A Taste of Tourism: Dublin Week 10

One of the best ways to experience a place, in my opinion, is through food. In the past few months I had lived on the stale noodle and tortilla creations of a college kid dorm. After stepping outside the dorm for a Polish/French dance class, my friend and I decided to wander even further and tried a Persian kebab, which might have been the best thing I had eaten up to that point in Ireland. We then went to a pub 15 minutes outside city centre to listen to some traditional music. It was cool being in a pub being the only Americans with a little more of a neighborhood feel. We saw a sign for dancing in the back room, and found a group of older Irish folks doing set dances. They invited us to join, but since we didn’t know the dances and would have ruined the flow we watched as a gentleman described what was going on for us. It was interesting comparing the similarities and differences to the other trad dancing we had learned earlier. 

The next day we were walking through temple bar to a coffee shop I had recently discovered when we walked through a book fair surrounded by “hipsters” and with a few young lads playing music. Around the corner we found more good food at the Temple Bar food market which had everything from oysters, to quiche to Indian curry. I felt we were getting a chance to enjoy the diversity of the city that weekend. 

The next week I got the chance to further explore Ireland with my friend visiting from Texas. She is studying abroad in Seville and was excited to see the green Ireland had to offer. We started the weekend with a visit to Glendalough. After missing our bus back later in the afternoon, we hiked for about eight hours straight. The tall trees, lakes and waterfalls were a nice escape from the city. After the ridiculous amount of walking we did searching for the site Braveheart was filmed, we sat down to some traditional Beef Stew. The next day we made it to Grafton Street for some Irish porridge and tea at Bewleys. Whether it was from the exhaustion and walking or not, those meals topped my list for best food in Ireland. 

We then made our way to Wexford for my friend’s 21st birthday. When we got there, her sister 

picked us up and drove us to what is known as the “island.” Although it’s not technically all the way surrounded by water, my friend told us it had something to with the story which made the land a place of pilgrimage. When Oliver Cromwell’s army attacked the cathedral on the island, a young boy saved the crucifix only to be shot down while crossing the lake and the crucifix was later found at the bottom. After arriving at her house I was surprised to see it was bigger than most houses I’d seen in the city and had large windows all around. In her backyard was a cathedral and pub which I found out her parents owned. 

After watching rugby and having a few drinks while people arrived, we went to her pub. A band called “Route 66” played many familiar tunes as we danced and talked with some of the other Irish students. The crowd was a mix of Andrea’s friends and some older people who were friends of the family. I asked what the normal crowd for the pub was she said most hadn’t been born more than 15 miles outside of where the pub sits. After the party was over, we stayed at her house. The next morning we were able to see more of the “island” which had two castles and plenty of beautiful boats along the harbour. Back in Dublin we visited Trinity’s campus. We thought it would seem bizarre for students studying there that people from all over the world visit their campus as a tourist attraction. We also discussed the difference in college prices and how it seems European students couldn’t fathom how expensive it was for us. In Spain, she said she’s seen several protests when the fees rose from 2,000 to 2,400, barely a down payment at most American universities. After a long weekend we went back to sleep. 

The next day after Natalie left, I got to attend the event I had been anticipating since my roommates mentioned it to me, student race day. We put on our nice dresses and went out to the race horse tracks to place a few bets and enjoy the beautiful weather. It seemed odd to me that no one seemed to know who to bet on or really what was going on. Most were just very drunk and there for the “craic.” While I cheered my horse on, I got a few funny looks. The races had brought out the “American” in me and I felt like I was back at a home sporting event, except those around me didn’t quite have my team spirit. I saw more excitement as the crowd went wild (literally several people fell on us) for a local band after the races. I won two of the bets, but was a bit disappointed I didn’t know what I was doing beforehand. After a jam packed few weeks I  was ready to take a break and get ready for all the school work piling in these last few week.