From Death Comes Life
Today's class trip was to Glasnevin Cemetery. Kinda weird right? Well it was actually pretty cool.
It was about a 30 minute bus ride/walking combo to get to the cemetery and today...today was cold. We got to the cemetery and had about 30 minutes before the museum opened to look around. It was a huge plot of land with some very impressive headstones and Gaelic crosses as well. However, like I said..it was cold y'all (click through for my frozen efforts).
So after walking around for a but, we were told to meet by the museum by 10 am. Shivering and excited to see a cafe, we waited outside the door.
Eventually our tour guide came out and said to come around to the front and he would let us in..."let us in". We walked to the front and he said the leaders to come in and have everyone else wait outside. A few minute later he says to follow him. We were a little shocked as we walked away from the warmth. He continues to tell us that we will be back at the museum in about an hour or and hour in a half. My mouth literally dropped. It was extremely cold and the wind was making it a lot worse.
However, we were there for class and our tour guide was actually really impressive. You could tell he liked what he did and did a very good job of telling stories of important people resting there as opposed to grave yard history. We went around the big crypt in the middle as he told us of amazing Irish leaders, the impact of the people there and like I said, some awesome stories. As we got further and further into the tour, I got seriously concerned for myself. I know that sounds really dramatic but even with my boots, jeans, long-sleeve, sweater and coat..I was so cold. My toes hands and face started to sting and it was terribly uncomfortable. The other class that came along, slowly disappeared. I found this really rude to the tour guide and to our class, as we were out there toughing it, so should y'all. But, that is not my place. Once we finished the tour, we rushed inside to the cafe. I happily would pay whatever it took to have heat and steaming hot coffee. Great news was, that and a baked good was only 5 euro and I was closer to being content. Amelia, Erin and I tried our best to defrost, spending most of our time sitting in the cafe simply holding our hot drinks. This was our desperate cry to suck the heat out of the mug and into our bodies.
After a while, including a trip to the gift shop where I got an expensive scarf (happy late b-day to me), we decided to go the the National Botanical Gardens that backed into the cemetery. Our professor and her husband were really excited about it so we thought it would be a good idea.
Turns out, it was a great idea. Here are some of the great pictures we got from it below (click through).
Once we saw what we liked, we headed back closer to hotel via bus. When we got back, due to lack of food and motivation to look around, we went back to The Ginger Man for lunch and hot drinks. I decided to try Irish Beef Pie which consisted of a beef stew in a dish, with a baked pastry dough on top with mash and bread on the side. It was very hardy and I FINALLY got warm from it.
We then decided to head down to the touristy shops to get some souvenirs. Once we went to a couple places, we headed back to do our homework and take a break before finding a cool place for dinner.
Tomorrow has a heavy focus on class. It is our last day here and we have portfolio's to present, final projects to turn in, etc. We are having a departure orientation in the morning, an optional class trip to a park (which I think the three of us are going to skip and see something else), and then an around two hour class where we will wrap it all up. After that we will probably grab dinner, pack and prepare for the horrid international travel day to come.
Knowing how close we are to leaving, I know that I really truly want to come back to Ireland soon. There is so much to see and we didn't get far out of Dublin. I want to come back and explore more and see more. It is so beautiful and like I said before I love the culture here so much. Even if I am ready to wear clean clothes, eat at normal times, not be constantly worried about WiFi, and get back to feeling human; I will always want to come back to Ireland.