Ireland
Ok, so now we are currently in Dublin.
There wasn’t too much to do in Sligo, but it was still fun. We got to see Yeats countryside and see places he wrote about, his grave and more. Then the next morning we left early for Derry. We stopped at the Ulster American Folk Park along the way. We had class with people there who told us about emigration and immigration, and we got to look up about our Family names. Then it was a walk through tour of different Irish homes and we got to learn about their life years ago, and how they emigrated to America, and got to walk through a ship to the other side being America. It was interesting seeing the Irish perspective on American life. Our Hotel in Derry was a little far from the city but it was really nice. We got a tour of the Derry Museum and then Derry Walls, got to walk along them and learn a lot of the history of Northern Ireland.The next day we went to Dunlunce Castle which is neat because it’s on a rock on the coast. Then from there we went to Giant’s Causeway. It was awesome! It had a great view and was really neat. But, the winds were hurricane winds and it started to rain and then hail. There are two ways back to the buildings, basically go up first and walk along the top of the hill/mountain/cliff or walk up gradually below it (like we walked down). Up top was the craziest walk we have ever done. We were all soaked and cold and had hail pelting our faces, but it was definitely worth it. For me one of my most favorite things we did this trip. It is a memory and story we will have forever and probably never do again. Sitting on the bus with soaked clothes wasn’t as fun.

The next morning we left early and got to Dublin in 3 hours. We went to the National Museum and had class. On Monday, the 19th, we took the Hop-on Hop-off bus to Kilmainham Goal (Jail). It is not long in use but was used a lot especially during the famine, 1916 uprising and the civil war. One party of it, the newest, has been in a number of movies. We got to have the rest of the day, until class, for exploration or research. A number of people went to the Guinness Factory, which was neat because the building was shaped as a pint and had a great view at the top. Tuesday we went to the Writers Museum in the morning and got to do research and exploration for the rest of the day until class. Most people also watched the inauguration. After class we got to take a tour of Parliament by a senator which was really awesome. The building from the outside looks similar to the White House because the same person designed them both.

Wednesday we had the whole day for research, exploration, and shopping. At 7 we met up and went to the Abbey Theater to see Playboy for the Western World. It was neat because it was a modern version of the play, which we read the original version. On Thursday we actually got to sleep in, which was amazing, and we left at noon for Newgrange. It is over 5000 years old, older than the pyramids. It’s a tomb, and is really neat and hard to believe they were able to do so much manual labor to build it all way back then. Tomorrow we will be going to Glendalough, Powerscourt and the Powerscourt Gardens. Dublin is really neat, and Ireland amazing. We have done so much while we are here it has been great, only a couple days left.

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