On Thursday I returned to my normal class schedule, as opposed to going in to work at Parliament. In the morning we visited Compass, a political think-tank organization that pushes for social change. When I say social change, I mean social equality. Not equal opportunity, equality. To all my Republican friends out there, you would HATE the politics in the UK. The conservatives, known as the “torries”, are more ideologically similar to the Democratic party in the US than that Republicans. The Labour party is pretty socialist, and Compass is pushing it to be downright communist. Needless to say, Compass hasn’t had too much success in having their ideas go through in Parliament, but it is interesting to see that there is a political force out there still pushing these ideas in a Western parliamentary government.
After Compass we had some time to kill before our next meeting with Lord Norton at Parliament, so we killed some time and had lunch at a pub and walked around near Westminster Abbey. It was cool to see where the Royal Wedding just was! However, we were not going to pay 18 pounds just to get in, so we decided we would try to sneak in and have a look around during one of the services (they don’t charge then).
Lord Norton’s talk was also very interesting, especially since there is a bill going through Parliament saying that Lords should switch from being appointed to being elected. During his talk he thoroughly described the purpose of the House of Lords, and explained really well why it would be “rubbish” if they became an elected body (if you are truly interested on the matter, you can ask me later because I am simply too lazy/have too much to say to type it all out here), but basically the House of Lords would completely lose its purpose/necessity if it were to become elected, and interfere too much with the House of Commons. He was an engaging speaker, and it was cool to hear a different point of view on parliamentary issues since I am interning in the House of Commons.
Thursday night was extremely low key because Fabiola (another girl from our program), Amanda, and I had to wake up at 3am (yes you read that correctly) to catch a taxi at 3:15am to Victoria train station, to catch a train to the Gatwick airport at 4am, to catch a plane to DUBLIN, IRELAND (!) at 6:50am. After watching Harry Potter 7 and packing, we went to bed extremely early so we would be ready for our adventure the next day. We wanted to make sure we had extra time to go everything, since we did not know our way around any of the stations/airports, and didn’t want to miss our flight due to dumb mistakes and/or exhaustion. Lucky for us, we got to do some excellent people watching at the train station (ie. potential prostitutes getting into fights and getting kicked off the train) and got some nap time while in transport to Ireland.
When we arrived in the Dublin airport bright and early at 8am, we were all thrilled to find that customs stamped our passports! Usually when traveling within the EU they do not stamp passports, so this was a happy surprise! I also chuckled because they stamped our passports with green ink… so fitting. We found our way to the hostel relatively quickly, dropped off our bags, and immediately headed out to explore the city. Dublin itself was a lot smaller and more modern than I expected it, but I still loved it. There were beautiful flowers hanging from rooftops everywhere, and there was SO much beautiful greenery (very stereotypical, I know, but the stereotype is very true). Also, the city of Dublin is full of statues of everyone who was important to Irish history in any way. It was so bizarre, I don’t think I have seen so many statues in one place in any other city I have visited before. We happened upon a free walking tour, which helped us orient ourselves in the city and know the history behind all of the things we were seeing (and know who the statues were of, haha). Our tour guide, who was also named Amanda, was awesome and taught us not only about Irish history, but gave us stories from her family connected to Irish history and an idea of what Ireland is like currently in terms of politics and culture. She also invited us on a pub crawl for that night, which was excellent since we were trying to figure out what to do at night as it was.
After the walking tour, we went to the Guinness Storehouse with two other girls we had met on the tour, Arden and Monica. They were also from the US, and were in Ireland to go horseback riding (how cool is that?) but were spending a few days in Dublin first. For those of you who don’t know, Guinness is a stout beer from Ireland that is served all over the world. The tour was awesome and super interactive, and I learned a lot about how beer is made. At the conclusion of the tour they gave us a free pint of Guinness at their Gravity Bar, which is on top of the storehouse and had beautiful views overlooking the city of Dublin. It was definitely a nice place to sit and relax with our new friends after walking around all day.
As soon as we left Guinness we were STARVING, so we went to a restaurant the hostel recommended called O’Shea’s with our new friends in tow. You could have probably gathered from the name of this place that they served authentic Irish food, so I ordered an Irish steak and potato pie. It has the picky eater stamp of approval, aka it was amazing, and just what I needed after a long day of traveling and walking.
With our bellies stuffed we walked back to the hostel to get our room keys, set up our beds, and get ready for the pub crawl that night. We got ready relatively quickly and headed over to Temple Bar, the area of Dublin where the pub crawl was to begin. We were planning on walking until we got hit with a random downpour of rain (I was not too pleased, by the way) and had to take a taxi. However, it was totally worth it because the pub crawl was a lot of fun! Our new friends from the day were also there, in addition to Mike, Tory, and Jon, who are from our program and also came to Dublin for the weekend. We went to a variety of different Irish pubs, and got a good taste of what Irish nightlife was like. We also had special deals on all of our drinks because we were with the crawl. Amanda and I didn’t want to have a drink of our own at every place, so we shared in order to try all the special stuff they had to offer. The best by far was a strawberry beer, which we are hoping to find again in London!
The next day we woke up relatively early, grabbed breakfast at the hostel, and then hopped on a train to Malahide, a small Irish town about 20 minutes away from Dublin. It was a bit of a fiasco at first because Fabiola, Amanda, and I were overcharged for our tickets by 15 euros (yikes!) but they promised to mail us refund checks in the mail, so it ended up working out fine. At Malahide we saw a beautiful castle, which is one of the oldest in Ireland dating back to the 11th century. Fabiola loved it so much she started calling it her future home, and didn’t want to leave.
In addition to the castle, Malahide had beautifulll nature. In addition to the huge trees and greenest grass I’ve ever seen, Malahide is also located on the coast of the Irish sea. On our way to the water Fabiola bought us a fresh apple pie (with no forks, but that was not an issue) and we sat by the beach, enjoyed our pie, and looked at the Irish cliffs. It was absolutely amazing.
Upon arriving back in Dublin, we went to McDonalds to get lots of food for cheap (we were low on cash, thanks to the train station), and made our way over to Kilmainham Gaol, a famous Victorian prison where many important Irish figured were held in the 19th and early 20th century. We fell in love with our tour guide, who was extremely Irish and gave us a very detailed history about both the prison and the important political figures who had been held and killed there in the past. It was also cool because the prison has been featured in several movies, including “The Italian Job”.
Sadly, after touring the jail we had to head back to the hostel to grab our bags and make our way to the airport. The only thing that cheered us up about leaving Ireland was the Chocolate Café in the airport, where we all pigged out on delicious sundaes, brownies, and chocolate pancakes to use up what was left of our euros. The plane ride was interesting as well, because basically the cast of Jersey Shore was on our plane, and being loud, drunk, and obnoxious the entire time. One of them, who looked exactly like Mike the Situation, took some of Fabiola’s potato chips! So rude.
Ever since we got back to London from Ireland, we have been lazy bums. Literally all we have done is slept in, ordered pizza, watched movies, and slept some more. Well, I got some research done for my paper (yay!), but that is about the only productive thing I’ve done today. It doesn’t help at all that it is pouring rain outside, and our beds are so cozy and warm. Up next on my to do list today is to watch Mary Poppins with Amanda (we have been wanting to watch a bunch of movies that take place in the places we have just been in London. PS I Love You is also on the list as a result of going to Ireland).
TO ALL OF MY GRADUATES FROM THIS WEEKEND: I am so very proud of you all, and so sad I can’t be there for your special days. Congratulations guys, you did it! Sending all my love from across the pond :)
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