We dragged ourselves out of bed with some effort this morning, still recovering from yesterday. It was nice to sleep in a proper bed though. Our dorm is a smallish room with six double bunks and an upstairs loft sort of thing. It's good though because everyone in our room is really nice and talkative – we spent some time chatting to Emma, an Aussie at the end of her year-long working holiday, and a couple of Italian blokes, one with an impressive tattoo on his leg of his parents birthdays. Each date is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, so it's pretty big.
We went on the New Europe walking tour of Dublin today. Our guide, Ali, was a very entertaining and enthusiastic half-German, half-Irish bloke and we spent around three hours cruising the streets learning the history of Dublin. There have been many attempted revolutions here to overthrow the British government and monarchy throughout the ages, and we heard a bit about the many characters that have shaped the nation. The castle is really a large Georgian palace, with only a solitary tower remaining from the original medieval castle that burnt down. There is a big grassed helipad with Celtic snakes on it whose eyes light up at night to guide the choppers. One of the more amusing stories is of a plaque commemorating the death of a man who drove his horse and buggy off O'Connell Bridge – the amusing part being that he never existed and the plaque was a prank that remained unnoticed by the city council for two years. When they announced it would be removed, people started laying wreaths and flowers at the plaque in protest, so it stayed. We also saw Trinity College, and it is truly amazing. It would be very cool to study there. There are a few of the laws in the constitution of the College that outdate Irish law itself and theoretically still hold, such as the requirement that the College provide a free pint of stout to anyone arriving for their exams on horseback, or the superstition that undergrads can't walk under the tower for fear of failing, or the 'scholarship exams' that, if you finish in the top bracket (a near superhuman feat), entitle you to free meals, accommodation and postgrad tuition for five years, as well as waiving your requirement to sit exams for your final undergrad year. There is also a window that is the only one in the College where it is legal to shoot Catholics with a bow and arrow (it was originally a Protestant college).
After the tour we teamed up with Emma, another Aussie Lauren, and an English girl and went to a traditional Irish pub for some Guinness. It was much better than I remembered, and I drank mine very easily. Alas, the extreme cost of everything here prevented us getting more (€3.10 for half a pint!!). It really is ridiculously expensive here, and all the attractions cost to get in (even the churches!). We have been assured that it is only Ireland, and not the Euro currency, which is making it so bad so hopefully the continent won't be this crazy. We soaked up the city for a while, going on a walk, then not much else. We travel south to Cork early tomorrow so another early night hopefully.
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