Finally they day had arrived. I was excited and looked forward to a fun trip. The bus left from Stabekk at 4 o'clock and our flight went from Torp Airport.
We landed in Dublin at 8 o'clock. Joachim and I left our bags in the Hunted hotel room and went to
eat dinner at an Italian restaurant in Tempel bar street. Went to bed early to be ready for the next day.
Tuesday 27.10
We woke up about 9 am and ate breakfast at a pub before we met everyone at 10am.
We took a tour bus and jumped off at the prison (Kilmanhaim gaol). The prison closed down in the 1920s, but played an important part in the history of Ireland. Everyone recognized parts of the prison from the movie “In the name of the father”. The guide told us lots of interesting facts and showed the prisoners’ cells and where some unfortunately were executed.
After the visit at the prison, Joachim, Nicolai, Aleks and I ate pizza at a nice place.
After lunch we were stuffed. We found a new tour bus and ended up getting a whole new tour around the city. This was not planned and we came late to the second guided tour.
We wandered around Dublin and learned about history - from Trinity College to City Hall and Dublin Castle. After a long day with 2 guides, we relaxed at the hotel and went for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. Cool place with good food.
Wednesday 28.10 Belfast next stop
We woke up early Wednesday morning and ate breakfast at the same pub. We needed a big breakfast before we set off to Belfast. After a 3 hour bus drive we arrived in Belfast.
There were four guides waiting for us. They were former IRA members. The first stop was Milltown Cemetery which is a catholic graveyard with over 250.000 people buried.. The guide showed us people’s graves from the troubles (70s and 80s) including Bobby Sands grave. The graveyard had lovely gravestones decorated with flowers. Before we carried on with the tour we put flowers on Giueseppe Conlon’s grave (from the movie in the name of the father). We started to get hungry and went for lunch at a restaurant in Belfast. After lunch we had some time to watch gaelic football. It was different, but fun to watch.
Next stop was a tour down the republican streets in Belfast. Several historical events happened in these streets. They showed us Bobby Sand’s painted wall and a primary school where the first gunfight broke out between British soldiers and IRA men. You can see the bullet holes in the wall. Our guides had spent time in jail and some had even spent 16 years behind bars. They had experienced everything and this made the tour very interesting.
Last stop of the day was Stormont castle. Stormont is where the parliament is located. The castle had an amazing view over Belfast. We learned about the history behind the castle and how the politicians voted. Stormount was closed because of the conflict, but was opened again in 2007 and is still functioning. When we were finished at Stormont we voted for going back to Dublin or staying in Belfast. People shouted AI and we headed back to Dublin. Belfast was an interesting city with a lot of history. I enjoyed the day a lot.
Thursday 29.10. Viking museum + +
Thursday morning we ate breakfast at a new place. When breakfast was finished we went to visit the Viking museum. Aleks and I managed to do all the questions after 10 min! We had a lot of fun and took loads of fun pictures. We learned about the Vikings who founded Dublin.
After the museum we walked for quite a while to find the restaurant where everyone was having lunch, but before we had lunch we visited the Oscar Wildes statue. Andreas told us a bit about the statue and read some quotes for us. After a long walk lunch tasted extra good. It was a nice place and we had many laughs.
In the evening we had a nice meal at Italian restaurant and Aleks gave me a nice Birthday present.
Friday 30.10 Home
We packed our bags and headed off home to Norway.
The trip was great and I had a really fun time!
Thanks Andreas and Ingse
Daniel
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