Dublin!

Elle is no longer composing this blog, unfortunately. She went on to bigger and better things with other friends of hers that were backpacking across Europe. We’d like to thank her for getting this awesome blog started! Starting from the last blog as well as this blog, Jenny McGowan and Amanda Schienebeck will be narrating the adventures of the Drake students as they leave their mark on Ireland. 
Wednesday was a very political and educational day for us Drake students. We all put on our best clothes to attend a tour of Parliament in Dublin. The only problem was that we all had to wear our uncomfortable, nice dress clothes for a 2 hour bus ride to get to the Parliament building, only to find out that Parliament wasn’t in session and there was no need to look all fancy. Along our tour we were informed that there was a statue of Queen Victoria that had been located in the front of the building that was eventually sent to Australia ‘on permanent loan’. The irony with this situation is that the Queen, during her reign, had forced thousands of Irish to immigrate to Australia as convicts (usually convicted of minor, petty crimes) and in the end, Ireland sent her off to Australia as well. Karma? Jenny and I later discussed this with an Irish Senator we happened to meet along one of our many excursions.
Following lunch, we met up at the European Union Commissioner’s office in Dublin for a briefing on the Lisbon Treaty which only recently went into effect after passing through referendum in Ireland. We also listened to an interesting perspective on the Northern Ireland conflict. It has been extremely fascinating to listen to the Irish versions of the conflict because they are all so staunch in their opinions, yet trying to give politically correct and informatively unbiased speeches to us Americans. We will most certainly hear the other side of the story when our travels take us into Northern Ireland tomorrow in Belfast.
Today is Thursday and it was also a very busy day. Half the group went on a bus tour of Dublin while the other half walked around Dublin giving themselves a self-guided tour of the city. The bus group traveled to Phoenix Park which is the largest city park in Europe. The view was spectacular. We could see snow capped mountains in the background, while the only thing in front of us and between us and the mountains was miles of rolling green hills. There was a giant cross erected on the top of a hill in remembrance of Pope John Paul the 2nd having came to Dublin and given an outdoor mass to over one million people. (What makes this even more amazing is that the entire population of Dublin is 1.5 million while the entire population of Ireland is 5 million). We also traveled to the Dublin Castle, seeing remnants of a structure build in the 1100s. In addition, we were privileged with the experience of seeing the inside of St. Patrick’s church which, evidently, is the oldest church in Ireland. Pictures will never do these truly phenomenal experiences justice. All of us were in awe.
However, despite all of these amazing travel excursions, the group was generally most excited to take the self-guided tour of the Guinness factory. We learned that 50% of all liquids consumed in Ireland on any given day (including water, coffee, juice, soda) are Guinness. Wow. The tour was amazing. As we traveled up the mass of floors, we learned about how the mass company began, what goes into a Guinness beer, and we even got to test freshly brewed beer. On the top floor, we found ourselves standing on the highest building in Dublin with glass windows where walls normally stand. The view was spectacular. As we drank our fresh and flavorful Guinness, we watched the sunset in Ireland with snowcapped mountains on the outskirts of a breathtaking city view. I’m not sure that you can get an experience any more Irish than that.