#9

Dublin

May 26-27

I have continued my stand in that I definitely love the smaller towns better than bigger cities preference. Dublin was nothing short of a very large city filled with lots of smoke, mean drivers and large crowds. My favorite part about Dublin was our accommodations at the very prestigious Trinity College. It was neat to be able to stay on a college campus again and comforting to know the security of staying at the college, especially in Dublin. A local told us on the way in to be very aware of our surroundings and hold on to our purses tight. She also told us that New York City was safer…that made me feel good. Overall, I never felt completely unsafe or threatened.

Our first stop was Mercy International, home of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. This was an interesting tour that consisted of a video and tour of the home. Crazy enough, our tour guide Mary Kay, is from Hastings, NE and was a teacher and Sister at College of Saint Mary! Once again, small world!!

We spent the rest of our day living out my dad’s dream of touring the Guinness storehouse. This was an amazing self-guided tour! My favorite part was learning how to draft a Guinness by a staff member. We all received certificates upon completion and a pint to enjoy that we drafted ourselves.

The goal of our evening was to hit up the famous Temple Bar(s), which luckily are only blocks from the college. At first it was evident that they were pure chaos, but we managed to find a variety of live Irish music and our first club since being in Ireland. Lets just say it was an experience! Great time with the girls, but we definitely agreed that Sligo is our favorite place in Ireland.

Sunday we got up and b-lined it to the Jameson Distillery. This was such a neat tour! Unlike the Guinness Storehouse, Jameson was a guided tour that was very interesting and concluded with a drink at the bar. All of us girls opted for the cranberry and lime with Jameson, which wasn’t too horrible.

 Our dorms at Trinity College!

As soon as we got back to Sligo we organized our rooms and lives for the upcoming week we also made our last trip to the grocery store. I am happy to say that I hope that the 15 Euro I spent will last me the entire week. The consensus around here is that spending money really isn’t that much fun and America really is pretty awesome. We all may or may not have started a list of all the things we take for granted at home…and there are lots of things and certain people we really miss! J

6 more days!