Top 'O the Mornin' Dublin!

Stephanie, Kelsey, Molly, Liz, Megan, and I flew out to Dublin in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We hopped on a bus and went into the city center to find our hostel and dump our stuff before heading out to a free walking tour. The tour was pretty good. We heard all about how ridiculous people think the Irish government is and how proud the Irish seem to be of their many attempts at revolution, their stubbornness, their love of beer, and their humor! We saw Dublin castle and the very little left of the actual old building, where Swift's house was, the wall built to hide the slums during Victoria's visit Trinity College the haypenny bridge the main church (can't think of the name) where Strongbow's tomb is as well as a mummified cat and mouse..., site of Viking buildings, O'Connelley St. and some monuments. It was pretty cool and there is a lot of history that gets overlooked! I had no idea there were such recent conflicts, either! After the tour we went back to the hostel and rested for a little bit before going to the National museum to check out the bog bodies. They were pretty amazing even though I had to sheild my eyes a little bit--just too creepy at points. Long story short, the bog bodies are bodies thousands of years old that have been found in the UK that have been almost perfectly preserved by chemicals in the bog. All the bodies had been murdered in some pretty gruesome way, but the bodies were incredibly in tact--many with hair, fingernails, skin that is just brown and leathery now, and even some distinct facial expressions. It was pretty crazy! We checked out some other stuff there before heading out again. We got dinner at this pub restaurant. Steph and I shared this awesome beef Guinness stew! We went back to the hostel for a little bit and asked the guy at the desk where the best places to catch some traditional music were. He was so nice and helpful! First we went to this place called O'Donoghue's where some big artists have reportedly played. It was tiny and incredibly crowded, but I really liked the comfortable, friendly atmosphere. There was a group of about 9 old guys and 1 woman playing--but usually only about 4 at a time, they'd switch off. They played a lot of old Irish music and it was so much fun! Then we moved on to another, bigger place. It was also INCREDIBLY crowded. There were 3 guys at the front playing and singing and we managed to squeeze ourselves right next to them. There was a very different atmosphere and they played a lot of fun sing-along drinking songs. "The Wild Rover" is still in my head, but we love it!

Here's a bit of a different song at the second pub we went to: