An arctic blast and the best drinks in Ireland

 After my classes got out, I flew to Dublin, Ireland to meet Erin, Jillie, and Reva. The only problem was that all three of them were stuck in London a day later than usual because there was so much snow in England! While I waited for them to catch their flights, I had a day to explore the city by myself.

The first morning was a Sunday, and not much was open. I decided to walk around a little because I got in late the night before and just went to sleep. I walked along the river, and it was very cold with a little bit of snow on the ground. There were hardly any people out, but I saw some interesting buildings, and guess what? Everyone speaks English in Ireland! It was my first time out of France in 3 1/2 months, so it was kind of weird to be out of the francophone world. It was cool to take a short flight and be in what seemed like a completely different world from France. I'll be honest, the Irish accent was a little difficult for me to understand at first, something I wasn't really expecting to have trouble with.

Photo from my walk on the first morning in Dublin

 A down the river in the morning

 

 Buildings in Dublin through a hole in a modern bridge

The hostel I had stayed at the first night offered a free walking tour of the city. I wasn't really sure what else I could do, so it sounded like a good idea. It actually turned out to be a really interesting 3 hour tour where I made some Australian friends and learned quite a bit about history in Dublin. I learned about Ireland's oppression by Britain and poverty throughout its history. We walked by cathedrals, bridges, parks, lots of statues, Trinity College, and more as we learned about Dublin's interesting history. The tour guide was a student at Dublin's famous Trinity College.

In case anyone was wondering, Ireland is definitely not part of the UK. 

 Christ Church cathedral where a mummified cat and mouse were found in one of the organ pipes

The Sunday afternoon before Christmas is no quiet place in Dublin

 That night I walked to the B&B where I would be staying with my friends the rest of our time in Dublin. It was a very adorable family-owned place inside of what used to be a home. There was a Christmas tree and coffee and delicious tea available all the time. I talked to the owner for a while and I asked him about Gaelic because it is used on all of the road signs and other various things throughout the city. It is still spoken, and my tour guide from earlier that day said that she was a fluent speaker of Gaelic. Apparently Irish school children are required to take it throughout elementary school and high school, but it is really only spoken in small groups throughout Ireland. Not everyone in Ireland is fluent in Gaelic, but they are all fluent in English.

Erin and Jillie got in late on my second night in Dublin. In the morning while we waited for Reva to get in, we walked to the botanical garden just a few blocks from our B&B. It was freezing! We stopped by a bakery on the way back to the B&B and got some Irish soda bread scones and ate them with tea when we did get back. Mmmmm. I missed those French baguettes for under a euro though.

On the walk to the botanical garden. The buildings are so different than France!

 Botanical gardens in the winter = not too colorful, but still interesting.

Ceiling inside huge greenhouse

LOOK! I found a relative to my favorite tree! I was soooo happy to see a tree that is a close relative to arbutus menzeisii! Ireland is definitely too cold for a real one, but it was still cool. 

Door to our B&B

A nice snack after being outside when it started to snow

As we got back, it started to snow, and hard. This picture doesn't really do the snow justice. The news called it an "arctic blast" in Great Britain.

After Reva arrived, we caught the bus into downtown and walked around for a while and ate. In the evening, we went to a play that we had bought tickets for in advance. It was a really good Irish romantic comedy.

A Dublin street

The next day, we woke up and it was snowing pretty hard. In fact, it snowed pretty hard the entire day. All four of us had flights out of Dublin the next day, and we found out in the afternoon that the Dublin airport would be closed until 8am the next day.

Jillie and Reva catching many snowflakes in their mouths

One of the few moments it wasn't snowing in Dublin the third day

We went to the huge Guinness factory and museum that was several stories. At the top, there was a huge glass room, and it was snowing really hard outside. It was like a reverse snow globe. I think it was the best place to be when it was snowing that hard. The top floor was also a bar where I got a free pint of Guinness after going through the museum.

 Me sipping my pint with the landscape of snow behind me.

Snow on some angel statues in the middle of the city

While in Dublin, we also went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells and the library after which George Lucus modeled the Jedi Library after in one of his movies. It was the coolest library I have ever been in! We also went to a year-round market where I bought some photographs by a local artist.

 Reva outside the Dublin castle. It was snowing, of course.

Jillie and I having some Irish coffee (that was later followed by a Baily's coffee) at a pub in the famous Temple Bar district of Dublin. Mmmm, it was soooo good and warming, especially with all of the snow outside! The Irish pubs were really nice and cozy on a winter night leading up to Christmas!

Thankfully, we all got out on our flights on the right day. Jillie flew back to Spain, and then to the U.S., and Reva, Erin, and I made it to Rome. I really started to miss France and French by the end of being in Dublin! I couldn't get a fresh baguette or pain au chocolat at the bakeries. I did buy some delicious soda bread, digestives, and Irish tea from the grocery store though.