Dipping Back into Dublin

One of the best (or worst) things about studying abroad is the fact that you rarely know what day of the week or month it is. England Term is so intricately planned out that you just fall into the rhythm of travel and are whisked away into your own time zone. The other day I was joking with another student, exaggerating our daily thoughts of: “What country am I in?” “Do I pay in pounds or euros here?” “Whose side are they on?” “What do they believe?” and the like. I supposed it keeps you on your toes, until you give up and watch the cultures blur before your eyes. By now I’ve been in Scotland, England, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland, which surprisingly (or not) do have their own distinctions however much you try and group them together. Terminology wise:

- The UK refers to Scotland, England, Wales, and N. Ireland. (The full meaning of the “UK” is “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”)
- Great Britain includes Scotland, England, and Wales.
- And the British Isles is the only term that includes all: Scotland, England, Wales, N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

So there’s your geography/history lesson of the day.

Picking up where I left off, it was all the way back on Wednesday, September 23rd that our group had a Joyce Walk around the city of Dublin, which conveniently ended at Trinity College. A handful of other students and I decided to then take a tour of Trinity College which I found to be the most amusing part of my visit in Dublin, probably because I’m a student and haven’t been on an “alive” college campus in a long time. It happened to be “Freshers Week” when we arrived (the [lesser] equivalent of Bethel’s Welcome Week), complete with a rather hopping outdoor opportunity fair of all the different clubs vying for new members. Possibly the most comical part of walking past all the booths ourselves was that you could tell a distinct difference in dress between the members of the philosophy club, the music groups, the rowing teams, the religious organizations, etc. It was honestly like a movie that spans stereotypical student cliques of high school – so funny. Anyway, our tour – given by a current grad student – was very entertaining as it included not only the historical facts (famous Trinity alumni include: Jonathan Swift, George Berkeley, Edmund Burke, Oscar Wilde, and William Rowan Hamilton), but also details on legendary student pranks and drunken escapades. At the end of the tour we went to see the Book of Kells located at the college, which is has been referred to as “the most recognized and more remarkable artifact of medieval Celtic art.” More literally it is an “8th century manuscript filled with lush pictures illustrating the Gospels, possibly originating from the monastery at Iona.” The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering Grafton Street, Dublin’s infamous pedestrian-only shopping street, and the surrounding area.

The following day we took a day trip out from Dublin to the Joyce Tower and Glendalough. The Joyce Tower, located along the coast not far outside of Dublin, was originally a tower built to withstand an invasion by Napoleon, but is more well-known as the opening setting for the Joyce’s novel Ulysses. It now houses a museum dedicated to Joyce who actually only stayed there briefly. From there we went onto Glendalough, which is one of the most famous monastic sites in Ireland founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin. We had a beautifully sunny day to drive through the Wicklow Mountains, getting to experience views of Ireland’s infamous rolling green hills with sheep. That evening when we returned to Dublin a group of us students went on a literary pub crawl which was led by two actors who performed various pieces by Irish authors as we were led from pub to pub; it also happened to be the 250th anniversary of Guinness that day, which made it an especially rowdy evening!

I had an absolutely wonderful day on Friday that I spent entirely by myself. In the morning I took the hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Dublin and got off at the National Portrait Gallery, which I “got lost” in for about 2 hours. Picking up a ham and mozzarella melt for take-away, I hopped back on the tour bus and got off near Grafton Street – the popular pedestrian-only shopping street – and went into the ‘House of Ireland’ store to try on a sweater I had eyed through the window a couple days before. I absolutely loved it when I tried it on and therefore successfully left the store with my very green Irish sweater, an item I had promised myself to get while I was in Ireland. Hopping back on the bus I rode around to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which I wandered in for a little while and saw where the author Jonathan Swift was buried. After that I stayed on the tour bus for a while as it drove around the city; thankfully it was a gorgeously sunny day! We passed the Guinness factory among other sites on our route. Finally, I got off at the Writer’s Museum (which was conveniently located close to our hotel) and took an audio tour through the house before walking back “home”. That night I stayed in with several other girls exhausted from my day; we enjoyed just kicking back and relaxing together in our room. I also got to phone one of my friends back home for her birthday and had such a fun time talking to her for over an hour!

[This is the first installment of my Ireland adventures in hopes of getting you caught up ASAP!]