had been wanting their independence and were not granted it and they were still treated like this.
We made it to the Gaol and had a tour and a history lesson. Out guide was really great and I enjoyed it.
The balcony in this picture was where they did public hangings.
This is the main area. We learned about the conditions of the gaol and how prisoners were treated. It was bitterly cold in the winter because there were no windows. During the potato famine they had the most amount of prisoners. They had about 104 cells at the time. Take a guess at how many people they had. I don't remember. But I do remember that they had 5 people per cell as a minimum, many had 8 or 9. Women and children overflowed into the hallways. But people would purposefully get caught stealing so they could go to gaol. They were guaranteed one meal a day inside and otherwise they may not get that.
This is where they did the executions of many of te revolutionary leaders. Michael Collins was held in Kilmainham for a whole as well as many others that were political leaders.
I said that Irish history is confusing because they had a war against Britain for independence I think and then right after that they had a civil war. There's been a lot of fighting. That much I'm sure of. Oh and also I learned that the whole idea of the Catholics and Protestants fighting and it being a religious conflict is not true. That's the biggest misconception people have. Our guide said that this was spread around by the British even recently because it validates them having a huge amount of troops here, to keep the peace or something, but they are not there for that at all.
Anyways don't quote me on all of this I'm just trying to be a little scholarly in these posts and share some cool info lol
We went to lunch at a really funky place called cafe en seine, if you are in Ireland you should hit this place up.
We also got to see some other famous/ notable things.
This is the shelbourne hotel, apparently the most famous in Dublin.
Typical Georgian style Dublin is known for.
A Presbyterian church.
We went back to the ship around 4. This is where I'll leave you for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment