The Dublin Experience

Our Corresponent today is Jacob Clark:

Our day began at 8:00 A.M. when Mr. Bizga awakened the guys with a loud knock on the hostel room door. The four of us struggled through our sleepiness to get ready for the day, and we eventually made our way downstairs to meet the girls and have breakfast. We quickly ate a simple meal of toast, and we headed off to Christchurch Cathedral with Ms. Duarte. Unfortunately, Christchurch was closed, so we decided to take the opportunity to walk around the city to shop. We all stayed in one group, except for Sarah who still with her parents. Her birthday was on Sunday, so she and her parents stayed in a hotel and spent time together. The remaining eight students and Ms. Duarte eventually met Mr. Bizga at the theater as he picked up the tickets for us to attend “Riverdance” later in the day. We subsequently walked through a garden that had a pond area that was full of various birds. Everyone has been shocked by the amount of seagulls on the island. After our walk, we went on a “hop on, hop off” tour bus that we could use for transportation throughout the day. We took the bus to the Guinness Storehouse, and Mr. Bizga took us inside for a tour. The company’s profound success in marketing and advertising is extremely fascinating. The company is well-known and associated with Ireland. I enjoyed looking at the displays of their past advertisements. We took many photographs of the signs, and we went to the top of the building, which serves as an observation tower. On a nice day like today, people are able to see much of the city through this glass enclosure. Afterward, we got back on a tour bus and traveled through part of the city. We were able to take pictures of many of the memorials throughout the area. We eventually got off of the bus and walked to a Jesuit high school. The school was interesting, and we realized that the seal on the gates of the school was the same seal used by Ignatius High School in Cleveland. We then split into groups for shopping, and we met at Luigi Malone’s for dinner again.

The food at Luigi Malone’s is amazing, and I am glad that we went there a second time. Despite being costly by American standards, it is seemingly inexpensive because almost everything in Dublin is overpriced. After dinner, we were able to relax. Some of us called home, and then we all prepared ourselves for the performance of “Riverdance.” We enjoyed the performance, which included dancing and singing to traditional Irish music. We were all impressed by the performance—even I was impressed, which is surprising because I am typically not wild about such events. Afterward, we walked back to our lodging at the Kinlay Hostel. Mr. Bizga went to meet a friend from Cleveland, while we stopped for a few minutes at a crepe shop to get a snack before going to bed. We had fun watching everyone near the crepe shop. Not only was a band playing music nearby, but there was also an inebriated trio of two men and a woman who somehow managed to throw a shoe onto the top of a store sign and then proceeded to get into a verbal altercation with the Garda, the Republic’s police force. The situation was quite interesting (and entertaining), but we had to get back to the hostel in order to get up at 7:00 A.M. to head off to the Rostrevor Benedictine Monastery for a spiritual retreat. Back at the hostel, we checked our e-mails from the hostel’s computers, and we went to our rooms. On our way up to we met a group of Germans, two of whom were quite talkative. We talked in the hallway, and shortly after Mr. Bizga returned, he talked to them in German and took a couple of pictures of the six of us. Soon we were off to bed, dreading the all too soon 7:00 A.M. wakeup time.

Jacob

Here is the link to our Dublin photos: