Second true day in Dublin! It was nice that we got to take things slow this morning our first event not being till 2:00pm. Being able to sleep in a bit was a must today. Before we met for our walking tour I grabbed a dirty chai at Boom Coffee. The employee was quite friendly and the tea was so flavorful. On my way to CEA classroom where we were eating I walked through ST Stephan Green park which is like Dublin’s version of Central Park. It was a beautiful day so lots of people were out along with lots of birds.
Our Dublin walking tour was very informative and a perfect way to start our trip in Dublin. I learned a lot of interesting things about the architecture and history along with some fun facts. Here some facts I thought were interesting:
- Fitz at the beginning of a last name means bastard of… and is not originally Irish, even though it is a commonly known Irish last name.
- Potatoes aren’t native to Ireland they are native to Peru.
- The Irish flag was given to them by the French. The flags design is the same as the French flag but instead, the colors are green, orange and white. The green represents the Catholics, the orange the Protestant and the white the peace and union of the republic formed between the two.
- The Fusilier Arch we saw, in ST Stephan’s garden used to be called Traitors Arch and actually had bullet holes in the side of it.
While on this tour we stopped at landmarks like Trinity College, Dublin Castle, famine memorable, Wolfe Tone and old parliament building. This 3 hour tour gave us insight and important history on the city we will make our home over the next few weeks.
