Sat. June 30. Today we started the day at about 8:30...no sleeping in on vacation!!! :) The hostel we stayed at provided us with some breakfast, toast and jelly. It was quite odd for us to see that hostels didn't just have young people. There was a 30yr old man in our room and there were some older peopel that we saw having breakfast. It was kind of weird. We tried to unpack all of our non-valuable items (which wasn't much) and headed out for the day.
The first stop was the K Gaol. This jail has not been used since 1924. People that were sentenced to death were there were hung, beheaded, shot, and beaten. When the first portion of the jail was open there were less than 10 cells and they were only ment for one person. By the time the potato famine came there were about 5 men in each cell and the women were lieing on the floor outside of the cell doors. During the famine people would try to get put into jail just so they could have one meal a day. The conditions in the jail were awful and disease ran rapidly through. The people back then were very strict and harsh. For example, if a child pick a flower from private property they would be sent to jail for 3 years. There was a man who stole something very minute and he was sentanced to jail for three years and had to do hard labor every day. While that man was there he made the Catholic Chappel. He carved the whole thing from wood and it is still intack today. It is quite beautiful for being so old and in a jail. Another odd story was, during one of the wars there was a man that was caught, put in prision, and sentenced to death. He was engaged to be married, and on his last night he was married in the jail chappel. He was able to spend 10 minutes with his new wife while there were 10 guards standing outside his cell. He was hung within 4 hours. The last story I will tell you was about a lady who's husband was killed fighting for Ireland's freedom. After his death she became active in fighting for Ireland's freedom too. She was caught after a while and was put in the jail. While she was in the jail she drew an amazing picture of the virgan Mary on the wall in her jail cell. The picture is still there today and in very good condition. Her jail cell was in the newest portion of the jail and in that area the cells had high ceilings and windows at the top so the prisoners would always be looking up at the light and toward the heavens. We had the opportunity to walk in the cells and look around. It was really creepy and kind of weird. There were three different portions of the jain in which you can see the architectual differences from the differnt centuries. The last part that was added had been in multiple movies and the band U2 had recorded music in there because the acustics are so good.
After the jail we got some lunch, met up with Kati's friends, and tried to find the train station where the Dart was. This was quite an adventure!! We ended up asking multiple people where it was, to our surprise they were all very helpful!!! (That is not what London is like at all; if you ask for directions in London they will send you in the wrong way.) We found our way there and the timing couldn't have been any better. We bought our tickets and the next train left 8 minutes later! We took the Dart to Malahide. This was as far north that the dart would take us, plus we were in search of the Malahide Castle. While we were on the train we met some of the locals who told us how to find the castle and that it would be closed because there was a concert that was going to start in the next couple of hours. Well, we ignored what they said and still headed toward the castle. We had to walk for about a mile through an amazing park. Look at the pictures beause it looked like a rain forest. There was a couple of children parks as we walked through and there were benches and beautil green grass!!! As we got closer to the castel the sound checks for the concert got louder and security begain to build, yet no one stopped us from continuing.
We finally reach a building that looked like a castle, but we all thought it was too small to be The Malahide Castle. We walked inside and to the gift shop. We asked the ladies at the counter if we were in the right place and surprisingly they said yes! I was the only one who really wanted to go through the castel, so I bought my ticket and then Alex bought hers because she didn't want me to go by myself. Thankfully she went with me because we were the only people on the tour. The castle had been lived in up until the late 1970s by one family. But after the brother died the sister didn't have enough money to pay for the inharitance fees, so she had to sell the castle to the state and move to her other castle a couple of countries away. :) The lady of the house is still alive and in her 90s. We were able to see three bedrooms, the women's, the children's , and the man's. We also saw formal drawing rooms, an informal drawing room, a sitting room, and a dinning room (which they still use for big events). All of the decor and furniture dates back to the 1700s. Some of it is a little younger and some of it a little older. Since the state now owns the castle it has many different donators and not the original furniture. The castle was built in the 1400s and has been kept in great condition. Out of all of the rooms you are able to see the most beautiful grounds and gardens!!! Everything is so green and amazingly pretty!
Alex and I met Kati and her friends when the tour was over. We walked back through the park and into town. The town was little, chic, and very expensive! There were many little stores, botiques and resturants along the main road and all the side streets. We took one of the side streets down and ended up at the marina. We walked around to a resturant called Cruzo. We were going to eat there, but then took a look at the prices; it would have cost us $45 each for just the main course, and that was the cheapest. So we continued looking and walking. The water looked like a marina, but as you looked out past the land, it got much prettier. Surprisingly there were tons of sail boats. I would have thought it was too cold there for sail boats, but I guess not. We walked back into the town and found a little pizza parlar to eat at; it was fairly cheap and really good!
After dinner everyone's feet were killing them because we walked so much, so we headed back to the hostel in Dublin. As the girls spilt off we stopped at an internet cafe to check the emails and call home. We made it home shortly after that and we met up with my old roommate, Cristie, from Kappa (my sorority). Cristie's dad was transfered from San Fransico to Dublin for work and now her parents live in Dublin and she is staying with them until September. Christie met up with us at 10pm to go out for some drinks. She showed us around the party town, told us which bars were the best and finally we picked one. My first pint was a Bulmer, which is a cider beer. After we had the first drink we decided to switch bars and try something else. The second bar I had have a Guinness!!! Although I enjoyed the beer, it wasn't as good as the one in the Guinness storehouse the day before. After the second drink we all decided to try another bar. By the time we got out of the bar and were walking down the street we decided to call it a night and go to bed!!! It was a really long day, but really fun too!!!! I am sooo happy that I was able to meet up with Christie and hang out for a while. We decided to meet up again in the morning.
