Rest of Dublin

Saturday morning, we hit the ground running, at 7.00. We were welcomed to a free breakfast from the hostel, and then saw a flyer for a free tour that started at 11.00, so we had to occupy a little under 3 hours in Dublin. We went and saw some sights that we weren't sure if the tour covered, but the tour covered everything. Oh well, that just means we got to see a lot of cool things, twice. The tour was from 11.00 to 3.00, and it was a walking tour, so after these awesome four hours we were very tired. We got to see about 95% of the historical/tourist things to see in Dublin, and it being free was a huge help. The guy said they don't get paid, and a tip is a good way to show we were happy, and this guy was well worth it. I don't know more about one topic than this guy knew about his Dublin history, but I guess giving six, 4-hour tours a week will help you learn, real fast. I got to find the true meaning of the cartoon Tom and Jerry, it was a cant and a mouse form Dublin, that were caught in an Organ, and because the pipes are organized like a triangle, when the mouse ran up, he got stuck near the top, but then the cat got stuck a little behind him because he couldn't fit any higher up the pipe. I was blown away by that. And it has become such a big deal, they took the cat and mouse out of the pipes, and they are preserved and now on display, drawing more of a crowd than the historical figure next to them. There were four hours of sight-seeing, so I can't remember, nor will I have the ability to cover everything, but they are covered thru pictures on Facebook.

After the tour we all got a discounted lunch, (bringing 50 people to a pub that had 5 in it before us will get you discounts). This was my first time having fish and chips in Ireland, and it lived up to its hype. After lunch, we got a taxi to St. James Gate, the Guinness factory. We did a tour of that, and even though I don't like the beer, it was an awesome time. Tom and I got the certificate that said we can pour a pint, and then we went up to the 7th floor bar, where it is all glass, and gives you a panoramic view of the city. 

After Guinness we went to the hostel to take a much needed nap. After our nap we were all still beat, and decided to take it easy that night, and just stay in. When we got up we walked around the city until about 11.15, then Tom and I got a bud to watch our softball teammates play in a tournament that, the winner gets to represent Ireland in the European tournament. And by the way, they won, and it wasn't even close so that was cool to get to experience. Getting there was not a good experience at all. There was an All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship at a stadium that seats about 85,000 people, and that doesn't even count the hundreds of thousands outside the stadium. It was the biggest mob of sports jerseys I have ever seen, and blew the Super Bowl out of the water. The bus driver didn't understand where we asked to get let off, so he told us "our stop" was up, our actual stop was another 15minute bus ride, so it took about 50minutes to walk there, lost, in the rain, and asking plenty of people on the way. But, we finally made it, and got to see them play. It was cool, and the field was situated next to the runway for the Dublin airport, so the planes could have been hit by the balls, on a good enough shot. 

We finally got the last bus back to Limerick, out of Dublin, and the bus driver got lost... What bus driver gets lost? But we made it back to campus a little after midnight, and it was a great weekend, just very tiring.