Dublin!

Dublin was amazing. We first got there really late at night, after over 24 hours of traveling, so the first thing I did was shower. Right after my shower I basically passed out.

The next day we took a walking trip around Dublin. Our guide was a "struggling actor," and he sure knew how to give a tour. We saw sights like Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and the Temple Bar. If you're not familiar, Temple Bar is actually an area in Dublin, although there is also a place called the Temple Bar, which looks like:

The third day was basically hell for me. I woke up around 4:45 AM, sat around until free breakfast at 7:30, then basically was miserable as we took a walk around Dublin. I had to go back, and ended up taking roughly a 6 hour nap, eating dinner, and then going to bed almost straight away.

I finally felt better when I woke up, and it ended up working out perfectly, because we took a day trip to Glendalough (glen-da-lock) and Kilkenny. We stopped near a church in Glendalough, and were greeted with this beautiful sight:

 Personally, I'm not a huge picture fan. Pictures like the one above are pretty cool, but the picture doesn't give you the experience. I will never forget the utter beauty of these places, the smells, the feel, and the silence. It was so quiet here, completely peaceful.

We saw a few more sights, non as amazing as Glendalough, and then we headed back to Dublin for out hostel pub crawl. We ended up seeing this amazing traditional Irish band in one of the pubs. Just check them out.The next two videos are both them, and these are the two songs that have been stuck in my head for a week now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_ITRd-D4sA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2aXFonTva0

That second song is called Molly Malone, and is basically the unofficial anthem of Dublin. The best part was singing these songs in an Irish pub packed with strangers from around the world. For a few minutes there, the Swiss, the Finnish, and the Americans were all Irishmen and women.

Our last day in Dublin was spent shopping and seeing a few last places. I decided to have Beef and Guinness stew, and let me say it was pretty darn good.

There's so much to say about the experience I'm getting on this trip. So far through Dublin I've had to navigate the London Underground on no sleep, conquer the ever infamous Ryanair, and then find my way from an airport to a hostel using only a bus and my feet. I've experienced so much about British culture and Irish culture in a week and it has been an amazing week.