Day 7: Baile Átha Cliath

Over the past two days, I have spent the majority of the day discovering the city of Dublin and just exploring the area via foot and bus.

I started off on Friday morning by going to the Grafton St. area around St. Stephen's Green. My first stop had to be Carroll's Gift Store because of how my family has raved about it from there trips. I ended up buying a tea towel to hang on my wall and a CD of pub music to just listen to.

a view of St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre

After just browsing the shops there and walking around the area, I decided that going on a hop on hop off bus and allow them to show me the top sights around the city. I sat on the top level and just rode it around once to get an idea of where everything is and to take pictures of the area too. The only bad thing about doing this though was that it got very cold up there and the wind made it hard to hear every once in a while. It was a great tour and it had a lot of useful information and trivia facts about each thing that we were able to see.

entrance to the Olympia Theatre

Christchurch Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Original Guinness Gate

the River Liffy

On Saturday, UCD offered a trip into Dublin where we were given guided tours of the Guinness Factory storehouse and Croke Park/ GAA Museum. I had a lot of fun at these because I was able to hang out with some more people going to UCD and see some of the things at the top of my list very quickly and at a cheap price.

At the Storehouse, I learned how Guinness is made and how this factory has made an impact on the community. They also had an area where they taught us the correct way of drinking Guinness so that it is not as bitter tasting. I then attended "Guinness Academy" where I learned how to pour the perfect pint of the stout and I was able to then pour my own.

one of the more modern gates

wood carved memorial celebrating Guinness

my first taste of stout

I graduated from the Guinness Academy!!

After eating lunch at Guinness we then made the drive to Croke Park and had a great tour of the stadium and learned about why hurling and gaelic football are beloved sports in Ireland. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and passionate about these games. He had a lot of stories about his favorite moments from being at the games to the history of them and why he believes they are better than any other sports.

The tour had us going through all parts of the stadium. We started off under the stands to see where the dressing rooms are and the player's lounge for them to celebrate after the matches. We then went onto the field and finally through the stadium. The size of the stadium and the field is something that has to be seen. The pitch is so much larger than a traditional football field and the stands hold over 80,000 people.

outside of the stadium

inside the player's lounge 

(custom chandelier with 32 footballs= 32 counties and 70 hurling balls= total minutes in game)

inside one of the dressing rooms

view of the stadium from the field

The most amazing part about the GAA is that all of the players have day jobs and do not get payed for playing these sports. The stadiums themselves are not paid for by corporations, but were built off of money given by the community and is maintained in the same way. They are some of the most humble people and play just for the love of the game and the pride of their county.

These past two days were full of information and memories that will last a long time.