Dublin

Dublin by far was my favorite city I visited. The people, the town, and especially the food were the most interesting on the whole Eurotrip! We got to Dublin super late the first night so we went straight to bed. The next day we started off at the Guinness factory of course! The weather there was even more unpredictable than London. We left the hostel with sunny skies and we were sweating then by the time we walked 20 minutes to the storehouse the skies opened and it was pouring right as we walked in! The factory itself was really cool in an architecture sense. The section of the building turns out to be a beer pint complete with the foam on top as a clear glass 360 view bar. After the tour you end up in this bar which is where you get your free pint! And well that was the first and last time I drink Guinness! Apparently the hops or some ingredient of beer is roasted and seriously the beer tasted like chilled coffee, I guess from the roasting! It was gross but of course I finished it just to say I finished my pint at Guinness.

Next, in the sun, we walked to Kilmainham jail. It was a really old jail most famous for its control of the British and its use during the fight for Irish independence in the early 1900's. We learned the stories of the 7 famous men that lead a revolt against the British and how they were all hung. We had a tour of the main gen-pop room which is currently used in movies and shows such as HBO's The Tutors. That night we met up with three girls from architecture that happened to be in Dublin the same time as us. This is the night I had the best meal of my life!!!!! It was called Beef and Guinness Pie! Basically like a beef stew but I guess in this case the Guinness actually makes the meal! And to top it off I had a glass of Irish cider which is tasted like Champagne and Beer mixed.

The next day we took a tour of Dublin Castle, which was pretty but not half as impressive as Windsor Castle. There had been Gala there the night before with a bunch of famous politicians so that seemed interesting. Then we did a speed walking tour of the rest of Dublin which included St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Stephen's Green, and Trinity College. Of course after walking around Trinity campus we hang out in the main quad watching a wedding and then randomly a group of architecture friends, that we had no idea were in London, just casually walk up to us! Small world! Then of course we finished the day with more Beef and Guinness Pie and hung out at the famous Temple Bar area which is where our hostel was.

Then it was off to Paris, France the next morning!