Friday we spent the day laying in bed.
Saturday we had a delicious breakfast, followed by a great day of doing touristy things. We went to Dublin Castle, which we had observed from the outside before, but we paid to go on a guided tour. This was really exciting to me, because I love history.
One of the things that may be confusing about the castle,is that it isn't really a medieval castle. We learned that it used to be one, but then a fire started that spread to the armory with the gunpowder, and the castle basically exploded. So, it was rebuilt with the Georgian style architecture that was popular in the 1800s. We did get to go underground to the ancient ruins of the castle.
Something interesting about Dublin, is that there are rivers that run underground. When it rains too much, the water can rise up and cause flooding. Apparently, that happened in Dublin Castle a few years ago, and it ruined the office that taxes are done. Our tour guide made a little joke about how the people of Ireland didn't really mind.
Touching the viking built ruins of a CASTLE
The inside of the castle was pretty awesome. It is so weird to walk where King George and Queen Victoria lived. And, also to walk into rooms that were converted into Hospitals during the first world war. We stood in the James Connolly room, and our tour guide told us that James Connolly who was a leader in the Easter Rising was taken to that room because they British hoped he would recover from a shot in his foot, so that they could execute him standing up like they did to the rest of the leaders. Lovely.
This is the actual throne that Queen Victoria had reduced in size because King George who made it was so much bigger than her.
The ceiling in one of the rooms.
Another site we saw that day was Christ Church Cathedral. It was a very beautiful building. We unfortunately were not able to go inside because we all did not feel like paying 3 euro. We are maybe thinking about attending mass, and then at the end of the service taking a bunch of pictures quickly. We shall see!
After the church and the castle, we went to the National Gallery. Entrance to the gallery was free, and we got to see some lovely works of art. They had a lot of works by J.B Yeats. They also had a Picasso, a Van Gogh and a Monet. It was just really cool to go to an art gallery that is open to the public.
For some visuals, if you referred to the map I included in a previous post, Dublin Castle and the Church were on Dame Street, near Temple Bar. The National Gallery is in between Trinity College and Merrion Square, on Clare Street. The Fish and Chips restaurant we went to was over the River Liffey on O'Connell Street past Henry Street!
We had worked up quite the appetite by this time, so we went to get fish and chips. It was the perfect meal after a day walking around the city. One of the most exciting things I saw though was this:
Tim Horton's clearly on the way to world domination. Now all I need is to pass a mighty taco. It was a nice reminder of home to see this sign.
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