3 days in Dublin. My initial reactions:

1) Ireland is probably the most beautiful country I've ever seen. The countryside is pretty in a different way than Scotland or England. Scotland is very wild and free with dark rolling hills. England is like a patchwork quilt of quaint farms with the yellow hay fields and light green sheep fields, separated by dark green rows of bushes. But Ireland takes your breath away. It's this picturesque mixture of bright green and purple and blue. As we were driving along, I saw an old man walking down a narrow road between a couple of fields, with his border collie trotting along behind him. Simple, but beautiful.

2) Dublin itself feels more like an American city than a European one. It's such a lively city, that it's almost as if they've tried to modernize everything to keep up with the times. There was such a stark contrast to Oxford where so much is from, like, the 13th and 14th centuries- they seemed to know, "Okay, this is important, let's try to preserve it." Not so with Dublin. Although, clearly some people along the line had a problem with this constant updating of their buildings because in the late 20th century, they set up a council to protect some of their heritage so that it is now illegal to change the facade of any of the 18th century Georgian architectural structures.

3) I do not like Guinness. I had tasted it before- thought it was disgusting- but when we were on the tour at the Brewery, I felt like I should have an open mind and try it again. Still no. At the end of the tour, you get a free drink up in the Gravity Bar- I ordered a DC.

So this is what I did this weekend: We got into Dublin around 10:00 am on Friday. Our driver, Joe, who was with us all 3 days, first took us on a bus tour of the city. He pointed out the important sites and told us a little about the history. Then we went to the Guinness Storehouse for a guided tour. It's a huge 7-story building, and every level focuses on a different thing- the Guinness ingredients and brewing process; the history of the Guinness family; the evolution of transporting Guinness all over the world; the history of advertisement for the beer. The top floor is the Gravity Bar, a 360-degree glass room where you can enjoy a pint (or a DC) and look out at the city. After this, we went to Trinity College to check in. Our afternoon was free, so Ali, Cristina, and I set out to have lunch and explore. Ireland doesn't really have a cuisine, per se. It's got a lot of foreign restaurants that have taken root there, so we ate at an Egyptian place that was quite delicious. After that, we walked down Grafton St., which is popular for its shopping, but also for its street musicians (called buskers). U2 played here before they made it big. We took a relaxing walk through St. Stephen's Green, one of many lovely, enclosed parks. Then we went to see Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. That evening, the entire group had dinner together. Then we went out. There's a district in Dublin called Temple Bar, that is very much like Bourbon Street. Lots of crazies walking about. We didn't stay out very late.

On Saturday, the group was meeting at 11:00 am at the Trinity College library to look at the Book of Kells. I made myself get up at 8:30 so that I could walk around for a while. Trinity College is on the Southside of the Liffey, so I went up to the Northside. I went back to Trinity to see the Book of Kells and the library, both of which were very cool. Then we all went to the National Gallery. I enjoyed this one more than the National Gallery of Scotland. My favorite part was the exhibit of paintings by Jack Yeats (brother of poet, W.B. Yeats). I liked that you could see how his artistic style had developed throughout his life. He became more and more Expressionist with each decade. I also saw my first Picasso (didn't get it), as well as works by Van Gogh, Monet, and Caravaggio. We ate lunch there at the National Gallery and then broke off to do our own thing. Cristina, Ali, and I went to Merrion Square to walk around the park and look at the Oscar Wilde statue. We went down the street with the government buildings. According to Joe (our driver), the Irish government doesn't do much. They are only in session about 3 months of the year, haha. (I guess that's what happens when you join the European Union.) We tried to go to the National Library, but they close early on Saturdays. That was lame because we figured there would be some pretty cool stuff there. Dublin, after all, has been the home of 3 winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature- W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and George Bernard Shaw. Instead, we went to the National Museum. There were lots of old things there... Nothing too memorable for me, except for the Viking exhibit was way cool. There were all these weapons and the skeleton of one of the Vikings who invaded Ireland in the late 8th century. By the time we left there, the 3 of us were most exhausted. We went back to Trinity to rest. I read my new book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. So it's not really "new" because I've read it about 20 times. But it was the British version, so some of the words were changed! Anyways, Ali, Cristina, and I met back up later to go to dinner. We went to this place called Nude. Bono's brother runs it, and it's like this organic, fair trade place. We had soup, paninis, and smoothies, and it was all very delicious. Afterwards, we went to a pub to listen to a bit of Irish music before calling it an early night.

On Sunday morning, we left Dublin. We took our bus along the coast, through the Irish countryside, and over the Wicklow Mountains. Absolutely gorgeous. As we were heading down one of the mountains towards Glendalough, where we were going to walk around the forest and lakes for an hour or so, we passed through this tiny village and Joe came over the speaker and was like, "This village here is where Daniel Day-Lewis lives. You can often see him walking around. Nice chap." Well, by the time we got down into the valley and off the bus, I wanted to walk back up and find Daniel Day-Lewis. But, alas, that could not happen... Still, I had a lovely time there in the valley. We got back on the bus and went to lunch at a nearby hotel. Seriously, best meal I have had in Europe yet. I mean, I have had some delicious stuff. But this was the most consistently amazing 3-course meal. Smoked chicken salad to start, followed by a braised lamb shank and steamed vegetables, and then a warm brownie with ice cream for pudding (that's what they call dessert). Then it was off to the airport and back to Oxford. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed for 3 hours due to some bad weather in London. I didn't mind too much- I just used that time to finish Harry Potter, so I quite enjoyed myself. We didn't end up getting into Heathrow until about 10:00. When we finally got back to Lincoln at 11:15, there was a cold dinner waiting for us, but nobody really cared because were so tired that we just ate quickly and went to bed.

The end!