First Trip - Dublin, Ireland

After having a short time to start getting used to the time change and thrill of being in a new country, I took off with 6 other UW students and we are on our first trip. We made it to Dublin yesterday and will be flying out on Jan. 30 to London, flying to Munich on Feb. 2, and then Eurorailing it back to Milan on th 5th.

For all those concerned also, I still have my passport. Yesterday morning we got into Ireland and took our time getting to our hostel. After settling in we ventured out to walk the streets of the city. For one, I love the accents! We were looking forward to coming into an English speaking country, but little did we know it's almost just as hard to understand the thick Irish accents as it is the Italian! We ended the night at a bar and listened to some live music. Crowned as "the Americans" by the performer, we ended our night with a group solo singing Brown -Eyed Girl. And yes...the Irish do enjoy to drink!

Today we spent the day sightseeing. We went through St. Stephan's Greens and gardens in the morning. Gorgeous landscaping and scenery all throughout.We all commented on how Ireland really does do an impressive job with keeping their grass unbelievably green. Then we walked through Trinity College campus (again, beautiful) and then went over to the Dublin castle. Our fourth stop was at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's just a weird(but good weird) feeling being in such a historical place (where St. Patrick baptized many of the first Irish Christian's). For what little time I've been in the country, I can feel my McKiernan side coming out:) Anyways, from there we made our way out to the infamous Guinness factory where we took the tour and enjoyed a few drinks. At the end we went up to the "Gravity Bar" which is on the 7th floor of the building. It's circular and all glass and you can see all of Dublin. I realize I haven't gone into complete detail about every place we see, but hopefully pictures can relay some of what I'm talking about.