By Lara
After consulting my list, I see that I only have two more completed items from the Year of the Birthday list to write about. This is a big one, though. Ireland. Prepare yourself for a "too be continued" situation. Seriously. This is a long story.
Beth and I were supposed to go on a tour of the whole country of Ireland last summer. Due to lack of participation, the tour was cancelled. We decided to make our own plans to stay in Dublin over the Thanksgiving long weekend. We spent a lot of time researching the least expensive means of getting to and staying in Dublin. We made reservations.
We did learn something about discount plane tickets on the trip to Ireland. If you book flights in advance, they can mess with your departure and arrival times up until the week before you leave. Still. We survived our six hours at JFK in New York, and were eventually on our way to Dublin.
IRELAND DAY 1 - We had to land in Shannon for two hours due to high winds in the Dublin area. By the time we got to Dublin, got our luggage, exchanged some currency, and found the right bus, it was time to check in to our hostel. Avalon House was nice for a hostel. However, they only turn the heat on between about 9:00pm and 6:00am. Something else we learned the hard way.
We took showers (since we'd been in airports or planes for over 24 hours). The water was warm, but you had to keep pushing a button every 20 seconds for the water to continue. I had to shower with a strategy.
Once we were clean, we walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was impressive. I would have liked to take more pictures on the inside, but my camera does not do well with twilight pictures. I stole several of Beth's pictures for my scrapbook.
We walked back to the hostel through a beautiful park that bordered the cathedral on one side. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take pictures that would even begin to do it justice.
We decided to eat at the coffee shop attached to the hostel for dinner. We got panini sandwiches. I also got a scone. Mmm. From there, quite honestly, we went to sleep. It had been a long two days squished into one. Even though the heater wasn't on, they did provide warm blankets. We managed.
IRELAND DAY 2 - The first order of business was Trinity College. The Book of Kells exhibit was really cool. They taught us about how they made paper from calf skin, how they bound books, what they used for ink, and the artwork of the time. I enjoyed the exhibit and also the library. The trinity college library is the coolest library EVER. I could live there. Once I bought a couple of post cards, we headed off.
There was a bit of map consultation in a Grafton Street Burger King. There was also some toilet visitation.
We walked past Christ's Church Cathedral on our way to the Dublinia exhibit. Even though it was American Thanksgiving, there were lots of school groups who also decided to visit Dublinia. Quite honestly, there may have only been two, but they made enough noise to convince me that the vikings had returned to Ireland. Also, the display was cheesy. Don't get me wrong. Beth and I still had fun. Jokes were made about casual violence. Pictures of Captain Jack and Boromir were taken. I actually enjoyed the exhibit in spite of everything.
At that point, we were rather hungry. We found a restaurant that had wonderfully comfortable chairs and something turkey on the menu. I don't really care for turkey, but Beth wanted some - being Thanksgiving and all.
After lunch, we meandered off towards Dublin castle. We found a castley looking thing. We got distracted by a secret garden in a wall. Then we came back to the castley looking thing. It was the police museum. After wandering around a bit more, we finally found a map. The old medieval castle was now a police museum. They do, however, give tours of the more modern Victorian castle bits as well as part of the old wall that was buried underground. We went on the tour. It was all very educational.
We decided to eat dinner in Grafton street. I believe we finally chose a restaurant called Bewley's. It was ok. I had another scone. Mmm. Then we stumbled back to Avalon House. It was certainly an eventful Thanksgiving.
And now here is that "to be continued" I talked about. Come back next week and read about the rest of our trip. You won't be disappointed!
[Editor's Note: Be sure to go read Beth's account of YOB: #8 Go to Ireland (Abridged).]