After spending the weekend in Galway and the Aran Islands I had to get back to Dublin for classes but Kristina and Carolyn continued their Irish vacation without me, going to the Cliffs of Moher, Cork, Blarney, and many other places along the way. I have to give them a lot of credit for making their way around Ireland by buses without missing one, despite the fact that they had no watch and were using the time stamp on Carolyn's camera for the time. They came back into the city on Wednesday night and we spent time together Thursday and Friday before they left this morning.
Thursday we tackled a lot in Dublin. Kristina was dead-set on going to the Castletown House, which was owned by the Conolly family. She desperately hoped that she was related and would someday inherit it but her dreams were shattered when she was told by our guide that her last name was spelled the wrong way (two N's). The house was about forty minutes outside Dublin and really beautiful and on a lot of nice land. When we got there they said that they had a large group scheduled to come and we would not be able to get a tour for an hour and a half. We pleaded with them and they arranged for a woman from the office to come down and show us around really quickly so it worked out great. The interior was so nice and it looked like a house Mr. Darcy could have lived in.
After taking a bus back into Dublin we went to Kilmainham Gaol. Loyal readers may know that I had already gone there once and was planning on doing some work/shopping while Kristina and Carolyn went but I enjoyed it so much the first time that I decided to tag along (not to mention I get in free with my Heritage card). This time I had a different tour guide which was nice because she focused on different things, including the role that women played in the revolution and civil war. Kristina and Carolyn really enjoyed the exhibit as well.
After Kilmainham we took the bus back into the city. I had to do a little shopping (including getting a new polka dotted dress; I seriously didn't remember the last time I bought a new outfit) and then we went to dinner. Carolyn wanted to try a place called Cafe Fresh, which was a vegetarian restaurant. It had really great food and was really affordable, therefore Dinner = Success.
After dinner we tried to go to the Garden of Remembrance but we never would have guessed that it closed before 6. We peeked through the bars of the gate and were somewhat able to get the idea. I felt bad that Carolyn and Kristina couldn't really visit it while their time here.
We got some dessert and then headed over to the Woolshed, an Australia bar that the Wolfpack was at to watch the Australian football game. Laura is a big fan and being eleven hours behind and in Ireland was not going to stop her from rooting for her favorite team. We went there for a couple of minutes to say hi and then headed home to get ready for karaoke.
Once we got back to UCD it was obvious that we would not have enough energy to party with Brock Jones, the karaoke master, that night. Instead, we had girl talk and went to bed early because we had to fit a lot in the next day.
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