Back to Belfast!

Our correspondent today is Bethie Stein:

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
~ Samuel Johnson

Greetings from the Free State! Our second and final day of our tourism extravaganza in Dublin was a blast. After almost a full week in Belfast, we were finally able to experience a different side and atmosphere of Ireland.

Today we started off our day as a group by going to mass at St. Teresa’s Carmelite Church. The beautiful structure of the Cathedral captured all of our attention with its beauty, not the liturgy itself. Oddly enough, it was one of the most disorganized masses we had ever been to. With the mumbling sounds of the foreign priest, it was quite difficult to understand and be attentive to the mass. The mass was only a half hour at the most which enabled us to get a head start to the rest of our adventure and tour filled day. After leaving mass and grabbing a short coffee break, we headed off to Trinity College to view the Book of Kells. Personally, I did not know much about the Book of Kells other than what we had previously seen in the movie, The Secret of Kells, which we viewed in our classes. I did not know what to expect. To my surprise, I was fascinated by the exhibit. I first entered a room full of posters with the history of the book, and then off to the main attraction. The designs and details of each page were spectacular. After viewing the book I walked upstairs to the Old Library which I can honestly say gave me chills. Being a Harry Potter nerd, the first thing that came to mind was the library from the films. I was intrigued by its’ architecture and similarities to the library I’ve watched and read about for years. Once we finished up at the exhibit, free time was given for the day. Emma, Morgan, Brenna, Laurie, Eileen, Bill, Brian, and I jumped onto the “Hop On, Hop Off Bus”, and headed to St. Stephens Garden which was one of the prettiest parks I’ve witnessed. Beautiful flowers and fountains filled the area, making it a great spot for pictures. We represented our country and state proudly by appropriately snapping some O-H-I-O pictures. We felt it necessary to introduce to Ireland some of our own culture. After our pictures we jumped back on the bus to take a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison that played a very important role in Irish history due to the fact that many of the leaders of the Irish rebellion were imprisoned and executed there, such as Charles Stewart Parnell. In our tour we viewed the cells, recreation area, and execution area. Having already studied about the site in our classes, I believe that we enjoyed and appreciated the prison more than some of the other people on our tour because we understood its significance. It was definitely an eerie place.

After leaving the jail, it was time for us to become the ultimate tourists. Whether it was the shops in the Temple Bar district or Carroll’s Gifts & Souvenirs, we made sure to get our shopping done. Leprechaun and Guinness souvenirs filled our bags to the top as we left the stores and headed off to lunch at Luigi Malone’s for the second day in a row. Once finishing our dinner we said our goodbyes to Dublin and parted ways with the city and our visiting teacher, Kaija. We got on the bus back to Belfast and headed back to our temporary home.

Now that I have been both in Belfast and Dublin, I noticed how much different Dublin is from Belfast. The two cities have entirely different atmospheres which made us all question what exactly it means to be Irish. Just as Samuel Johnson stated about the reality of what things really are, I realized how blessed I am to have gotten the opportunity to see what Dublin really is. Before the trip I imaged the “romanticized” Ireland that I have grown up reading and hearing about, but when I actually got there I noticed how much of an international place it is. It at first was not just this solely Irish heritage atmosphere because of all the different cultured visitors there, but when I got to the Temple Bar district I felt my romanticized Ireland had come to life. From street performers to pubs packed with the hymns of Irish folk songs, I immediately felt like the stories I’d heard growing up about Ireland had been right there in front of me. Dublin has been such a great experience!