We left for Dublin early Friday morning. The flight was only a half hour long, and about as soon as we where in the air it seemed like the pilot was already announcing our decent into Dublin. It was really rather nice not having to waste a lot of time on travel this past weekend. Once we landed we grabbed the first bus to the city center where our hostel was located. When we found our hostel we locked up our luggage in storage and headed out to begin our search for the Guinness factory. On the way we stopped at some celtic shops and a old church that was pretty cool even though it's kind of ironic stopping at a church before going to the Guinness factory. Apparently there was some stone inside that was supposed to be lucky so we all made sure to get a picture or two with it.
It was about a half an hour walk to the Guinness factory from the center of town. I wasn't all to excited about going at first because I'm not and avid beer lover but it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was really cool to learn how they made Guinness and the history of the company. At the end of the tour we even got a chance to try a glass and I learned I am not a fan of it! I must have looked completely disgusted after the first sip! It was so disgusting and yet the room was full of people chugging it like it was water. I was kind of embarrassed I couldn't even drink half of it but there was no way I was going to drink it without getting sick. I guess at least I can say I tried. After the Guinness factory we went shopping and then ate at a pub called Doyel's for dinner. After dinner we where pretty exhausted so we headed back to our hostel and watched P.S. I Love you to prepare for the next day at Wicklow National Park.
Saturday was probably my favorite day out of the whole time we where in Ireland. We went on a day tour to Wicklow, which provided us with a fantastic and enjoyable day in the countryside! We began our tour at the docks of Dun Laoghaire. This was a very significant spot of the day for me because it was the town that was mentioned in the movie P.S. I Love You, which is my favorite movie! From there we drove up into the Wicklow mountains which was gorgeous! We stopped along side the road a couple times to take pictures. One stop we made was at the bridge where P.S. I Love You was filmed. It seemed so unreal that I was actually there and it was all I could do but refrain from reenacting parts of the movie. (haha) Before we returned back to Dublin we stopped at a few cute mountain towns where we grabbed stuff to eat. One of the towns we stopped at called Glendalouh, which had a beautiful monastic settlement and trail where we hiked and took some pictures. We also stopped at Avoca Village which is where Ballykissangel was filmed.When we got back from our day tour we ate a quick dinner and then headed back to our hostel to get dressed up and go out to celebrate one of the girls 21st birthday. We went to a really touristy spot called Temple Bar, which was a lot of fun but really crowed. We were told later that the locals don't really go to Temple Bar because of that reason. So most of the people we met there where tourists as well. We returned to our hostel about 1 in the morning and all pretty much fell asleep soon after.
On Sunday morning we had to check out at 10:30 so we all woke up and had breakfast at the hostel before we left. On Sundays the hostel always serves homemade pancakes which were delicious! I ate mine with nutella, peanut butter, bananas, and syrup which probably wasn't the most healthy thing for me to eat at 10:00 in the morning but it was really good! After we checked out we took a tour of the old jail which was about and hour walk through the ghetto of Dublin. For some reason we have found ourselves in bad areas of town everywhere we travel. After the jail we hit up some markets and other shopping for the rest of the day. Our flight back to Liverpool left Dublin at 10:00 so it was not until about midnight that we arrived back on campus.It's only been two days since returning from Ireland and I'm already missing it! Being in the countryside on Saturday was a breath of fresh air from all the stresses in life. While hiking through the mountains I was reminded of how great our God is and was in awe of his creation surrounding me. It is really rather remarkable that he created all of that, he is definitely a very creative God. If any of you reading this ever gets a chance to go to Ireland I urge you to jump on the opportunity and go! You will definitely not regret it!
Thank you all for reading and especially for your prayers!
With much love,
Dani
Cheers!
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