It's snowing in Dublin!!! This is why I left Chicago! I definitely did not pack appropriately... We set off on the Paddywagon tour leaving from Paddy's Palace in Dublin early this morning, in the snow. I met a couple of cool Australians, Penny and Anna (shown in picture below) almost immediately. We're on this big green bus with our tour guide, Joe. We drove around Dublin a bit first, and then went to the Guinness brewery the moment it opened.
After our self-guided tour, we had our free pint of Guinness in the gravity bar at the top. Nice Irish breakfast to get us started on our 6-day tour.We then set off in the direction of Belfast in Northern Ireland. We stopped at a small town called Drogheda to see the preserved head of Oliver Plunkett, which was sent back to Ireland after he had been hanged, drawn, and quartered. Not a very pleasant sight...
We then got back on the road and stopped over at the ruins of a small monastery where we saw some original Irish crosses (with the circle in the middle). Very cool.
We're staying tonight in Belfast at a Paddy's Palace hostel. I am enjoying the free Internet on my laptop plugged directly into the router, so I don't have to share the computer like the rest of the hostelers here. I knew there would be an advantage to lugging this thing around. I did a black cab tour of Belfast today, I had no idea that Northern Ireland was still so wrought with conflict between the 'Loyalists' and the 'Republicans'. There's a wall, just like Berlin's except still standing! With police and watchtowers and listening devices and armed forces. For more info, check out wikipedia: Northern Ireland.
We're off to dinner at a nearby pub now. More on Day 2 next time I have Internet access.
2 comments:
Dear Laura,
So this is a blog. I was wondering. Sounds like you are having a great time so far. Obviously lots to see and do all over the UK.
Have fun.
Love,
dad
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