So, as most of you know we both just took a carry on.\u00a0 Meaning we would need to find a laundry mat so we could wash some clothes.\u00a0 Well, we found one only they are called Laundrette’s because there is someone working there that will wash your clothes for you while you go about your day.\u00a0 The one we found was in downtown Dublin and our hotel was about a 20 minute or more walk from there.\u00a0 This wouldn’t have been bad because we could have caught a bus that would take us that direction, but no.\u00a0 They were having a marathon while we were there and all the roads were closed.\u00a0 It also just so happened that it went right past our hotel.\u00a0 So needless to say there was no bus available.\u00a0 So, we converted our bags to backpacks and started walking.\u00a0 Yes, we walked into downtown Dublin to the Laundrette and got our clothes washed.<\/p>\n
We had about 45 minutes to kill while the clothes washed so we walked around downtown.\u00a0 In our wanderings we walked around the Temple Bar area, down on the waterfront and past this cute little bakery that smelled really good.\u00a0 Keep in mind we are still walking around with our backpacks on just screaming TOURIST.\u00a0 While the clothes dried we went back to that cute little bakery and got ourselves something to eat.\u00a0 By 11:30 that morning our laundry was finished.\u00a0 After getting our clothes we continued to walk around and found ourselves on Grafton Street.<\/p>\n
This was cool.\u00a0 It reminded me of our Saturday market a little.\u00a0 The street is lined with stores on both sides and the street is made of cobblestones.\u00a0 Cars are able to drive down the street but for the most part is a pedestrian street only.\u00a0 The one thing we noticed right away was that at each end of the street you found a Burger King and McDonald’s almost side by side.<\/p>\n
We got back to the hotel in time for our trip around the city.\u00a0 One of our stops was Dublin Castle.\u00a0 This was an interesting tour because it’s not really a castle anymore, it’s more of a mansion instead.\u00a0 The only original part of the castle that still remains is a tower.\u00a0 Even that has been altered and is taller that it originally was.\u00a0 The inside was very nicely decorated.\u00a0\u00a0 First room we went through was the ladies drawing room.\u00a0 We learned that the large screens you see on stands in front of the fireplace was there because of the makeup that women wore at the time.\u00a0 The screen was to keep the heat from the fire off of their face and to keep their makeup from running.\u00a0 This is were we get the term “Saving face” from.\u00a0 Women wore very think makeup back then because most of them had small pox scars.\u00a0 The final layer of makeup they would put on was wax based and did not agree with the heat from the fireplaces.<\/p>\n
We then went through the throne room.\u00a0 The throne was huge.\u00a0 We learned that the last person to sit in that throne was Queen Elizabeth II grandfather.\u00a0 Because England no longer rules Southern Ireland, she did not get to sit in the throne on her resent visit.<\/p>\n
Next was the dinning room.\u00a0 This is a very long room with paintings of all the chancelors that presided over Ireland on the walls.\u00a0 In the middle of one wall was a large fireplace and on the facing wall were windows.\u00a0 Between the windows were three domed mirrors.\u00a0 The most important seat in the dinning room was just in front of the fireplace because you could see every corner of the room thanks to the domed mirrors on the other wall.<\/p>\n
The last room we saw was the ball room.\u00a0 The room is very blue with huge mirrors on the walls.\u00a0 On the ceiling are three large paintings.<\/p>\n
After our tour of the city we returned to our hotel for our welcome drink (since this was technically the beginning of a new tour and a new tour director) then dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 Dinner turned out to be dinner and a show.\u00a0 That’s right, irish music and step dancing.\u00a0 Right up my alley.\u00a0 =)\u00a0 Dinner wasn’t bad even thought they had all of us packed into the room like sardines.\u00a0 Dwayne went up to the room after dinner because he had a headache.\u00a0 Good thing to because the waitress came by with a try full of drinks and she must have tripped or something because the next thing I know I’m wearing a glass of red wine.\u00a0 And of course because she spilled red wine I had to be wearing a white shirt.\u00a0 My new white shirt that I had just bought before the trip.\u00a0 Needless to say the shirt is still with the hotel.\u00a0 They are trying to get my shirt clean.\u00a0 We will see how successful they are when we get back to Dublin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, as most of you know we both just took a carry on.\u00a0 Meaning we would need to find a laundry mat so we could wash some clothes.\u00a0 Well, we found one only they are called Laundrette’s because there is someone working there that will wash your clothes for you while you go about your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scotland-ireland-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollenbeck.ws\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}