Day 2 - 3/9

We got off the plane at 5:45am and onto the coach bus which took us to the hotel- Harcourt Hotel. We spoke with staff at the hotel, arranging space to leave our luggage and when the rooms would be ready for our convenience. While the rooms were not ready, we had to freshen up with the best of our abilities and use the restrooms and share spaces to get our skin, hair, and outfits set for the day.

Through the initial reaction, the people here are helpful. They gave us a room where we could drop our belongings off and now we were able to get to breakfast. We ate a buffet style breakfast at the hotel. We went to Trinity college and got a tour by Joe. He showed and told us some pretty interesting things. There was the Book of Kells there. The president of the college had stated “no woman over my dead body will attend this school” and the next day after his death, the first woman passed her entrance exam to attend there. There were two buildings there called “Heaven” and “Hell” and the architecture of the buildings were really interesting. Two men carved flowers around a building, making sure that no two flowers were the same. While we were ending the tour at Trinity College, we decided to check out the gift shop for any Irish themed goods. In which we could be able to bring back to the United States. We thought that they had some nice stuff in regards to the history of Ireland and the dedication to Trinity College. While most of the ladies didn’t get any gifts at the shop, the group of males purchased Irish themed caps. They walked around in pride with the hat, showing off the tradition and the quilted patterns. We decided to go to a convenience store for lunch as many of us weren’t that hungry. Next up was the Christ Church Cathedral tour which was given by Lochan. We got to see some cool artifacts there such as the preserved bodies of a cat and mouse which got stuck in an organ at the church. We also saw the heart of stone there. After that was a self-guided tour at the St. Patrick's Cathedral. Since it was a Sunday, they were having services and the choir was singing. While the Garda were waiting for our arrival at the station, we decided to stop at the local vendors in town at the park square. We ended up finding out about their donations to the people in the community and where the purchases funds go to. Some of the ladies had bought jewelry and other small merchandise, such as bowls or paintings. It was nice to see how the sales operated there and also get a sense of the kinds of merchandise they had to offer. Last up for the day was a tour of a local police station. Here in Ireland, they call it the Garda. We were given a tour of some of their holding cells, an interrogation room, and their police cars. They mentioned their holding cells were kept pretty clean for their juveniles. The interrogation room was sound proofed and the police there have to write down every word that is spoken during the interrogation. At the end of the tour, one of our travelers, Alex, was given an escort in their police car back to the hotel room. Interestingly, all their police vehicles are electric. To end off the night, most of us ate dinner at the hotel. Everyone ended the night early and headed to bed at 8pm!

- Grace W, Anna B, Madeline S