Ireland Part 1: Architecture

I can’t even tell you guys how much I enjoyed Ireland!  Just the atmosphere and the way things are slower than here was great.  I felt so laid back and relaxed the entire time, despite being in the city (Dublin).  Everything just seemed calmer there.  We stayed in Dublin for the entire trip but Rob and I took a little excursion outside of the city on the last day.  This trip was for Rob’s rugby team so we have some friends with us too and some fun things booked to do while we were there.

Our hotel was right in the center of Dublin, near all the tourist attractions, very convenient!  The room was pretty nice but no free internet (is that not standard there?) and the bathroom was a little off.  I smashed my toes on the tub a few times because it was crazy tall and very narrow with a fixed glass piece.  Made for uncomfortable bathing.  LOL!  We didn’t spend much time here anyway!

Architecture
Everything there is old and I love old architecture so of course I got many photos.  I tried to pick my favorites!

One of the most beautiful places to walk around was Trinity College.  I think they said it was founded in 1592.  Wow!  Why didn’t I apply here?  The campus was just amazing!

We also made sure to walk around the tourist attractions but we didn’t feel like paying all the admission fees so you are only going to see outside photos.  The cathedrals were pretty but Dublin Castle was a little boring.  It was built on the site of an old Viking castle but it just looked like old fancy government buildings to me!

Dublin Castle:

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral (circa 1170)

Some things I found funny were all the chimneys.  Obviously, before central heating you needed one fireplace per room so the really old buildings had all these little chimneys on top:

Another thing I loved was that they value old historical buildings (unlike here!).  They try to repurpose them if they can.  For example, the tourist center was in a beautiful church and a rich family’s house in town (who had an estate in the country also) was converted into a shopping center: