Our first day in Ireland consisted of a free historical tour of the city. (Yes Dad, free!! Aren't you proud of me!) We went all over. Our tour guide who was very charismatic, took us to Trinity, the Old Dublin Castle, Parliament, The Protestant Church and other very significant places that, had we not visited them, our lives would never have been the same;)
Courtyard of Trinity.
An interesting fact that was presented was that Courtney Love attended Trinity in the 1970's. Which coincidentally was when a huge LSD epidemic broke loose and it has been speculated that you can trace it back to Courtney. Her dad who was working for The Grateful Dead, sent her bulk packages of LSD so she could sell it all over the campus. She was immediately expelled upon being found out. For all of her mistakes, besides marrying Kurt Cobain, attending Trinity was probably the best decision she ever made!
Ireland's own interpretation of Lady Justice. Typically she is blind-folded, but when the English occupied the castle, they didn't really care about being fair and equal. Her sword also being yielded, which shows how crazy aggressive those in the castle could be to those who opposed them and her scales have the capability of being unbalanced b/c they catch rain and snow, weighing either side down. This is a representation of how oppressed the Irish were during the English rule. Holes have been drilled into the bottom of the scales to fix this issue. If it were only that simple!
Parliament, the National Library and the National Museum.
Anything national is free so Sarah and I meandered into the museum and saw the expo on the bog people. Which are fully preserved members of the Irish clans from way, way back when. Back in the day high status members were typically beat and killed and thrown into bogs as sacrificial rights. Over the past years those who work in the bogs have discovered these bodies and b/c bogs are so airtight the bodies are in great shape. Some even still had their hair. It was really bad ass!
Can you believe we found a store sign with Conway on it! Shout-out! What was more ironic was the next door's sign said John Lynch!
Such a classy tour and Sarah was chosen to be a whiskey taster! At the end we all got a free drink of whiskey and Sarah got 3! It also makes me laugh that America even tried to institute a prohibition. There is no way that would ever go through with whiskey like Jameson circulating!
Of course I had to get my coffee picture!
For some reason the guy who took our picture told us to keep leaning back. I am still trying to figure out why, but either way I like the picture.
This is a statue commemorating the Potato Famine. Very eerie and it is crazy that it wiped out over 3 million people. Well 3 million under class citizens really.
The Berkeley library also supports the Berkeley school in California. I found that very interesting. Also George Lucas (the director of Star Wars) also wanted the library in Episode 2 to be filmed in Trinity's library, but the school board didn't want to poison their student's minds with Hollywood so they kicked him out upon his request. He was so dead set on having the library in his movie that he and his CG team recreated Trinity's library to a T for the movie instead!
Back in the day, way before I was born, Queen Victoria was coming to visit and she was staying in a hotel that overlooked the poorest part of the city. Instead of fixing up the projects, the government built a wall to hide the homeless so the Queen wouldn't have to look at them. Now the area houses the gardens.
Ironically, Queen Elizabeth was coming to visit that Tuesday so the city was on lockdown and we weren't able to enter the gardens for security reasons. Barack Obama is visiting too b/c it has come out that he originates from Ireland. He will be making a stop for 5 hours and the security bill is upwards of 20 million!
See everyone is visiting Ireland!
Coincidence...I think not!
Does anyone even read these comments?
ReplyDeleteI think not!