Only about 1/3 of the amount of food I ate for breakfast.
What are you gonna do? It was free. Score.
Finally a little before 9:00, our teacher, Paula, came down to breakfast. "You guys are up early," she said. "Where is everyone?" I asked. "It's almost nine. Don't we have to go soon?" Paula looked really alarmed then. "9:00? Oh, God, it's not that late already is it?" Then she looked at her watch. "No," she said, "it's only 8:00." Whaaaaat?! Turns out I set my phone to the London time zone (which is an hour faster than Ireland) so Vinnie and I actually got up at 6:15. Ugh. It was rather horrifying and hilarious.
After that honest mistake, we took a bus tour of Dublin. It was sunny outside but horribly windy sitting on top of the double decker bus. Dublin's a nice city, but not super impressive. Milwaukee is a lot cleaner and classy. However, Milwaukee can't hold a candle to Dublin architecture.
We got to see the Guinness Brewery which is HUGE! I think we're going to tour it later this week when we head back to Dublin. I heard their glass room at the top of the brewery offers the best view of the city (plus you get a free pint of Guinness!). After that we took a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide took us to the GPO (General Post Office) where the (in)famous Easter Rising took place. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls. We learned all about Ireland's early history--the arrival of the Vikings and the British's control. The coolest place we went in the city, though, was Kilmainham Jail. This was the famous jail that housed many of the Easter Rising rebels and where many of them were also unjustly executed. Much of the prison is just how it originally was in the early 1900s. The place was ominous and freezing cold and a historical marvel. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Irish history. (And I'll plug it again: for an entertaining and comprehensive rendition of Ireland's Easter Rising, read Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry. You won't regret it.)
Gucki really enjoyed visiting Kilmainham Jail. His scared
face is not as good as mine. Also, he's lucky I didn't leave
his creepy little self locked in one of the jail cells.
Wore my combat boots to pay homage to the soldiers. Also,
I'm standing right where the rebels were shot and buried.
Later in the afternoon, we got the most delicious gelato--melon and nutella (not together, obviously) and pasties to eat on the train. Then we hopped on a train to Galway. It was seriously the nicest train I've ever been on. First of all, it had my name on an electronic label next to my seat. Awesome! Also, it was nice and quiet and clean. Just a lovely place for a nap. When we got to Galway we checked into our hotel. After we settled in, we decided to go for a walk to explore the city. We ended up at little pub that was part of the Spanish Arch Hotel. It was small and crowded and cozy and, most importantly, there was a live Irish band! I got a Smithwick's beer (per the bartender's recommendation) and we listened to music and chatted. After that we went to another pub, though I can't remember the name. Finnegan's maybe? It was even smaller, and there wasn't a live band. We got Captain Morgan and Fanta and chatted with a group of Americans. One them, this kid John, was from La Crosse! Crazy. Also, we ran into Kaitlin! Did I mention Kaitlin? We met her at the O'Hare airport, saw her on the flight from Paris to Dublin, and now we saw her again! Too funny.
Then we went home and literally collapsed into bed. What a day. What. A. Day. And it only gets more exciting.
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