Today, we started off bright and early with the Jacob's Inn hostel's free breakfast. After we had filled up, we met up with the hostel group's tour guide for a free, three-hour walking tour of Dublin. The tour guide, a curly-haired, cherubic Dublin college student named Daniel, informed us that we would be walking to City Hall before the tour - and his narration - actually started. Daniel explained his disclaimer was necessary before we thought the tour was simply walking without talking, and that he had had prior tour guests express *expletive* misgivings before the tour began (as the day was perfect, Erin would have been fine with the walk regardless).
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| The Ireland Postal Drop Box...a bit different than in the US |
We started at City Hall, after Erin found an apothecary that sold stamps and sent out our first round of postcards. Dan explained Ireland's history of invasion by the Celts, Vikings and Normans, and Ireland's unsuccessful string of failed rebellions. We then moved on to Dublin Castle, an amalgam of historical periods and different architectural styles. Behind the Castle, we saw a beautiful, verdant park that abutted a "fancy" erected when an English Queen visited the Castle. A "fancy" is an architectural item that serves only a decorative purpose, rather than a functional one - in this case, it was cheaper to build a faux-carriage house from stone to hide the slums visible from the castle than it would have been to clean those slums up. Of course, modern day Dublin has exchanged those slums for condominium developments.
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| Dublin Castle: The Record Tower (in the center) was built in 1228. The rest of the castle was added on over time, which is why the buildings all look so different. |
After stopping for lunch (we left the group briefly to have some Lebanese food from a busy storefront), the tour then headed off to Trinity College, established in the 1400's and currently hosting both the Book of Kells, an illuminated copy of the Bible dating from the 800's, and Red Bull Illuminated, a series of "action sports" photographs strewn about the campus. We then ended the tour in St. Stephen's Green, which Erin noted looked exactly like New York's Central Park from the outside. Dan graciously took our tip, and then did a video spot with Tabitha the Tiger, our travel
companion.
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| Trinity College is Ireland's oldest university - it was founded in 1592. |
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| Exploring St. Stephen's Green |
After finishing our now-four-hour walking tour, we walked another thirty minutes to the Guinness Brewery on the west side of Dublin, briefly stopping in a heraldry shop where we learned that James's German ancestors participated in the Crusades. Every guidebook listed the Guinness tour as a "must see" - and our time in the seven-story, self-guided tour certainly was informative as well as entertaining. We ended the tour high atop the factory, with a 360-degree view of Dublin proper and a complimentary pint of Guinness stout.
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| The view from the top floor of the Guinness Brewery. |
Post-tour, our day was drawing to a close. We used Dublin's central spire as our guide, crossing Dublin's central river Liffey on our way to supermarket salads and a relaxing evening in the hostel. We imagine that Dan is still guiding tourists, but has exchanged the walking tour for the
other free tour the hostels offer - an exhausting-sounding 12 bar pub crawl.
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| The Spire is also called the "Monument of Light" as it lights up at night. |
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