First, don�t make Dublin your first stop. In fact, don�t make Dublin a stop at all�Second, pack extra socks. This is especially important if your group leader hands you a map scribbled on the back of a brochure and a bicycle and uses phrases like �scenic route� and �mostly flat.�Third, if anyone in Ireland calls you a tourist in a negative way, remind them what the Gross National Product is. Finally, never go to a pub that sounds authentic, it usually means it�s full of people from Cleveland.
With that said, I think it�s alright for me to begin recounting my weeklong adventure in and around Hibernia as part of our orientation (funny that it came before our tour of Wales, but eh). So bright and early on the crisp autumn morning, we double checked our kit and loaded the bus for the town of Fishguard to board the ferry across the Irish Sea to the town of Rosslare, where we would board yet another bus down the rocky road to Dublin. We pulled into the brightly coloured hostel in downtown Dublin and had the evening to sort of bumble around as we would, and in a group of 15, you can bet we bumbled quite a bit. And the city is big, noisy, stinky, dirty and is trying terribly hard to be something that it very much isn�t. It was very much a let down. It does, however, contain one saving grace � The Book of Kells � on display at Trinity College Dublin. Essentially it�s a very old monk�s colouring book, gospels and parables
Below: all that's really left of the castle at Dublin Castle
We made our way through the cathedral then up town to Dublin Castle. For a few quid you get a tour through Ireland�s version of the White House, complete with blue room, portraits of John Kennedy, throne room, etc. The main difference I think is the several hundred Viking remains underneath it, but I could be mistaken. This is really cool, as you walk down a stairwell and suddenly you are in Dublin in the year 905 A.D. in underground ruins where hundreds, maybe thousands, were killed during their attempts to get in. Descending into the depths of time, woo!
