Across the Pond: Dubliners

Our last city we stayed in was Dublin. Like I said before, we stayed in a REAL hotel and it was wonderful. Our first night in Dublin we went to a Steeple Sessions Concert just down the street from where we were staying. Oh. My. Gosh. It was incredible. I loved every minute of it. The Steeple Sessions Concerts are held at a local church in Dublin. The organizers of the concerts invite Irish musicians to come and give a concert. There are many different artists with different expertise, but the night we went, a cello player and fiddler were performing. They also had a guest tap dancer from Chicago! Oh my gosh. I just want to relive this concert. Can I just say again- it was incredible and SO much fun. There was so much energy in their music and they were extremely talented. I don't know how they moved their bows so fast! Hopefully I figure out how to upload videos on here some day cause I have a great one of them at the end of the concert. I just watched it for the first time since the trip and it made me smile so much. It brings back so many memories and the music is full of so much joy. Ah. I could have died and gone to heaven after that concert.

Me, Jaci, Alexandra, and Cat at the concert

Okay, that's probably enough raving for one post. On to other things...

The next day we took the bus out to Newgrange, a site with prehistoric/Neolithic monuments. (That's older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids!) Compared to the other prehistoric sites we'd seen these were HUGE! They are basically round buildings/structures built out of rock and the top of them is covered in grass. They are extremely well preserved. They don't know exactly what they were used for but they speculate they have some sort of religious purpose. First we explored the visitors center, which had a replica of what it looks like inside, since you aren't allowed to go into the entire structure. We did get to go inside one of them, but only down a little hallway and up on the roof. Before we started the tour we had to wait what seemed like forever and I don't remember why. We got lunch at the cafe and got Madi a birthday brownie to pass the time. Some people resorted to buying coloring books at the gift shop. Since we were so bored we naturally ended up taking selfies.

Oh and it was POURING rain when we finally got to go.

I kind of felt like I was in the Shire.

On the rooftop of one of the structures.

That night we got to explore the streets, shops and restaurants of Dublin some more.

Trinity College

We went to one of the best gourmet burger restaurants I've ever been to! They also had amazing shakes, fries, and onion rings. I know this sounds really American, but it wasn't like anything I have had here.

Alexandra, Madi, and Carolyn