Anyway, Dan and the rest of 218 columbia street came to Ireland before St. Patrick's day and all hell let loose. Not really, but it was super fun, we got to do some touristy stuff that I've been wanting to do since I got here. we went to the guinness factory and it was overt he st. patrick's day festival weekend so there were a lot of free samples of beer and food! perfect. Except when we got to the gravity bar, you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you, which was disappointing, but I think the 45 minute wait in the line outside, then the 15 minute wait in the line inside was worth it. I thought it was super interesting and a really cool look into the empire of Guinness.
Then we went and saw the Ireland v. England Rugby game at our tiny place called McDaids. Well 'saw' or 'watched' aren't good words, we witness a massacre, an embarrassment of sorts, of the Irish rugby team. England has flowers on their jerseys and they still won. I guess it is their own game, but still the Irish team are just brutal. Their coach O'sullivan resigned about 5 days later. Sad day for him, but it's best, kind of a Grady Little situation going on.
The next day we went to Kilmainham Gaol in east jesus Dublin. I led everyone the way that I thought was fastest because I am cheap and don't want to take any form of transportation in Dublin after I've gotten into the City because it's just not worth it, it's crap. Anyway, so we went and it was really cool to see my history and literature and society classes all rolled up into one tour. I knew a lot of the facts and stories that our tour guide was telling us about, but to actually see that these people might have been real and the struggle they lived through really made everything (to be cliche) come to life. It was a sad place, but a really historical and political place. Even though there had been miserable people housed in the Gaol for almost 400 years, there was an energy about the place that I guess was left because of the revolution. The prisoners would carve things into the wood above their doors in the west wing, like 'To Let' or 'Hotel such and such' that made me laugh, that even prisoners still had a sense of humor. Maybe that makes me a bad person for chuckling at that? I guess the main question that I was asking myself after we left the Gaol was "Is this Ireland what the revolutionaries envisioned?" like Tom Feeney my history teacher says, another What If of Irish History.
Then there was St. Patrick's Day. A holiday I never really took part in drinking or other debauchery. But this holiday I was legally able to drink, I was with the people that I love and I figured that going to the All Ireland GAA finals at Croke park was as Irish as it was going to get. Usually I spent it with my family having dad's potato soup, which I would really love, but like the last 2 other St. Patrick's Days I spent it with a Rusteika haha. Which I'm glad we could keep the tradition going. I even spent Easter with a Rusteika as well! We went to get a pint after the game, but ended up staying in this one bar Called the Big Tree on the Northside of the Liffey for about 6 hours. The Parade, was weird. There's really nothing else to say about it. I do love parades though. I still stand by Manlius New York having the best parades ever.
The boys were supposed to leave for Doolin on tuesday, but it seems that the food we had the other day did not agree. He was a very sick boy for about 20 hours straight. The next day felt well enough to get to Galway to meet up with Rob and Matt, but definitely took it easy. I felt so bad I couldn't really help him, just had to let the food poisoning run it's course.
I stayed in Dublin for school on wednesday, but then the next day met up with the boys in Buncrana Donegal. It was a hike to get up there, but worth it. It was so beautiful and pretty much everything the poems we've read about in class described. Good and Bad I suppose. It was raining when I got there, but I wanted to get my bearings so I walked down the main street and hopefully trying to find the hostel, but mostly just wandering in the rain. I did see some pretty cute dresses in windows for east jesus Ireland, but alas, I am but a poor pauper and could only look at the pretty easter dresses that I wanted to wear on Easter Sunday. I walked to the Super Market and asked for Directions to the Hostel and a nice lady told me a couple minutes down the road. I was prepared for a long walk because usually a short ways means a couple miles for Irish people, but she was right, just over the bridge and around the corner. I came to the TullyArvan Mill hostel, which was pretty nice for a hostel. Apparently it is brand new and from the looks of it, we could have run the place if we wanted. Then as the guy from reception was showing me the code for the door for after hours, Dan pulls up with his Dad's Cousins Wife and says we're being kidnapped for lunch/dinner. It was kind of a miracle that they found me and met up with me right on time! who needs cell phones! although very handy at times.
Bing and Siobhan took us out to a place and had a very very nice roast beast lunch. With plenty of Carrots and green beans. My favorite. They had mashed potatoes, and we all know how much I love potatoes, but I think my host mom has ruined mashed potatoes for me because they are so awful. I mean honestly, how can she be Irish and mess that up? Bing and Siobhan were so hospitable to us, I can't even tell you. They fed us, and very well might I add. After a night out with half of Buncrana we had the best Full Irish Breakfast I've ever had in my life. So good, so perfect, even had tater tots. I've also grown to love fried eggs since I've been here. When travelling they are like 1.50 for two and toast, so very cheap too. We then all went into a food coma, so Bing decided to take us for a ride up the Gap road in between the mountains of Donegal, which are massive, but don't look like it because you are in fact, apart of the mountains. We went to a Holy Well on the Gap Road and the view from there was spectacular. It was again good to see what we had learned about in Class and the Irish culture and Holy Wells and mystical orgins of christianity in Ireland.
After the little road trip, we went to the House that Dan's grandmother was born in and his cousin ( i think) Barney had lived in until 2001. Dan managed to climb in through the window because no one knew who had the key (there are only 15 cuts of skeleton keys in Buncrana, but we still couldn't find a fit) and it ended up being in the US, so to see what kind of shape the house was in Dan, Kevin (another distant cousin) and then I went into the house. It was cool to see what a very simple typical Irish house looked like. It was also really important that Dan was visiting this house that had been in his family for ever. He hadn't been back there since he was 11 I think and now he was seeing it as a mature adult with a better sense of what and how important his family is to him. I loved being there with him because my family is just as important to me. I think about them constantly and here Dan is making a pilgrimage to his family's origins that may some day be fixed up and passed down to him and maybe his kids, I just admired his opportunity.
One thing about my trip to Donegal that I loved, other than being there with Dan, was all the baby Lambs! allll the tiny baby lambs were hatching and they were absolutely every where and adorable. I wanted to see if I could hold one but the farmer that was done the street from Bing's had just gone inside when Dan and I were out walking. So many of them, I now need a baby duck, a baby lamb, a baby turtle, and a tiny orange and white kitten and my life would be perfect.
We came back to Dublin after a lovely and not nearly long enough visit to Donegal and settled into the Marina house Hostel for a couple nights. We went to Easter Sunday service at Christ Church Dublin. It is a beautiful church, gorgeous on the inside, beautiful floors. But I think that it is safe to say that my Dad is the man at Easter Tide Services. From Flowers, to the music, to the actual service itself. My Dad is the master of all Easter Throw Downs. The choir was beautiful, but they needed the horns and the timpani to be louder because of the size of the church and the crowd, they just got swallowed up. Same with the Choir at times I thought. The Arch bishop gave a short homily about the recent violence against immigrants in the community and the need for the community, in light of the recent big event (murder of two poles), to come together and Easter is a good season to start. He equated the event to the last day and Jesus' Resurrection being a life changing event. It was a decent sermon, one of the better that I've heard when not being at my home church.
Then Today had to come. The boys had to go home, and I had to go back to Reality and finish my papers, but here I am...writing a blog to update you on my galavanting and joy. Don't worry I'm almost finished with second paper and I have 4 days to right 2,000 words on Women in Irish History. Easily done.
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