By, Kira Arndt
May 7th, the day after we landed in Dublin, we had our Dublin Walking Tour. Since we were no longer jetlagged, we were ready to start exploring and learning about this new city. This tour allowed us to get familiar with the city we would be staying in for the next two and a half weeks. We learned a lot on this tour, such as Dublin history, landmarks, and random facts our tour guide told us along the way.
Our tour guide pointed out many things I would not have otherwise noticed. I was in St. Stephens Green right before this tour, and when we went back, I didn’t expect to see anything new. However, he pointed out bullet holes in the side of the arch way, and names underneath of the archway. I did not notice those things whenever I came through the first time. I also did not know what the statues were for, so it was cool hearing some of the history behind them.
We were shown some landmarks that would help us find our way around Dublin and back to our hotel. First of all, Christ Church. We were staying almost directly across from it. This is the easiest way to tell how close we are to home. We also got to see the grassy area behind Christ Church that me and Mel ended up using as a picnic spot. Whenever we reach St. Stephens Green, we know that we are about halfway to the CEA building. Once you pass the Gay Spar, you know you are just a straight shot to the hotel, or right around the corner from The George. These are just a few of the main landmarks I used during the duration of our trip.
One piece of history that stuck with me after the tour was that St. Stephens Green was a battlefield. There was a keeper. Once the keeper blew the whistle, the battle would pause. This happened many times because the keeper would take an hour to make sure the ducks are okay. He really cared about all the innocent ducks which is where the phrase “a sitting duck” came from. The keeper would feed the ducks and check on the park before the battle would continue. Since they took constant care of the ducks, only two or three ducks died during the entire length of the battle. That is pretty crazy considering how many innocent people died. Plus the battle was long and intense, but thankfully they were not out there killing ducks, I guess.
I did not realize how similar Pittsburgh and Dublin were until we went on this walking tour. Walking the streets felt like walking the streets in Pittsburgh, but it felt a little safer in Dublin. The city is also very small. We were told that walking from one side of the city to the other would take about 45 minutes. This is relatively the same as downtown Pittsburgh. The transportation was also easy to navigate due to the similarity.
I am glad we were able to have this walking tour, even if my joints were crying. We learned a lot and most of the things we saw ended up being very useful in our explorations.