So we get to Dublin early Thursday morning and we find our hostel, very easily and try to check in but we couldn't until 2pm. So we put our stuff in a storage locker and head out. We go and find the meeting spot for one of the free walking tours in Dublin. We get there and soon after we all head off. It was starting to rain when we left and once we started walking it rained pretty good. So we make it to the first spot and there was a plaza with a porch type thing all the way around it and we stand under this and he gives us a brief (a 10 minute) summary of the history of Ireland. After that we walked to the Dublin Castle. Which the old tower is really old, like 60 years old... just kidding I think it was built in the 13th century.
This is the front view of the castle. It is now a place where important people come and stay and have meetings. Obama was there and so was the Queen.
Then we walk around town some more and we stop at a cafe for a break and it was then when the torrential down pour started. It lasted for quite some time too. But it started to lighten up and he asked us if we wanted to finish and we all wanted too so we did and so we headed off to Trinity College. On the way we passed this building, I think it used to be a parliament building but is now a bank.
This is inside the Trinity campus. There is a sort of plaza area and they have this big bell tower.
Then we walked to this park. It has this statue that was in memory of all the people that died during the Potato famine. This is still a very sore subject in Ireland. They believe that it should have been avoided in the first place, which after hearing all that happened, I agree. It wasn't that there was a lack of food, it was that all the food was leaving to go to other parts mainly England. They don't have a very good view of the English. The tour guide said that exports of food actually increased during this time period. They had armed guards escorting the food out. The English didn't believe that it was really that bad and Ireland had no parliament so they had no power to do anything to make it better. So lets just say that if you go to Ireland, I wouldn't bring this up. After this we went to a bar and had some great food. I had some fish and chips which was pretty good since I'm not the biggest fan of fish. But then we went back to the hostel and I was in bed by 8:30. It was FANTASTIC. I was in bed so early because we had to get up early the next day.
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