During my first weekend in Ireland, I planned a trip to Dublin along with some of the other ASU students and a student from Indiana who is student teaching here as well. We set out fairly early on this journey, because Dublin contains so much history and many attractions. We took the DART (the train) into town. Now, when I say that we planned a trip to Dublin I should have just said we went to Dublin without the planning. We arrived into the city, stepped out onto the main road, turned in one direction, and walked. There is one thing I have noticed about the Irish, and that is they do an extreme amount of walking! And I thought we had it bad in Boone!
But anyway...we continued walking the streets of Dublin, pulling out a map here and there, and finally found our way into the Information Center to pick up some brochures and whatnot for our trips later on. Here we more formally detailed our trip through Dublin. Our first stop: St. Patrick's Cathedral.
St. Patrick's Cathedral was a phenomenal stone structure that jutted into the skies above. The weather was quite lovely, and so we spent our time out in the Cathedral gardens admiring the building and the beautiful spring flowers surrounding the building. I found a small sign at the edge of one of the garden paths that located the site for the well that St. Patrick used during baptism. I noted the service times, and would love to make a trip back to participate in a church service.
We continued moving through the city and found ourselves standing across the street from yet another large cathedral. This cathedral was Christs Church Cathedral. Like St. Patrick's, it was built of stone. It had a beautiful archway that stretched across the road. At the church site, there were ancient ruins of a small parish that once stood on the grounds. This cathedral was another beautiful site.
We stopped at a small cafe to grab a bite to eat. The special included a bowl of vegetable soup and a ham and cheese sandwich. One thing that I noticed about Irish sandwich's is that the bread is always buttered. So I had a ham and cheese sandwich on buttered bread. It's quite tasty!
The adventure through Dublin continued with a stop at the Dublin Castle. We walked the grounds of the castle and noted the differences in architecture. Some parts of the castle were built out of the traditional stone but other parts were created with red bricks. The castle was not what I had expected, but it was still fun to explore! The garden in the back of the castle was outlined with an interesting stone design. It was unlike any of the other gardens I had seen around the area. It almost looked like some kind of maze.
After spending some time at the more popular tourist sites, we ventured out to Grafton Street, which is a well-known shopping strip in Dublin. We looked in the shops and I took notice of the market style. There were so many people flooding the streets. I found a small flower shop on the market strip and took some photographs. There were some of the most interesting flowers at the flower stand that I had never seen before.
From there we traveled into a small park at the edge of Grafton Street. There was a beautiful little pond, filled with different bird varieties including ducks, swans, pigeons, and seagulls. It was an interesting mixture. It was such a lovely afternoon that the park was covered with people.
We decided to make one last stop during our first visit to Dublin, and so be made our way back through town to Trinity College. Although we did not venture into the library to look at the Book of Kells, we spent a considerable amount of time walking through the campus, taking in the sights and architecture.
Overall, my trip to Dublin was quite the adventure! I am planning to return to the city in the future to explore some places that I didn't have time to get to during the first trip. I have included a few extra pictures of some of the things I saw while in the city.
