When Fall Break finally came around, I was so ready to get out and do some slower paced traveling in which every moment did not have some scheduled activity, get away from school, and eat something other than pasta for a little while. Mid Terms are never what can be called fun and with Kara's visit and my traveling the two previous weekends, most of my studying had been done, yep, you guessed it, by the seat of my pants. On top of studying, I had yet to book anything for Fall Break. Sure, I said I was going to Dublin and Granada, but had I bought the tickets or booked hostels? Nope. So that had to be done too, and while my apartmentmates thought I was nuts putting it off and had had their breaks booked for weeks, this actually worked to my advantage. Flights really are cheaper if you wait until a much closer date to departure to buy them. Mid Terms all went smoothly and successfully, even Italian where our teacher has taught us roughly nothing. With that, I was more than ready to begin break.
My break started Saturday morning with a day trip to Perugia for a chocolate festival that is held annually and is one of the largest chocolate festivals in the world. Perugia is also home to the university that Amanda Knox attended, for those of you familiar with her case here in Italy. I found it rather amusing that the tour guides found it fitting to point that out to us. Despite that little glitch, Perugia is a beautiful city. The valley that it is in is so wonderful and it was the perfect day. Our only task was to wander around and find all the booths with free samples. One of the booths was located in the old fort and in addition to the chocolate booths, there were meat, cheese and wine vendors. Guess what I came home with? I'll give you a hint- it wasn't chocolate. That night, Anne and I treated ourselves to a dinner of sausage, cheese and wine. I'm easily satisfied, what can I say?
The next morning I was up at an hour that should be illegal to be out of bed and at the train station to catch the very first train of the day, just to make sure I didn't repeat the Prague mess. I was at the airport an hour early and no matter who I asked or where I looked, no one could tell me where my flight was. I finally found an information desk and asked if he knew. He proceeded to tell me that I was at the WRONG AIRPORT. And sure enough, there it was, printed right on my ticket. He said my only chance of getting there in time, which was slim, was a taxi and a lot of euros. So, 100 euros later, I found myself in a taxi praying to St. Christopher with all of my might that I will make this stupid plane. St. Chris was on my side that day and I made the flight.
Ireland. Of all the places I have ever wanted to visit, Ireland is easily in the top five. Part of my family is Irish (my brothers have the give-away red hair and I hate them for it), Irish accents are possibility one of God's personal gifts to me, and something about those green hills just fascinates me. The longer I was there, the more I realized that I needed to come back someday for a more extended period. While I love Florence dearly, there was a small part of me that was wishing that I had picked Dublin as a study abroad destination. No regrets, but this was a great indicator of just how much I loved Dublin.
I spent the first two days of my time there just wandering around taking in what Dublin had to offer, and there's quite a bit. I visited the castle several times, once on my own, once for a tour, and once to try to see the church on the grounds. Turns out that it isn't the chapel that's open on Wednesdays, but the tax revenue museum that's beneath the chapel. Now that was simply fascinating. The history of the castle is quite interesting. It has the last Viking tower in Dublin and has been used in some fashion or another all throughout Dublin's history, the good and the bad. On the tour, we were shown some of the state rooms for the King's regent and the rare visits the King made to Ireland. These rooms will soon be used as the capital of the EU within the next six months. We were also shown the excavations of the original fort which was mostly lost in a fire. Some of the walls as you come in the entrance of the grounds have bayonet marks from the Easter Week uprising. The castle is there in every part of Irish history.
The tower and the chapel
Another major site that I spent a significant amount of time at was St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is built on the site that St. Patrick reputedly baptized some of the first believers. The Cathedral is a great place to spend several hours and brush up on all things Jonathan Swift, who was a rector there for many years and did most of his famous works while serving as rector. I saw the Cathedral my first night there and decided to return the next morning for Mass. Despite this being the site where St. Patrick converted hundreds to Catholicism, this is not a Catholic cathedral, which I found out the hard way the next morning. I was, however, very nicely invited to attend the service for the Church of Ireland, which I stayed for most of, then panicked when it came time for their communion and I bolted. I went to breakfast instead and had the most delicious chicken, lettuce, corn and egg sandwich, homemade potato chips, pumpkin soup and toast EVER and made up for that little misadventure.
Of course, no visit to Ireland is complete without going to Trinity College and seeing the Book of Kells. I want my children to go to Trinity College. I loved it that much. If I couldn't go there, then someone I love should. It's a beautiful, not to mention prestigious, school and gets to brag that it's the home of the Book of Kells. I love old books and seeing this was wonderful. The detail is, well, detailed. I can't imagine just how much time it took and I can't imagine doing it all by hand. It's very impressive and the Irish are very protective of it. Not that I can blame them.
A large part of my time was spent simply exploring the city via a tourist bus. It took you around to all the major sites and you could hit up everything pretty quickly and efficiently. It also showed me a lot of interesting things in Dublin that I would not have found on my own.
I also decided that I could not leave Dublin without going to the National Leprechaun Museum. I mean, who gets to say they've done that?! It was quite interesting and I found it very amusing. I also couldn't resist getting my brothers' souvenirs there. They will soon be walking advertisements for the Leprechaun Museum, as if their red hair and very Irish names don't do that already. That'll teach them for calling me short all the time..
My other "couldn't pass up" moment was going to dinner at a place called The Church. It is exactly what it sounds like- a converted church that is associated with a lot of famous Irish men and women. It still has the stain glass windows and the organ. It may be blasphemy, but I had the best garlic bread of my life there (and I'm living in ITALY, for Pete's sake), so it can't possibly be all bad.
In honor of the approach of Halloween, I decided to go on a ghost bus tour while I was there. I normally don't do scary, but I just couldn't resist. They're pretty into Halloween in Ireland (they are the originators of Halloween) and it's my favorite holiday. Luckily the tour was more for entertainment than scares and told some popular ghost stories and showed us some places where hauntings known to happen in Dublin. I even learned the tactics of a famous grave robber, in case my day job doesn't work out.
One of the big things I did while I was in Dublin was sign up for the Celtic Tour, which took you around the Boyne Valley and showed off some of the major historic sites in the area. We went to the Hill of Tara, which is where all the kings of Ireland used to come together to choose a high king and make decisions regarding governing. It is also where St. Patrick was essentially allowed to start preaching. I, however, had to start this tour off Samantha-style. My shoes were pretty worthless in protecting me from the dew and I was soaked ten minutes into it. Given that my shoes were completely soaked, I had no traction and found myself on my butt very quickly and my camera covered in mud. Luckily it managed to survive the rest of the time in Ireland.
From there we moved on to Trim Castle, which is most famously known for it's association with the movie, Braveheart. The opening scene was filmed there, which is kinda funny because the movie takes place in Scotland. Details.. The castle, however was very cool. This is what I typically think of when I think castle and it was a very neat visit.
From there we went to Loughcrew, which had a lot of interesting features. First, it had a giant hill which from the top it was rumored that you could see a third of Ireland. Second, it had a cool passage tomb at the top of the hill which would have held the ashes of significant Celts, until they were removed when visitors were allowed into the tomb. You can see the original cravings and brag that you were in a structure that is over 5,000 years old and still standing. Third, it has a permanent Mass rock. When the Catholics were persecuted, they used Mass rocks to signal where the Mass was going to be held. These were normally portable seeing as it wasn't safe to have Mass in the same spot for more than a couple of weeks, but because the hill is so huge, they could see any approaching attackers and get away in time. I would just hate to have to go up that crazy hill once a week. Fourth, Loughcrew is the home of St. Oliver's family home and home parish. At least what's left of them. The Catholic persecution wasn't very kind to these buildings, but they're still there to see. Fifth, Loughcrew had lunch. Thank goodness.
The big hill
Carvings
Inside the Passage Tomb
Persecution Altar
Mass Rock/ Altar
Entrance to the Passage Tomb
St. Oliver's Church
After Loughcrew, we went to see the "Jumping Church." The folklore behind it is that some monks were honored and buried in the walls of the church. An excommunicated man was buried in the church (who knows how that happened..). The disgruntled monks moved the wall four feet overnight, leaving the excommunicated man on the outside of the church. While the folklore is more intriguing, the gale winds and the church sinking into itself is really to blame.
Monasterboice was next. This was an ancient monastery that was known as center of higher learning during the Dark Ages. While the rest of Europe was destroying religious and education establishments, Ireland was flourishing- the land of scholars and saints it was called. However, enter Henry VIII and this, too, was destroyed. It's heartbreaking. However, a huge Celtic cross still stands and is one of the largest remaining examples of Irish religious art. What's interesting is that Pope Benedict does not recognize it as a Christian symbol because it has, God forbid, Celtic symbols on it. The Irish like to brag that they are the only example of religious conversion without any bloodshed and much of that is due to the incorporation of Celtic art and symbols. I hate to take a side here, but I think I'm with the Irish.
Our final stop was St. Peter's Church to see the shrine of St. Oliver. St. Oliver was responsible for a great deal of resistance to the Catholic persecution. He was finally caught after starting schools and continuing to preach. The Irish refused to convict him, even after the jury had been bribed, he was so well loved. He was finally taken to England and convicted under trumped up charges of treason. He was then hung, drawn, and quartered. If you don't know what that is, don't look it up. People scare me. Just to ensure that he was dead and to deter others, they burned his head. However, followers and friends of his managed to gain possession of his head and it is venerated in this church. The church itself is very beautiful and also possesses a piece of the true cross. While looking at a burned head isn't typically my cup of tea, it was worth the visit.
When I returned after the tour, I went to Food, Fairies and Folktales. It was basically a night of traditional Irish music, folk tales, food traditions and history over a three course traditional Irish meal at Dublin's oldest pub, The Brazen Head, established in 1198. It was wonderful. I simply adored every moment of it, except making myself drink a whole glass of Guinness, but the Gormleys would be proud. My first full beer was an Irish one. If that's not luck of the Irish, I don't know what is. The evening at Food, Fairies, and Folktales was a great way to end my day.
I left the following day, but had a little time to explore before I left. I went to see Dublina, a recreation of Viking and medieval Dublin, which honestly was a little creepy. It had way too many wax figures making noises at random to enjoy by myself. A good way to learn history, but a little scary. Dublina connected to Christ Church Cathedral, so I went to visit that. It was a pretty church, but I will never understand the Anglicans. They had a gift store and coffee shop in the crypt. I was a little weirded out. Not to mention that they started a prayer service while there were tourists milling around. Thank God I'm Catholic!
When it came time to leave, I highly considered cancelling my flight to Granada and staying the rest of the week, but I knew I wanted to see Spain as well, so I followed through with the original plan. However, you are all invited to come visit me anytime in Ireland when I move there permanently. The first pint of Guinness is on me. : )
Cheers to the little bit, or lot o'bit, of Irish in all of us,
Samantha
I'm gonna hold you to that free pint of Guinness. Sounds like an amazing trip!!! I'm gonna go someday.
ReplyDeleteDone! You really should. It. Is. Wonderful.
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