Saturday, January 7, 2017

Tour of Dublin

We learned more about the city during a bus tour of Dublin.
The start of the day today consisted of a bus tour around the city of Dublin. Our guide was a professor in art history from a local university and was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. He had the driver take us all over north and south Dublin and told us about the differences between these two neighborhoods. Apparently, being separated by the river has led to differing rates of development both for tourist attractions and wages.


We also drove to a large park, Phoenix Park, partially inside Dublin that was probably at least two thirds of the size of the city itself. Here we saw the president of Ireland's house, the United States ambassador's home, and a few monuments including one known as the Papal Cross where we took a picture.


During the ride, our guide was happy to take questions and told us about all of the bests in Ireland including the best local pubs, best comedy club, best place for Irish music and so on.  The tour eventually ended at an old armory that had been turned into a Museum of Modern Art and it was here that we said our goodbyes.  It was incredibly educational in teaching us about Dublin and it helped me to learn more about the city in really get my bearings.