Oober Tourist.

I'm now approaching my eighth week in Dublin and I have only taken a tour of the city once. I can obviously find my way around, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can correctly identify to a weekend tourist which way a particular street is; but the historic legacies of this country and city especially is an aspect I have not paid enough attention to since being here. This past weekend, my roommate and I decided to get up early on Saturday morning (early being a relative term, closer to 11am), make breakfast and start the day off with some free tourist attractions in Dublin. I emphasize the word free because the euro is really kicking my butt in the bank department and with upcoming trips I have to stretch my euro to it's maximum elasticity. Lisa and I made a list of some interesting buildings to see, about half a page later we realized this was not all going to happen in one day. We decided to visit the National Museum of Ireland and Kilmainham Jail.


Front of Museum

First was the visit to the National Museum. The building is absolutely beautiful, and when you first walk in there is a mosaic type floor with all the astrological signs embedded in it. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside, so I couldn't document any of the exhibits I saw. We walked around the first floor for a while, which housed numerous priceless jewels and gold jewelry from way back in time. After a while we decided to journey upstairs through the viking, Midevil, and king ruled time periods. It was really interesting to see how Ireland had come to be through various wars and conflicts with their neighbors. As much as I don't enjoy museums, I found this one to be unexpectedly entertaining. I actually wanted to read each little plaque to find out where they had found this certain skeleton or old wardrobe collection. Learning about my heritage, not necessarily my own, but the people of Ireland was extremely gratifying, and I enjoyed my time there.

After coffee, we hopped on the bus over to the Kilmainham Jail. They offered a 2 euro tour for students. I had been to Alkatraz when I was younger and found it fascinating, so I was really excited to take a tour of this ancient and historic penitentiary. Our tour guide talked us through the various celebrities who had done time in the jail, as well as giving us time to actually go into cells. I found this terrifying, because of my claustrophobia, I could not imagine living in such small quarters for years at a time. We got to see and stand in the exercise yard, and stand where they actually executed people by hanging and firing squad. It was really interesting to see how the prison was considered to be one of the state of the art facilities of its time. I also learned that people actually attempted to break the law on purpose to get into jail during the height of the potato famine. I always knew about the famine and how it affected Ireland, but for people to want to break the law just to get a meal it made me understand how desperate some people were for food and that starvation was more prominent than I had imagined.






Finally after the tour we walked out and across the street to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The museum was closing within 5 minutes of are arrival, but the long pathway towards the museum was gorgeous. The leaves were turning to typical fall colors, and it reminded me of back home. I've missed the changing seasons since I've been abroad, and this gave me a little chance to reminisce about the fall weather. We finished our day off with a group dinner to the Real Gourmet Burger. After a three mile walk home from the restaurant, I was exhausted. I took the night off to relax and just hang out at home to prepare for this weekend, BARCELONA.

Adios, amigos.