Dubh Linn - Black Pool

Dublin was built on top of a pool that appeared dark and was called "black pool" but in Irish, so "dubh linn." There's no more pool, and now it's Dublin.

We had to get up for 7, which doesn’t really seem that early until you consider not being able to sleep for the past week or so. It also didn’t help that it was a 2.5 hr drive on bus that had a psycho driver! He swerved in an out of traffic like he was in a tiny car, and didn’t hit the break until the last possible minute, which is, I guess, how everyone in Ireland drives. They just go when they want to.

You can’t really tell from the photo, but our bus was no more than two inches from the bus in front of us. I thought we were going to crash multiple times, and we kept wondering why they made a big deal about us wearing seat belts on a bus…

Anyway, we did make it to Dublin. We looked a little bit around Trinity College and then went on a historical walking tour. It was more history than sights. It was very informative, but I feel bad for forgetting most of it already.

Here’s some photos:

At Trinity College. To the left there’s a dining hall which apparently looks a lot like the great hall in Harry Potter (according to our tour guide). The Book of Kells is also housed here, which we got to see, but weren’t allowed to take pictures of the book.

This is the founder of Trinity College. He apparently said that women could come to Trinity College over his dead body. Now he’s buried on campus, and women walk by his grave because they did indeed come to Trinity over his dead body.

The old parliament building, which can now be used as a meeting place for businesses. It had a really pretty ceiling and a tapestry that depicted the Battle of Boyne. The battle was where the Catholic King James failed to take back his crown from the Protestant King William and ended up dead, which was a huge down turn for all Catholic Irish, who were no longer allowed to vote and much worse.

There used to be four towers, now there’s only one. :( King John made this castle to claim himself King of Ireland.

Justice on top of a gate into where Dublin castle used to stand. She’s not blind like she’s supposed to be, and there were problems with her balances when it rained. They also put her facing the castle with her back to the people, so the Irish used to say that she was biased towards the English (since they put her up) and against the Irish.

This is a sign commiserating some Nationalists that were executed by the English on one of the two Bloody Sundays. Some people had questions about the Irish language, so here’s an example (underneath is what it says in English). Also, a little bit of history I picked up, since I have mentioned the nationalists before. The Nationalists were the Irish that didn’t like English rule and wanted to become a Republic (as they are now). Unionists were those who wanted to be a free state inside the UK (like Scotland, or now, Northern Ireland). There was also a group that was completely okay with becoming part of England, but they were small, and I don’t know what they were really called. I’m also picking up some of their political groups that were spawned from these groups (Sinn Fein and Fine Gael from the Nationalists and Fianna Fail from the Unionists).

This is where we had dinner (Disco ball for Disco Gollum :) ). They gave us actual burgers which were decent. They had cloves on it, which was an interesting earthy taste, but otherwise, they were kind of bland and a little overcooked (and would have cost 14eu! Good thing I didn’t have to buy it). I miss American food. :(

I also found Ireland’s Game Workshop and took a ton of pictures of River Liffey. Not to mention a whole bunch of random other stuff: streets/buildings, Church of Christ Cathedral, an advertisement for a play version of The Shawshank Redemption, The Clarence Hotel (which is owned by U2), etc.

In the end, there were some good sites, but I don’t care for crowded places with crazy drivers as much as some of the beautiful open areas we’ve seen. Ah! Big cities. Just not my thing.

Today, all I’ve done is gone to the Farmer’s market in town and bought an umbrella. The weather has taken a turn back to Irish weather. It’s in the high 50s and rainy, and is going to be like that for the rest of the week. I feel sad for all of the southerners who are freezing (since this is about their winter weather), but I’m so glad to be cool! (The rain will no doubt get annoying by the end of the week).

Cliffs of Moreh tomorrow!

P.S. Sorry for all the issues with grammar and spelling on this. I’m not spending much time on it(all font issues are this sites fault). After all, I is only a college student and this ain’t no S.A.