Heading Home 7/28

At six in the morning I said goodbye to my room and went down into the courtyard to take the bus to Heathrow. As we crossed Waterloo Bridge, I promised myself I’d come back to London someday. We got to Heathrow with plenty of time, and the early group was still there, because their plane had been delayed. We spent more than an hour hanging out in the main part of Heathrow Terminal, chatting with the classmates we didn’t want to say goodbye to. As a special London goodbye, there was a giant Dalek in the center of the airport, of course. Eventually, we did have to say goodbye and head to our respective flights.

No one likes eight hour flights, even if you’re someone who likes flying, like me. I worked on this blog, read, and watched the in-flight movie. I even tried napping a bit, but it was the middle of the day, so it wasn’t really possible. Unfortunately, I was sitting in front of a three year old, who (when he was awake) had the annoying habit of kicking the back of my seat. Sigh. I told my sister she wasn’t allowed to take my nieces on international flights until they were at least six.

When we reached O’Hare, I said goodbye to fellow Dominican librarians, who, at least, I’ll see in class, still. My parents came to pick me up, and they brought the puppy!

When I got home, I discovered that my best friend had been by and decorated my room with a bunch of Welcome Home decorations. My mom made a fabulous dinner, and my sister brought my nieces over. It was a perfect homecoming.

Since being back, I haven’t really had any trouble readjusting, either in terms of missing Britain or jet lag. A lot of that is that I jumped back into my new full-time job the morning after I came home. I’ve been way too busy for anything but getting my work done and finishing this blog.

I know that in the months to come, however, I’m going to come back, and read this blog, and plan my trip back to London.

The Last Day 7/27

I spent my last day in London doing some last minute shopping. Thanks to some Tube closures, I ended up walking through parts of the city I hadn’t seen before. I accidentally ended up on a street that was entirely made up of used and antique book stores. I browsed a children’s bookstore and saw some really cool old editions of classic children’s books. Everything was way out of my price range, though. I went in another store that only carried first editions and signed copies of books. I was looking for a signed copy of Harry Potter, but considering that a signed copy of a random YA book was £75.00, there was no way I would be able to afford one.

On my way home, I kind of thought that the Tube closures was the City’s way of testing me to prove that I’d learned enough about London’s public transportation to navigate even when thrown a curveball.

That afternoon I had to pack. I feel like I doubled the amount of stuff I had through souvenir shopping, and 90% of those souvenirs were breakable. I had to completely start over three times before I managed to get everything safely and securely packed. Packing all that bubblewrap did have the bonus of keeping the weight of my suitcase down, and I overloaded my carry-on until my suitcase weighed less heading back the states than it did leaving them.

We had planned on one last group trip down to the Thames for chips and cider, but with the heatwave broken, real London weather caught up with us, and it was pouring out. Instead, we went out for dinner, and then splashed our way back to the dorm. After weeks of hearing many of us mention Doctor Who constantly, Liz finally decided to give the show a chance. So it was that on the last night, a few of us crowded around a laptop in our flat kitchen and watched Doctor Who on Netflix. Occasionally, someone else from our dorm would wander past and end up joining us.

At one point, Alison and I ventured out for snacks from the vending machine, and found the change return full of money. Apparently, returning students no longer saw any value in their British currency, so snacks were on those guys. The next morning, we also found a pile of change in the courtyard. Knowing that money is money, several of us gathered it up to spend at the airport or donate to the UNICEF bag on the airplane.

Watching Doctor Who in that kitchen and listening to it rain with my classmates was a lovely end to our stay in London. I’m so glad that Facebook and email will allow me to stay in contact with these fantastic women with whom I’ve become good friends over the last few weeks.

Daleks and Dinosaurs- Cardiff 7/26

Christina and I took two hour train ride to Cardiff, Whales on Friday morning. It seemed crazy that after only two hours by rail we were in Whales, but there you have it. When we got off the train at Cardiff Bay, we had completed the directions to the Doctor Who Experience, but we still weren’t anywhere near the building. We wandered into Road Dahl plaza, or the Torchwood Plaza, as we Doctor Who fans like to refer to it. We found an information center, thankfully, which pointed us in the direction of the DWE. We walked along the coast, and it felt like a trip to some beach town, it was lovely. When we saw the Daleks on the road sign, we knew we were on the right track, and stumbled on the DWE. I don’t know what I was expecting out of the DWE, but it wasn’t what we got. After a brief video of all of the Eleventh Doctor’s most amazing moments set to “Mad Man in a Box,” which was sure to get anyone pumped, the screen opened with a Crack and we walked onto Starship UK. Props from many of the Doctor’s exploits were present, and then Eleven made an appearance on a TV screen and told us he needed help from we “shoppers.” What followed was an interactive DW experience, where we flew the TARDIS, were nearly exterminated by the Daleks, and had to walk through a forest filled with Weeping Angels (I swear I didn’t blink. You can’t put Weeping Angels in with strobe lights and expect me to not freak out). It ended with us saving the Doctor and watching him in 3d reseal the Crack and trap those who had pursued us. Then we entered the DW museum.

 

The Museum had sonic screw drivers, and costumes, and TARDIS’s! We got to see Ten’s TARDIS console, as well as the Junkyard TARDIS, and pose in front of Eleven’s. Then we went upstairs, where representatives of so many of the races and cultures the Doctor has interacted with were on display. I took pictures with Daleks, Cybermen, and Ood. Plus, we got a picture with the Face of Boe! It was fun seeing everything they had on display.

After the DWE, Christina and I got lunch along the beach before walking into the city. Cardiff, especially near the beach, was gorgeous. I could see myself moving there easily. After wandering the city a bit, we decided to check out the Natural History Museum. When we walked in, we were told that they were closing in 20 minutes. I asked Christina what she wanted to see, to which she replied like an excited toddler, “DINOSAURS!” So off we went. We got to see the Dinosaurs, as well as the ice age exhibit and a lot of the ocean exhibit.

We spent the rest of the day meandering through Cardiff, before we caught our train back to London.

Sitting in Nests 7/25

For our last day of class, we took the bus out to Blythe House, which houses collections from the British Museum, the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert. About 800 readers a year come to the Blythe House for research, and they’re working on making it more accessible and welcoming to the public. We were there to learn about the Beatrix Potter Archive from the V&A. We learned about the history of the V&A, and got to see one of the original log books, which records a loan of an object from the queen to the museum. 

We learned about the “Words & Things” department, which is responsible for archiving flat art, like the written word. They still can’t archive everything, like many of the emails that are lost each year, but they’re trying. They’re trying to come up with a way to catalogue everything, but right now they’re torn by so many standards.

Alexia taught us about the Archive of Art & Design, which collects archives from British companies, from high end fashion companies to Thomas Smith crackers. Each year, twice a year, they go out and gather advertisements off the street to add to the collection. They don’t collect fine art, which goes to the Tate or architecture, which has its own home. Instead, they focus on the small archives, which are donated at a rate of about 5-15 per year.

She showed us examples from the collection, including designs from the 1920s Lucille Ltd fashion design, and Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibits, which predicted the houses of the future.

The V&A has a collection of 100,000 children’s books, including the Beatrix Potter Archive. The archive includes over 2000 items, including first editions, water colors, original artwork, and journals. We were able to see a picture letter collection that proved to be a precursor to Peter Rabbit, and a sketchbook from 9 year old Beatrix.

We then got to hear from a prominent business man who has been researching one of the primary researchers of Beatrix Potter, Leslie Linder. Linder broke the code Potter wrote her journals in, opening up that information to researchers. He and his sister also compiled a bequest that helped supplement the Beatrix Potter archive. Andrew grew up near the Linders, and used his personal connection to help illustrate the relationship between Linder and Potter, who lived in the same area and lived quite similar lifestyles. Linder went on to publish Journal of Beatrix Potter and Artwork of the Writings Of Beatrix Potter.

That evening, we had the research symposium, where we got to hear what all of the other classes were up to for the whole month. I think we got the best experience. Then, a bunch of us went out for dinner, and ended up at a Nando’s. This Nando’s had these round tables in these weird giant wicker baskets they called the nests. We of course all piled into one nest and had a fabulous time. After eating, we decided to go to one of our favorite places and walked down to the Thames to drink cider and chat in the warm evening air. When I remember London, I hope that’s what I remember.

Try the Pie, It’s Delicious 7/24

We spent the morning at the Middle Temple Law Library. Lawyers in England need to belong to one of four Inns, and one is Middle Temple. There is a record of a library there from as far back as the Tudor Era, and it now encompasses three floors, two basements, and a loft for rare books. The library was moved into its current quarters after WWII, when the previous location was bombed.

The Inns share libraries, and each has its own specialty. Middle Temple focuses on EU and American law, and has ties with the United States. The American Ambassador to the UK becomes an honorary member of the college. They have exchange students come from American legal universities, and even had four alumni sign the Declaration of Independence. There’s a lithograph of the Declaration with those four names starred in the library.

Because English law is based on precedent, almost nothing is thrown out, which can lead to some storage issues for the librarians. Another difficulty is that there is no classification system for the collection, in part because it was believed to be unseemly to have labels on the spines of the books. Can you imagine the headache in managing that collection?

The Inns are run by a group known as Benchers, who are retired and distinguished members of the Inns. Each Inn is expected to have two honorary Royal Benchers. Middle Temple had had Princess Diana and the Queen Mother. After the loss of Princess Diana, Prince William was eventually made a Bencher for Middle Temple, but they had to wait for him to be old enough, first. There’s hope of Princess Katherine becoming their second Royal Bencher, but she’s a little busy right now.

We heard a lot about the history of the buildings and artwork from Middle Temple. Middle Temple and Inner Temple share responsibility for Temple Church, and the rivalry between the two resulted in a statute of the Knights Templar in the Church courtyard with its derrière pointed at Middle Temple. Both Inns claim to be the one mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

After Middle Temple, we made our way to a pub called the Bank of England. The pub stands between where according to legend, Sweeney Todd ran his barber shop and the place where his victims were baked into pies. The specialty of the Bank of England? You guessed it. I got the chicken and sweet corn pie, which was really good, but the clear pie winner was the beef and venison in a red wine sauce pie. It was heavenly. It was a great lunch, and it felt very British as our trip was winding down.

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus - 7/23

When we reconvened after minibreak, we visited the British Library Centre for Conservation. Most of the archives we visited in London focused on preservation, keeping items in their original condition, and preventing further damage. The BLCC, however, focuses on conservation, the act of restoring items in the collection. The discrepancy is because the items in the British Library are all available for patron use, so the BLCC is tasked with keeping materials in working condition. It was really cool to see a place set up for conservation, as a contrast to the preservation archives we’d seen. For one, the Centre was built to maximize light in the work room, a sharp contrast to the archives that try to protect documents from light. Another change is the presence of wet rooms, where work with solutions can be done without risking accidentally damaging other items.

The British Library has 150 million items in its collection, and the collection is managed by different divisions. Each division is allotted a certain number of conservation hours for the year, and they choose which items to spend them on. Usually that means that the items being conserved are the ones chosen to go on display. The Centre helps the divisions make decisions about what needs to be done to conserve the item by asking a series of questions about the item’s priority, frequency of use, and whether or not a digital version is available for scholars.

We were shown some of the materials used in conservation, including the mulberry paper/cloth/tissue used to strength and add flexibility to pages. At times a book requires a new set of covers to keep it together for circulation. In that case, the original cover is preserved and kept boxed with the newly bound book. Nothing is destroyed, but changes must be made for scholars to have access. The boxes used to house the books are specially built phase boxes, which are custom sized for the items.

We had the opportunity to learn about gold finishing at the Centre. We learned about the tools for finishing and the techniques, and even got to handle a slip of gold leaf, which is beyond delicate, and very hard to use! Some of the tricks of the trade include using one’s forehead oil to gently lift the leaf. When we were passing the bit of leaf around, part of it actually conformed to my fingerprint, and nothing could get it to transfer without destroying it. I’m very impressed by gold finishers.

That afternoon, we had tickets for the Harry Potter movie set tour, so we set off to catch the train. When we reached the station and went to board our train, we discovered that the tickets we’d been sold wouldn’t work, and we only had 15 minutes to catch our train. We frantically waited in line to get new tickets, but only one window was open, and it had a sign posted that she was a trainee, so to please be patient! With minutes left, another window opened and we were able to buy new tickets. We actually ran to jump on our train. The girls who’d purchased their tickets separately had gotten on the train already, and didn’t even know we’d made it.

The Harry Potter tour was probably my favorite experience in London. It was amazing! From the very beginning, when we watched the video of Emma, Daniel, and Rupert talking about filming, to the doors to the Great Hall opening and walking in, to the very end, it was wonderful. Everything there was actually used in the filming of the movies; it was the original sets, costumes, and props. Walking through the Great Hall, visiting the Gryffindor Common Room, and popping into Dumbledore’s office… it was amazing. We saw the horcruxes and Mad-Eyed Moody’s trunk, the door to the Chamber of Secrets and the Mirror of Erised, And we were all giddy as school girls.

Halfway through the tour, you stop between the buildings in an outdoor courtyard, where you can buy some refreshments, including Butterbeer! I didn’t expect to like Butterbeer, but I did. It tasted like butterscotch and cream soda, with a butterscotch foam topping. Sweet, but refreshing. Also in the courtyard was the Knight Bus, Sirius’s motorbike, the Weasley’s flying car, the Hogwart’s bridge, Privet Drive, and Potter home in Godric’s Hollow. We took tons of pictures, and started taking a lot of funny ones, like a terrified pose outside of the Potter’s.

In the other half of the tour, we started in the creature creation, costume, and make-up displays. There was a life-sized Aragog, which, no thank you. Then, I turned a corner, and it was Diagon Alley! When you walked down Diagon Alley, it was clearly just shop fronts and forced perspective making the Alley look larger, but that first look was such a thrill! It was like you stepped right into the books. After wandering past the shops that are so familiar from the books, we ended up in a design studio, which showed off the various sketches from the creation of the movies. There were also a number of models built to design the sets. And then we walked into the next room.

It was take-you-breath-away magical. A model of Hogwarts that was probably forty or fifty feet across. That room was just extraordinary. I swear I don’t know how we didn’t witness any proposals, because if I lived anywhere in the UK, that’s where I’d demand to have the question popped. No one could say no with the majesty of Hogwarts in front of them. The lights were lowered in the model room, in deference to the awe-inspiring castle. I learned a lot about the construction of Hogwarts from the video displays in that room, information I immediately relayed to those around me.

When we exited through the gift shop, it was nearly as good as the tour. I probably spent more than a half hour there, alone, pouring over all the Harry Potter merchandise they’d put together from the books and movies. I wanted EVERYTHING, from the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, to the Honeyduke’s sweets, and Quidditch jerseys. I restrained myself and only purchased a wand. I got a replica of my favorite character’s, Luna Lovegood.

I’ve said about this whole trip that all of Britain is Harry Potter, and it was glorious visiting the capital of it all. Harry Potter has been a huge part of my life, and it was so gratifying to get to physically disappear into the world of Harry Potter for a few hours.

Long-Lived, Healthy, and Glorious - 7/22

The whole time we were in London, we were on Royal Baby Watch! We were certain that because Princess Kate was due in the middle of the month, that she’d have the baby while we were in Scotland, or while I was in Ireland, but she held out. When I woke up on the 22^nd, I discovered that Kate had finally gone into labor!

 

I decided to spend the last morning of minibreak touring Westminster Abbey, which was pretty cool. I got the audiotour, which I was surprised to discover was narrated by Jeremy Irons! I was like, wait, is Scar talking to me? I saw the graves of Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton, as well as the grave of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary (did you know that they share a space in death?), and even Mary, Queen of Scots. Photography is forbidden in the Abbey, so I don’t have any pictures, unfortunately. The tomb of the unknown soldier is there, and is gorgeous, surrounded by poppies. There’s also a beautiful stained-glass window dedicated to the British Armed Forces.

After Westminster, I walked up to Buckingham Palace, to see the crowd. There weren’t a lot of people there yet, since it was the middle of the workday, but there was a ton of media camped across the street.

I was supposed to meet up with Alison and Liz, but when we met up, we all agreed it was too hot to do anything. It turned out that this would later be the peak of the heat wave, when we hit 93 degrees. Instead I headed back to the dorm to get some laundry done and camp out in front of the BBC for Royal Baby news. It just so happened that I was watching that evening when the baby announcement was made! A little prince! It was very exciting, though kind of a letdown that they’d changed the law and a prince was born instead of a princess. Still, progress is progress.

The town caller who later announced the Prince’s birth stated, “May he be long-lived, healthy, and glorious, and may he one day reign over us!” That is one heck of a statement. The next baby I know that’s born is getting that on the birth announcement!

I heard that the London Eye was being lit up in the British colors to celebrate the birth, so I walked out to Waterloo Bridge to look. It was lovely. After hearing the Eye was the same color every night, I actually got to see it in two other views, between the Prince and London Pride.

That night, the heat wave broke and for practically the first time since we’d gotten to London, it began to rain. Everyone’s Facebook status commented on how surprised we were. Rain! In England! Shocking! It was lovely to fall asleep to, especially with the cool breeze that accompanied it.

In which I finally make it to Stonehenge- 7/21

I’ve wanted to go to Stonehenge since I was six or seven years old and read about it in a Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown book. Understandably, I was excited when I woke up on the morning of my bus tour to the site. On the bus I met a group of American girls from Philadelphia who were in London on two month internships.
 

The tour had an AWFUL tour guide, who would not stop talking on the bus, and kept trying to lecture us like we were errant students. He was passive aggressive, whiny, and consistently misspoke, until his misrepresentation of history drove me crazy! When we got to our first stop of the day, Windsor, and he was leading the walking tour, I knew I wouldn’t make it. Thankfully, the girls from Philly kindly adopted me into their group, and we ditched the official tour.

There wasn’t much to see in Windsor, beyond the castle and the park. We did see a crooked house, which was cool, and some fun looking pubs. Still, Windsor was just sort of a random add-on to the other events of the day.

Our next stop of the day was Bath, which was beautiful and really fun. As a Greek and Roman Studies buff, the Roman baths were awesome! I loved seeing the hot springs and the remains of the temple and baths. I drank the hot springs water that they once believed could heal all wounds, and even filled a water bottle with spring water to bring home. There was the slight flaw that this basically meant I was carrying around a hot water bottle on a super-hot day, but I persevered and ended up bring the water home for my parents to try.

I wandered Bath for a while, before grabbing lunch/dinner from a cute little café, and then getting back to the bus to head to the main event, Stonehenge! I defy anyone that says Stonehenge isn’t worth the trip from London! It only took me 17 years, but I finally made it to Stonehenge! It was amazing! I loved every minute of it! It helped that the girls I was with and I made a point of taking fun poses in front of the stones, like a “Boy Band” pose, or this “Where is it again?” I guess they’re redoing the visitor’s center, and they’re also going to stop letting people get as close to the stones as we did. We were maybe a few yards from the stones, and we were some of the last people who will get to be so close. Some of the group felt that we had an overabundance of time to be at Stonehenge and take pictures, but I would have stayed there much longer!

Speaking of long, even though we’d been running on time all day, the bus tour ended up dropping us off an hour and a half later than the advertised time, and way out on the edge of zone two, so I had another half hour of travel on top of that. That kind of seemed to be the capper on the terrible bus tour. Still, it was all worth it to see Stonehenge!

Elementary 7/20

Saturday morning, Liz and I decided to head to Covent Garden to check out the shops and the atmosphere. As we walked past the sign for the Bakerloo line, she casually mentioned that she still need to get to Baker’s Street before she went home. Since I’d heard that the lines at the Sherlock Holmes Museum were brutal, and it was still the early morning, I suggested we just head there then, so off we went.

 

Sure enough, there was already a line when we got to 221b Baker’s Street, but it was moving fast, and we were in within 20 minutes, which was a stark contrast to the over 2 hours the rest of the group had waited in the week before. The museum was fun, set up as the home of Holmes on the first two floors, and then hosting dummies and props on the third floor from many of Holmes’s adventures. There was also a collection of some of the letters written to Sherlock Holmes over the years. This both amused and worried me. People do understand how fiction works, right?

After the museum, we headed to Covent Garden, as originally planned, and then went on to the store Forbidden Planet. FP is basically the most amazing store for geeks like me. Actually, I ended up seeing a FP in Edinburgh, Dublin, Cardiff, and London, though I only went in the ones in Cardiff and London, and London was the main and the largest. I had trouble not buying the whole store, but I restrained myself.

When we’d left that morning, they were calling for 80 degrees, so I’d dressed appropriately, but by the time lunchtime rolled around, it was down to 68 degrees and I was freezing. The heat warnings on the Tube mocked us as we made our way home to change and to plan lunch. Liz and I both were craving salad, so we looked up salad bars in London. We found three that looked amazing, and all were closed on weekends! Why does the city mock us sometimes? We ended up just making a late lunch/early dinner at home, but we capped the day by meeting up with others from our group back in London and split cider down by the Thames, which is one of my favorite memories of our time in London.

Interlude: Back to London 7/19

After packing myself up and checking out of the hostel, I made my way to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport…and watched it pull away from the proper stop a block up the street. Oops. Luckily, due to the buses not operating at all on time, instead of fifteen minutes later, the next bus was only three minutes after the first one that I missed. I made it to the airport with plenty of time. I flew British Airlines to London, and even though it was only an hour flight, they gave us tea and breakfast on the plane, which was a welcome surprise.

When I made it to Heathrow, I was surprised that we didn’t go through passport control before the baggage claim, but figured it was just rolled into customs after. So when I finally got my luggage (which took forever), I was even more shocked when I wandered out of the baggage area straight into the main part of the airport. Apparently I’d flow into a domestic terminal, so there was no passport control of any kind. A sharp contrast to the experience flying into Dublin.

After taking my dear friend the Tube back into the city, I got into the dorms before noon, but check in wasn’t until 2:00, so I left my stuff with security and Allison took me to Nando’s for lunch, which she claimed was a necessary London experience. It was delicious. Also, since all of our kitchenware was locked up out of access until minibreak was over, some of Nando’s silverware might have accidentally come home with us…

It was great to get back into my room again, even with the tiny bed and the Winnebago bathroom. I guess I’m not much of a backpacker. I prefer a home base.

Of Guinness, The Gaol, and Gaelic Dublin 7/17-18

Our taxi was due at 5:45 am, so I had to get up really early to leave Dalkeith. I tried to be super quiet, in order to let my roommates sleep in, but when I went to meet with Maegan and she wasn’t there, I panicked and woke her roommates. Oops. As we walked up the road to meet our taxi, I was sad to say goodbye to Dalkeith Palace and Scotland. Hopefully, I’ll be back someday.

We arrived at the airport before they’d assigned us a gate, but, naturally, we ended up at the furthest, so we should have just started walking from the get-go. In just over an hour, we were in Dublin. As we went through passport control, the woman asked me to prove that I was eventually leaving Ireland, by showing my departure ticket. It’s the first time I’ve had that question. Interestingly, when I flew back into London, I came into a domestic terminal, so I didn’t have any kind of passport control or customs, at all. The sliding standards really confused me.

 

Maegan and I asked the information desk at the airport about the best bus option for our time in Dublin, and they set us up with three day passes on the Hop On Hop Off tour. That was pretty cool at first, because we got to hear the history of a lot of the sites in Dublin. After a while, though, hearing the description of the Molly Malone statute got pretty old (she’s the “Dish with the Fish,” the “Tart with the Cart,” the “Dolly with the Trolley,” and the “Trollop with the Scallops”).

After we checked into the hostel, Maegan and I made our way to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The display for the Book incorporated history about monastic life, illuminated manuscripts, and the various materials and techniques used in their creations. The display was interesting, but I don’t think the Book of Kells lived up to its hype. It’s possible that all of the ancient materials I was privileged to see on my trip has made me jaded.

From Trinity College, we made our way to on the bus (past our friend, Molly!) to Kilmainham Gaol. The jail was the primary political prison for Dublin for over a hundred years, and it was restored by volunteers as a historical site over the last few decades. I learned a lot about Irish history there, particularly about the Irish revolution. It was fascinating to learn about how the brutal English reaction to the Irish revolutionaries during WWI changed the uprising from an unpopular one to a widespread movement. I learned how the Irish revolution helped fast forward the fight for women’s rights in Ireland, placing them years ahead of England and the United States. The jail wasn’t just for political prisoners, and contained all kinds of men, women, and children. 8 year olds were regularly jailed for theft, and the youngest prisoner on record was a 5 year old sentenced to two weeks for stealing. Think about that.

Almost every major political prisoner was kept in Kilmainham Gaol. When it reopened as a historical site, the first visitor to the jail was the last political prisoner to have left it. When he returned, he did so as the Irish Prime Minister.

I really enjoyed the Gaol tour, particularly as a history buff. But then it was time to move on to the next highlight of Dublin: the Guinness Storehouse Tour.

We made our way through the tour, learning how barley, hops, and water are turned into Guinness. There was a room with just a giant container of barley, and another filled with the equipment used in the brewing process. There were a ton of school kids on the Guinness Tour, which really surprised me. Is it like going to the Museum of Science and Industry?

 

By the time we made it to the tasting room, I was able to identify some of the flavors I’d just learned about, though I still thought Guinness tasted more like bitter caramel than anything else. Maegan and I both learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness and became certified Guinness pourers. I’m putting that qualification right next to my chainsaw certification on my resume.

Then we took our glasses of Guinness up to the antigravity bar on the top floor of the Storehouse. I’ve learned that apparently, nothing in Dublin can be constructed higher than the Guinness

 factory. I’m not sure what that says for the city, but it made for some fabulous views. If you didn’t have to pay for the whole tour to get up there, I bet it would be the most popular bar in town. As it was, it was already packed. When we finished our pints, we caught the last bus of the day back to our hostel, where we properly checked in before heading out to an Irish pub for dinner while listening to live Irish music.

The next morning, I went to a history site called Dublinia, where I learned about the historical foundation of Dublin, from the Vikings through the Middle Ages. Then I went on a quest to find Harry Potter in Irish. After trying several bookstores, I was finally pointed in the direction of the Irish Heritage Centre. When I got there, I asked after Harry Potter, and received the only copy in the store, the one on display! Elated, I met back up with Maegan, and we grabbed lunch at this perfect carbon copy of Chipotle. We actually thought it might be the international version of the restaurant, but it was just a knock off. Still, the food was right on, down to the corn salsa, yum.

We finished our stay in Dublin by finishing the hop-on, hop-off tour, and then bonding with our Romanian and Argentinian hostel mates. Maegan had to get up at three am to catch her flight, and with the oppressive heat, we were beat early.