Ireland Trip- Dublin

We went to Ireland a few weeks ago and had such a great trip!

We left VERY early in the morning on Easter, so we were super tired that day. We slept a little bit on the floor in SLC to help with that. We also had a 5 hour layover in Chicago, so we ate lunch and had snacks, played card games, walked around, and just chilled:

We made it into Dublin around 5 am, so we went straight to our hostel and slept for a few hours, since we had only gotten a few hours of sleep on the plane.

Then we went to find some lunch, and we needed something quick and nearby, so our first meal in Ireland was........ Papa John's!

Then we went to Trinity College where we saw the Book of Kells- one of the most famous and intricate illuminated manuscripts in the world. We also saw the Old Library, which is usually full of very old books and looks like something from Harry Potter:

Ryan with a sculpture of Ada Lovelace- the mother of computer science!

They had this cool world sculpture spinning in the Old Library:

They had a very old harp in there, which is the symbol of Ireland.

The college grounds were beautiful in the Spring!

This was a bell tower at Trinity College.

Christchurch looks so cool:

Molly Malone statue:

Dublin castle:

St. Patrick's Cathedral (of St. Patrick's day fame):

We actually ended up staying for little evening service here, and it was kind of a cool experience, especially since we got to sit where the choir usually sits!

Yummy gelato and crepes:

 Ha'penny bridge:

We had dinner that night at an Irish pub, where most of us had some traditional dishes, like shepherd's pie, Irish stew, and bangers and mash:

The next morning we tried that full Irish breakfast, which includes the same things as a full English breakfast, plus a black and white pudding (blood sausage):

We took the double decker bus today, and Ivy really loved it! This wasn't a special bus, just their usual public transportation bus!

Our first activity that day was Dublinia, a Viking and Medieval museum about the history of Dublin. It had some fun dress-ups and set-ups:

Then we checked out the inside of Christchurch, which was another impressive cathedral. It had some cool artifacts and dress-ups as well:

This stocks was actually used for hundreds of years!

Then we went to an "Irish Dance Party," where we saw Irish Dancing and were serenaded by Irish folk songs. We also learned some folk dances and some Irish songs!

And the kids built towers out of the coasters:

One of the funniest parts of this dance party was that we had to hold hands with strangers, which was a little difficult for cute Zane. But we all had a great time:

Then we went to St. Stephen's Green, which was also beautiful in the springtime:

The kids enjoyed playing at the park there as well:

There was even some pretend chess played:

Then we got some donuts right before bed:

Early that next morning, I started throwing up. We were supposed to leave Dublin that morning, but me being sick made for a very slow departure. Another thing that made it really hard was the gas protest. A lot of the Irish were angry about the high gas prices and the taxes they had to pay on it, so they blocked streets and freeways all over the country, and most especially in the center of Dublin, where our hostel was located. We had to walk about a mile to get past it to the public transportation to go pick up our car, but I made it!

Me, being sick in the Uber we were eventually able to get to: