So I'm sitting in the Dublin City Inn right now, and it's been such a rollercoaster of a day. Recap:
It all started this morning when we had to take our 4 hour bus ride from (London)Derry to Dublin. Another embarrassing story: I bought a bacon and egg sandwich at the bus stop so that I'd have lunch on the bus. I set my bag in the overhead compartment and decided to pull my sandwich out of the bag so that I would be able to easily reach it. I unzip my bag and the sandwich falls from the bag all over the seat. Yup, egg all over the place (Takes a bow for the most awesome travel stories about spilling things).
So we get to Dublin and it's pouring rain. The group from (London)Derry had to meet up with the group from Belfast, but of course there was miscommunication and we couldn't find them. And it's raining. And we're wondering the streets of Dublin. Awesome.
We got everything figured out and settled into the Inn when we had to go to the Dublin Castle. This was the center of British rule in Ireland up until 1922 when Ireland became a free state. It's now used for ceremonial meetings and the Presidential Inauguration every 7 years.
Two really cool things from the tour. First, the throne in the Throne room was made for the King of England. It was huge (apparently the king was 6`6 and about 340? If I remember correctly...)! I was seriously debating asking the tour guide if I could sit in it, but he said "the last person to officially sit in it was [the ruler before Queen Elizabeth II]", so that was out of the question (but the officially made me think that he just sits in the throne in his free time).
Second, we took a tour down the powder tower and showed us the little door that people would've used from the moat. Leading up to the door was stone steps, so I asked "Is the door still up there and go somewhere?" The tour guide's response? "Just watch your head.". So I got to walk up the stone stairs (Nothing was there, but apparently I was not allowed to do that. So cool.)
We decided to go to dinner at the Stag's Head, which was the ideal Irish Pub. And, you guessed it, I got my first order of fish and chips! I felt like such a tourist and local at the same time. The fish was really good, but the chips, holy crap. They had to have took a whole potato, cut it into 4 chunks, and served it as some chips (fries). Such a great meal!
Well, tomorrow we're off to visit more of Dublin, but so far I'm not that impressed. Everyone has told me good reviews of Dublin, but I feel like Dublin is not for me. Maybe it's because I've only seen a few parts of the city, but I think Dublin is to Cleveland as (London)Derry is to Berea. It's not that I don't like it, don't get me wrong, but I feel like people have oversold Dublin to me.
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