Kaitlin, Talia, Rachel, and I just got back from our two day trip to Dublin.
We had to get up 3:00am on Friday to catch the bus (at 4:15am) that would drive us an hour outside of London to Luton airport four our 6:40am flight with Ryanair (the cheapest flights in Europe!). It was a crazy morning, and very tiring, but we made it to the airport. As Kaitlin, Rachel, and I were waiting in the line on the tarmac to board the plane, we realized Talia was missing. We tried to go back to see where she was, but they wouldn't allow us to go back inside. As we waited anxiously on the plane, Rachel was paged to come to the front. We found out Talia hadn't gotten her boarding pass stamped at check-in like the rest of us. The pilot was giving her, and the really nice airport attendant, 15 minutes to run all the way back through the airport, get it stamped, and run all the way back through security and all. Incredibly, she made it! It was not a nice start to the trip, very stressful, but we got to Dublin safely. I swear the plane went up, stayed in the air for 10 minutes and landed. It was the shortest trip of my life!
We landed at Dublin International Airport and took the 16A bus to the hostel, following the instructions they gave us. Camden Hall hostel is actually a really nice place to stay. The people working there were really helpful, giving us maps and instructions. We shared our 6 person room with one man. We never had the chance to speak to him. The room was comfortably sized, sheets were provided, and, I'm happy to report, no bed bugs! We were provided breakfast, and the people were nice enough to let us have breakfast the morning we arrived as well, even though we weren't actually allowed to check in yet. From there, Rachel and I had to meet our private tour guide for a walking tour, and Talia and Kaitlin got on a bus for their bus tour. Our tour guide, Ronan, is a tall, red haired Irish man. I was a bit skeptical at first, because he's pretty young, but he really knew his stuff. We asked him to tailor it to the history side of things, and without reading from any books, he gave us all the history we could have asked for, including funny anecdotes about people and events. I would definitely recommend him to anyone who wanted a walking tour of the city.
We met him at the Spire on O'Connell St, which actually has no significance artistically. It's just a large pointed metal spike in the middle of the street. It costs a ton to have it cleaned each year, despite the fact that when it was built they were told it was self cleaning. O'Connell St. itself is one of the widest streets in Europe, and the GPO on the street was the site of the Easter Uprising of 1916. The Irish revolutionaries seized the GPO as it was one of the site of English power in Ireland. In the fight between the Irish and the British, the whole half of the street was destroyed. The other half was later destroyed in the Irish Civil War (1922-23). The Civil War occurred, I believe, between the Irish who sympathized with the British and those who did not. From O'Connell st., we went to Trinity College (the premier college in Ireland where the Book of Kells is kept) and Dublin Castle (which has a modern looking section and a Gothic section that was only rebuilt to look that way). On the way, we learned about different sites of uprisings. We also saw some of the previous and current government buildings, statues of literary figures, including James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, and the hearing aid shop, Bonavox, where Bono got his nickname.

After the tour, we met up with the others and got lunch at a pub and did a bit of shopping on Graffton St. (I got my latest charm: the outline of a 4 leaf clover with a shamrock in the middle). Talia and Kaitlin went back to the hostel for a quick nap while Rachel and I decided to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a look around. It was really beautiful, and we got to see more of the city in the process of finding it. We made our way to the Temple Bar area, the major pub and music section of the city, where we were going to meet the others and go on a traditional Irish music pub crawl. It was a really cool cobblestone street with a pub every 10 feet. Rachel and I looked around a little and then we got dinner. I had traditional Irish stew and couldn't finish it all because it was so heavy, but really good.

We met Talia and Kaitlin at the Oliver St. John Gogarty pub for the pub crawl. The musicians, Larry and Antony, were amazing! Antony played guitar, and Larry played the fiddle and bodhrán. We went to two different pubs with private rooms upstairs, Ha'penny Bridge Inn and Brannigan's. There were only 6 people on the tour, which apparently is really unusual for them, but there was a 6 nations rugby match going on between Ireland and France that night, so people were preoccupied with that. It was like getting a private concert. Here's one of the songs. They were fabulous.

In between songs, they talked about Irish instruments, the history of Irish music, and real sessions are like for musicians playing at pubs. Irish music began in the courts of the Celtic kings. The court musicians were really highly praised because the only way information about the king's greatness could be spread and remembered was through music. They told us to note that most Irish songs are not drinking song, they are songs about drinking and the problems that can come of it. There are three traditional Irish instruments that we talked about:
Bodhrán: a goat-skin drum that can be stretched out different ways to change the pitch. It's small so you play it on your lap, held vertically, and beat it with both sides of a stick, which I can't remember the name of
Clàrsach: Irish harp, also the Guinness logo
Uilleann pipes: Irish bagpipes, very different than the Scottish variety. The Scottish ones were designed for marching into battle, so they were meant to be loud. The Irish ones were designed to be played sitting down in concert, so they have a full range of octaves. Also, they are typically handed down by generations. They said the pipes are not something people casually decide to take up because of the skill involved in playing them, and often the people who play they are quite bitter about doing so, but they had it passed down to them, and it's a really important part of the culture to play them so they do it.
They also taught us about what a session is like for Irish musicians at a pub. They do not play for an audience. Often they just sit in the corner and play for a while. There are no set lists, and some of the time, the people either have never played before or are not actually a formed band. They communicate during songs as to what key they are going to change to just by shouting a letter out. Also, the music is meant to be played to the beat of the dancer's feet. The dancers do not conform to the music, the music conforms to the dance. Irish songs are passed down completely orally. Musicians don't read sheet music (horrifying right Gage?). No let me show off my extensive new found knowledge of music. Antony says the a jig is in 6:4 time and a reel is in 4:4 time. A teacher would never say that to his student though because it would mean he'd have to explain fractions, which is not what Irish music is about. He would use a phrase with the proper number of syllables to demonstrate the timing instead. Lastly, we talked about how going to a pub to listen to Irish music is like entering another world. Everyone can spot the tourists, but if you really want the experience, you have to talk to an Irish person/musician. At some point, you might be asked to tell a funny story, poem, or sing a song. If you do it, you are accepted into a group, and sometimes you're invited to stay at a pub longer than it is legally allowed to be open. Doing something like that proves you are willing to work to be a part of the culture. Marty, a musician and friend of the guys who were guiding our tour, also came on the tour with us. He was a really nice guy, telling us about his experience with the music as well. He told us that it's sad because globalization of culture, and the spread of US television and stuff to Ireland, has caused the traditional culture of Ireland to wane in some ways, so preserving the culture is really of great importance to Irish people right now, especially the musicians.
 After the main part of the tour, Antony then invited us to a real session that he was playing after the tour at a pub. There were only 6 of us, so he could have us all come. It was really great to get to see what they had been talking to us about all night. We crashed at the hostel sometime around 11 I think so we would be refreshed for the next morning. 

Yesterday, we had breakfast at the hostel again. Then Talia and Kaitlin got on the tour bus again because their passes are flexible for both days. It was really a good deal. Rachel and I then walked to meet them at the Guinness factory, but we stopped on the way at Christ Church Cathedral. It was a really beautiful, huge cathedral, and it was great to see it. We also went next door to Dublinia, a museum detailing Dublin's history during the Viking age and the Medieval period. It was a really interactive museum, small but actually kind of fascinating. Dubh Linn is the viking word for black pool because the Vikings originally built their castle by a large tidal pool formed by the river. So after learning a little history, we walked down the street to the Guinness storehouse to take a tour. I may not like beer particularly, but the process is making it is amazing! The tour was really set up well. It was engaging and the process of making beer was very clearly explained. I was worried I was going to be lost, but I wasn't. The displays were also really impressive. My camera died at the church, but I used Rachel's, so I'll get those pictures up soon when I get them from here. There was a whole section at the factory also about transportation of Guinness through the years and one about advertising of Guinness. There were some great commercials in the 50s with animal cartoons that were adorable, and they used "My Goodness" as a slogan. It was really interesting to see the evolution of the slogan over the decades.
 
After the factory we hopped back on the bus to go to the airport, and we were back in London by 8pm. It may have been a whirlwind few days, but I felt like I saw what I wanted to see of the city. We fit it all in, and I don't think we missed anything. I had a great time. Now I need to see the Irish countryside!